If you've ever wanted to snag one of those cute widdle Viva Piñata animals to carry along with you, now you can. Kinda. THQ and Rare announced Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise for the Nintendo DS, releasing this Spring alongside the console sequel.

Originally announced at the New York Comic Con, the DS version will share themes with the original Viva Piñata, tasking players with nursing a neglected garden into a piñata paradise. Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise will also introduce seven new piñata species, in addition to tutorial full motion videos from the Fox 4Kids TV series.

Full release follows the jump.

Wildly Popular Franchise Scheduled to Debut on Nintendo DS™ This Fall with THQ's Viva Piñata®: Pocket Paradise™

Players Can Garden On-The-Go with an Intuitive Control Scheme Designed Specifically for Nintendo DS

AGOURA HILLS, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced that Viva Piñata®: Pocket Paradise™ is scheduled for release this fall for Nintendo DS™. The game is based on Microsoft Game Studios' highly-rated original Viva Piñata game for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise features an array of content exclusive to Nintendo DS and an intuitive control scheme designed to take full advantage of the DS touch screen and stylus, making it a breeze to navigate through the garden.

"Nintendo DS is the perfect platform for the Viva Piñata franchise because players can have direct interaction with the environment and their piñatas using the stylus," said Bob Aniello, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, THQ. "We are thrilled to introduce Microsoft's critically-acclaimed Viva Piñata series to an entirely new segment of the gaming community."

In Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise, players will inherit a neglected garden on Piñata Island and turn it into a piñata paradise by tending to all aspects of cleaning the garden, growing and maintaining vegetation, caring for and breeding piñatas, as well as attracting new piñata species. The game features seven all-new piñata species, each with new requirements, houses and unique cut scenes. Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise also includes twelve full motion video clips that serve as tutorial levels within the game. The videos feature the stars of the Fox 4Kids Viva Piñata TV series, including Hudson Horstashio™, Fergy Fudgehog™ and Paulie Pretztail™. The brand-new Playground mode allows players to create a lush garden full of exciting and exotic piñatas in a very short amount of time. In addition, certain rare piñatas can only be acquired by using the Nintendo DS local wireless connection, where players can transfer items from their garden to a friend's garden.

Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise is developed by Rare Ltd., one of the world's leading video game developers and masterminds behind some of the most popular video games in history, including multi-million-dollar sellers "GoldenEye", "Perfect Dark", "Banjo-Kazooie" and the "Donkey Kong Country" Series. From 2005 to 2006, Rare released "Perfect Dark Zero", "Kameo: Elements of Power" and "Viva Piñata" for Xbox 360. Rare continues to entertain the world with the release of "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts" and "Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise" later this year. For more information on this game, as well as additional THQ titles, please visit www.thq.com.

Tags: ds | rare | viva piñata: pocket paradise | viva pinata