Yeah. The new Harvest Moon (Another Wonderful Life) just isn’t doing it for me. And, really, why would it. It’s got a girl, and that alone should be doing something for me and yet it isn’t. Maybe it’s the gameplay.
Sure, it has a girl, and it has potential, but it could have been far more original. Sadly it’s only a dressed up version of Wonderful Life (original) with a new female character, a few tweaks, and nothing else.
So since I already talked up Harvest Moon : Another Wonderful Life how about a little chat about a certain GameBoy Color game that takes the series in a new direction?
Harvest Moon 3, the third of the Game Boy Color games, does some new things never before seen in the Harvest Moon trilogy (as far as I know) which should have been done with Harvest Moon : Another Wonderful Life for the GameCube! Why? Because any changes to the game would have been a welcome improvement in comparison to what they plan to release onto the unsuspecting gaming public!

1-This is the first game where you can choose between a boy/girl character, which is something they should have done for the GameCube! Harvest Moon : Wonderful Life should have been about making a decision about gender, so that we wouldn’t have had to come back with Harvest Moon : Another Wonderful Life in order to play as a female character! There should have been two discs in the package, one for the male scenario, one for the female scenario, and the new game Another Wonderful Life should have been about the life of your child and how he/she continues the farm after you (getting married and so

forth)!

2-Since this takes place on an island with a small village you need to travel to another island in order to go shopping (in a big city). You need to catch a boat on such and such a day to get into town, which changes once you earn a boat from the villagers so you can travel whenever you please.
As for town? It offers up several new experiences including…
2a - A huge store where you can buy seeds, food from a deli section for immediate eating, books for your bookshelf, and furniture for your home.
2b - A place where you can buy livestock, animal feed, grass and invest in the local bank or play the horses/cows! Besides doing the usual farm business you can open up your own bank account, as well as enter horses and cows into contests (Check the bookstore every season for new books on how the races fared in terms of who won)!
2c - Bring fish caught all over the game to the aquarium where, similar to Animal Crossing, your donations will be displayed for all to see.
2d - See one of a small handful of movies on your day off! It might not have the variety of the Variety Channel in some games, but being able to watch a movie is a new twist.

3-New seeds, which (sadly) is one of the few new things in Another Wonderful Life… new seeds. Eh.

4-If you play as the female you can pamper the animals by grooming and washing them!

5-New scenario, new places to explore, and the ability to go out into the open sea to fish! Not to mention a Farmer’s Market where you can set up shop on certain

days to sell your stuff.

6-Mini games are non existent, but there IS a snowboarding game which is (as far as I know) totally unique to the whole Harvest Moon series! I don’t remember there being a snowboarding game before in this series so that’s something new.

There are also a few downers.
1-There are only a few villagers in your town (and some wandering inside the big city) and all of them lack something, mainly a personality. That’s sad since that means there isn’t much reason to talk to them unless you want to get things from them… like the much needed boat you’ll need to travel to the big city on certain days for Farmer’s Market (where you can sell your own wares) then you have to butter them up daily with gifts.

2-Play the female scenario and you’ll feel as if you were cheated. Once she marries she’ll give birth to his baby and the game ends… how pathetic.

3-Sadly just because you set up in the Farmer’s Market it doesn’t mean you’ll sell well. You only have five people come to your booth each selling day, and a general hit/miss ratio is usually at least 2 (occasionally 3 or 4) people buy from you… occasionally. You’ll need to reset often to at LEAST get a halfway decent sales day (3 people buying from you) and that’s a shame!

4-No Variety Channel, no any channel except weather. But at least you can buy a lot of books to occupy you during stormy weather (which keeps you indoors).

Ok. Breakdown time.

Harvest Moon GBC Version Breakdown the 3rd
What’s Hot?
It’s not the best Harvest Moon experience, but at least it’s somewhat original in comparison to the slipshod job done

putting together “Another Wonderful Life”. Of course I think you’ll be happier with Friends of Mineral Town but if you can get ahold of this game as well it’s worth trying out. It’s something new at least.

What’s Not?
Yeah. It’s not sporting all the bells and whistles of Friends of Mineral Town but at least it’s got some spunk to it, and some shine which makes it at least something for the Harvest Moon fan to take on long trips.
This game, as well as Friends of Mineral Town (soon to be the upcoming More Friends of Mineral Town if it sticks to it’s PSOne roots) should be in any traveling pack of any Harvest Moon fan.

Moments to Remember?
Uh… well…. It doesn’t have much of that, but it does have it’s moments… here and there.

What to Ignore?
Well it’s an older game so it doesn’t have all the stuff of the later Friends of Mineral Town, still it’s OK and all even if you can only marry one person, don’t have many people to talk to, and have a female option that ends all too quickly for my taste. It’s OK, but it’s not the best.

Overall?
It’s got Harvest Moon player written all over it. It’s not the best of the handheld versions but it’s something different and it’ll fill some time on a long long trip away from your GameCube until you can get back to the warm glow of your TV to play Another Wonderful Life (or Wonderful Life now available for $20 in Player’s Choice version). Now if only the people at Natsume release a Classics Collection of these old Harvest Moon GBC games for the GBA, now that’d be interesting.