Harvest Moon GBC

My kids are hooked on the Harvest Moon series of games. So far they have played both the N64 version and two Gameboy Color versions. They found this first Gameboy title very similar to Harvest Moon 2, but with some nice and unique features.

Just as in the sequel, you can play in either gender and you have a pet. You have been chosen by the Spirit of a run-down farm to restore it to full production, and he returns to rate farm progress after each game year. There are the usual seasonal patterns of sowing, watering and harvesting crops, that make this series of games so appealing. Items and livestock can be exchanged with the Game Link, if you know someone else who has the title. This first version does not have the special games (like mole bashing) that appear in the second Gameboy title and the village is not as sophisticated.

Special features that my kids enjoyed in this version were its underground passages and Harvest Sprites. Feed Sprites mushrooms and they help by making the day pass faster or more slowly (the latter helps if there is a big crop to be harvested). Apparently the space for farming is also bigger in the first version of the game, and you can improve your farmhouse. A couple of things in it that my sons did not appreciate were that only one of them could have a farm at a time (they are used to sharing their Gameboy games), and the inability to restart the current day after an error.

The overall game objective is to become a Ranch Master, which requires evolving to an Ultra Deluxe house and acquiring quantities of happiness, money and various other items. While my sons did enjoy this version of their favorite console game and spent a lot of time on it, they recommend Harvest Moon 2 as the better of the two.