Though it may be lacking in graphics, it's not lacking in charm. And 1200 wii points isn't a bad price.
A new Harvest Moon, and I don't have to run to the store only to be disappointed that Natsume released it late? Sounded too good to be true.. and at first glance, it was.
I spent my 1200 wii points downloading this game the first second I could, I started up the game, and spent another 400 wii points downloading the one add-on that was available. Still, $16 seemed like a very good price.
I started up my game, and was sorely disapointed.. the graphics were practically non-existant.. Sure, I like Paper Mario just as much as the last person, and I know it was just a wii ware game.. but I was expecting more than 2D characters that look like the were ripped out of one colouring book and plastered onto the pages of another...
Still, I looked past that, and started playing. The plot was pretty thin. You're in a small town visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and this town is pretty much deserted, and the mayor is stressed about it.
The end.
Eventually you start meeting some of the towns people, and your grandparents get you to help out in their shop, and on the farm.. the farm, by the way, consists of one plot of land, that you can plant one crop in, and at first, you're forced to plant tomatoes.
After you plant your first crop (tomatoes) you get a little message saying that the game runs in real time, so if your crop takes One Day to grow (like tomatoes do) then you will have fully grown crops when you open your game tomorrow, but, because it's the tutorial, they are going to speed up the process for you, and give you fully grown tomatoes right now.
I thought that was a very good aspect, the fact that it runs in real time means that I can play for a few hours or a few minutes each day, and still have time to play my other Harvest Moon games.
After you grow your tomatoes, your grandfather tells you he'll have another "field" for you tomorrow, so when you play tomorrow, you'll be able to plant one more crop.
After you get your first crops, you are asked to help your Grandmother out in the shop, which, at the moment, is a juice bar.
All you can make in your juice bar at the moment is Tomato juice, since that's the only crop you have.
You can eventually buy a cow and a chicken, and have an ice cream shop, and an egg dipping station, but that's not until tomorrow, at the earliest.
Each different type of shop has a different mini game, and how well you preform determines your customer's satisfaction, and how much money you'll make.
I still haven't quite figured out how the money system works, sometimes you'll get 600g for three very happy customers, and sometimes you'll get 300g for six very happy customers..
You can open the shop as many times as you want during the day, and from what I can tell, you get an infinite number of customers, so you can make quite a bit of money for your farm.
Each shop mini game consists of two micro games, and you can purchase new equipment to add a new micro game.
For example, you can buy a slicer for your Juice Bar that will add the element of cutting the crops before blending them, which takes more time, but offers more money, and 100 points for each crop you successfully slice, and your customers don't seem to mind waiting the extra time.
The plot is very thin, but every day of game play seems to add a new element, someone new shows up, or the mayor will find something else to gripe about, etc.
I expected too much of this game when I bought it, and when I saw the graphics, I expected too little. This game deserves more credit than it's graphics will allow, and it really does grow on you.
I only ever expect to be playing the game for a few minutes, start it up, water my plants, talk to the villagers, and open my shop.. but before I know it, a couple of minutes has turned into a couple of hours.
It's not nearly as addictive as other games in the Harvest Moon series, but for $12.00 base cost, it's not a bad buy if you want to be able to kill an hour or two during the day.