Viva Pinata: Giving children nightmares

Viva Pinata: Giving children nightmares

If you’ve been reading my gaming diary, you’ll know I got a copy of Viva Pinata for the Xbox 360 this week. It’s the same sort of game as Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, and is written by Rare. It’s also very cute. There’s a TV cartoon series to match too, so it’s clearly mainly aimed at kids. Which is why I bought it, obviously, since I am a child. Or not.

Anyway. It’s very child-friendly for the most part. I played for a few hours, having my hand held by on-screen helper Leafos (a strange woman with a green mask thing), and soon my garden was in bloom with all sorts of cute pinata animals. I had some Whirlms (worms), a few Sparrowmints (sparrows) and some assorted moths and flies and stuff. Then I spotted some Bunnycombs (rabbits). Which are very cute, and clearly I needed to have some. I laid out carrots for them, and soon one became a resident in the garden. Hurrah!

And then, a short while later, it was VICIOUSLY KILLED AND EATEN by a wild fox-like Pretztail. I really actually cried real actual tears*. Horrific! Children who play this game will need months of councelling to get over that! Evil, evil Rare.

It doesn’t even get any better, as soon even your own pinatas start turning on each other, smashing each other’s brains out, making them explode, and eating the sweets they contain. It’s awful to watch.

* May not be actually true.

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