How did you get into the Viva Pinata fandom?

[Leon Kennedy]

Title says it all =P I'll start

Well, I got really really bored and decided to download an online saftey video for kids on the game (Yes, I was that bored, especially since I really hated the look of it at this point) and oddly, I thought the characters in it were really cute and funny o.o;;; A couple of months later when I got Xbox Live and a 360 (plus hard drive, I didn't get Live for a month after I got the 360) I decided to check out the episodes of the show, and I loved them! I downloaded them all and this got me interested in the game, I borrowed it from a friend and went out and bought it! To think I'd started out not wanting it at all!

So, what about you guys?

[rashberry]

I got invited up to a meeting room at Rare and asked if I'd like to get involved in a interesting project. That was something like February 2002. It was a while before we got started, but it was interesting.

Rashberry

[Labbo94]

The awesome ad on TV made it look like a really interesting, funny game. I got my 360 at Christmas, and then after a month or two, I remembered the commercials and looked up a review on IGN. Two days later I had the Collector's Edition of Viva laying on the floor with a virtual shovel in my hand, and Whirlms begging for my forgiveness.

[TheInfinityZero]

"All I did was answer my phone."

Nah, I'm just kidding. (But anyone who can tell me what movie that is from wins a eCookie!)

I've been a fan of Rareware since the SNES times (Man, they had an ungly symbol back then!). I've been buying their games all along: Battletoads, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Kameo, Viva Pinata (and many others I can't name because I haven't played them for a while besides Kameo and VP).

Ever since then, I've been addicted to the game VP.

[snowbrigade156]

I just decided to pick it up, just because i felt like it, and then i played and got addicted :)

[Leon Kennedy]

I got invited up to a meeting room at Rare and asked if I'd like to get involved in a interesting project. That was something like February 2002. It was a while before we got started, but it was interesting.

Rashberry

Well, I'm sure we all know how a Rare employee got involved =P

Was the concept for the game really around in 2002 though? o.o;;; Wow, you guys sure put alot of work into that! (Great work too BTW)

[TheInfinityZero]

The same thing happened with Kameo. THey spent many, many moons with that one.

[Leon Kennedy]

Well I knew about Kameo (It went from N64 up to the 360!) but not Viva Pinata

Still, the work definatley pays off, those guys rarley fail to impress me to be honest (Well their Xbox original games weren't too hot, but Kameo was pretty fun even if not quite as classic as Banjo, I still wanna get it though) and Viva Pinata is nothing short of a classic ;D It's new, but I know I'm gonna love the game for years like I have Goldeneye since I first played it

[TheInfinityZero]

My brother and I still have fun playing Banjo-Kazooie.

[Leon Kennedy]

Wonder if they'll ever release it on the Xbox Live Marketplace (they may have been on Nintenco consoles, but Nintendo don't have the rights to them anymore I'd imagine, unless it being on your console counts as one even if the company isn't yours anymore, I'd imagine it isn't though)

Sorry, this is off topic ^^;;; Back to VP!

[Spartan]

Back when the E3 "Bringing it home" came out, I saw a game called "Viva Pinata" for the trailer. Naturally I had bigger things to download but I came back to the trailer and gave it a look. I was interested and my little brothers went crazy as they always do for little animals. So a few weeks later, I'm bored and at home (this was all during the summer). And I'm on the Xbox.com forums trying to waste sometime until I found something else to do.

But I guy whom I had never heard of named "Jimmcq" has a wierd link to a Viva Pinata site (pinataisland.info, AKA "the wiki"). I was interested wanting to know more about the game. So I signed up and spent alot of time there when I was bored during the summer (which was often). So that led to the old forums, which led here.

That's my biography hope you enjoyed it. If anyone wants to know how WW1 broke out or about how I used to hate FeralKitty, just PM me. :p

[Leon Kennedy]

Sorry to off topic again and no offence, but why is your name Spartan (Halo) and your avatar of Les? (Not bothered, I'm just curious)

[SinisterDonkey]

Offtopic lmao, your English cool.. :)

[Spartan]

Because I've been a Halo fan for years and a VP fan for half a year. My name will probably always be Spartan, no matter how unoriginal it is. And I was looking for a VP on the show that was the best. And I chose Les because of the ninja skills.

I'm the 1st to have a Les picture of him with that pose. The first to have any type of Les picture was a guy named "Ramen" back on the old forums.

[MikkDC]

I got into VP after reading an interview in a past issue of OXM. I wanted a change from FPS so bought VP when I saw it for £25 in Argos. Now I cant put it down!

[rashberry]

Well, I'm sure we all know how a Rare employee got involved =P

Was the concept for the game really around in 2002 though? o.o;;; Wow, you guys sure put alot of work into that! (Great work too BTW)

We didn't actually start on the game until the end of 2002, but we knew who was going to be on that mini-team and would test the concept. We were a very small team for a couple of years and then went in to full production some time in 2004*. The team continued to grow until the final 12 months of development.


Rashberry
* Team sizes can go up and down. Your home is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a team secured on it. :p

[Ryan44]

The reason for why I am a fan of Viva Piñata is very simple:

I watched a couple of VP episodes, and I loved the show, but what really drew me in was a certain character, one who people who know me well will have no trouble in guessing. The first VP episode I ever saw was "Hero," which featured a quite dashing Horstachio by the name of Hudson. He is without a doubt the single biggest reason why I am a fan of VP, and why I bought the game and started the PIF RP.

I’d like to thank Rare for creating this superstar.


http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w298/Ryan1944/t_vivapinata_interactivevid_gt_1_01.jpg

[Leon Kennedy]

Alot of people got into it by watching the show, didn't they? o.O

[ClaytonBigsby30]

My story follows "looks can be deceiving" line.

I noticed the game when it first came out and watched the demo video at a Best Buy Kiosk, and honestly I thought it was a game for kids, a la Pokeman or something along those lines. I'm 33 years old so those type of games just don't appeal to me.

Last week when the VP demo showed up on XBL Marketplace, I decided to download it and give it a run. I ended up playing to the demo for 3 straight hours and achieved level 11 and finished the demo. I went out and bought the game the next day and now I'm up to level 62.

I'm sure a lot of people out there feel the same way I initially thought of the game and are reluctant to buy it, why did it take so long to get a demo out?