Viva Piñata™

Developer: Rare® Ltd.

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Game Rating: E (Everyone)

Welcome to Pinata Island, the Fantastic and Magical Place Where Pinatas Live, Play, and Dance!

Viva Pinata is a window to another world where wild-roaming, living pinata animals inhabit a growing, changing garden world. Take control of this environment and the pinata within it, influencing its contents to create your very own pet paradise.

"...a game that anybody with an open mind can get into and have fun with." Erik Brudvig, IGN
"...a uniquely addictive and pleasantly colorful change of pace..." Gabe Graziani, Games Radar

 

 

Key Features:

• Deep Xbox Live integration allows you to swap tips, items, and more with friends.
• Create your own garden and more than 60 types of piñatas.
• Use easy, basic tools to develop an enviroment that reflects you.
• Regardless of skill level, find challenge in keeping out sour piñatas, perfecting your garden, and keeping your new piñata friends happy.
• Choose how much you want to control your piñatas by letting them run free or attempting to control their daily lives.

Personalized world:

• Customize your world and your pinata animals to reflect your style and create a pet paradise unlike any other.

Interact online:

• Via Xbox Live, contact other gamers to lend a hand, lay down a competitive challenge, or trade items.

Creating a living garden:

 

• It's your very own world. Your choice of contents will determine which of the piñata species are attracted to your world, since they all have individual requirements. Sowing grass, digging ponds, planting flowers and growing trees all affect which of the unique piñatas you will see. It's not just about plants, either; there is a whole range of ornaments and structures that could be decisive. Your reward for creating an appealing paradise is to watch the piñatas visit and eventually reside there, which is where the fun really starts.

• Getting to know and understand the personalities and requirements of your piñata is essential if you want them to stay happy and thrive. Make your world their ideal paradise, and they'll want to raise a family and expand your community. Players decide how much help they want from the local guides, shopkeepers and work force. Go it alone or get them involved as you choose. Once you have resident piñatas, you can begin to personalize your loyal community. Piñatas can be individually named and given their own personally designed tag to put on display as a declaration of their home turf. And the customization doesn't end there. You can make the colorful critters more distinctive by customizing them with all kinds of costumes and accessories.

A thriving community awaits:

• The "Viva Piñata" community is a rewarding place to be, whether you remain within the boundaries of your own world or venture out into the real world or your friend's piñata world via Xbox Live, the first and only global, unified online console games service. Via the Xbox Live online community, players can contact other gamers to lend a hand, lay down a competitive challenge or trade items. Plus, it's not just new piñata species that are drawn to your world; untamed sour piñatas with bad attitudes and troublemaking ruffians do their worst to spoil your creation and must be dealt with. Maintaining harmony within a growing community isn't always easy when rivalries, illness, injuries and even candy-spilling fights occur. If players turn their backs, who knows what their piñatas will do?

Special edition extras:

• Both kids and adults can break into the two-disc Special Edition "Viva Piñata" Xbox 360 game with added bonuses for the whole family to enjoy. The Special Edition game, available for a limited time, will include playable demos of the season's hottest family-friendly titles and an episode from the "Viva Piñata" animated series. In addition to the "Viva Piñata" game, which will allow players to create their own environment where they can attract and host more than 60 species of wild piñatas and customize piñata-filled adventures in their unique-ever-growing world, the Special Edition "Viva Piñata" game will include playable demos of LucasArts' "LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy," the arcade classic "Frogger," "Cloning Clyde," "Time Pilot," and "Marble Blast." Also included in the Special Edition "Viva Piñata" game will be a sneak peek at the wacky, zany, anything-can-happen animated TV series, produced by 4Kids Entertainment and Bardel Entertainment. With this full-le! ngth episode of the colorful animated series, Kids can experience Piñata Island for themselves, where multitudes of happy, colorful piñatas live the sweet life.

 

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Banjo-Kazooie® Nuts & Bolts

Developer: Rare Ltd.

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

Rare Ltd. revives the Banjo-Kazooie franchise with this third installment, created exclusively for the Xbox 360. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts brings the famous bear and bird duo back in high definition, with plenty of user-generated content and fun gameplay options.

In Nuts & Bolts, a showdown has been set. The Lord of the Games (LOG) has arranged a duel between Banjo and the evil witch Gruntilda, aka Grunty, to decide the rightful owner of Spiral Mountain. LOG, being the creator of all video games, has built a multitude of worlds to host the challenges. Banjo must complete all the worlds to win, while Grunty tirelessly tries to stop his efforts using every method she can muster.

Key Features:

Build it at Mumbo's Motors:

• The game is loaded with vehicle options to help Banjo pilot over land, water, and air. Parts for vehicles are widely diverse, ranging from your standard engines and wheels to egg guns, floaters, and other gadgets. The Mumbo's Motors workshop makes it easy to create new vehicles. You'll collect different parts by solving puzzles and exploring worlds. Vehicle parts include a wide variety of body panels, engines, wheels, wings, propellers, fuel, and weapons, plus lots of bizarre items like Mumbo Bombos, floaters, and the versatile sticky ball that allows you to create almost anything from a simple object. Once you've finished your ride, customize your creation with a paint job and a suitable name before Banjo takes the wheel and pilots it into action.

Adventure and imagination:

• If you can imagine it, you can build it in the Mumbo's Motors easy-to-use workshop. Then put your creation to the test as you take on Grunty in your quest for Spiral Mountain. Unlike other games, where you progressively pick up new skills or abilities at points pre-determined by the game’s creator, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts puts the power of improving Banjo's abilities into your hands as you build vehicles that allow Banjo to progress through the game. Vehicle parts include a wide variety of body panels, engines, wheels, wings, propellers, fuel, and weapons, plus many more weird and wonderful gadgets such as floaters, Mumbo Bombos, and the versatile sticky ball, from which you can design and create anything from a simple object-carrying truck to a space-age flying saucer. Once you've designed your creation, give it the finishing touch by painting it and choosing a suitable name before Banjo jumps in and pilots it into action.

Customizable experience:

• With more than 100 contraption parts and unlimited combinations possible, no two players will have the same experience in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. By exploring the vast game worlds, discovering hidden secrets, and solving puzzles to win rewards, you will continually find more and more ways to customize and improve your contraptions, creating an unprecedented level of user-generated content for a 3-D platform adventure game.

Fun right out of the box:

• Don't worry if you aren’t the world’s greatest inventor or want to skip the workshop and get straight to the action, because Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts comes with a fully loaded experience right out of the box. Pre-built vehicles are included so you can jump right in and get started, with many more contraptions available for purchase throughout the adventure using the in-game currency system of musical notes.

Engaging storyline and entertaining characters:

• Two of Rare's most beloved characters return from retirement, making their debut on Xbox 360. To win the deed to their homeland and prevent the evil witch Gruntilda from developing it into tower blocks and malls, Banjo and his best friend Kazooie battle over land, sea, and air against their longtime rival. Familiar faces such as Mumbo Jumbo, Bottles, Captain Blubber, and the Jinjos are also back to lend a hand, along with an equally colorful cast of new friends and foes. Look out for Trophy Thomas, Piddles, Lord of the Games, and Grunty's mechanically menacing army of Gruntbots.

Enjoy alone or with friends:

• Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts offers complete single-player and multiplayer experiences. Play through the adventure alone in the single-player campaign, or play with friends in competitive challenges on your own or in teams.

Fun for everyone:

• Xbox 360 is the home to the best entertainment experiences for everyone. With Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Xbox 360 continues to build its impressive lineup of content that appeals to people of all ages and types.