Island of Happiness uses the same core gameplay as every other Harvest Moon game before it, and, on paper, it sounds like a perfect DS adaptation.
#Harvest moon ds island of happiness portable#
Now that I've taken Island of Happiness for a run-through though, I'll continue to tell you what I've said for years already: If you want a great portable Harvest Moon experience, you'll need to stick to Rune Factory, or go pick up Friends of Mineral Town for GBA. It was simple, it felt extremely rushed, and it left me counting the days for Rune Factory and Island of Happiness. Both titles were basically rushed DS offerings made from the classic Friends of Mineral Town on GBA, adding some basic touch interaction and a simple two screen interface for items. Nintendo's handheld kicked things off with Harvest Moon DS, followed later by Harvest Moon DS Cute. If not for games like Rune Factory, I'd be ready to turn in my overalls and pitch fork already, as even the latest Harvest Moon offering on DS, Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, is pretty lacking when stacked against the glory years of old. The fan base is small but loyal, but, unfortunately, as the series goes on, the quality of product is starting to seriously fade. Sure, you've got companies like Atlus that work almost specifically in the gaming minority, and there are certain titles out there that appeal more to the hardest of hardcore, "classically trained" die-hard bunch (even Contra 4 and Metal Slug deserve to be put in that category), but when you get really obscure, you'll find few titles that are more "out there" than Harvest Moon. When I think of the term "niche gaming," few franchises really come to mind more than Natsume's age-old farm sim Harvest Moon.