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> Results: Viva Piata
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ESRB Content Descriptors Say:
Comic Mischief: GamerDad found some of the piñatas try to harm the garden, while some of the courting videos may raise questions. Mild Cartoon Violence: GamerDad found that some creatures need to kill and eat other creatures to reproduce.  Someone at Microsoft told me a while back that they were committed to providing games for the family. At the time, the Xbox 360 still didn't have a great deal to offer younger gamers besides a couple of the Xbox Live Arcade games and I was a bit concerned. However, they have more than proved themselves with the release of Viva Piñata, which is not only the best game for kids but is one of the best Xbox 360 games released over and above all comers. Viva Piñata is a simulation game where you must maintain a garden to attract more than 60 kinds of piñata creatures to come and take up residence. As they become part of your garden's microcosm, they change colours and can breed to create even more that you can then sell or trade to add even further value to the garden. As your garden grows, you'll have the ability to hire on help which comes in the form of funny looking creatures such as Sprinklings and Weedlings which perform tasks that you can probably guess (water and weed if you can't). The game is deeper than first glance with sour piñatas, weeds, interbreed fights and parents protecting their young, all working their way into the game as your own little candy-filled world evolves.  All of the controls are intuitive but backed up by a flower petal menu system that makes commands incredibly easy to access ﾖ just push the thumbstick in the right direction and click. We mentioned trade earlier for a reason ﾖ not only can you sell your creatures to the shop in-game but you can trade them through the Xbox Live network as well as seeds and plants. This gives you the ability to get even more variety in your garden as each player can create their own unique logo that is tagged to any piñata that are bred in their garden. The game is rated E and is more than accessible for even the most young gamers. In fact, it's the first Xbox 360 game we've covered where our six year old girl tester asked for her own account so she could create her own garden (which she did so quite ably with very little supervision). However, in the event that your child is finding it harder than they thought, you can always jump in with a special cooperative mode that allows multiple people to tend the garden simultaneously. Whether you buy this for yourself, or your kids, it's a game with immense long term playability and is deserving of its high score. 
Viva Piñata is a perfect implementation of a simulation game that will not only appeal to kids but also educate them in areas such as land management, care for animals, and how living microcosms work, complete with food chains and reproductive processes. Some of these things could prompt questions such as where do babies come from and why do things die, in-game they're depicted in a comic way to offset that. This game should be seriously considered for any Xbox 360 family.
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