The Best?

Although it's certainly a niche game, the Harvest Moon series has consistently since 1997 been in my "Top 10" lists of favorite games. Perhaps cherished more than any other game is the SNES original, "Harvest Moon."

New editions have added subtitles and expanded the gameplay immensely, perhaps even feeling jealousy from more popular, rather newer games like "The Sims."

But Harvest Moon has always stuck by it's original premise: turning a run-down farm into a behemoth of livestock, thriving endless fields of crops, and to even portray family life (marriage!). I'm sure everyone has their favorite game in the series, but mine personal favorite is indeed the original game. It wasn't overly complicated with characters, or focused heavily on things like building friendships or discovering harvest sprites. It was straight-forward: one large, expansive, boundless field to clear and grow, one ever-changing mountain, and a town full of colorful characters.

Perhaps newer editions, like the Playstation 2 and GameCube releases, have been less than steller for me because raw farming takes a backseat to the towns-people. I long for the endless nights of the SNES orginal... "one more day and I'll quit," I would tell myself hour after hour until 3am.

*sigh*

I do miss it...