Pantsboard Responses - April 2007

	April 2007's Burning Question: Which of Viva Piñata's many freakish species is your favourite, which do you feel was most shamefully left out, and which do you most resemble?   Dear Mr. Pants,      You leave your hat laying around on Piñata Island, but don't persuade the higher ups to add a rhinoceros?      For shame, Mr. Pants, for shame.      All of the Banjo recognition was great, but some more DKC homages would have been nice, too. Also, we could have used a Gorilla to represent that Conga top-hat, y'know?      As for the Piñata I like most, I'd have to go with the Sweetooth. The sound it makes while eating keeps me entertained, at least.      Rawkhawk2010   Ah, so many Piñatas. So mildly difficult to pick a favourite. As of the time of this typing, I'm particularly partial to Doenuts. Perhaps it's more pity than anything else. To have television tunnelled directly into one's brain must be a terrible experience. Unless you appreciate that sort of thing.      I'm no Zoological expert, but it seems that, keeping in mind that the droves upon droves of Flutterscotches all represent pretty much the same animal, the insect world is poorly represented. Where oh where are the no-doubt loveable Mosquito Piñatas? Unless the Mosquito Piñata is a super advanced one that I haven't met the appear requirements for yet.      In closing, I've found that looking at a Shellybean is somewhat like looking into a mirror, aside from some slight discoloration and my eyes being closer to the rest of my face.      Not entirely insincerely,      Zinggy Raisants, Tafflies, Buzzlegums, Dragumflies, Mothdrops, Arocknids (even though they're not) - which game have you actually been playing, Zinger Burger?   As much as I love Fizzlybear, I can't help but miss any sort of weasel or ferret Piñata. Come on! It would have made a perfect Sour, coming in and stealing things! Then you tame it and it becomes adorable! How'd you miss that?      Johnny Estes   My favorite is Whirlm. They like dirt, and I like dirt. I move around about as slowly. Also, they're the first to greet you in your new garden, isn't that friendly? There should totally be a Piñata joke in the next Banjo-Kazooie. And some characters who make jokes about their new looks. I know I changed the subject, but watch this... my new favorite Piñata is Fizzlybear with the Banjo backpack. See what I did there? Keep on keepin' on fellas.      Sean, Avid Bear/Bird/Piñata Enthusiast   My Lord of Pants. It has truly been a long time and unexpected of you to make a return (the desire for Scribes updates, and all).      To answer your blessed questions:      My favorite freakish Piñata would have to be a tie between the not so freakish Bunnycomb because of my like of the bunny species and the very freakish Jameleons for their awesome chirping sound when they are content. Plus their mating music is a jamboree of past Rare titles. Can't beat that.      What Piñatas do I feel were shamefully left out? A few, to be exact. I'm saddened that penguin Piñatas didn't make the cut, nor a polar bear Piñata. But my biggest disappointment had to be the lack of a Mr. Pants Piñata. The profile for your hat (which I'm assuming you're mass producing. Good on you) says you're a celebrity. What better way to pay tribute to you than by having a Piñata of your sculptured body?      What Piñata do I resemble? That's actually a pretty out there question. If I had to choose one that resembled me the most, it'd be the Badgesicle. So smooth in all he does, and snoring like a Banjo-Kazooie drone in my sleep. Yep, sounds just like me.      Thank you for yet another opportunity to answer the blessed questions. May you continue to bless Rare.      Mark "darkmark8" Mazzei You can't just reproduce me like a cheap painting, man. I'm way too complex a character - Shakespearean, some have said. As for your other suggestions, you'd need to have snow and stuff before you could humanely raise penguins and polar bears, unless you're some kind of SECRET ANIMAL TORTURER. Mercy!   Horstachios almost became my favorite Piñata. When I found out Dan Green was voicing Hudson Horstachio (which was rather awesome, by the way), I just gained this twisted idea to name every Horstachio I've owned after a character Dan Green acted as in a 4Kids-dubbed TV show - except for "Hudson." But when I got to the 7th Horstachio and got the Master Romancer award, I was out of memorable Dan Green'd character names and called him Hudson. The others were Dr. Stewart, Yami Yugi, Lee Pailong, Knuckles (fitting for a red Horstachio?), Mewtwo, and El Niño.      But then I've tamed a sour Crowla - and the Crowla became my favorite! He lives in that little Ghoulhaven Hall treehouse and my buddy darkmark8 gave him the cutest Baron von Ghoul hat, and I named him "Lombardi!" He sleeps on the floor in the day and sleeps in his house at night, but one day drove away Dastardos like he ain't his buddy!      