Farming at It's Best
Ok, now this is one of the most curious games ever released, I mean it must be extremely difficult to hype up a sim that is about farming. And how fun can a game be where you have chores and such, and how repetitive playing a farming sim could become. Those are all the questions I was asking myself when I first heard about Harvest Moon for the Super Nes, but after reading review after review about this game, and how great people thought it was I decided that I needed this game, but when I finally went out looking for it I could not find it anywhere, it was either sold out or the shipment for this game hadn't arrived yet. Then a few years later after the purchase of my N64 I found Harvest Moon 64 in the local Wal-Mart, so I just had to get it before it was too late.

Harvest Moon 64 lived up to everything I expected the original to live up to, plus even more. When I first started playing I had an urge to turn the game off and go play my action packed Army Men game, but I decided that the game would get much better after I get some money and get the game going and everything, and it did get a lot funner.

The Do's and Don'ts of Harvest Moon 64

Do: Give gifts to various girls around the village, Raise your dog to compete in races, Grow crops, Raise Livestock, Have Additions Built onto your home, Build fences to protect crops and Livestock, Keep your animals happy...

Don't: Cheat on your wife (If you are married in the game), Get angry and beat animals with your hoe (I have done this many times), Leave livestock out in storms, Splatter your crops because you are impatient...

This game is very fun, it is like a combo between Sim Farm and Zelda. Why Zelda? Because even though the view is isometric it looks overhead most times, and the tool system reminds me of the Weapon system from Zelda. And this game is like Sim farm because.....well, duh!

You can do various things in Harvest Moon 64 Everything from planting crops, getting married, to raising crops and livestock. Throughout the game are various Holidays in which you can compete for prizes, or just meet with your loved one. You can also raise your horse and dog to race in town competitions for prizes.

Your tools are the basic farming equipment, a hoe, ax, watering can, and a few others. Instead of buying upgrades for most of your weapons you can earn them, when I say earning them I am referring to the tool upgrading system that is used in this game. In this system, if you use certain weapons a certain amount of times they will upgrade, meaning their power will increase.

Graphics 2/5
This game could have been so much more beautiful, but instead they are barely a step above something that the SNES is capable of. The game is presented in a rather "kiddie" way, but that does not ruin the gameplay one bit. The graphics are cheery and colorful (In spring and Summer anyways) and can be rather gloomy at other times (Autumn and Winter) which adds to the overall graphical mood.

Story 5/5
HAHA, a farming sim with a story? I thought this sounded ridiculous at first, but then I realized that the story of this game isn't so bad after all. You are a teen that is left with the responsibility to take over Grandpa's old farm, your mission is to restore it to greatness. On the path to restoration you may court a girl, raise animals, make friends That might not seem like such a great story, but think about it, every single time you play this game everything turns out differently, in other words everytime you play this game the experience is different, and not to mention that one game could last you more than a month.

Control 4/5
while the control of this game isn't good, it certainly isn't bad either. In Harvest Moon 64 you set certain tools to certain buttons. And to make things a little simpler you can change the isometric view to an overhead view for easier navigating.

Sound 4/5
Music is an important part of any game, and in this game the music is used to set the mood, it does a fine job at that. There are 4 seasons in the game, and each season has its own song. While working outside in the Spring Summer and Autumn an upbeat tune will play in the background while you work in the sun, while in Winter a sad soft melody will play in the background.

MultiPlayer N/A

Total 15/20
I recommend this game to anyone, although small kids might not understand the mechanics it is not a very complicated game.



Recommended: Yes