Harvest Moon. Farming made fun.
by Steve Parsons 
{ Aug 24th 2005 at 7:30AM }
Imagine the pitch: "In our game, you're given a bit of land. You have to weed it, get rid of
stones,
plant crops, feed animals, and water the
crops. Then you get to do it again the next day. And the next. And the next. In fact every day you play the game,
you'll be doing this." When you put the concept down in simple English, it sounds ridiculous. Yet oddly, Harvest Moon
is probably the pinnacle of relaxation in gaming. There is something soothing and relaxing about the repetition of the
tasks. In short, if Zen was distilled into game form, it would be Harvest Moon.
The latest game, More Friends of Mineral Town, despite having been out in Japan since 2003, has finally made it's way
to us English speaking GBA owners, and very good it is too. Also, due to it's relative obscrurity, you can pick it up
pretty cheaply at your nearby evil corporately controlled retail environment. Score!
So if you want a bit of mellow gaming while waiting for the train, Harvest Moon can be your happy place. Now excuse
me, I have a cow to inseminate.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paul Kalupnieks @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM
There's a reason that Gardening is probably one of the (if not top) most popular hobbies throughout the world. There's something so relaxing about it. I guess the same thing applies to even simulated gardening.
Vance @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM
A Harvest Moon game seems like a no-brainer for the DS. A lot of that game would fit the touch screen very well. (And can you imagine if they gave all of the farm animals the AI and interactive features as the dogs in Nintendogs?)
Oh, and someone also port the ragdoll kung fu game to the DS.
Safaia Ryuujin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:47PM
Harvest Moon is a very relaxing game, best on rainy days too when there's nothing to do. I love how you can play for hours on end, worrying about the girls, the weather, your farm, and your friends. It's a very soothing game.