My Crowla is one of the longest-lived Piñatas and I treasure him so much I wish I could zap him into a little compact device and take him on an epic journey with me where he'll fight all my battles - but then he would have to leave behind his wife and first-born back in my garden... That wouldn't be nice!      Cammiluna   Dear beloved man in the pants (or underpants),      First of all I would like to say that I'm a big fan of all your past, present, and future games (the present being Viva Piñata). Choosing which Piñata is my favorite is a hard decision, but the Crowlas (<-currently past 1000 on my WC hunt), Roarios, Cocoadiles, Quackberries, and Galagoogoos are among the top of my list. But I was blatantly disappointed by the lack of a Giraffe (Gingeraffe?), Flying Pigs and Unicorns, but no Giraffe???      After finding out about the complete lack of Giraffes, I thought "are there any other animals that should be included?" and made a list; Rhinoceri, Tiger, Gorilla, Breegull, Owl, Peacock (could be transformed from a Swanana by feeding it rainbow gems), Polar Bear, Penguin, Yeti (Jeli), Red Dragonache, Crab, Turtle, and... Pink Flamingos!!! I was shocked and appalled by the lack of Pink Flamingos, animals that already look like Piñatas in the first place, what with their colorfulness and that "I want to bash you into a million pieces" thought you get every time you see one.      As for the one I most resemble, I'm totally feeling the Jameleons, they're supposed to change color, but they don't because that's just not cool. Instead they just sit there, waiting until their food comes to them, rather than having to go get the food. Laaaaaaazzzyyyy.      Zap657   My favorites were the Galagoogoo, Fizzlybear, Roario, Sweetooth and the Macaroon (Funiest of them all). Piñatas I wish were in the game are, Girraffe, Tiger, Zebra      Joseph Cunningham Jr Hey, Joe Jr! Nice spelling. Did you happen to notice the stripey horse-shaped thing in the game? Or were you playing something else entirely like our friend Zinger Burger? Or blinded by that other fella's unreasoning rage towards flamingos? Furry fool!   Nice of you to come back from wherever you go between Pantsboards, and inquiring about Piñata animals no less. Viva Piñata's been a rather nice game, very pretty and humorous, except for that nasty Professor Pester. He smashed my Cinnamonkey after I spent HOURS trying to get it to eat my Monkey Nuts! B*stard. Let's get it on then!      Ah, it's rather funny that I fell under the charms of those cute little Shellybeans, that I would also become a Crowla fan. As all GOOD gardeners should know by now, those two are clashing on the food chain. Crowlas have that nice combo of dark/goofy, they have the best place to romance, and their silly cackle always forces a chuckle out of me. Shellybeans are just too flippin' adorable, tossing their shells about and investigating everything. Looks like my favorites are both Crowla and Shellybean.      If there ever was a Piñata who missed the boat it was the Flanmingo. It would've been the stilt-legged water fowl that would be any- no, every color other than pink. Although a Raisanteater, the nozzle-nosed bushy-tailed bug-chomping anteater, (obviously) would've been appreciated; as those red rapscallions always start crap with my favorite Buzzlegum: Buzz Flightyear.      Out of all of the papery freaks you lot presented me with, I'd say that the Sour/Regular Bonboons resemble me the most. I'm wiser than the average ape, got some sharp-arse teeth for a humanoid, cute as the dickens when I'm not Sour, I can bust a move at the drop of Ortho's Hat, and I'd look damn fine in a Funky Necktie. (Hold the onions and the crimson arse jokes, mind you Pants.)      It's been real Mr. P, I'm off to- OH CHRIST!!! IT'S PROFESSOR PESTER!1!Q!      Zenek   Dearest Quintessential Man,      The species that I was looking most forward should be obvious to you as well as any reader of this site: the Pants. I couldn't wait to see all of the other species squirm and/or run every time one of them passed by dumming their signature tune. I'm currently boycotting buying a second copy of the game until this species is included as downloadable content.      Paul Gasca   Hello Mr Pants,      Firstly I would be delighted in congratulating you (Rare) on the release of Viva Piñata. It's a fantastic game with so much depth you could probably pick the stick up in game, batter a Piñata to death and then shake it at it. It was and still is that good, open-endedness (my word) and that's ace. In answer to your question my favourite Piñata has to be either the Fudgehog because it's just so cute, and the sigh it makes when you attempt to force him to eat stuff he doesn't want adds to an AAA franchise that is Viva Piñata. I absolutely adore the variation and evolution system, this helped create even more hours of gameplay when trying to do what it takes to evolve certain creatures, or my other favourite Piñata would be the Buzzenge because it requires some crafty gameplay skill to even cause them to appear, enter and then even think about romancing and that was just cool.      