Viva Piñata 2 details sprinkle out

By Robert Purchese Published 13 May, 2008

Co-operate in more ways than one.

Viva Piņata 2: Trouble in Paradise will feature drop-in and drop-out co-op for you and a green-fingered friend, as well as fancy Live Vision support that scans physical cards to add unique content such as custom piņatas, fresh buildings and abilities, or even weather changes.

This is according to the forum posters on NeoGAF reproducing the contents of a Game Informer preview as well as divulging secrets from a separate trip to Rare.

The even cleverer part about this Eye of Judgement-like card-scanning system is that you can create your own codes on the Internet. These can be attached to piņata made by you (somehow - presumably uploading pictures using the in-game photo mode) and then shared on forums. The Live Vision camera is even said to be able to scan codes on iPod, Zune or LCD screens.

Trouble in Paradise will introduce better interactivity between your stable of paper pets, which should mimic each other and do things like follow the leader around the garden.

Rare is also apparently adding instruments for your animals to play, on top of themed toys and trains that they can ride around the garden.

There will be 30 fresh piņatas to nurture and coerce into doing the naughty with each other, plus "Pinatartic" and "Dessert" areas where you can travel and lay traps for elusive species such as Rhinos.

All that on top of an improved user interface where you can zoom out and manage your garden like the birth-child of Charlie Dimmock and Michaela Strachan.

Viva Piņata 2: Trouble in Paradise will be out exclusively for Xbox 360 in September.

Head over to our Viva Piņata 2: Trouble in Paradise gallery for the very first screenshots.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Saladin #1 4 years ago

    *reconsiders selling 360*

  • muscleblade #2 4 years ago

    September already! Damn. Really looking forward to this. The first one was amazing.

  • Bumhug360 #3 4 years ago

    September? This Year? They kept that one quiet

    Missed opportunity I feel though, could of been called Thunder in Paradise and feature a Hulk Hogan pinata, though that would probably be a bad thing

  • DUFFKING #4 4 years ago

    VP was a surprise hit for me, can't wait for this.

  • handsome_coelacanth #5 4 years ago

    September can't come quick enough now.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #6 4 years ago

    I hereby name 2008 The Year of the Rare. This and Banjo 3 both sound the dog's danglies. Can't wait!

  • Xerx3s #7 4 years ago

    Fucking hell, and here I was thinking that there already where too many AAA titles this autumn.

  • chrisjm #8 4 years ago

    I'm hoping the crate system is upgraded, if you could maybe loan your pinata to a zoo via crate and then see who has what and get them back rather than having 50 crates and not knowing whats in what!

  • sanctusmortis #9 4 years ago

    *Awaits "they misspelled desert" comments*

    Crate labels would be nice - just a pinata picture on the outside that youcould use to identify, and then cursor-over detail tags for further info.

    Damnit, now I have to consider a Live Vision...

  • kiroquai #10 4 years ago

    "...and trains that they can ride around the garden."

    Sold!

  • ParanoidZombie #11 4 years ago

    IMO, Viva pinata1's worst flaw was that the garden was way too small, you should have been able to gather all the pinatas in one single garden instead of having to rebuild it every time you wanted to lure some exotic species. if they fix that, it's AAA all the way.

  • Beano #12 4 years ago

    "...as well as fancy Live Vision support that scans physical cards to add unique content such as custom piņatas, fresh buildings and abilities, or even weather changes."

    How innovative :)

  • NickD7 #13 4 years ago

    I've played every big game on 360, all the 10/10 games , Bioshock, GTA IV, Halo 3. And for me Viva Pinata is still the best game I've played this gen. I can't believe they let Rare make another one after it sold pretty badly and hardly made a splash. Now it gets another chance with Viva Pinata 2, whicjh looks even more awesome that the first. happy days.

    Now give me Dead Rising 2 please.

  • red3p #14 4 years ago

    Now all I want is some Pinata Fishes to populate a nice lake and a sour pinata shark.

  • The_Inquisitor #15 4 years ago

    Yes, fish Pinata would be cool, and a worm Pinata that tunnels underground (since there will be desert areas it would be cool, like having your own pet Dune worm).

  • miiiguel #16 4 years ago

    Piņata fishes, wow! That'd be cool!

  • crazyhorse174 #17 4 years ago

    "IMO, Viva pinata1's worst flaw was that the garden was way too small, you should have been able to gather all the pinatas in one single garden instead of having to rebuild it every time you wanted to lure some exotic species. if they fix that, it's AAA all the way. "

    +1

    It was for this very reason that I decided to get rid of my copy of VP. The limits on how much stuff you can put in your garden needs to be lifted if VP2 is to better the original.

  • freeoscar #18 4 years ago

    Viva Pinata didnt sell badly, its sold roughly between 1.2 and 1.5 million World Wide. Thats not bad sales at all.

  • brooza #19 4 years ago

    Exactly what the first game should have been.

    Now, as long as you can skip the mating minigame after the first go, I'll probably play it

  • fattulip #20 4 years ago

    So very excited!

  • Madafunkola #21 4 years ago

    I was expecting a flurry of negative comments on here but everyone seems to be full of praise!
    I am also looking forward to this as it is a rare (pun intended) bridge between the casual and hardcore. You have to be pretty serious to breed Chewnicorns!

  • NoQuarter #22 4 years ago

    Easily the best console RTS game ever. Fact.

  • Danoxth #23 4 years ago

    @kiroquai

    Likewise!

    Train races it'll be! Hopefully the track will be player designed....

  • Nanonine #24 4 years ago

    Much like Madafunkola i expected lots of negative comments on this one, very happy to see ppl are just as excited as me about this one. Nr 1 most wanted game this year without a doubt.

  • sergeantdisco #25 4 years ago

    I got the first one in a bundle when I bought my Xbox and thought nothing of it for about 2 months. Tried it out one day after work and barely turned it off for about 2 weeks. I really should go back and finish off the last few species, I think I got pissed off with trying to get the bloody Eagle to come and live in my garden.

    Anywhoo, this looks great, will definately be keeping an eye out for it come September.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/08 @ 08:53