Viva Pinata for DS could be a reality

I could see Viva Pinata working for the DS and taking some advantage of it's features.

Could Halo DS be far behind?

Well, they'd have a tough time porting the title as-is. There's so much going on in that game at once that the little processor on the DS could never handle the game as-is. It'd have to be severely downsized. But maybe they'd do a spinoff, Pokemon-style game. Or a platformer starring some of the characters. Who knows? Anyhow, along with Dead Rising, Viva Pinata is my favorite original IP on the 360, ahead of Gears.

"Well, they'd have a tough time porting the title as-is. There's so much going on in that game at once that the little processor on the DS could never handle the game as-is. It'd have to be severely downsized."

If you ask me, that sounds like a rabid fanboy comment; besides, no one was really talking about the comparative processing power of the two systems. People like you just have to jump into every news item and proclaim that Microsoft is better than Nintendo, don't you?

to #4 Grunge

To me, pointing out that possibility (meaning unconfirmed) of bias sounds fanboyish, but maybe that's just me. He does have a point: any game using that IP would NOT play similar to the existing version. Even Metriod Prime Hunters doesn't play similar to Metriod Prime on the GC, even if they look and control roughly the same.

MS wants so bad to be Nintendo... Rare games only sell well on Nintendo systems >:P

Actually Halo DS was quite real. The talks fell through but a demo did exist and people did play it such as Matt Cassmina or whatever from IGN.

Microsoft game studios and even RARE has put games on the GBA and DS.

As long as Microsoft doesn't have a portable on the market then there is no damn reason they cannot put their IPs on the Nintendo portables since it is another revenue stream like the PC to Microsoft.

It seems as though despite being part of Microsoft, Rare is releasing more games on Nintendo systems. Not at present, but maybe in the near future.

And honestly, I can't see why they wouldn't want that. Considering Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo make the bulk of their money from software, it makes sense for Microsoft to make games for the DS. Sure, they don't get a cut of the licensing as Nintendo does, but they do make a profit. And since they don't have a competing platform to the DS, they won't have to worry about losing market share.

And it's consistent with their console strategy to not release any of these games on the PSP. Hawhaw, just love it.

I like starting sentences with the word And.

I bet a DS version of Pinata could work pretty well.

Since MS doesn't compete in the handheld arena, this isn't out of the question. Though it is definately in the highly unlikely catergory. Viva on DS would sell amazingly well, if you ask me. And companies just loves them some money.

Think about it: they're sliding their way into the portable market.

Establish portable IPs BEFORE creating your machine, and you're automatically going to be more likely to succeed. At that point, they could say "look, we have exclusive IPs like Diddy Kong Racing and It's Mr. Pants! on our handheld, and Nintendo doesn't have them," and it will mean something.

They're testing the portable waters. They may step in, they may not. It would be interesting, though.

It's no secret Microsoft admires Nintendo as a competitor. Nearly everyone over there is a huge Nintendo DS fan, and have made no secrets about it. The handheld area is just not somewhere Microsoft is ready to get into anytime soon.

I thought Rare was contining to release games for Nintendo that were either contractual or were already long in development.

I'd be surprised if the the situation were continue after all their obligations are up.

Microsoft itself said something to the affect that it was an unusual situation, and implied they weren't interested in publishing for Nintendo.

When you consider the founders of Rare are no longer there, I'm thinking we're going to see less to none in the way of new titles appearing on Nintendo platforms.

But that's just my opinion.

So if the current rumor is that Microsoft is interested in porting IP to the DS, does that mean that we won't have to hear XBoy rumors for another 4 weeks?

If MS wants to crack Japan's market, this is probally their only real best shot. Releasing a Halo title on the hot selling DS would be an excellent MS introduction into the Japanese market.

"Establish portable IPs BEFORE creating your machine, and you're automatically going to be more likely to succeed. At that point, they could say "look, we have exclusive IPs like Diddy Kong Racing and It's Mr. Pants! on our handheld, and Nintendo doesn't have them," and it will mean something."

Just one problem with that statement: Nintendo owns the Donkey Kong franchise. Not a chance that Donkey, Diddy, Dixie, Kiddie, Cranky, Funky, etc... Kong would appear on a Microsoft system.

Mr. Pants, though, is owned by Rare.


Rare and Microsoft have made several GBA games, so it's not a surprise, really, that they'd be supporting the DS as well. Granted, most of the GBA titles from Rare were in production BEFORE Microsoft bought 100% of Rare stock. I think the only ones that weren't were the the DKC ports.

HALO Wars would be awesome on NDS

I said it before, and i'll say it again. This game is cute crack.

why cant they make any ip's for the psp? why is nintendo and microsoft temaing up against sony?

