It started off as a nice family vacation until you wandered off. You found yourself on a nice, lonely Old Man's farm. Having no where else to have your vacation, your family decided to stay with the Old Man. Being a child, you had endless amounts of fun on the farm, while even making special friends with a girl from the local town. When your family had to leave, you stood in contact with the Old Man by writing. One day, the letter stopped coming. You packed up to go visit & see what happened. When you return to the farm, you find it in shambles & the Old Man passed away. He left the farm to you in his will, and you decide to bring it back to life. The goal of this game is to bring the farm back to it's successful state, while making friends with the townsfolk and perhaps falling in love...

Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is a breath of fresh air for those cluttered up by one genre of video game. Being a city girl by nature, it was nice to take care of my little virtual farm. I've always been a big fan of the Harvest Moon series, having played all of them, and enjoying every single one of them. The idea of having your own farm to raise as you please might not seem like much fun to some people. That was my first impression as well. However, when you start to befriend your dog and get your chickens to win in the Chicken Festival, things start to get addicting. Get yourself some sheep, a few cows and the ability to upgrade all aspects of your farm, and we have a winner!

The graphics of Harvest Moon are crisp and clean, which is to be expected from a new GBA game. The animals are animated nicely and the people look great too. The designs are taken from the Nintendo 64 version of the game, as is the characters. For a branch off, it does it's forefather justice. You'll be glad to see all of the familiar faces back again. The music is pretty much the same. Even though it's the same music, it doesn't seem to get on your nerves. You might find yourself humming the tunes along with the game. Maybe it's because there is only music during the daytime. Overall, it won't get on you nerves.

The controls are the only down point to the game. Until you get your feet wet, you might wind up throwing out some good items. There being only a limited number of buttons means that there are combos you'll need to press for certain actions. A slip of the finger can mean the difference between storing an important item and throwing it away. Plus, when you're in a rush, you might forget which buttons do what. Walking around and normal interaction is fine, but rushing through things can frustrate you.

Make sure to keep a lookout for Harvest Moon for the GCN coming out sometime next year. You can hook up Harvest Moon: FoMT to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life to see what happens. Just talk to your friendly neighborhood Harvest Goddess in the spring and she'll be glad to connect you. Similar things have been used for Metriod and Animal Crossing. I'm not quite sure what to expect, but you might want to read the preview on the GCN game for more information.

There are many things to do in the Harvest Moon world, like always. Expand your farm, win first place at the contests, discover new recipes, and even get married. However, make sure you take time out to go fishing and relax. You need to take care of your body, or you might waste a day in the hospital. Spend too many days there and you never know what might happen. Don't forget to take care of your livestock. If you can't do it, ask the friendly Harvest Sprites to help you out. Be careful though! They will only do a good job if you are nice to them. Upgrade your tools if they make you too tired, and be sure to do favors for the townsfolk. If you do all of this, Harvest Moon will keep you coming back for more time and time again.