Harvest Moon

Ever since the days of Super Nintendo, gamers have been able to enjoy farming at its best right from their very own couch. Now with Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, Harvest Moon is looking better than ever, and GameCube fans need not pray any longer. If you have never played a Harvest Moon game then you might not understand why anyone would want to play a “lame farming game.” Well it is time for you people to step up and see why so many people can’t get enough of raising their own farm, and falling into that trance of, "okay, only one more day I swear!"


The lighting effects are simple but get the job done.

In Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, you start out as a boy who inherits his father’s farm, there is quite a bit to the farm but some of it needs fixing up. There is a barn for your horses, cows, and sheep, a chicken coop, a tool shed, and a few other buildings on your lot as well as your fields for growing. You might feel overwhelmed at the size of the town you are living in, but you will quickly become accustomed to your surroundings.

The time system works very much like the PC smash hit The Sims, but with a few differences. The year is split up into the four seasons, and you can not speed up the time. This style works and has worked for the series, but some times, the days just don’t feel quite long enough, and you’ll be scrambling around to finish your chores before getting to bed on time (but isn’t that part of the fun sometimes?).

As in real life you can either chose to ignore your neighbors, or be friendly towards them. Whatever way you chose to play the game, your going to have to get married if you expect to progress to the second year. Thankfully you have a choice, 3 to be exact. Each girl has her own personality which will force you to act differently towards each one if you expect them to want to tie the knot with you. The wife you chose (or are lucky enough to get) will determine the kind of child you have, so be careful because no one wants a good for nothing little brat.

How many games let you go fishing? Yea that's right. This game kicks ass.

The graphics are nothing less than…cutesy. Some may see this as a bad thing, but fans of the Harvest Moon series either love it, or learn to cope with it. But either way, this is by far the best looking Harvest Moon game to date. The music and sounds go with the graphics like strawberries and turnips (don’t ask).

The gameplay, much like the series itself, is classic. You wake up each morning ready to feed and tend the animals, and to care for the crops. The cows will need feeding, milking, and brushing, and your going to need to collect all those eggs your chickens have been laying. You can buy tools, animals, and even new buildings right from your barn. To get seeds you will need to walk (or ride if you have a horse) over to the nearby farm to buy them, and if you are looking to sell your rare items and don’t fee like going downtown to open up shop, Van the traveling salesman will be there to help you out.

You'd be surprised how fun milking a digital cow can be.

If you feel you might get bored of doing the same thing every single day, fear not. Though you do have to do some of the same things all of the time, it doesn’t mean you can’t mix in some fishing or socializing with your “work”. There are a ton of different things you could do to amuse yourself such as digging fossils, or playing games with the locals, you’ll never feel like Harvest Moon is more of a dead beat job than a quality video game.

If you are the type of gamer who loves playing countless hours of The Sims, or can’t get enough of Animal Crossing, this game is definitely for you. This game has got enough in it to keep you busy for a long time, and it always gets you coming back for more. Harvest Moon fans will not be disappointed with this addition because it is without a doubt the best Harvest Moon game to date. So whether you love the “life sim” genre or not, you owe it to yourself to at least check this title out, because who knows, you may find you’ll never want to leave Forget-Me-Not Valley!