Are there any further competitive applications of this?

GR: No, the game is really about creating your own space, your own garden, the sharing is so that you can give certain Piñatas to your friend who might not have them. This is a good way of helping beginners access higher level Piñatas earlier on in play.

You can't visit other peoples gardens, though?

GR: No, you can't.

How big are the gardens? I thought mine looked about four screens in size.

JH: Yeah, the large garden is four screens in size. But you start off with a smaller garden size.

I see.... did Viva Piñata's slow start on the 360 test your faith in the formula?

GR: No, because we'd all played the game, and loved it. We had faith that once people had played the game, they'd like it, that seems to be the case now.

JH: Yes, its done really well now.

Is VP a better fit on the DS?

GR: Its different. We're going for a younger audience, because of the DS market - hence the new tutorials and the Playground.

Is there a story element?

GR: Not really, no!

JH: There's a small TV selection from the TV series for kids.

GR: There's no real story leading you through the game.

Not like the 360 version?

GR: No, we didn't carry anything like that over.

A streamlined experience. Is there anything you couldn't squeeze in, but you'd have like to have done?

JH: We were talking about this. Because we pretty much completed the game back in October, apart from some tidying up, a few bug fixes, we did come back to the game a few months later. And we were really pleased by how much fun it is. We couldn't think of anything really. Nothing we would change.

GR: There's always small things, but nothing major, no.

How long has the game been in development?

JH: About eight months! We were prototyping features in January of 2007, and the game was completed in October.

GR: Everything went very smoothly for some reason.

If this is success are more DS releases planned?

GR: We're just focussing on translation work on Viva Piñata at the moment, so we can't really discuss what else we're working on.

Would you like to use the Wi-Fi connection?

GR: We did discuss it at one point, but for the type of game this is, we're not sure the younger kids go online.

JH: For Diddy Kong Racing, online functionality was important, but with VP this wasn't so key.

GR: Also because we completed the game so quickly it would have taken a lot of extra time.

Has the artistic vision behind the game been modified in the move to the DS?

GR: We were very keen to keep the art style intact, really.

One thing I would have like to put in is the papery fur. That looked awesome on the 360. But the DS just can't do that kind of effect.

JH: Although we did keep it in the grass... sort of. Graphically, though, the game is very close to the 360 version.

What are your favourite Piñatas?

JH: Quackberry!

GR: Probably the Roario, once you get a little further in the Piñatas available get really impressive, as your garden grows.

Will players be quite limited by the number of Piñata their garden can contain?

JH: Actually, the limits are quite high on the DS. You're more likely to be limited by physical space in the garden itself, than by the limitations of the DS. The actual footprint of the garden is quite similar to the version.

GR: It is a little smaller, but not much. To run out of space you'll really have to work quite hard!

How long due you think people will play before they reach 'capacity'?

GR: Never!

No, the testers are really good at maxing out the garden. You can have 20 Piñatas in the garden. It'll take a long time to reach this stage.

JH: Because we got rid of the romancing mini-games, some things are a little faster, but generally the game is no faster than the 360 version.

GR: You're talking at least a week of solid play. The length is very comparable with the 360 version.

Are there fewer in-game objects to buy?

GR: No. Its about the same. We've merged a few of the categories to make navigation easier on the DS.

JH: We have limited some of the paving..

GR: That was a technical thing, to do with texturing.

Does the introduction of the romancing sweets present balancing problems?

JH: No, because you don't get them until level 5, and even then they're pretty rare.

GR: From watching people play the game, people seem to use the sweets to reach the Master Romancer level. They're using them for that... rather than to skip.

So, to conclude, this is a handheld version of the 360 game, and almost everything survived the cut?

GR: Yes. Its a fantastic game - the more people that play it the better.

Thanks for your time chaps.

Our hands-on preview of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is now online, and we'd also like to extend our thanks to Ed Bryan at for crafting us the rather lovely splash art you could previously see adorning our homepage-cover.

By Luke Guttridge