Viva La Tragic

I got a cringe of sadness recently reading my regular news feeds. The first reviews of Viva Pinata: Party Animals have started to roll in...and are less than favorable.

It's not that I was looking forward to this game, At all, but the original Viva Pinata is still one of my top 10 games of all time. I could echo it's critical acclaim, but what I want to talk about is when a franchise you love gets mistreated.

Viva was a pretty bad flop, it's kiddy ultra-cuteness smashed face first into the steely facade of the x box fan base. Which really sucks, as it possesses some potent and addictive gooey innards (no more candy puns, promise). So what do you do with a well developed and no doubt costly IP? Turn it into a party game! Yeah!

I realise this isn't a sequel, but it's still as disheartening as seeing a celebrity doing a duet from beyond the grave with some jerk willing to ride their coattails. Or like that god awful remix of Nirvana's Lounge Act by Z Trip from the Skate soundtrack
Pain!
Every sub par iteration slowly erodes the original goodness. And then I have to be that jerk who can't help but say "NO! Viva Pinata IS NOT a party game, in it's ORIGINAL form was a quasi-sim garden/animal cultivation game! Not some trashy mario party knock off to see who can fart a boat down a fucking stream! YOU FUCK!"

And then I get asked to leave the restaurant!

Is there any justice left in the world!


-Brother N-