Viva Pinata

The colorful, sickly sweet world of Viva Pinata may seem to be aimed squarely at the kiddies, but as we discovered in our hands-on time, you may not want to disregard this one. The concept is simple enough: you are charged with cultivating a small patch of land into a beautiful garden where little candy-filled critters can laze about in saccharine leisure. It sounds like a piece of cake (pun intended, and for that we apologize), but if you're not at the top of your game, your garden can quickly » Read Full Viva Pinata preview

Wednesday 11 October 2006 A spot of green-fingered toil combined with a menagerie of cutesy papery pinatas. It's hardly the usual raw ingredients that go into a game but, if you're always on the lookout for fresh gaming experiences, Viva Pinata will surely have grabbed your gaze already. Of course, you might just be a sucker for donkeys with purple legs. A recent demonstration of the game's opening section gave us the opportunity to see how Viva Pinata's garden and ecosystem grows together - » Read Full Viva Pinata preview

Wednesday 19 April 2006 Apparently the brainchild of Chris Stamper and the Banjo team, this game of environmental management and creature collection looks like an attempt to blend some of the most rampantly successful and yet hardest-to-imitate concepts in videogaming: Pokemon and The Sims, with a little Animal Crossing for good measure. Microsoft is certainly not shy of the Pokemon comparison, as the deal with Saturday-morning kids TV network 4kids for a Viva Pinata CG animated series, and » Read Full Viva Pinata preview

There are a handful of games that will make or break the Xbox 360 in the console war. The next installment of Halo, whenever it may come out, is one of them. Same goes for the racing sim Forza Motorsport. And alongside those space warriors, luxury cars and burnt rubber, you'll find ... talking piñatas. Yeah. Piñatas - the candy-filled animals that kids beat mercilessly with sticks at birthday parties, then gorge themselves on the sweet innards that come flowing out. Here, on Viva » Read Full Viva Pinata preview