"Establish portable IPs BEFORE creating your machine, and you're automatically going to be more likely to succeed. At that point, they could say "look, we have exclusive IPs like Diddy Kong Racing and It's Mr. Pants! on our handheld, and Nintendo doesn't have them," and it will mean something."

Actually, Diddy Kong is a Nintendo IP licensed out for development to Rare. However, Rare could make Viva Pinata Racing. ;-)

I think the idea is that if they put Viva Pinata on competing companies' handhelds, it will attract people to their own console version.

Probably two reasons, Strangler:
1) Microsoft sees Sony as its main competitor in the console race, since they're both going for the same market. They'd probably like to help Sony as little as possible.
2) DS's userbase dwarves PSP's. Which means a lot more potential sales than a PSP title.

didn't they already come out with this on the DS?

Oh wait. That was Animal Crossing.

Bwuahahahaha
(I'm kidding)

I wish Rare would make a new 2D Donkey Kong Country for DS a la New Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi's Island DS.

I can confidently state, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that that would be sweet.

Please, Rare? Pretty please? Viva Pinata looks sooo good, but I don't have the money for a 360. I'll be your best frieeeend.

What is really insteresting is that since Rare and MS are working on putting some titles on DS, could we see a potential deal for Goldeneye on VC AND XBLA?

"If you ask me, that sounds like a rabid fanboy comment; besides, no one was really talking about the comparative processing power of the two systems. People like you just have to jump into every news item and proclaim that Microsoft is better than Nintendo, don't you?"

Hey, thanks for the snap judgment and giving me the benefit of the doubt, all-powerful arbiter of fanboyism.

Last time I checked, the DS had less processing power than the PS2. Don't get me wrong, the DS is a great handheld, but Viva Pinata is capable of rendering a whole lot of stuff onscreen at the same time, with every pinata carrying out its own agenda, visitors walking in and out of the garden, changes between day and night and other events. The Xbox 360 has a hard time displaying all this stuff without stuttering a bit when your garden is "full." Also, your garden isn't that full when the game tells you it's full; it's just that the processor can't handle much more.

I would expect that the DS, or any handheld, with its weaker processing power wouldn't be able to pull it off. Handhelds have less processing power than the plug-into-your-TV consoles of the current generation. That's part of what enables them to be smaller and cheaper.

Also, who slams a handheld for lacking processing power? People don't buy handhelds for their power. They buy them for their portability. I'm merely pointing out a fact. The DS is a great handheld, but I don't look to it to provide the same experiences I get on my consoles.

Do you read this site at all? If you did, you'd know that I've been posting here for more than a year, and I think that the only thing negative I've ever said about Nintendo was that I was disappointed that none of their titles feature online play on the Wii yet, and that that would cause me to delay running out and picking one up. Pointing out that handhelds have less processing power than home-based consoles doesn't strike me as fanboyism at all, except for maybe anti-handheld fanboyism. In that case, I suppose I'm guilty as charged. Maybe it's my large hands, but I prefer gaming on a home console.

FWIW, I have a DS. I mostly play Brain Age and Final Fantasy games on it. I like it a lot, and I'd probably buy just about any Viva Pinata DS game that wasn't a port of the 360 game, as I've already played most of the way through it on my 360. There, does that make you happy?

I didn't make my comment as an act of fanboyism; I was making it to speculate that the DS game would be more likely to be a spinoff than a port. And I'd prefer it that way. I'm not buying a watered-down version of a game I already love on the 360, just to play it on my DS. A spinoff would be welcomed.

I'd rather have Viva Pinata and/or Banjo-Threeie for Wii.

"1) Microsoft sees Sony as its main competitor in the console race, since they're both going for the same market. They'd probably like to help Sony as little as possible.
2) DS's userbase dwarves PSP's. Which means a lot more potential sales than a PSP title."

well I personally emailed the creators of the movies for pc and they also said they wont do a psp version casue microsoft wont let them, why does microsoft help nintendo against sony in the portable wars? and didnt bill gates recently make a statement that nintendo is its main competitor now not sony, so why are they still helping nintendo?

"And it's consistent with their console strategy to not release any of these games on the PSP. Hawhaw, just love it."

the psp is not a console its a portable.

@ Dirk Dorkelson...

Thank you for backing up (with great detail) your stating of the obvious.

Keeko,

Well, I tried the succinct form of stating the obvious back in my first post, but some people obviously were in capable of grasping the point. So I elaborated.

Who took a dump in your Easter basket?

This is extremely unlikely. Microsoft isn't gonna let nintendo profit on their IPs when they probably haven't even seen money on their investment into Rare yet. What this article fails to mention is that DiddyKong racing is a game with mostly Nintendos characters.. and if you investigate alil closer you would see that Banjo and Conker, who were in the original 64 version were taken out in the DS version.
Thats because mircosoft now owns those characters.
so No.. DONT expect a Viva game on the DS anytime soon.