Microsoft today announced that the highly anticipated Viva Pinata video game for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system will hit European shelves on the 1st December. To coincide with the launch, a two-disc Special Edition Viva Piñata game will be available for a limited time, with added bonuses for the whole family to enjoy. Both the Special Edition and regular retail version will be available for £ 44.99 (ERP).

“Viva Piñata”, the high-energy, mass-appeal entertainment property created by Rare and brought to life by Microsoft and 4Kids Entertainment, is a window to another world where wild-roaming, living piñata animals inhabit a growing, changing garden world. You take control of this environment and the piñata within it, influencing its contents to create your very own pet paradise.

In addition to the exclusive Xbox 360 title, characters from the game have been brought to life in the “Viva Piñata” animated series currently on air and available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace in the US and Canada and soon around the world. Lucky owners of the Special Edition game will get a sneak peak of an episode of the cartoon as well as playable demos of the season’s hottest family-friendly titles, “LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy”; “Frogger”; “Time Pilot” and “Marble Blast”.