I'm a big Harvest Moon fan. When word of a new Harvest Moon hit my ears, I thought unhappily back to the Playstation 2 release. I was afraid that it would be just another rushed game, with no time to actually explore without wasting time or losing money. After reading a bit about it, I had hopes that it would be similar to the Nintendo 64 version in both gameplay and quality. Although not topping the Nintendo 64 version, A Wonderful Life does make for an very enjoyable game.

Sometimes, a game has a sad beginning. Such is the case with Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Your father has recently passed away, and he has left you to care for his farm. His partner, Takakura, has come to the big city to break the news to you. He takes you to the farm and shares with you your father's vision. You happily agree to take on the role your father left behind, and turn the farm into a success. Takakura starts you off with a cow, and some advice to get you on the right foot. You take in a stray dog, get introduced to the people of town, and so another chapter in the wonderful Harvest Moon series begins.

The first thing to catch my eye was the slowed down time rate. In A Wonderful Life, one hour in the game equals one minute of real time. So there is plenty of time to explore the town, talk to the people, and do plenty more then just water the crops and go to bed. Tending to the animals is a joy, with there being so many choices. Besides your normal cow, sheep, horse & chickens, you can also have some ducks, a goat, and even a friendly little kitten. Of course, your loyal dog is there to protect your farm from the snooping Professor. After taking care of your chores, such as watering the crops and tending to the animals, the rest of the day can be spent doing as you like. You can go fishing for some rare fish to sell to the townsfolk, or you can get to know the people in the town better. You can help Carter in the mines, or get cozy with one of the three girls you can pick as your bride. After some time with the game, you can even seek out Tartan in order to hybrid your crops to create new and exciting seeds! You can also create trees, which give another harvesting option in the game. With so much to do, it's no wonder I've lost sleep over this game.

The graphics are everything you would expect from a Gamecube game. I have never seen Harvest Moon in this type of a display before. The detail of everything is simply wonderful. Everything from your character's clothes to the leaves on the trees are all littered with detail. With the Harvest Moon series, detailed graphics have never been the focal point. However, with the way everything blends is, the graphics make it a pleasure to sit in front of the game. The sound is the one downfall in the game for me. The only time that music plays is when you are on your farm. Otherwise, there are only sound effects of your character and the area. Also, at first, you are only able to play two songs. However, with the new record player that is in your house, you can search out new records to have new songs play while you are on your farm. After a while, the music started to get on my nerves, so I just turned down the TV while I played music on my stereo. I found that I enjoyed the game more when I did that. During special events, I'd turn to the TV back up to hear the music, but it was nothing to brag about.