Rare to unleash Pinatas on 360s this holiday season

This is awful. Just awful. I'd much rather watch Kidd Video. That, my friends, is saying something.

Everything about that video is forced. It has no soul. Everything the characters say and do is a cheap imitation of things that came before. They try to cover it up with zaniness, crazy fucking colors, and yelling.

Someone needs to tell Microsoft that the Pokemon model is make great game, game becomes hugely popular, make decent cartoon and other merchandise in that order.

I own a 360 and I was really disappointed with Perfect Dark Zero. Kameo was respectable - I actually had some fun (while it lasted). The games Rare creates have high production values, but need to be a little deeper and more polished in the gameplay area. They try hard, but they're still missing that certain magic to make their games really special. I wish they would hire somebody with enough talent to channel their energies into something great. I think this venture isn't going in the right direction.

my sister would love this. its about time MS made soemthing decent for younger people, other than shooters and driving games. every gamecube game, both me and my sister can enjoy. every xbox game and ps2 game (apart form say DDR) is like a 15 and im the only one that can enjoy.

im not bumming nintendo when i say this (id say i was pretty biased to MS, 360 rules) but they have the idea spot on. the market was headed to shooters and driving gams. but how do u get into them? we all grew up with early computers (mega drive was my first) and as theyve evolved, so have we. from sonic, to GRAW. we've adapted. i think it would be pretty scary and dauntin going straight into a game like GRAW, PGR3 or soemthing along those lines so young. YOU HAVE TO TARGET THE YOUNG/OLD/MALE/FEMALE NON-GAMING PEOPLE WITH SIMPLE, EASY, INTUATIVE AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, FUN GAMES

the average gaming age is now what, 29 or soemthing? and i bet at least 90% of it is male. that leaves open huge amounts of market to penetrate, with possibly more money involved than the hardcore a la us.

but then, what i just wrote i feel is [flame] who visit this site, the HCGWHCAO, except the ones who argue for rare and have said, well done

Hey, I'm a 360 owning adult and I think this game looks fun. If Rare keeps in mind that they're going to have women gamers and collection gamers and not just small children as a potential audience, this has the potential to be a great title for the 360.
Xbox has this image (which microsoft seems to like to foster) as being a system exclusive for the "hardcore (and by hardcore, I mean "people who play twitch fps and wargames") gaming set." It seems like with the 360, they might be trying to turn this around and appeal to a wider audience.

1 or 2 games is hardly appealing to a "wider" audience when 90% of the titles known about so far are geared towards the hardcore and "adult" games.

I think this could be very successful if Rare and 4kids do one thing: Make the show and the game look *exactly* the same. If the show uses CG that is comparable to the 360, then little kids will be able to think that they are really *playing* the show.

This is a potentially brilliant maneuver, and, if it is successful, I wouldn't be surprised to see other companies follow suit. Especially Konami, since they already do something similar with Yu-gi-oh.

Knowing RARE's reputation, I cannot see this game being released until well after the show is already canceled. Score another one for Nintendo selling this falling company.

I like the art style... very unique. A nice relief for all the generic military shooters, dull sewer-rat hunt western RPGs, and racing games that seem to be the order of the day for 360. Its been a while since a decent kids game has come out - most kids games are just generic throwaway GBA shovelware, so here's hoping that Rare does a decent job on it.

I think the main problem with this game is that Microsoft is revising their own marketing history. Cheers on them for trying to widen their market with a new kid-friendly franchise, but MS and 360 owners had better stop criticisizing Nintendo being kiddie starting now. Remember when Bill Gates talked about Nintendo serving a "niche market?" Now it looks like MS wants a piece of that niche.

And honestly, some people here talk like the kiddie games are only played by tweeners, but many people I know who are in college and beyond play Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, even Pokemon. None of these games, even Viva Pinata, should be seen as Kiddie games. They're just games, marketed perhaps so kids will like them, but Kingdom Hearts features Disney characters and few people call that kiddie. Maybe Microsoft finally realized that games are games, and customers are customers, not just kids or adults.

Rare stopped being relevant right around the time they sold out. What happened to the innovation and attention to detail they were known for?

