Harvest Moon GBC

"Addicting...no, VERRRRY addicting!"

I got to hand it to Natsume for their Harvest Moon series. They make these games so fun and addicting you may never get tired of them. Harvest Moon may be a farming game, but who would of guessed that farming would be entertaining!

GAMEPLAY: The character movements are basically pressing the directional buttons on your Gameboy. You press A to confirm and B to cancel. After buying animals and seeds from town, it's your duty to feed them, milk them, brush them, talk to them, ship their eggs and water them once every single day. You have many tools at your arsenal to use such as a hammer, axe, sickle, watering can, etc. The better you do at this, the better the prizes the Ranch Spirit gives you at the end of every Winter. It may sound boring, but I guarantee it will be addicting, but after a long while, you may start to feel it is getting too repetitive, here's a simple solution, stop playing the game for weeks or even months, then start playing again, you'll be addicted once more.
RATING: 9

SOUND/AUDIO: The music only changes if you enter the Harvest Sprite cave, the village, when the season changes and when it is the End of the year evaluation. All of the music for the seasons( Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) get repetitive and boring after a while. You probably best play this game with the volume turned off.
RATING: 5

GRAPHICS: The game looks good for a game on the Gameboy Color. There is a lot of color in this game and looks pretty nice. The character sprites are just like the ones from the SNES version of Harvest Moon, ah the good ol' memories...okay, let's continue! The characters have cool details like hats, scarves, hair bands and such. I wasn't disappointed on how the game looked at all.
RATING: 8

REPLAY VALUE: Whoa, the game is very strong in this category. There is so much stuff to do after the first year. There are still lots of money to be made, plants to be harvested, tools to be upgraded, and lots and lots of more stuff to do.
RATING: 9

RENT OR BUY???: I encourage you to buy this game with no hesitation. I like RPGs, strategy games, or if you want to try something new, this game is right for you. Just like my Language Arts teacher always say, go forth and prosper!

OVERALL RATING: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/02, Updated 02/20/02