Quite blasé about the game at the beginning, it only took 20 minutes to get us hooked, so you have been warned…

Yes, Viva Piñata is that good. Sure many of the 360’s ‘adult’ gamers might think this has been designed for getting the children or girlfriends onboard, but whatever level of gamer you think of yourself; complete newbie through to FPS god, this has something for you.

Although part Sims, part Pokemon and  part Animal Crossing, Viva Piñata isn’t exactly any one of these genres. Instead it’s something new, but something that offers so much freedom that it definitely fits into the Sandbox category. The basic story is as follows. You’ve taken on the challenge of bringing back to life what was once the most wonderful piñata garden on Pinata Island. Now in a poor, poor state of disrepair, you begin with only a battered shovel and the advice of the tearful Leafos as you try to create something en par with its former glory.

Once the piles of trash have been beaten into oblivion and the earth freshly turned then the fun really begins. This is when your first piñata visitors will appear; the easy to please Whirlms, whose only requirement for visitation and residency is that you have a nice area of soil for them to make home.

A lot happens in these early days; Leafos offers you advice on how to navigate the simple menus, and tries to get you up to speed with the apparatus to hand and the comings and goings of the piñatas that begin to nose about. Believe it or not there’s a lot to take in; especially for kids, and a slight case of information overload can become a problem. But don’t walk away; after just an hour or so of playing Viva Piñata, knowing what’s going on and how to react to specific issues becomes second nature, as does navigating your many menus.

There’s lot of menus to play with you see; from choosing which garden apparatus to use next to going into the village and picking a store or heading to your journal to look up a specific piñata, check your player awards or recap on one of Leafos’ past tips. You could imagine getting very tired of pressing the ‘back’ button three or four times just to get back to your garden, but its these tiny things that Rare thinks of, like the ‘directly back to garden’ button, that makes this game work so well. We also liked how you can use the D-pad to flick betweenyour watering can, shovel and grass seeds at the touch of a button for example, which can become very handy when you have to make quick life and death decisions as the game progresses.

The main premise of the game is of course to get piñatas interested in your garden via a first sighting, and then get them to actually cross the line into your garden and visit. Next is getting them to become residents and the final hurdle is to romance your happy piñatas in an attempt to breed these cuddly little bundles of wrapped up sweets. Each of these tasks involves reaching specific requirements, which start off very simple and get tougher as the game progresses and rarer creatures are sighted.

When you first see a new piñata it will be in black and white; it’s only when they become residents that you’ll get a cut scene showing them change into their full colourful forms. This is also when you can name them and begin a level of attachment which can make things all the tougher in later days when selling and using smaller piñatas as food sources becomes an impossible to ignore reality. Our advice; don’t get attached to them, ‘cos you’ll face way too many moral dilemmas otherwise.

This does worry us a little. If people in their late 20s can get so attached to little Whirlmy that they refuse to name any future resident piñatas, how will children cope? Perhaps this is Rare’s sick way of getting the little ‘uns to begin growing up; by teaching them all about sex and death through these cute and colourful little blighters? Twisted people we say, but we love ‘em all the same…

Back to the piñatas themselves; each stage of integration involves certain requirements which can be as simple as having a pond in place or a few flowers but as the game progresses these do get tougher. Certain creatures require a specific number of rare plants in place, or perhaps they need to eat one of your residents or for you to pop down the shop and get a certain item before they believe they are worthy of setting up home in your little plot of land.

It’s a similar challenge with romancing; each ‘animal’ (we use that term loosely) may need to have eaten something or have a home built for them etc before they’ll get in the mood for love. Then we finally get to see Rare’s twisted sense of humour shine through. In order for ‘reproduction’ to take place (an egg will get delivered) you’ll need to complete a mini-game; where your piñata needs to get round a maze  - designed in its image – to meet its mate, picking up the game’s brilliant currency of chocolate coins (why cant it be like that in the real world?) on the way. The reward; aside from a teeny new addition, is an amusing romancing ritual which comes in the form of dance. Each breed has their own dance, and most can be hilarious and disturbing, all at the same time.

