I have never played this game on any other console so can't compare but I was pretty impressed by this game.

You start off with a very small patch of garden and 1 wormlike pinata that you then breed. More pinatas will enter your garden when you have reached their various conditions. i.e some will only come if you have a certain amount of grass in your garden or a certain number of worms, so it's all a balancing act. You tempt in new pinatas, sometime by sacrificing your current pinatas as food for the new ones.

I can see how there is a lot of gameplay in this game as I have played a lot of hours and am only about 20 percent of the way through. I can also see how it is a game that I will will replay a lot as there is a lot of choice in how you build your garden and variations in breeding that it would feel like a new game with each play.

It makes me feel a bit stressed when I play it and it's not something I would play before bed. The garden can get overcrowded and an evil pinata breaks in and starts killing all your pets. I always like animal crossing as it's a game I could dip into, do a little bit and come out feeling calm and relaxed. Viva Pinata however feels much more like you are running the game and a sense of godlike power - so I guess it depends what you are in the mood for.

All in all tho this is well worth the money and it will be staying in my collection. I just bought a copy for my 12 year old step daughter for her birthday as she loves it and I can't get her off mine.