Cook commented of the work by his handheld division co-workers on Viva Pinata DS: "It's all stylus-controlled, it works really, really well. They've modified the menu control so that it uses the stylus really neatly. And it actually works - dig in the garden and plant a seed."
Thomas added: "You get a lot more accuracy. Recently I've been playing Civilization and Sim City, and I think Viva Pinata fits into the same mold, like god-type games, which work well with the flexibility and sensitivity that the stylus and touch screen offer."
Cook continued: "They've done a good job of getting most if the important parts out of this big game, and getting it onto the DS, and I think it stands up really well."
When Gamasutra mused that it would be interesting to see if the DS version outsells the (somewhat market mismatched) Xbox 360 version, Thomas, who developed the original, quipped: "Yeah, I think we've all come to terms with that. We'll be sobbing ourselves to sleep saying 'At least we set up a solid franchise!'"
Cook added: "But we always wanted them to do the best job they could, and they have. When I played it, I secretly wanted to be on that team for a while, but they obviously didn't need us at all."
Finally, Thomas noted: "They only had about five or six months with it as well. They've used a lot of our assets, and obviously a lot of the main design was in there, but thumbs up to them, they've really turned it around quickly."