Y do u hate on a game u never played the 360 needs a animal crossing pokemon like game to help sell more systems sorry to say this but everyone doesnt play halo and its about time we get something different

I totally agree with those who have defended the kiddie direction of this game. A lot of older gamers are pretty selfish in the fact they expect all the good developers to devote their time to designing games specifically for them; mainstream and serious, or at least with adult elements throughout.

What you're basically saying is, "Leave the kids' games to those who turn popular kid-friendly movie licenses into games," most of which end up being piss-poor games with no soul. A kid is likely to look back at that game ten years on and think, "What?"

This is a huge contrast to when we were all kids, and the likes of Donkey Kong Country, Mario, Sonic and countless others were in full swing, which are still enjoyable even today because they had true love put into their development.

Frankly, the kids' game market of today is absolutely shit, and with the exception of Nintendo it is hardly ever treated in a way that results in games that're fun for both adults *and* children — ever tried playing one of those film-to-game titles with your kid or younger sibling? They're terrible.

I commend Rare and MS for working towards this, and I'd like to see more games which are cutesy and kid-friendly while retaining enough soul to be appealing to adults. What the hell is wrong with you people? Are the dozens of "same old" games we get all year round not enough?

Well said Scott! I don't have a problem with the art direction and actually think it's pretty charming. And I'm not really sold on the gameplay... well... because it sounds unfulfilling to me... My crit lies in this blatant multi-faceted marketing strategy which is trying to cut into a market owned by Nintendo – which Microsoft would have you believe they've dismissed as dust in the wind.

MS needs to just own up and be honest about what they're thinking is on the competitors. Don't tell us you don't want the "kiddie" market when you know it's so lucrative.


On another thought... is anyone else seeing a subtle overtone to this whole project? Let's say this does catch on to some extent... in Ameica. Does anyone really see this as a cross-cultural pickup say for... Japan? I sure don't.

Does this signal Microsoft giving up on a huge market in Japan? Because if they really wanted to capture a mass market appeal across all the major gaming regions, they'll have to come up with something like Pok?n that could appeal to kids from any culture. Microsoft is really suffering horribly in Japan and a game series that would appeal to Japanese kids and teens would be a great way to break into the market...

Japanese just won't be excited for Pi?s... judging from past experiences and what's been successful over there. The look and the feel does not scream "worldwide classic!"

i used to bash games like pokemon and animal crossing but once i played them they were fun and the 360 needs games like this to help the system how many halos do we really need

I bet Rare will bring this DS too. $$$$

I agree that their needs to be more games aimed at children that have high production values and decent storytelling. Most of the ones that are outside of Nintendo are just throwaway games that are used to cash in on movie and TV franchises. That’s why Nintendo has earned the title “kiddy”. It’s simply because they have SUCCESSFUL kids franchises where as everyone else does not. These games, however, need to strike a careful balance as not to single out everyone else. Kind of like how Looney Tunes and Pixar have done with their respected media. They can be aimed at kids, but still be rather intelligent. Maybe this is why there is a decline of younger aged gamers. They are tired of playing the throwaway games and their parents won’t let them have anything that was made well since it’s not made for young children. Well, except for those parents that are suddenly “shocked” to find that the games they got for their kids has sex/violence/vulgarity in it.

Also I see people posting “no parent would spend this much to get a 360 and this game for their kid”. Look around people! I see pre-teens with cell phones, ipods, & computers all the time. Now more than ever there is a growing trend to placate young offspring with expensive electronic gadgets. If the parents can afford it, they want to get if for their kids simply because they couldn’t have such nice things when they were kids. I used to have a really nice SLR camera when I was 10 and I received snide comments from adults every time I used it. Mostly relating to how it was too nice of a camera for a kid & that I couldn’t possibly know what I was doing with the camera. Now the attitude is “if I can afford it, why shouldn’t I give it to them”.

It's also worth pointing out that games with a distinct kiddy appeal but also very much enjoyable for adults is something that Rare have always been fairly good at, and I suspect that the attempting to be too mainstream has largely contributed to their falling reputation as of late.

I'd personally love to see them return to generally doing more games like this instead. Cutesy and appealing to kids does not have to mean a shallow game for adults — just look at their older games catalogue.

It's pretty saddening how every time a developer tries to do something quirky and out-of-the-ordinary like this, they get flak for it. It really is the gamers who are their own worst enemy, and then they ask, "Why are we getting so many similar, shit games?"