Viva Pinata coming to the Nintendo DS. Quite interesting, seeing as Rare, developer of Viva Pinata, is owned by Microsoft. Though as Microsoft is not yet in the handheld videogame market, partnering with Nintendo isn't too strange.

Viva Pinata was heavily influential in my decision to purchase an Xbox 360, as a game which proved there was more to the console than first-person shooters. I must admit, I haven't been playing Viva Pinata much, mostly because it's a very difficult game. I think I need to start my garden over, with more careful planning, and fencing to keep pinatas from fighting (good fences make good pinatas). But it is a very cute game, perhaps too difficult for the kids that make up the target demographic, but then little kids probably don't care if they get every variety of pinata, and will enjoy watching them fight. And who doesn't enjoy watching two Whirlms doin' it?

In Seattle, you can use your Nintendo DS to get stats, watch replays, and order food at the Mariner's Safeco Field. Pretty neat idea. And the way the major leagues crap all over their fans, the $5/game fee doesn't seem that bad.

My Wii has started gathering dust, with the Nintendo DS release of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, a game which finally answered all of our prayers, and combined a Bejeweled-esque puzzle game with a wizards-and-orcs style roleplaying game. While the game is available for the DS and PSP, you can play a demo version on your PC. It's really one of those things you have to try to truly understand just how compelling the seemingly bizarre concept really is in execution. The game is one of the most addictive things I've played for some time, even if the somewhat tiny DS display makes it easy to make mistakes with the stylus.

I had noticed that the computer A.I. is remarkably lucky in setting up chains, and I see that the internet rumors that the computer cheats are flying fast and furious. Which is why DS Fanboy's report that the cheating could be deactivated certainly raised my interest. It wasn't until I looked closely at the picture, and noticed the bit about the nude characters and secret cow level, that I remembered today was April 1st. And I should note, what I first took for DS Fanboy's April Fools prank actually originated with the game developers themselves.

Oh, and as for the cheating allegation, I think it just appears that way because the gems tend to clump together, and aren't particularly random.

UPDATE: I thought the odd method of entering the "cheat code" was to make it more difficult to tell it was a joke when the code didn't work, but it has been pointed out that the code is actually morse code for "I am a NOOB."