On March 13th, 2007 a Viva Pinata demo was released on the Xbox Live Marketplace in America. It was released in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom on May 15th, 2007.

What is included in the demo?

The demo gives a generous taste of the full Viva Pinata gameplay experience. It includes close to two dozen species of pinata that can be attracted by your garden as well as some of the shops in the village.

What are the limitations of the demo?

The demo does not include the ability to save your garden to a storage device and it does not include any Xbox Live features. In the full game these features include the ability to trade items and pinatas with other players, leaderboards, achievements, and downloadable accessories.

When does the demo end?

There is not a specific time limit in the demo. Instead it ends when you advance to level 11. This could take a couple of hours depending on how the demo is played.

How much larger is the area in the full game?

The full game starts out the same size as the space available in the demo, but you then get two space increases as you progress through the levels. It is estimated that the full size is about four times as large as the initial garden.

What else can I do in the demo?

The demo includes the ability to change your pinatas into variants (trying feeding a turnip to your Whirlm) and even evolve one species into another (try feeding a buttercup to a Sparrowmint). You can also hatch wild-card and twin pinatas from an egg, but these are extremely rare.

Why can't I tame the Sour Shellybean?

In order to reduce the size of the demo, some features such as transforming the Shellybean into it's tame version had to be removed.

What else is available in the full game?

The full game includes 60 species and of pinata and many more shops and service providers such as helpers that aid you in managing your garden. It also includes more challenges to overcome such as Ruffians and more sour species.

For more information, please see the FAQ for the full game.

Why is the internationally released demo larger than the previous one?

More space is required for the additional five languages worth of speech data, the localized text and the Japanese logo. It's exactly the same gameplay experience.