@Throes:
Oh how wrong you are. I saw a preview for Viva Piñata on G4 the other week, narrated by (what a surprise) Dan Green. The game itself is about piñata's living in a community, and you have to raise the piñata's. It is made of very much suck.
Well, I say we oughta hold our tounge until a review comes out for it though. Viva Pinata looks like it's going to one of those things thats going be amazingly successful or a complete and utter faliure.
SUCCESS POINTS:
– It's an Xbox360 exclusive title, so theres a little cross-promotion element here. (This could certianly benefit Microsoft)
-- The TV show ties in with the game, and from what I've heard, you can learn secrets about the game from the show.
-- Visually wise, its vibrant, colorful, ain't that bad looking...
-- Regardless of what we say, it's still an honest attempt to expand the audience of the Xbox 360. (Which from what I've seen, dosen't have any titles on it that are below the 'T' rating, and I'm not counting any original Xbox or multiplatform games.)
FAILURE POINTS:
-- I don't care what kind of community your raising, the theme is still a clear cut Pokemon copy. Over the span of 8+ years, monster collecting is starting to die out.
-- With the trend of gaming that I see, kids (whose parents let them) who already have an Xbox360 will probably be to busy playing Condemned, Call of Duty, or more realistic titles and may have a lack of interest.
So Pinata is still up in the air for me. Only time will tell.