| Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life By: Ninja Dude Truly a Wonderful Life The Harvest Moon series has been around since the days of SNES. (About 10 years, but unlike Megaman, it doesn't celebrate an anniversary every 5 years.) It has always had a 2D view. (With one exception for PS2) And when it jumped to the third-gen. consoles (PS,N64,DC) you were given a chance to marry. And as all HM fans know, you always played as a guy I like to call "Blue-cap". The first thing Natsume did was take the Harvest Moon franchise. The second was threw all of it away. And the third was to take fans complaints. Their mission, to revive a franchise starting to show it's age. They succeeded. First, "Blue-cap" is gone. Instead, they replaced him with someone who looks like they'd know how to run a farm. Second, three-wives to marry. Some will feel disappointed, but now you can have a child. Third, characters that ooze personality. What is there to say about the graphics? They are amazing. Yeah, tons of games look better, but this is a gamecube game. And for gamecube, I'm already rooting for this to get best GCN graphics of the year. Now, the game is all about farming, but the character interaction is easier to manage (Just give somebody three gifts and they'll like you.) But back to farming. First of all, you can move all your animals outside/inside by just pushing a button next to the door. A big welcome. Plus the plots for growing crops are smaller. AND THEY DON'T NEED TO BE CLEARED! JUST START PLANTING! WOOHOO! However, when you start, the controls for doing stuff (planting, brushing slicing grass.) are easy to pull off, but sometimes hard to nail. You might miss brushing the cow and accidentally brush the horse next to it. But, it rarely happens, just be careful when putting two animals RIGHT next to each other. The sound is pretty good. When you're in a house or in/near your farm you hear music. But when you're just walking a path, ambience. Actually, it's a nice touch. You really feel as if your in a countryside. But it's not all good, there are some downsides. One, it's not fully translated. One channel of the tv stations at a certain time stops less than halfway through! And when someone mean to say least, they said last. While it doesn't alter gameplay, it is odd. Plus the festivals Harvest Moon fans love are gone. NOT ONE! Let's see. Wrap up. You get a tool shed. Someone who will go in town for you. And it spans 40 years. (4 seasons, 10 days each, a bit shorter than expected.) And a redone interface make this a great if a bit flawed Harvest Moon Graphics- 8 Sound- 6 Control- 7 Fun Factor- 8 Overall-7 |