Yesterday I was cleaning up my gaming room, and I did something pretty drastic – I put Viva Pinata back on the shelf. Since Christmas, I’ve been playing this one near-exclusively, with the exception of the random online and XBLA diversion. And even though I’ve had my complaints about the gameplay, I’ve always given it just one more chance. But it looks like this time, I’ve said my final farewell to Pinata Island.

After spending more time with it since my last post, I’ve lightened up on some of my earlier thoughts yet added a few more negatives. Yes, it’s still about earning money first and foremost, but there are ways to keep a steady supply of coins by selling plants, fruits and other products from the garden. Also, I’ve found it’s not necessary to keep a large selection of pinata species, so breeding and selling those off becomes another source of income. The only time when this could backfire is when a challenge presents itself.

The other point I made was the game does not do a good job in projecting where it is going. I complained how my garden was unorganized and causing fights between pinatas, so I scrapped everything and rebuilt and reorganized my pinata homes one by one. I created a small fenced garden for my fruit plants, and built borders and fences around each home to separate the pinatas. A nice new walkway around the garden made everything look nice and organized. The problem was, when I tried to add some garden decorations, it said I had too much in my garden. I can understand when there are too many pinatas, but if I get penalized for each plant, shrub, flower, and fence I put in, that’s just stupid.

Another complaint was that the game’s core gameplay mechanic was happenstance. This frustrated me at first, but after talking with a few other friends and fellow internet forum members, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I must add to that sentence, “if done right.” I would have loved to have a working reference to this game, either in print or in the game, to help understand the characteristics and motivations of each species. For example, dressing the pinatas in the downloadable accessory packs make their rating happier, but from what I can tell a happy pinata doesn’t make the game any different from a sad or angry one. The in-game encyclopedia, quite frankly, sucks; it doesn’t say much and it’s a chore to navigate, let alone having to wade through those brief-but-way-too-frequent loading screens. And as of last check on Amazon.com, there isn’t even an official strategy guide available. Hell, even Kameo had one. C’mon, Xbox Live Marketplace, sell us a video strategy guide – I’d buy one if it helped!

What Viva Pinata needs most is online play, which had been mentioned early on as a core feature of the game, and even recently mentioned to be offered as downloadable content, but is still MIA. The Post Office just doesn’t cut it – half the time pinatas are too valuable to send as a gift to a friend’s garden, and it’s about as gratifying as wacking them over the head with a shovel. I would venture to guess the game won’t be seeing much more than the mentioned accessory packs – the game hasn’t sold particularly well, interest is quickly fading on the internet discussion forums, and the Stampers’ recent exit from Rare probably doesn’t bode well for the continuation of the franchise.

Of the droves of critics who sang its praise, I’d like to ask how many of them would be interested in playing the game again from the beginning. I would guess not many, because it’s surprisingly quite linear – it’s the same pinatas, the same challenges, the same sours, and the same progression. The only thing different is how the player decides to arrange their garden, which what I’ve seen doesn’t create a dynamic environment, it simply limits the player’s progression.

Pokemon succeeded because it wrapped its core “gotta catch ‘em all” gameplay in a pretty standard RPG. The Sims succeeded because of how the AI behaved in response to the limitless variety of scenarios. Animal Crossing succeeded because of its sense of community. Viva Pinata, despite those praising its originality and depth, doesn’t do any of this well, if at all.