Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness

Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness

Much of gaming’s appeal is the way in which they allow ordinary people to experience extraordinary things. From playing as a Russian sniper in 1940’s Call of Duty 5 to assuming the role of a red-suited plumber on a princess rescue mission, gaming allows us to make-believe in grand style.

Harvest Moon offers players with that same sense of discovery and unfamiliar role-play. It’s just that, in this instance, you get to live the life of a farmer rather than a premiership footballer or Grand Prix driver. Don't be put off by what sounds like a thankless existence of toil and hardship - growing crops, raising livestock, selling for profit at the farmer’s market, choosing a wife and bringing up a family in this game can be utterly compelling.

The game starts with your character shipwrecked on a desert island. Roaming the beach you bump into a small band of survivors who, rather than holding out hope for rescue, have decided to turn disaster into opportunity, tending to the land and building a new community on the island. You’re free to chat to any of the islanders and each character is fairly distinct and interesting, but conversation is almost entirely optional so if you’d rather head into the nitty-gritty of farm production, you’re free to do so.

Things start slowly on your new commune but, in time, you’ll have access to many more moneymaking assets than wheat and crops. Chicken, sheep, cows and horses can call be bought and bred and, by selling your produce for profit, you can upgrade your farmhouse and its associated building. As time goes on you‘ll start to take an interest in the local community’s girls and you can, in time, pick one out for a wife and start a family of your own. It doesn’t take long for the idyllic island to turn into a busy town and there’s never s shortage of things to be getting on with.

The main obstacle in this compelling routine is the disastrous control system. You use the stylus to guide your farmer around the environments and interact with objects by tapping on them. It’s a set up we’ve seen in other DS games but here, when you’re under pressure to get things done quickly, you’ll frequently be picking up items you don’t need, dropping ones that you do, tending to the wrong patch of land and any number of other time wasting micro-failures. Without an option to use the d-pad to control you’re stick with this imprecision and, in time, it grows frustrating.

If you do get to grips with the controls, and can forgive the imprecision of the set-up then this is as compelling a game as it ever was, bolstered by some exquisite visuals (which blend 3D environments with 2D sprites) and oodles of charm. There isn't much innovation here but it’s a shame that those new features that are included are sullied by a control scheme that just doesn't work as well as it needed to.

3 out of 5