Viva Pinata getting smashed in Paradise

It was scarcely a well-kept secret that Microsoft and Rare would be teaming up on a new console installment in the classic platforming franchise Banjo-Kazooie. So it came as little surprise when information on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts leaked onto the Internet over the weekend in advance of the game's big reveal at Microsoft's Gamers' Day event in San Francisco today.

However, what wasn't on the radar for most was a new Viva Pinata game. Be that as it may, the UK-based developer said that it would be returning to its papier-mache garden with Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise.

Vibrantly colored pinatas once again play front and center in Trouble in Paradise, and Rare's latest offering will feature all of the original animals as well as 30 new ones. This time out, the nefarious Professor Pester once again has a mind to interfere in the lives of the pinata populace, and players must cultivate a garden to attract and protect the candy-filled critters.

Playing heavy into Viva Pinata as a brand, Trouble in Paradise introduces a card-collection element called Pinata Vision. By way of the Xbox Live Vision camera peripheral, players can scan in cards with additional pinatas that can then take up residence in players' gardens. Trouble in Paradise packs a number of other new features as well, including toys for the papier-mache beasts and a co-op mode, where one player controls the action and another acts as a garden hand.

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise is slated to arrive for the Xbox 360 this September. It is the latest in a line of Viva Pinata-branded products from Microsoft and Rare that have included the 2006 Xbox 360 original and its 2007 PC redux, as well as Viva Pinata: Party Animals, a critically underwhelming party game created by Australian-based Krome Studios. A Nintendo DS edition of the game is also in development.

For more on the title, check out GameSpot's fresh preview.