Playing a shared Viva Pinata garden with my son is certainly proving to add an extra level of difficulty.  I popped into the game this morning to find that the huge pond I'd carved out to attract new and exciting forms of pinatas had been entirely filled back in ... apparently Xavier's favorite groundskeeping activity is planting grass.  So anything that can be filled in and replanted, is.  Well, at least I briefly had my Newtgat... :)

It's not a new feature to the overall genre, but the way that cross-game mail is implemented in VP is pretty interesting as well.  You can ship crates of goods between games, just directly to other Xbox Live users in your friends list.  I was pleased to find a small token gift from a friend, and sent him back some home-grown Blackberries in return.  I don't know if they go to Animal Crossing like lengths where you can only get some key resources via import or not...