Good job Rare. Have you thought about an Expansion with more species, other garden themes. Or perhaps making an Xbox Live Arcade game on a smaller scale featuring Piñata from the franchise???      JDog053 (Great Britain) Are you saying you still haven't played Newtgat Refuelled? Oh man - that was rubbish. How much am I paying this Loveday idiot to be my script doctor?   Dear Embodiment of British Culture:      Kudos to RARE on another great game! My entire family plays this, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to extricate my mother from the game (yes, really).      I've never thought about myself resembling a Piñata, but if I had to choose I would say a Pretztail. I don't know why--just because I say so. My favourite by far are the Whirlms--they are adorable and I love their strange noises! <3 Somehow you guys made worms seem cuddly. It's hard to even think you might have left something out, but I think some of those freaky walking fish woulda been cool--and I don't mean newts (they're amphibians anyways...) but those fish that live in puddles and walk off when they want to live somewhere else. ^^      Well good job once again!      ~*BK Girl*~   Dear Mr. Pants.      I liked the Fourheads. As for ones who were left out, I'm not sure. I haven't seen much Piñatas that didn't get in, but so you know, I found the lack of any fishes disappointing. And I resemble a Bonboon, with a slightly larger brain, of course. Also Profitamoles.      Love,      MasterDS   Your royal bigness (because that's what I think you imply by using such big underpants),      Well, first off, I just want to say how delightful Viva Piñata is. It's really great, the naysayers that laughed at the concept when first revealed should be ashamed. You've all done such a great job, at blowing them (and everyone else)... away.      Well, as for the questions:      1) My favorite Piñata would be those bitchy Swananas. Did you model him after yourselves? I've always had the impression that Rare (as well as most British people) are like that. All they were missing was bad teeth, to make it all the more true to life.      2) I thought that the Giraffe and Ostrich really got the shaft. (Because, you know, they did.) They'd both first appear as Sours, the Giraffe attacking your trees, and the Ostrich stealing your Piñata's tennis shoes or something. Oh, and they'd annoyingly peck the ground, and turn it back into the dry earth it once was. Honestly, I'm giving you gold here, and you'll be happy to know I won't ask for royalties, this time.      3) I really don't feel as if I've been penetrated by any of the Piñatas, I guess it's hard to capture my graceful intensity.      Hoping to see Banjo-K... (the new one, let's leave it at that), a certain racing game now dominated by Piñatas instead of jungle animals, and much more.      Love, your most orally open fan,      Valentina I'm told to say that the British more closely resemble the proud Roario than the poncey Swanana, while the USA is more likely to produce an Elephanilla or Chippopotamus. Don't look at me, lady! I'm just a cypher of indeterminate origin (besides, you started it).   Viva Piñata is a great game, I am highly addicted to it. I'm supposed to be writing a paper for school right now, which is the only reason I'm on the internet instead of playing Viva. When I got it for my birthday, December 4th, I played it for awhile. Then came Christmas, and I got my Wii. I was playing that for a long time, until two days ago when I started playing Viva again, and now it's all I want to play. It's probably your best game since you were bought by Microsoft, but that will probably soon change with the release of Banjo 3.      My favorite feature is the evolution of the Piñatas, changing them from one to another, which I only just discovered the other day. It's very exciting. My favorite Piñata as of now is my Profitamole, Bottles, just recently changed from Sour into a regular Piñata. I also love the Cocoadiles (which I haven't managed to get my hands on yet), the Fudgehogs, the Reddhotts, and the Juicy"geese" if you will. My least favorite is probably the Lickatoad, always trying to pick fights with my other Piñatas. Whenever I get them I sell them, but right now I want to get one so I can evolve it, or feed it to my Syrupent so they can romance, and I can get a Twingersnap.      Other animals I would like to see as Piñatas in future games, or Xbox Live updates, would be a Pelican, a Monkey, or a Turtle (assuming that they don't already exist, I don't know what all of the types of Piñata are). Anyway, thanks for making an awesome game Rare.      