Viva Pinata (Xbox 360) (Xbox 360)

VIVA PIÑATA is a rich, compelling ecosystem simulation game in which you're a gardener, and what you do with your garden will determine which of more than 60 vibrant piñatas visit or take up residence in your garden. It is a "sandbox"-type game, meaning that it's an open-ended game of exploration.

You start with a barren piece of land strewn with junk, and your cursor becomes a shovel you use to clear the ground, earn some currency, and plant some grass. As you create a garden, piñatas become interested in your plot of land -- and each arrival attracts the interest of other piñatas. As your garden grows, and more and more piñatas live there, incompatibilities will arise: Some piñatas just can't live with others, and they will fight. When a piñata "dies," it busts open to release its inner candies, and is then transported outside of the garden by a burst of light before it turns back into a black-and-white piñata to grow elsewhere.

While planting a garden to see who will visit may not sound particularly exciting, this game is fascinating. The engine behind the simulation is deep, complex, and subtle. For teens and adults, this provides a sophisticated gaming experience; you can experiment with the garden to attract rare and unusual piñatas, amass gardening achievements, and meet other in-game challenges. But the game can also provide a fulfilling gaming experience for younger children who simply want to plant a garden and revel in the vibrant creatures that come and go.

The graphics are gorgeous, and the gameplay is easy to learn. It even offers a Family Mode whenever you plug in an additional controller, allowing for cooperative play within the garden. However, the pace at which new things happen is quite fast, and at times makes you feel rushed. You will want to start numerous games so that you can try different things to attract different kinds of piñatas.