Parents' Guide to

Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness

By Jinny Gudmundsen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Plodding farming sim that's more work than fun.

Game Nintendo DS 2008
Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

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age 8+

Based on 1 parent review

happy15908
happy15908 Parent of 11 and 15-year-old
April 7, 2011
age 8+

Boring. Period.

Well it may LOOK like a great game for kids my kiddos got bored really fast. Sometimes they say it feels like a endless loop. It can be fun at times but overall it's a waste of your time and money.

This title has:

Educational value
Great messages
Great role models
See all 1 parent review

What’s It About?

The Harvest Moon series of video games is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the release of HARVEST MOON: ISLAND OF HAPPINESS for the Nintendo DS. This game continues the series' tradition of providing a farming simulation where you are tasked with raising crops and livestock, and interacting with your community in hopes of finding a spouse. In this version, you are shipwrecked on an island along with others.

You can choose to play the game as a cute anime-style girl or a boy.You play the game by managing your time everyday between your chores and talking to people while buying needed items or giving presents. In the beginning, you must clear fields of stones and wood so that you can till the soil and plant seeds. After you have harvested enough crops or made money by running around and collecting wild grasses, you can build a chicken coop or other building for livestock. While the animals bring in more money, they also require daily attending. Over time, you can unlock more of the island to explore.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (3):

While this simulation seems interesting at first, your jobs quickly become tedious and repetitive. And the new content unfolds at a snail's pace. But what's worse is that the game controls don't work well. This is a stylus-controlled game where it is difficult to make the stylus do what you want. For example, when you want to clear land or water plants, you must move your character around so that a purple square lands on the space you want to work. Unfortunately the purple square jerks around a lot as the character moves, so that it can take multiple tries to get it to stop where you want it to. This game will frustrate all but the most patient of players.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about strategies to earn money and keep their character fed since doing both are difficult early in the game. What did you like about this game? What parts did you dislike?

Game Details

  • Platform: Nintendo DS
  • Available online?: Available online
  • Publisher: Natsume
  • Release date: August 26, 2008
  • Genre: Simulation
  • ESRB rating: E for (No Descriptors)
  • Last updated: November 4, 2015

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