Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town

Don?t count your chickens before they hatch, and other agrarian aphorisms

Upgrade your hoe. Plant cash crops. Impregnate sheep. No, it?s not some bizarre permutation of Grand Theft Auto. Behold the charming innocence of Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, whose lineage lies closer to Animal Crossing than GTA. As the heir to a ragged patch of farmland in Mineral Town, it?s up to you to work hard and bring prosperity back to the ranch you loved as a child.

Running the farm is only half the fun. Mineral Town?s residents add invaluable flavor to what would otherwise be an unending nightmare of daily chores. Activities like Beach Day and the Chicken Festival provide recreational and social opportunities, as well as a chance to show off your animal husbandry skills. If you?ve lived in the city your whole life and don?t know a dang thing about cows, don?t fret none: the controls are easier than ?possum pie. While there are mini-challenges to test your reflexes, the majority of game play relies on slow-paced, strategic resource management and single presses of the A or B button.

Cutesy character art and a bucolic soundtrack create a tranquil ambiance for exploring Mineral Town. Most of the environments are beautifully detailed, but there are places where bland texture fills predominate the landscape. When Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life ships for the GameCube in January, you?ll be able to link the two games together and ?visit? across consoles. In this M-rated world, it?s refreshing to find an enjoyable game that doesn?t pander to the banal titillation of aggression and ultra-violence. Give peace a chance!

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