Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness

THE BAD:
1. Stamina and Fullness
2. Wonderful Stones The Only Way to Upgrade Tools
3. No Cow Barn Or Chicken Koop At The Start Of Game?
4. No Dog, No Horse?

SUMMARY:
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness is the 2nd Installment of Harvest Moon games for the Nintendo DS portable. It was released on August 26th of 2008 to most North American game stores. With one very exciting storyline and a completely new area of play, the Island of Happiness is a place of many wonders.

You can play as ether a boy or girl main character. Embarking on a voyage across the sea your hopes are of finding a place in this wonderful world to call your own. But to your dismay a violent storm tossed your passenger liner completely off ship to wash up on an island with a handful of your shipmates by your side. People come and go from this remote island, so leaving wouldn't be a problem, but you sense that there is something magical about this forgotten isle. That's why you and a handful of former passengers decided to put up roots here and hopefully plant the seeds of a new civilization. With some hard work, a few new bridges, and a couple hundred crop items shipped, other adventurers might come and join you. Perhaps one day years from now you'll have a comfortable and big enough homestead to raise a family of your own!

Anyone who is a fan of the Harvest Moon series will definitely notice the countless amount of new and never before seen characters that appear throughout the Island of Happiness. Meeting all of these characters is a challenge for any Harvest Moon’er. Expanding your farm, building bridges across rivers, shipping items, fishing, and improving the islands appearance will definitely help to attract more characters to the island, whether they’re just tourists or people who are there to stay. Throughout the years, your character may even find love, marry, and start a family. Even though this game is made up of a list of completely new characters, characters from past games may even sail by to show their faces as well, will it be those from the Mineral Town close by, or those from the Valley up North? There is said to be a total of 101 characters, tourist and townies alike, for you to meet with on the island. Will you make it to meet them all?

One of the newest features to the Harvest Moon series of games is the use of the stylus in the Island of Happiness. Never before has any of the games from this series ever had so many commands, movements, and features to be used with the stylus. If your use to the keypad controls from the previous Harvest Moon games, it is well worth getting adjusted to the new stylus controls of the Island of Happiness. All movements that you shall make with your character throughout the island will be with using the stylus. To place items out in your fields such as stone or wood blocks and trash like boots or fish bone that you wish to throw down must be used with the stylus only. The stylus is also used with doing such things as giving items to other characters, treating animals, shipping items, and much, much more! So it can be quite a challenge to getting used to using the stylus throughout so much of the game, will you be the one to rise above at the top or will you fall down to the bottom to keep those keypad controls company?

In the past, Harvest Moon games that have appeared on portable games have all had 2D graphics but one thing that sets the Island of Happiness apart from these games is the fact that it uses 3D graphics. This new appearance is so incredible, it definitely makes the game worth while to play. The character style has even changed to look most similar to that of the Harvest Moon: Magical Melody game. Characters and animals on the island appear close to little chibi, cute and cuddly, characters that were seen in Melody town. Going from those bland, old time real life character bodies, any owner of this game can be rewarded with those cute, round faced, short and cuddly new and improved Harvest Moon characters.

Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness has many great new features but it also allows players to have even more fun by being a bit more challenging then past games of the series. No longer is the complete town given to you like it has been in the past, now, on the island you are given only a short section for living quarters and space for other islanders. As time passes and you have ordered to have bridges built you can expand the island to open up so many more wonders. What will happen? Will new areas open up new animals, characters, or even new places to explore?

While the Island of Happiness has a huge amount of new features that will allow for players to have a great play, there are also some other objectives that could cause for the game to be even more challenging and not as enjoyable. One factor is the stamina and fullness that a character has. As you work your days, planting crops, chopping wood, and hitting stones, your character has a set amount of stamina that it runs by. Once you use up that stamina your character becomes too tired to work and must go home to rest for the remaining day. It also has a fullness meter that shows how tired and worn out the character has become, to keep this meter steady, make sure to let your character rest at night, that means no more all-nighters guys! To allow your character to do more chores in one day try eating something such as wild herbs, chocolate, or home grown crops, things such as these will raise your stamina and fullness meter. So what could have become one tiresome in-game feature will only be one more stone on your road to success on the Island of Happiness.

In Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, no longer does your character start off with a dog and a horse later on. Things are different on the island. To obtain such necessities as these, you will have to meet the right people, at the right time, and the right places. So stay patient, continue working, and keep up your friendships because as time goes by the discovery in the end will be so much more rewarding. Not only does your character not start off with a dog or horse but there isn’t even a cow barn or chicken coop on your farm as well. To obtain these you must have them built later on in the game and then this will allow for you to purchase and care for animals of your own.

Unlike other Harvest Moon games, the Island of Happiness no longer requires for the players to build up to upgrading there tools by using them a certain amount, now the only thing needed is wonderful stones to upgrade them. Only problem, where are the wonderful stones? Are they hiding throughout the fields, within the caves, the trees, or the people of the island itself? It will be your goal to find them, can you accomplish it?

In total, the Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness game has so many new and improved features that allows for players to have a maximum amount of fun. This game is a definite must to any Harvest Moon fan’s collection or for anyone who is searching for an enjoyable time to have with there Nintendo DS. So don’t miss out on this wonderful game guys, it’s one to die for!