Viva Pinata - Xbox 360

In a nutshell: Ex-Nintendo developer Rare is bringing a rather different style of game to the Xbox 360 as you tend a virtual garden to attract and tame magical talking piñatas. It may sound twee but its ability to addict is far more powerful than its cutesy graphics suggest.

The lowdown:

In a nutshell:
Ex-Nintendo developer Rare is bringing a rather different style of game to the Xbox 360 as you tend a virtual garden to attract and tame magical talking piñatas. It may sound twee but its ability to addict is far more powerful than its cutesy graphics suggest.

The lowdown:
Unlike most first party Xbox games this is not an action game, but a gentler, more family friendly, simulation in the tradition of Animal Crossing. The basic premise is that you have a plot of land that you can turn from an overgrown mess into a beautiful garden. In so doing it will attract a range of 60 different piñatas who, depending on how you treat them, will then decide to live there. For something as simple as a piñata worm you just have to have a patch of earth for them to play in but other piñatas are a lot more demanding, while others first need to be tamed from their aggressive wild state.

Most exciting moment:
Not only can you accessorise your piñatas with items bought from Xbox Live Marketplace but you can also swap items and piñatas with other friends that own the game online.

Since you ask:
Viva Piñata has been conceived as a Pokemon style cross media franchise from the off, with all kinds of toys and merchandise already planned, as well as a new 4Kids cartoon series.

The bottom line:
At last there’s an Xbox 360 game the whole family can play and enjoy.
HARRISON DENT