Chris Somebody   Right then. Favourite would be PROFESSOR PESTER, but he's not a piñata, thus posing a problem. Damn. So, my favourite piñata would have to be the adorable Cocoadile, or my totally awesome pirate-decked out Galagoogoo (but that's partially due to the awesome factor of Les in the cartoon).      I feel a bit sad about the missing local piñata representation, really. Where's the Kangaroo, Platypus, and Koala piñatas? And going more international, where's the Camel, the Llama, the Furry Lobster? I mean, really, when you think about it, that one would be a perfect fit.      Aussie Ben Congratulations on being the only person in the world to like Professor Pester. You're just an '80s cop show-style loose cannon! I don't think the furry lobster's eyes are big and googly enough, but the Rare art boys could probably fix that.   I really loved Viva Piñata. The piñatas I like the most are the one that resemble me, which happen to be the Jameleon and the sour and tame Profitamole and Macaraccoon, because they are a lot like me, and the Kittyfloss, because I like cats. There are glitches that need to be fixed, like the Horstachio getting sick near the fir log, the Chippopotamus's plant requirements being messed up, and stuff like that. The piñatas that were the most gifted were the lower class ones, like the Whirlm, the Taffly, the Mothdrop, and the Shellybean, being the first things to look into your garden, they should carry the most potential. These piñata can turn fruits to fertilizer, Wool to mothballs, eat weed seeds as a reward for taming them, and give your garden a head start on life. The most left out is the Dragonache, because it could not romance or go to parties. To wrap it all up Viva Piñata is a good game.      Nicholas Cardone   My favorite Piñata is the Parrybo, I love how noisy it is and it makes the garden feel alive!      Packersfan019   just to let you know i really enjoy viva pin......when will banjo 360 be out?, also i would like to congratulate on the innovative gameplay of viva pin...................are there screenshots or videos of the next banjo-kazooie game?, if so, treat yourself and post on the rare site. vive pineka is really good and i highly recomend......................will grunty have her rythme back cos that was cool,infact if she was in prison she would be top dog! Seriosly though viva pinita is a classy game, another job well done rare! HAPPY NEW YEAR!      Terry Clive alive! It's like getting email from a goldfish. After it's dropped its keyboard in the bowl.   Exceptional game! Easily the most addicting game I've played in a long time. In fact, is there a 12 step program to become less obsessed so I can get on with my real life? By the way there are no kids in our house, my wife and I play this together!      Being an adult, it's a little unsettling to discuss Buzzlegums and the such with my Gears of War friends.      Thanks for such an enjoyable game!      Bill Wyant   G'day,      First up I'd like to say a big well done! I don't know what the background of your development teams was but as a professional ecosystem modeller I'm impressed by the processes and interactions you've captured. My family finally understands why I love my job ;)      As to the ones that I feel have shamefully been left out. For the current garden it would have to be the following (I've included some potential names but I'm sure you guys can probably do better - I'm also Australian so you may not share the same names for candy).      Camel - Cameral (candy = Caramel)      Komodo dragon - Cocododragon (Coconut)      Toucan - Chewcan (Chewy Candy)      Giraffe - Gorough (Golden Rough)      Musk Oxen - Musk Ox (Musk stick)      Rhinoceros - Ringoceros (Ring Pop)      Shrew - Shrewberry (Strawberry)      Skunk - Skyunk (Sky Bar)      Axalotal - Waxabotal (Wax Bottle)      [Snip millions more, including suggested piñata names for Peppermint Angelfish, Dappled Flounder and German Potato Grouper]      I've probably bored you silly but hopefully you found something of us in all this. And like I said if you want any help chasing info on any of this just let me know.      Beth Fulton You crazy Aussies with your crazy junkfood names and your crazy ecosystem modelling careers and your crazy Professor Pester fetishes! It's good that you enjoyed the game, but I don't think the team's in any rush to include a German Potato Grouper piñata just yet. Might be a bit... you know... specific.   Hook me up, Candyman! It's all over. High fives and vertical shizzles to our contributors - I think we covered a nice broad range of opinions there, and only a few of them suggesting mental illness.      And now, once more, I must shoulder the Pantsboard and drag it bodily into the distance. I expect this star-studded website favourite will be back soon, maybe, and if not, one would hypothesise, potentially not, or then again it might. Check me out with my magic web of noncommittal terminology! I'm like David Blaine, only not as hateful, and with nicer clothes. Olé!

	Pantsboard Responses - April 2007