Need another reason to pick up Microsoft’s big white box?  Rare, makers of Donkey Kong Country, Conker, Banjo Kazookie and quite a few other gems might be able to help you out with that. Meet Viva Piñata.

The goal of Viva Piñata is simple. You get a small garden which you can customize in a myriad of ways in order to attract over 60 different piñatas. Some are attracted by how much pond space you’ve dug up, some by certain types of plants, trees or fruits, and some by other types of piñatas.  Once you’ve met the criteria for attracting a certain species, it will become a resident. This is where the game takes an interesting turn.  Your next goal is to get the residents to hump.  A new set of requirements pop up for each piñata in order for them to get in the mood for love, then they’ll go into the house you built for them where you’ll play a mini game to find out if their courtship is successful.  A little while later, a fairy will drop off the egg and a new piñata is born.

Some piñatas are carnivores and will eat other piñatas, other times Sour Piñatas will come into your garden to attack and sometimes your piñatas will just fight for kicks.  One of the most entertaining facets of the game is deciding which piñatas you want to keep and which you’ll allow to be destroyed.  There are constantly new piñatas coming into your garden for visits or to wreak havoc, and each one has certain parameters (easily discovered by pressing Y) for residency.  The village shops are constantly getting new seeds, houses, helpers, decorations and supplies to enhance your garden and really drive the game along.

Viva Piñata becomes very addicting for the causal gamer and more serious gamer alike.  It’s been hard to wrestle the controller away from Ms. Duke (Who’s not much of a gamer) and that’s quite a feat.  We’ve found ourselves saying the most ridiculous things like: “Would you rather have a family of Squazzils or Fudgehogs?  I really want a Chippopatamous but I don’t want to dig all that water and lose my Doenuts!” The game is proving to have lasting appeal, as I find myself putting it in every few days for an hour or two just to see how my garden grows. It’s a shame the game isn’t selling better, because it doesn’t sound like Rare is going to be adding too much in the way of downloadable content.  People compare this game to Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon, but there are few similarities.  Viva Piñata is less about the mundane activities of gardening and more like a breeding simulator.  It’s loaded with charm and beautiful graphics and should find its way into your 360 between Gears of War sessions.

8/10

Mahalo,