¡Viva la Queero!

I recently picked up a copy of Viva Pinata for the 360. This has to be the gayest game ever conceived. How this even made it passed conception is beyond me. In the beginning, you are given a run-down plot of land on Pinata Island, your garden, to tend. It's full of various debris like old tires, iron skillets and a long-forgotten doghouse, that you must destroy with a shovel that looks like it was picked up somewhere in downtown Baghdad circa April '03, as well as patches of grass up to your knees. After you've cleared all that, you must, and I'm not making this up it is an actual in-game command, "whack hard soil". That is, make the soil softer for planting. Then your options open up. You are able to plant grass and seeds that grow into various trees, flowers and vegetables. While all this is going on your garden will start attracting the diverse local wildlife. By wildlife I mean animal shaped pinatas with happy little candy names like Flutterscotch and Sparrowmint. I mean they actually look like living, breathing paper mache party makers. Attract two of the same species and meet certain "romance requirements" and you can initiate a mating ritual between them. They will go into the home you furnished for them, as per the afore mentioned requirements, and do the "romance dance", resulting in the delivery of a brand new egg. Even if its a squirrel, you get an egg. The egg hatches, yadda yadda yadda, new baby. Sounds pretty girly so far huh? I can't be any more in love with this game! I can't explain it. It's fun! I want more pinatas! I like growing new plants! I want to get my "Master Romancer" achievement! The game reminds me of an old SNES title, Harvest Moon that I played for hours on end and I found myself tonight doing the same thing with Viva Pinata. Call me nostalgic, call me weird, call me light-in-the-loafers. I know fun when I see it and this multi-colored, childlike farm sim is brilliant. I've only gotten to about level 20, low I think, and I know there are plenty of pinatas I haven't encountered and plants I haven't grown to thier full potential yet. Yet. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and get my hands dirty whacking soil and what not. This game has actually reminded me of a rule of life that I, and probably you, don't heed as often as we should: Don't judge a book by its cover.