Natsume’s E3 lineup featured eleventy billion new Harvest Moon games, all due out this year for just about any Nintendo platform you can think of. Here is Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands, but check out for my reviews of Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, Harvest Moon: My Little Shop and Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming.
Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (Nintendo DS, August 2009)
The Harvest Moon world is in trouble yet again! A long time ago, an earthquake struck the islands, plunging many of them deep into the sea. If you can find the magical sun stones, you can raise the islands back up again and restore them to their former glory. You’re bringing cutesy back.
In standard Harvest Moon fashion, you raise livestock, farm, mine, befriend animals, fish and go to festivals while progressing the storyline. Longtime fans will love the familiar characters from Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness as well a few new faces thrown into the mix (including a Prince Charming-esque guy, a treasure hunter and a thrill seeker). The best new feature, in my opinion, is the ability to contract out some of your chores to the Sprites. They can complete tasks for you while you’re out and about doing other things. Example: Sick of dealing with your pets? Not to worry, the Sprites will take care of them for you for a few days. Word to the wise: The Sprites are surly little spitfires and quite funny, to boot.
Unlike the last DS Harvest Moon, you have the option of using either the touchscreen or the face buttons for the game controls. The previous game only utilized the touchscreen.
Several islands are available for unlocking via sun stones, which you can find around the islands or by befriending villagers. Some of the islands include Sprite Island, Rice Island, Mining Island, Volcano Island and Wild Animal Island.
There are four different pets you can acquire — a horse, a dog, a pig and/or a cat. You can practice with your animals to participate in festivals, and if you’re fabulous enough, you can even win prizes. If you’re not the competitive type, you can just play one of the three pet minigames instead. (One of the games requires you to throw a Frisbee far enough for your dog to catch it.)
The latest installment of Harvest Moonfor DS looks to be a fun that will entertain for hours upon hours of gameplay.
Cat's passion for writing began at the tender age of 10 when she convinced her 5th grade teacher to let her use “sustained silent reading time” for scribbling frantically in a notebook. It took her awhile to work up the testicular fortitude to share her work with anyone, but now she freelances as both a writer and graphic designer. She cites her diverse background as her biggest influence: her artist mom is half-Chinese, half-Greek, and from Hawai'i; her film-loving, world-music DJ dad is from Montana; and she lived in both San Francisco, California and Great Falls, Montana while growing up. She loves at least a little bit about virtually everything and aims to be a Jane of all trades.
