Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town GBA

Behold the farm-em-up - possibly one of the most bizarre (also read original) gaming concepts about these days, and also one that remains more or less exclusively with Natsume's Harvest Moon series. Released alongside the accompanying A Wonderful Life on GameCube, this latest management/sim/adventure represents the first venture onto the GBA for the series, setting the action in the titular Mineral Town. The concept of the game sees you take on the quest to successfully build and maintain a farm in the aforementioned town, whilst also attempting to befriend it's people. Simple instructions aside, it's then entirely up to you how you go about it. There's no set path to follow and, as such, you are in control of how you want to accomplish each of the game's goals - do nothing and nothing will happen - to achieve anything you really have to work for it. As with previous chapters in the Harvest Moon series, all the favourite gameplay elements that have popularised the curious concept are to be found in Friends of Mineral Town. Subsequently, as you work your way through the game you are presented with a wide array of both agricultural and social tasks, including planting and harvesting vegetables, raising different animals, making friends, and even marrying the girl of your dreams. As mentioned before, Friends of Mineral Town is released alongside an accompanying Harvest Moon game on GameCube, entitled A Wonderful Life. If you're a fan then this is certainly a good thing, as the two towns that play host to the different adventures can be connected with the aid of a GC/GBA link cable, thus allowing villagers to travel back and forth, new events to occur, and new surprises to happen.