Cinco de Mayo is here! Most people don’t really know what Cinco de Mayo is really about though, so here’s a brief history lesson. Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday celebrating the victory at The Battle of Puebla in 1862. During the battle, a Mexican army half the size of the invading French army managed to protect Puebla.

Cinco de Mayo was originally a regional holiday, but has since grown and is celebrated throughout North America. It also has expanded to not only celebrate The Battle of Puebla, but also Mexican culture in general. Cinco de Mayo events include parades, dancing, music and Mexican food.

Since Cinco de Mayo falls right in the middle of the week, it may be difficult to get some time off to relax and celebrate. So instead, sit back and play a few video games which might help you get into the Cinco de Mayo mood…

If you still don’t own an Xbox 360, and you’ve got young kids who’ll also be using the console, you may want to consider the $199.99 Xbox 360 Arcade Spring 2010 bundle. Amazon just revealed the latest bundle, which contains the kid-friendly games Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Viva Piñata. How cute! And colorful too!

If you decide that this particular bundle is for you, you end up getting a nice selection of stuff to start with. You get a white Xbox 360 with 256mb of memory built in, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Viva Piñata, one wireless controller, all the necessary cords and cables and a one month subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold…

Viva Pinata was one of the saddest examples of a game ill-fitted for its platform. The 2006 gardening sim was totally under appreciated on the pre-”everyone’s a gamer” hardcore-only Xbox 360, but it’s thankfully getting another lease on life in the form of a re-invented 360 game: Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and a new more »

Rare and THQ’s portable pet game, Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise made an appearance at E3. Its debut at the convention meant more screenshots and information on the portable version of a series made popular on the Xbox 360. Players are able to raise piñatas and care for them – definitely not your everyday pet sim.

In Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, you’re able to engage in practically every activity you did in the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Viva Piñata. You raise pinatas, breed them, share piñatas and items with friends, go through training missions and attempt to have a bunch of happy, paper mache critters. There are over 60 different piñatas in the game, so it should keep people busy for a while.

Last Sunday (July 29, 2007) at ComiCon, Rare announced that it is developing an enhanced remake of Viva Piñata for the DS. The new game will build off the original Xbox 360 garden/pet sim with wi-fi features, new creatures and plenty of touchscreen control options for designing, nurturing, instructing, protecting and caring for the piñatas and the garden.

All of the piñatas from the 360 game will arrive on the handheld intact, along with some new…

Australia’s Krome Studios announced today (July 11, 2007) at E3 that it is working with Microsoft Game Studios on the next Viva Pinata game, called Party Animals. This is the first time the two companies have collaborated. Viva Pinata: Party Animals is set on Pinata Island, where up to four players take part in a more »