Viva Pinata and FaceBreaker: keeping it simple, stupid

Facebreaker and Viva Pinata don't try and out-think themselves.

Sometimes with games, simple is good. Simple means you can grasp the premise easily and even if it's slightly whacked, you can have fun.

To many people's surprise, Microsoft's popular virtual pet game Viva Pinata, which was both simple and silly, worked. The plot - you're a gardener given land to do whatever you want and you are rewarded by cute, colourful and charming pinata animals. Each pinata has a particular personality and likes and dislikes as all our pets do.

While obviously aimed at the younger gamer, and

tied to a TV show

, the game has a surprisingly wider appeal.

Now comes the sequel:

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

(Xbox 360: rated G).

In the story, Professor Pester has trashed the records of the pinata species and you have to build up the number of pinatas and replace the lost records.

This trailer gives you the idea:

It ain't broke, so not a lot has changed but you do have 32 new species, two new places to explore, there are new objects and toys to find and you have the ability to trap new pinatas and import them to your garden. It's also multiplayer online.

Viva Pinata is either your thing in which you'll find countless hours of worrying over the animals and tending to their needs, or you may find it just a little boring.

The sequel will certainly satisfy the fans of the original who will appreciate the subtle yet welcome improvements.

MadGamer rating: 8.5 / 10

Facebreaker

(EA, on Xbox 360 and PS3: rated M) - from the people who brought us the boxing great series

Fight Night

also keeps it simple.

It's more a frenetic button-pushing arcade fighting game than a pro-boxing game in which you block, dodge and punch. You choose from the range of colourful chacracters or use your own photos and its character creation tool to make an opponent with a somewhat familiar face.

FaceBreaker, the game's signature mode, results in your opponent's face getting brutally pummeled as you beat the tar out of it.

There's also a Brawl For It All tournament mode where you work your way up through five belts against some merciless opponents.

Letting off steam is always fun - although smashing a guy's face is rather over-the-top - and though visuals are good, sadly the game does have some gameplay and a couple of AI issues.

This highlights the game's dilemma: if you're a hardcore fight fan used to

Fight Night

, you won't find just button-mashing as satisfying as scientific fighting with combos and string-hits. If you're into fighting games, you can get frustrated with the controls and the player responsiveness which make it hard to win or on the other hand feels like a cheap victory.

A semi-satisfying bash but best played multiplayer.

MadGamer's rating: 6.5 / 10

Meanwhile there has been a massive consumer backlash against the DRM (digital rights management software) for

Spore

. Over 2000 reviews in

this Amazon thread

for the game severely mark the rating down to one out of five because you can load the game on only three machines and have to contact EA for permission if you want it on more than three.

The backlash has led to reports of Spore becoming the

most illegally downloaded game ever

as people get around it by downloading it from Bit Torrent. The reports estimate more than 500,000 downloads have been made so far.