Viva Piñata - Reception

Reception

Viva Piñata received positive reviews attaining overall scores of 84 for the Xbox 360 and 78 for the PC on aggregate website Metacritic. The game also attained scores of 85.39% for the Xbox 360 and 78.67% for the PC on aggregate website GameRankings.

A number of gamers and gaming journalists proclaim that Viva Piñata is one of Rare's best outings yet, with IGN indicating that it is the best Rare game since Microsoft acquired the company in 2002. In addition to IGN's positive 8.5/10 rating, it has received an 8.3/10 from GameSpot, an "A" from 1UP.com,.

While published sales figures for the game appear relatively low and failed to gather as much momentum as Nintendo's Pokémon craze, Justin Cook (of Rare) insists that the game has sold "close to half a million". During a later 1UP.com interview with Gregg Mayles, Mayles noted that he wasn't expecting immediate blockbuster sales, explaining, "Viva Piñata, it's come out; it's now sold really well; it's been a very steady seller like we thought it would be. We didn't think it would suddenly fly off the shelves. It was going to take time for people to appreciate it or give it a try beyond the initial, quite mixed reaction." Despite the initially discouraging sales figures, the game quickly gained a loyal cult following. Hyper's Cam Shea commends the game for being "charming, open-ended and plenty of surprises and depth". However, he criticised it for "uneven pacing and patronising voice over of the first guide".

Viva Piñata's concept artist, Ryan Stevenson, stated that, regardless of sales numbers, Rare is planning to expand the series with new elements including new piñatas and new characters.