Viva Piñata’s poor sales have been attributed to the general stereotyping of 360 owners and their lack of interest in anything that doesn’t contain space marines or Laguna Seca (3D grass included). Even Peter Moore acknowledged upon announcement that the game was possibly too early in the system’s cycle. But the more likely reason for its commercial failure is simply that most gamers don’t know what in blazes it is.

This may have been a marketing ploy that backfired. Were MS hoping that the child friendly presentation and connection with a kids' TV show would result in the game ‘doing-a-Pokemon’? It’s certainly an easier sell than trying to describe an eco-system management simulation, which is essentially what Viva Piñata is.

Situated on the mythical Piñata Island, it’s the place where all piñatas live until they are sent to kids' parties to be battered by big sticks. Starting with only a small plot of land consisting of scorched earth and rubbish, the player is encouraged by Leafos (one of the many NPCs) to build a beautiful garden to attract and tame wild piñatas. There are over fifty different piñatas in the game, all recognisable as real-life animals, except for their names that are all sweet related (so bees become buzzlegums and mice become mousemallows). The ultimate aim is simply to become the greatest gardener, achieved by attracting (and later breeding) rarer and rarer piñatas. The real job of the player is to act partly as gardener, but also like Mother Nature, manipulating the environment. The player has no direct control over the piñatas (whom are completely animalistic unlike the ‘personalities’ from the TV show) but can give some basic direction to the creatures once tamed (which they might ignore) plus manipulate objects, landscape the garden and plant seeds acquired from another NPC called Seedos. Certain conditions attract wild piñatas to take up permanent residence in the garden. These piñatas then attract bigger piñatas who feed on their paper hides and so on. Plants and piñatas can be sold in exchange for items such as decorations or piñata houses. The larger the piñata, the rarer they are and more difficult they are to attract. Many are only attracted once a culmination of specific plants, piñatas and garden features are in place.

Each time the player does something new (for example the first time a piñata visits or a new plant grows) the player gradually increases in level, allowing access to more advanced items and even rarer piñatas. It also increases the number of nasties that have to be dealt with to stop them rampaging through your hard work (all nasties can be permanently turned off if the conditions are right). Levelling also allows the hiring of helpers to take care of many of the micromanagement tasks (such as watering plants or scaring nasties), leaving the player to concentrate on nurturing, breeding, crossbreeding and evolving.

If all this doesn’t sound much a like a kid’s game, you’d be right. It’s not an overly complex game, but it doesn’t feel like Rare have dumbed down the depth for the audience of the TV show. It may not be suitable for children to play on their own (although it has an offline co-operative feature so a parent can help), but it is a family game that parents can enjoy and children can watch. This is apparent by the humour that is clearly made to appeal to adults (such as the instructional ‘Use the D-pad to make a real-time tool change and wallop Seedos' weak point for massive seedage’). Nowhere is this more evident than the ‘romance dance’, where two animals of the same species ‘dance’ together when certain goals are achieved to make love bloom. There is a short mini-game where the player controls a tiny version of the creature wriggling along a representation of the animal’s body to find its mate followed by a short animation with the piñatas ‘grooving’ together. Moments later an egg is delivered by Storkos from which a baby piñata hatches. To young eyes it’s all quite innocent, but it’s clear what is being represented. Thankfully for parents who don’t want to have ‘that’ conversation with their kids yet, the issue of gender is completely avoided.

Whilst the adults can laugh at the in-jokes and innuendo, the appeal to children lies not only in the attractive style of the game, but the customisation of the piñatas. Every piñata that becomes a resident can be individually named and dressed from a large wardrobe (plus more to download from the Marketplace). Each species of piñata has a different behaviour and each is beautifully characterised. So endearing are these critters, that adult players will soon become involved with these digital paper pets. This light emotional attachment is part of the game’s best feature, as not only does this game simulate attraction, love, sex and birth, it also simulates death. Piñatas can become ill and die (which they do in an explosion of sweets that are gorged upon by the other residents) and once gone, they are gone forever. The game encourages you to personalise and identify with your creatures and then pulls on the heart strings. It might be manipulative, but it’s wonderfully done.

Piñatas can die by eating bad sweets left by sour piñatas (who can be turned nice) or by getting into fights. Certain piñata species do not get along and this dictates the make up of your garden. Either keep only one of the feuding species, build a fence to separate them or build another garden. A great feature of the game is that starting a new garden does not mean starting again. Any new progress is saved so that the player can have several gardens on the go and go back and forth between them. Later on this is essential as each garden can only hold so much and the requirements of the later piñatas become too demanding to have one garden for all. So it makes sense to have a garden with lots of water for certain piñatas and another with lots of trees.

As tricky as attracting some of the later piñatas can be, this isn't a difficult game. Once a certain goal is achieved, it becomes simple to repeat (once attracted, any piñata can simply be bought). There is huge enjoyment to be had from watching your gardens evolve, but the addictive qualities come from sighting new piñatas and the achievements. Rare have decided that no one achievement is more important than another, so all 50 achievements are worth 20 points. They are well spaced out and sensibly cover key events and also tempt the player into doing things that might not be obvious but lead to rewards. The endgame comes down to breeding more valuable piñatas (which can be traded across Live using the game's post office).

Scrape back to the core mechanics and Viva Pinata is an old-fashioned game, similar to many other management sims although not in the same league as Sim City and Civilisation. However the emotional manipulation, beautiful child-friendly presentation and in-depth customisation add something else to give this game a different feel. It’s one that is utterly charming and a wonderful counterpoint to a game like Gears of War, its partner in the pre-Christmas releases. It may have sold poorly, but it could have done wonders for the 360’s overall image. And finally we can write something at the end of a review that we’ve been longing to write for ages, that Rare are back on form.