Viva Pinata gameplay revealed

In regards to not having a third person avatar or any sort of "playable character," I think they just cut out the middle man. In Animal Crossing, your character is really just the means to an end. You control the character to spruce up the town and attract new neighbors, right? Controlling the tools directly might just be more immersive. Instead of having your guy equip a shovel and then telling him where to dig, why not just "hold" the shovel yourself and dig wherever you want?

You also have to consider the tie-in cartoon. When you have a character with a preset personality and appearance, it leaves less to the imagination. When I played with Optimus Prime or He-Man, I don't recall really making them do anything out of character. I stuck pretty much to how the characters acted in the cartoon (except He-Man and Teela were BF/GF! Ooooh!). Without that mold, kids can play the game however they want, without even unconsciously referencing what their character would do in the cartoon.

It's Microsoft getting the kiddies ready for non-stop FPS games, dontcha know?

I'm of two minds about Viva Pinata. It's good that MS is having Rare do a game that doesn't center around either sports, racing, or blowing someone's brains out. It looks cute and addictive.

On the other hand, I'm afraid my wife will recreate her Animal Crossing meltdown, where I couldn't get on my console for nearly six months. So far she's made me download every scrap of video footage available, and she's on a countdown to the release.

Maybe those new and improved 360's will come out by then, so the wife can have her own. She can buy her own HDTV, though.

That video is about the first time that we've really gotten to see the full gameplay in effect... it looks like it could be an interesting sandbox-type game.

--
Viva Piñata Wiki - http://PinataIsland.info

Mark,
I'd LOVE it if I could finally get my wife into video gaming with this gem. Nothing's worked yet, but I'll still try.

I'm personally a lot more interested in playing this game myself after seeing this footage. Looks like it will be fun. Yeah, I'm 30 and I want to play this game. So what?

Les, here's my advice for getting your significant other into video games:

XBLA is your friend. My female friends all play Hexic now. Sometimes so often that I can't murder zombies. They also play Bejeweled 2, Zuma, and Jewel Quest. I think every woman is genetically inclined to play Tetris-like games. My wife's mother, her two sisters, and my niece all play Tetris like it was just invented.

Quite a few of them like Texas Hold Em. If they like the real game, they're apt to like the video game.

For some reason, all my female videogaming friends (except one) don't like games where they can die. My wife doesn't mind killing things, but she hates getting killed. I even got her to play Dynasty Warriors once I convinced her that my character had been so built up that there was little chance of dying.

Finally, be careful what you wish for. In my experience, Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon type titles are like crack for girls. My neice calls my wife constantly, asking about some weird thing in Animal Crossing, and I wasn't kidding when I told you my wife had an AC meltdown. I came in one day and found her standing in her built up house with a room filled to the brim with golden shovels. We're talking dozens and dozens of golden shovels. AC touches her deep down in her packrat soul, and when I started factoring how long it must have taken her to get that many golden shovels, it chilled me to my marrow.