Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

More of an expanded version of the original game than a sequel, Trouble in Paradise plays in much the same way. You take control of a scruffy patch of land and use a spade and a magical grass-seed packet to carpet the soil in greenery, and then plant seeds and dig ponds to attract a range of vibrant wildlife to live within the garden's borders. All the animals - including more than 30 new additions - want different things in order to take up residence, and different things again in order to mate, and once the tutorial phase is out of the way the game settles into a madcap rhythm of watering, sculpting, buying and selling to make and keep them all happy.

The piñata animals remain the stars, with new additions introduced at various points throughout the game. There are cuddly ladybirds, beetles, geckos, yaks, vultures, crabs, penguins, gorillas and others, all of which have been brought to life in gorgeous fashion thanks to Rare's beautiful pinecone paper finish, complemented by personalised animations, emotive faces and cute sound effects. The original piñata return with tweaked behaviour and requirements to integrate their new friends, and there are a few new ways to interact with them, including the Trick Stick, which allows you to recall a couple of showpiece moves for each piñata once you've fed or coddled them into performing for the first time.

The first Viva Piñata eventually won enormous praise for its charm and compulsive gameplay, but only after it fought off the memory of a sluggish introductory period, and the steps Rare has taken to improve the start of the sequel go some way to alleviating this. The initial garden plot is already home to a few plants and one or two animals, with a fair bit of garden furniture that can be utilised or sold to give players a helping hand. There's also a three-part tutorial that introduces you to the basic concepts and a couple of new ones, including Langston, who sets out challenges that encourage you to play with your piñata to make them happy before sending them off to distant parties. The interface has also been nipped and refined in places to provide shortcuts to useful information and tools.

It's still not quite there though, and wants for a PC mouse or something akin to the excellent DS version's stylus-driven, dual-screen interface. Unable to replicate that on the Xbox 360, of course, Rare's compromise is effective once you've learned your way around it, but feels as though it could have been streamlined further. Piñata information screens are densely detailed; seeds, accessories and other commodities and services bought from the neighbouring town send you through too many menus and screens; and the X-button radial menu and d-pad shortcuts are slightly unresponsive. We could also do with more visual feedback on whether seeds are being planted too close together, in which case their growth is stunted. There are various quirks and niggles.

Persevere though and it's hard not to fall back into the old rhythm - or a new rhythm if you've never played before - and become enslaved by the urgent patterns of gardening, piñata collection and breeding, the latter now with a tougher expanded mini-game that even has its own leaderboards. New desert and arctic regions allow you to trap more exotic piñata, and unlock sand and snow bags that provide alternatives to short and long grass underfoot, Langston keeps you coming back with new challenges, and the twinkling voice of your passive guardian Leafos keeps you up to date with new additions to shops and other areas of the game as you fill the flower-petal experience bar in the top right and gradually level up, accumulating new tools and techniques and expanding the size of your garden in the process.