As usual, I spent my hard earned wages on video games that came out this friday, those games being Infinite Undiscovery, and the long awaited (by me at least) sequal to Viva Pinata - Trouble in Paradise.

Now, as much as I would love to tell you that I have played Infinite Undiscover, I actually found myself playing Viva Pinata until the early morning, and never really got to touch the recent Square-Enix release.

As always, I endeavour to give you an honest opinion of the game, and that is that this game is just as fantastic as its predecessor.  All the original Pinatas are there for us to coo over and admire, and now there are tons of other Pinatas for you to love and care for.  My personal favourite of the new breed of Pinatas is the Jeli.  It is a huge Yeti that can be found in the Snow area of the game.

Which brings me onto another subject.  There are two areas where you can capture Pinatas for your garden, the Pentarctic and the Dessert Desert.  Here you can find multiple new breeds (and old) of Pinatas that you can capture using traps and baits.  Much like Pokeballs in pokemon, these traps are not always successful, but it is a nice little quirk to the game.

There are also more Ruffians and Sour pinatas ready to wreck your garden.  In fact, there are so many new things in the game that they could have just released the game with all the new things and I would have been satissfied.  There are new plants, items, pinatas, ruffians and sour pinatas, that the game keeps its game playing ability for HOURS!!!

However, as with every game there are so flaws.  For example, it is ridiculously difficult to get the new rare Chocolodocus…in fact, the only reason I know how to get it is because I was sad enough to buy the walkthrough guide to the game…but that is beside the point.

Also, and I am unsure if this is a fault with my game, or if it is a general fault with all of them, but for the 30 hours that I have been playing the game (in total…not in one sitting) the weather has done nothing but rain, that is, the in-game weather…although weather in the UK has been similar from the past…year.  See, its not so much an issue as it means I dont have to water all the plants, however, my Pinata keep getting depressed by the terrible weather…and nothing tugs at your heart strings than watching a Redhot cry with tears falling from its eyes.

I know I am sad, but I really love this game.  It looks like a childs game, but I can assure you that this game appeals to people of all ages.  All my friends (aged between 22-30) play this game and love it so if you are looking for something new, dont be put off by the games girly appearance, it is a brilliant play, and the fun lasts for many hours!

Files under Video Games | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

This is one of those games that I was really looking forward to, but have been unable to afford until now. And I can tell you that this game was definitely worth the wait.

Naruto: Rise of the Ninja follows the story of the anime series. Unlike the Dragonball Z game, they have not remade the cut scenes into hd cell-shaded CGI, instead tehy have simply inserted theminto the video game. I actually find this to be quite lazy, especially since the game can be completed in about 10 hours. If they had added some nice CGI it would have made it a little bit more enjoyable.

However, despite the length of this game, I really enjoyed playing through it. The graphics are impressive, the story immersive and the voice acting exaclty what you can expect from a top class anime series. Although graphically impressive, there is one flaw, and that is the fact that the in game characters never actually move their mouths to speak…the voice overs simply sound, this is unlike the Dragonball game where they speak even in battle.

I do think that they have cut many corners in this game, there are things that I would have included in order to improve the style of the game. I would have been much more impressed if they ahd bothered to animate things other than your character travelling from A to B…which brings me to another issue.

Missions CONSTANTLY require you to travel from A to B, then back to A, back to B about five times before you can proceed to the story mission. This becomes ridiculous and irritating after the third time, and I couldnt help but think I would have enjoyed the experience a bit more had they implemented some kind of teleportation device. And before I get the, maybe they couldnt…they could, as after each mission, you can warp back to leaf village.

However, despite the many gripes I have about this game, and what appears its lazy development, I am still really impressed with the game and have enjoyed playing through it. I have even decided to watch the complete Naruto series, something that up until now I have failed to manage.

So anyway, if you fancy a steal, this game is available from Play.com currently for £17 instead of its £39.99 RRP, so it’s definitely worth the purchase. Either that or go to your local GAME store and you can get it preowned buy 1 get 1 half price, for £22, its a little more, but you have the chance of getting another game too.

Files under Anime, Video Games | Leave a Comment | No Comments »