BBC - collective - harvest moon

reviews / member game review

content by: member

harvest moon - game boy advance
by: liquidindian 18 january 05

rating:

quite possibly the most dull, repetitive, and enthralling game ever

Games are an escape from the day-to-day drudgery of reality. That's what's so confusing about the desire for games to be more realistic - if gamers actually wanted a lifelike experience, then the sequel to Manic Miner would have been Miner Willy Goes On Strike Then Sues For Compensation Over Vibration White Finger And Then Has To Take A Job In A Call Centre And Eventually Takes His Own Life After A Vicious Cycle of Depression Drink And Drugs. It wasn't. It was Jet-Set Willy, where you had to collect lots of flashing things in a huge mansion full of traps and monsters so you could be allowed back to bed by your wife.

But I digress, and I haven't even started yet. In Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town you play as a young man who travels to a small farm he visited as a child, only to find that the owner has died. Not only that, but the mayor of this 'town' (Mineral Town seems to contain about ten houses) informs you that you've inherited the farm, and so your farming life begins.

Harvest Moon is all about slow progress and the repetition of tasks. Till your field, sow your crops, collect eggs, milk cows, and harvest crops, and eventually you'll have enough money to expand your chicken coop, or get a cow pregnant (via the wonderfully euphemistic 'Miracle Potion - no need to get C-list celebs to pull off your animals) or otherwise improve your lot. There's also tools to be upgraded, meals to be cooked, and ladies to be wooed, not to mention the frequent festivals that take place in the town square. Mineral Town is a friendly little place, unlikely to be home to Countryside Alliance militants.

Harvest Moon involves some of the parts of real life we most often loathe - repeating the same tasks over and over again, especially when it comes to maintaining the farm. However, there's a strangely addictive quality to this, with the calming nature of watering and harvesting vegetables, to the rewards of building up your kitchen bit by bit. It's like a little pocket life without the stress - no utility bills to pay, no arguments with the missus, no unfortunate infections to see the doctor about. It's like sanitized reality, in the best possible way. with added amusing mistranslations and some bizarre little moments. Harvest Moon is one of those games that divide people into the bewildered and the converted. Me? I'm addicted.

send to a friend

conversations

Read members' comments.

If you register you can discuss this article with other users.

see also

archive

more reviews by this member

browse the games back catalogue

books

books and comics archive
Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008.

archive

collective's dead...
Long live Collective. Read our editor and member features.

	BBC Homepage
front page music film art books games archive community about collective help and faq's newsletter Receive our weekly email roundups. sign up

	Contact Us Like this page? Send it to a friend!