While a big improvement over HM:DS, IoH still has it's flaws, yet shouldn't be ignored by any HM fan.
IoH has more of a story than previous Harvest Moons. You choose between a male or a female and the game begins as you and another family get ship wrecked on an island and what do you know, you decide to cultivate it. Eventually more people will come to live in the town you build and the island will come to life with a full blown town.
Unlike Harvest Moon DS, IoH is has a lot of touch screen features. Almost everything is done with the touch screen, much like Animal Crossing Wild World. The only time you will use the buttons is while changing tools, ect. It's good to see that the touch screen is being utilized, but it's not as responsive as it should be like in Animal Crossing or LoZ:PHG, but it only serves up a second tap of inconvenience here and there.
All the basics of Harvest Moon are here, there are festivals, you farm, you can get married, and have a kid. I'm not going to waste time on that sort of stuff, I'll just get into things unique about this one. For one… IT'S HARDER. Harvest Moon has always been a grinding game, and fans don't mind, but be prepared to grind, and grind, and grind. It's harder to make money in this game, thus harder to do anything. It's also harder to build up your friendships with others which brings up another point, people leave!
There's a ton of people that come to live on the island, but only 24 or so are actual characters with portraits when you talk to them, but never the less if you ignore them for 30 days, a lot of characters will leave and you'll have to do some requirement like ship 10 Yogurt or something before they'll come back a month later. It's very annoying and it can be considered this game's sprites to collect, since you need a certain amount of people in the town to accomplish goals.
Despite every gripe I have with this game, I love it. It's Harvest Moon what else do you need to know? I've gotten used to games never being as simplistic as Harvest Moon 64 or FOMT anymore and I deal. Now if only the games got a proper publisher to put them out here sooner compared to Natsume who always takes over a year and constantly delays, YEAH WHERE'S TREE OF TRANQUILITY!? IT WAS SUPPOSED TO COME OUT WITH ISLAND OF HAPPIENESS YOU JERKS! But I digress. If you're a Harvest Moon fan, BUY THIS GAME, if you're interested in the series, pick it up but I'd do yourself a favor and learn the legacy of the series and play older ones if you get the chance.