Owners of the Gameboy Advance SP if you’ve gone through both GBA Harvest Moon games of note (aka (More) Friends of Mineral Town) then you are ready to attempt a classic retro trip to Harvest Moon gaming past.

Mind you these are stripped down to the bare bone basic games, but if you are a fan of Harvest Moon these are going to be rather mild time passers taking you back to the classic good old days of Harvest Moon past.

It is an oft told tale of Harvest Moon games of old.
One day your socially inept shut in grandfather with a farm drops, and his angel winged halo wearing ghost comes and tells you to restore his farm. Yeah, nice. Sometimes he tells you to

get married, sometimes not… I’m guessing this time not since I don’t remember a marriage option here.

It’s alright though, if you are looking just for a classic old school Harvest Moon experience, as this is all about farming, animal raising, fishing and food shopping. The game has a minimal explorable space (just your farm, the underground cave beneath your tool shed inhabited by the little Harvest sprites) and the static image villages with little shops and other places you can “visit” (see a still image of someone to speak to or buy from). Occasionally something might happen but there’s more stuff to do in Harvest Moon 3 (Gameboy Color) than this one, though I am still trying to get ahold of Harvest Moon

2 for review to see if that one is any different than this one.

You clear the land, you buy seeds and farm, you get to know the Harvest Sprites and befriend them, you buy animals and you upgrade your farm. That’s it. I don’t know how much simpler I can put it to you. There are a few new twists to this game though, like the fact you have to constantly buy stocks of food for you to automatically “eat” in the morning, noon and night. And there’s also the exploration of the cave which is something to do on this minimalist game… (you also do fishing there as well). Otherwise it’s down and dirty simple Harvest Moon, all the things you know and love and none of the bells and whistles.

It does have it’s moments, though I think the only way you’ll want to play this is if you are an avid Harvest Moon addict (otherwise there isn’t enough here to justify hunting it down unless you are a major Harvest Moon junkie).

So if you thrive for the “simple life” of old school Gameboy farming, and don’t mind not having all the bells and whistles seen later in the GBA versions (or even the third Gameboy Color version) then this little blast from the past might just be the Harvest Moon to take on a trip the next time you and your GBA SP go traveling somewhere far. 3 Harvest Sprites out of 5.