And so the world keeps turning, and your garden keeps evolving. Don’t think its gets dull; as there’s always some planting, gathering, building, watering, feeding, selling and breeding to be done.

Also as we mentioned earlier the challenges of getting the larger and/or rarer piñatas to come visit often means that at some stages you have to level out certain areas of your growing garden (as you level up and progress you are given upgrades ranging from improved tools to larger land deeds) and start again. This may mean selling some of your favourite characters as you have too many piñatas, or filling a pond, pulling out some plants etc to make room for new creatures, flowers and landscapes. If you’ve been putting your heart and soul into your garden design this can also be quite painful, but just like real-life forest fires, habitats regularly need to be given overhauls in order for nature to continue to flourish (ooh look at us, we sound like we’ve been watching too much David Attenborough!).

Plus there’s so much we still haven’t mentioned; like dealing with and taming ‘sour’ – aka evil – piñatas that come and try and terrorise the locals,  and even separating the friendly residents, as certain breeds just don’t get on and will fight each other; which usually results in illness and expensive doctor’s bills. Then there’s everything the village has to offer. You’ll find you go there very regularly – to either shop, call the doctor, visit the pet store (you can buy your animals accessories to keep them happy) call in a hunter’s help or find some hired help in the local inn. At later stages of the game these helpers can become very useful by taking on some of the mundane tasks like watering the plants and gathering the fruit and veg on your behalf. This makes you feel a lot calmer, and able to focus on the tougher tasks now put in your way.

And this is what makes the game so addictive; whenever you might think a lull is coming up, something else happens that drags you back in. This might be getting certain fruits to grow, or desperately doing anything and everything to get that elusive Quackberry to come visit, which you need to then in turn breed, and (sorry children!) feed to your Pretztails in order for them to romance. It’s a never-ending rollercoaster ride, and although you may find yourself occasionally frustrated, it’s never enough for you to put the pad down and walk away.

There’s always the next challenge, the next goal of romancing a new resident for the first time or enticing a rare piñata to check out your plot of land. Evolution keeps the game fresh, and at certain intervals there will always be something new to keep you hooked. Growing garden sizes draw you back in, plus you’ll want to keep an eye out for irritating beggars and then there’s the random calls from Piñata Central.

Piñata’s might be alive in this game, but they’re still called up for party entertainment; something ‘Central controls. Occasionally they might be on the look out for a specific creature, and if you can fulfil the challenge they set you (packing up the creatures and sending them on their way) in time, they’ll come back worth much more in choccie coins, with a couple of extra sweet goodies to perk up the other residents.

Put simply, you know how addictive gathering gamerpoints are? Well this is how Viva Pinata feels, but on a much bigger scale. There’s always something else to do, another challenge to face, a new achievement to unlock. There’s so much going on that we can’t even cover the whole shebang in one review, but we don’t want to give everything away anyway.

Although it might be bright and colourful to an extreme, and full of cutsie creatures making cutsie noises, this game isn’t just for kids; it’s for kids of all ages. It’s about the joy of creation, evolution and discovery, and gives us Rare back on top form. Its not perfection as it does have a few downsides; information bombardment from the word go, and times of frustration when you can feel overwhelmed, but overall this is a stellar game which will keep the whole family occupied over Christmas and long into 2007…

//360 Gamer Verdict//

A top trump from Rare, Viva Piñata may frustrate and confuse at times, but never enough for you to give up on the game. There’s always something going on and sometimes maybe a little too much, but with simple menus to navigate and endless pointers and advice to turn to, playing the game almost becomes like second nature. In some ways the yearning for rare piñatas reminds us of the Pokemon craze and how everyone was after a rare shiny Charizard, and we wonder if next year will see people fighting on Xbox Live and 360 forums over getting or swapping an elusive Horstachio. Only time will tell…