Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise

As a Viva Piñata first timer, I was totally at home right from the start. The game is pure, well-paced fun, with a great deal of variation and customization available.

The visuals may not delight to quite to the same degree as the 360 version, and the view can be a little close-up at times, but new features like wi-fi animal trading, the interface, and of course the icon-based menus that are much more intuitive, make for an experience that can hold its own against the original title and will hopefully attract a few new players to the series too.

Viva Pinata's style of play fits perfectly with the Nintendo DS model. Pocket Paradise may not look as nice as the original, but it's the true embodiment of the Viva Pinata experience.

Viva Pinata: Pocket Paradise packs everything from the console original into a DS game.

RARE built a pocket -but charismatic- paradise for the Nintendo DS with this new addition to the Viva Piñata series. Take care of some little paper-animals, cultivate flowers, and keep your garden tidy in this brilliant adaptation of the Xbox 360 game that also includes multiplayer options and a very colorful graphic engine that takes the DS to the limit. Play just five minutes and you’ll get lost; it’s incredibly fun.

The world of Viva Piñata seems right at home on the DS. Despite carrying over some faults from the original and dealing with minor limitations, Pocket Paradise is a terrific addition to the DS library and in many ways improves upon the Xbox 360 version.

If Pocket Paradise makes you want to throw it against something, though, it’s only because it succeeds in making gardening compulsive. [Oct 2008, p.96]