Harvest Moon DS: Island of Happiness

The Good
The basic storyline of this game is quite simple, as it is in most of the other Harvest Moon's as well. Instead of inheriting your grandfather/fathers farm like in the earlier games, you board a boat for a new life at an Island. A storm hits, and you wash up on a deserted islands shore with four others. The aspect of this game is to revive the abandoned island to it's former glory, and it's completely up to you to do so! As in all Harvest Moon's, you have your own farm land to grow crops, have livestock, poultry, and such. The crop system in this game is vastly different from the ones before because it took into consideration how much sun and water the plants were supposed to have. If you over watered a plant, it would end up dying. I liked that aspect because it made it seem more realistic.

Also, like in most of the Harvest Moon's before it, a big part of the game is wooing and getting married ! There are quite a few people to choose from this time around, Although you have to unlock most of them. There are requirements to getting married as well, but they are not very difficult. You can also have a child after you get married.

The main part of this game is earning money to revitalize the Island, you must pay for everything from bridges, to repairing roads. The bridges unlock new areas like a forest, jungle, and the meadow where all the festivals are held. I personally loved the festivals in this game, they were very fun and plentiful. On your main screen of the game, you can see the percentage of how much the Island is growing. There are villagers to unlock, and even sub villagers to unlock! This game is one of the most challenging Harvest Moon's to date!

The controls are alright, you do almost everything with the stylus with the exception of tool usage, which you can use the + button. Some people may not like the total use of the stylus, so I felt it was important to mention it here.

The Bad
There wasn't much bad about this game, to be honest. It did get boring and slightly tedious after awhile, but that was to be expected. I also disliked the animal petting/milking/shearing mini games, after awhile I didn't want to do those anymore. The festivals were fun, but you didn't really get to do much except for a simple contest or such. The graphics were okay for Nintendo DS, and were a great improvement from Harvest Moon DS and DS Cute. The game is very long, which I wasn't really that fond of. I'm currently in my third year and I have no more than 50% growth. Some people may like the length, but I do not. I also didn't like how the characters 'teleport' from one area to another. Also, fishing was a horrible task because more often than not the fish would get away.

The Bottom Line
This game will get you addicted, and keep you playing for a long time! I recommend that you purchase this game and see for yourself if you'll enjoy this wonderful game.

I give it 7 and 1/2 stars out of 10.