Many people didn’t like Perfect Dark Zero…I among them. Many more wanted them to go back to doing a Banjo and Kazooie game or a Killer Instinct. Would Rare listen to the fans? Nope. And for that…thank you. I can’t wait to get my hands on Viva Piñata.

Our hand guided tour of Viva Piñata starts with a pile of trash called your land; I mean this ground is busted and trashier than some LA streets (and trust me…I’ve seen a flattened dead rat on the sidewalk while staying here for E3). This is your garden on Viva Piñata Island, and it is your job to spruce up the place and make it a paradise that any lovely piñata creature would want to stay at. You absolutely have nothing in your garden when you first start out, but you do have a few tools like a shovel and some grass. Now, here is where the fun begins.

Since the ground is scorched and parched why shouldn’t you just start fresh, so grab that shovel in hand (figurative since all performable actions are done with a circle on the ground and not a literal person) and dig up the earth to make fresh new dirt. Well, turns out worms like fresh dirt, and here comes a black and white (non-resident piñata are this color) one. A cutscene shows his arrival. Now, this worm can look around the place, and if it suits the requirements he is looking for (there is a menu screen with what he wants) he will become a resident of your garden and will change into wondrous colors.

After you get the dirt dug up, why not, say, plant some grass. Once you plant the grass you are more and more likely to start getting different piñata; grass snakes, horses, and other such animals will come to your garden now, but even things like the worm attracts animals like birds (Sparrow) that will want to come and eat the worm up. The basic principal is that if it happens in nature…it will happen in the game. So there is a food chain and the laws of nature in your virtual garden are just like those of the real world. There are 60 various piñatas in the game and the best thing of all is that you never have to connect online through Live to get them all (take THAT Pokemon) and so the Live is more for fun and help.

With Live you can sort of cheat your way into owning all the animals by bugging your buddies if they were smart enough to figure out how to get them, because really, the game is one giant environmental puzzle where the objective is to figure out the perfect combination of factors to attact animals. The fun thing though is that you can mess with your friends by sending animals to them. For instance, say you have a sour piñata (aka Bad Pinata) that is giving you problems in your garden. Well, ship him up in a crate, send him to your buddy, and let them worry about it.

Lets talk about sour piñata for a bit – these guys just need some loving. There are several ways to approach the sour piñata. For one thing you can simply beat the thing to death (though not really cause he bleeds candy and just reappears outside your garden, able to come in again at any moment, and besides, the sour candy he leaves behind can be eaten by the other piñata and make them sour as well. The best way to deal with them is nurture them into submission. Uh oh…someone has attachment issues.

There is some other interesting things like each piñata has a tag up its butt (no kidding…so cute) that details each piñatas’ name and information). Conflicting piñatas can fight, so if you get a dog and a cat nearby each other, then be prepared to have a winner and loser. There are real time environments, so day changes to night, sun goes to rain, and some things like flowers will only bloom under the daylight sun. If a piñata gets killed, there is this funny like “Hooray” children give it and the piñata is reborn just outside the garden, so it is very family friendly as it teaches nurturing attitudes with no real death whatsoever in the game. The upcoming TV show will also give you tips to help you do well in the game, so if you see “Oh, this one likes this,” then that is a tip you can use to do that in the game.

One thing I really dig is that you can tailor the game to the time and level of commitment you want. If you want to do everything in the game and handle it all…you can. If you only have a few minutes a day and need that process streamlined…then there are some helpers who can do some of what you may consider “meaningless work”. I really like that Rare doesn’t make you play it in only one way. Also, the game never ends, so there is always something to upkeep or do, which means you could be playing this game for some time.

And have I gone into how cute this game is, because it just has this amazing cute charm to it thanks to its colorful graphics. The land is nicely round and creative, the piñatas are full of character and express so much with just their eyes and mouth movements, and the game was just a joy to hear about.

I can't say how much I love this game. Viva Pinata just seems like the ultimate game for parents, kids, and everyone really. I can’t wait until I can have this game in my own Xbox 360 system.