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Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness | 
| From: Natsume, Inc.
Category: Video Games
Buy New: $29.99
New (7) from $29.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 140
Platform: Nintendo Ds
ESRB: Everyone
Media: Video Game
Batteries Included: No
Age: 5 - 20 years
Operating System: Nintendo DS
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 6 x 5.4
MPN: 10007
Model: NDS10007
UPC: 719593100072
EAN: 0719593100072
ASIN: B00149TZ66
Release Date: August 26, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Play as a boy or a girl | | • | Attract settlers by building your farm | | • | Fall in love and start a family | | • | Explore the biggest portable Harvest Moon ever | | • | Compete against other ranchers via online with Nintendo Wi-Fi |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
In Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness players' plans to start a new life are drastically changed when the ship you are on is destroyed by a tropical storm. Now you find yourself stranded on an isolated island with a family of four from the ship. However, it seems that the island once was inhabited before…what happened to the people that used to live there? As you develop the island by growing crops, taking care of animals and expanding your farm, others will start to move onto the island and this mystery may be solved. The better you do, the more the island will grow. Though it was not your original dream, now is your chance to create your very own paradise.
Create your own paradise |
Farming provides food and prestige.
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Find happiness with the perfect mate.
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Track character status and assets.
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Enjoy farm-flavored mini games.
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First Things First: Farming
Working with your fellow refugees, your first order of business is to create a farm. With what you grow you will soon be able to feed yourself and your fellow castaways and eventually will graduate to raising animals (some of the animals included are: cows, sheep, chickens and ducks). As you build up your farm, people who have an interest in the farming business move on over to the island and seek you out. These people open up shops and facilities, contributing to the island's development, and provide you with new areas to explore and new people to speak with.
Getting Married
What good is paradise without someone to share it with? Once players have established themselves on the island by building and maintaining a farm and successfully raising animals on their homestead they will begin to notice that there are quite a few more people on the island than they initially suspected. Like yourself, many of these new faces are looking for someone to share their lives with. In addition to success on the farm, marriage also requires a few other requirements, but once satisfied you are free to play the field, go on dates and search available profiles for that special someone. But be careful. You will not be compatible with everyone you meet. Just a few or the bachelors and bachelorettes you will run into are: | Name: Natalie
Gender: Female
Bio: Natalie is one of the people who is shipwrecked on the island with you. She can be rather rough, a tomboy and competitive, and usually makes fun of her brother. | !['Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness' bachelor #1: Vaughn]() | Name: Vaughn
Gender: Male
Bio: An exotic animal dealer, Vaughn has a very serious, almost emotionless attitude. He comes to the islands on Wednesdays and Thursdays and carries a lot of money. | !['Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness' bachelorette #2: Sabrina]() | Name: Sabrina
Gender: Female
Bio: Sabrina came to the island with her father, who is president of the mining company. She is a quiet, shy girl who helps her father with his work and is very interested in ores. | !['Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness' bachelor #2: Shea]() | Name: Shea
Gender: Male
Bio: Shea is the adopted son of the witch doctor, Wada. He helps Wada by guarding his hens, ducks and birds from the Demon Bears. Unlike other bachelors, his heart is invisible. | !['Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness' bachelorette #3: Witch Princess]() | Name: Witch Princess
Gender: Female
Bio: The Witch Princess grew tired of living in Forget-Me-Not Valley and so moved to the island in hopes of meeting new people. In addition, she heard that the Harvest Goddess is here. She keeps 21 small teddy bears and one large one in her house and has an invisible heart. | !['Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness' bachelor #3: Denny]() | Name: Denny
Gender: Male
Bio: Denny is very familiar with the sea. He heard there's a lot to be found on the island, so when his mother told him to meet new people he came to check it out. Though normally cheerful, he has quite a temper when mad. |
The island is full of challenges, but with hard work and skillful farming, you will prosper and help your adventurous shipmates establish a new village with roads, bridges and exciting places to visit. There's a lot of farming to do, people to date and animals to care for. It's a new beginning and a chance to raise a farming family of your own.
Product Description
You're shipwrecked! Luckily no one was hurt and most of the passengers set sail for their destinations, but you found an abandoned homestead on a remote island. With hard work and skillful farming, you will prosper and help your adventurous shipmates establish a new village with roads, bridges and exciting places to visit. There's a lot of farming to do, people to date and animals to care for. It's a new beginning and a chance to raise a farming family of your own.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Why the Stylus? September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First, I hate that it is all stylus driven and I have now vowed to not buy another completely stylus driven game even though I have Zelda but it is my least favorite of all the Zeldas. I make so many mistakes because the control is clunky and if she is near a building she gets stuck and I've lost count how many logs I picked up instead of chopping and I'm almost through the first season and still haven't figured out a fool proof method for these controls. And I don't know why when you equip something like the watering can you have to press it twice, once for your character to show it to you and another to use it; that's not cute. Gamemakers, please make stylus use optional. I'm 51 and female but my 6 yr old and 15 yr old neices get frustrated with this so who exactly is your market?
 Completely New Format; Loads of Fun September 2, 2008
Harvest Moon Island is the real, long-awaited remake of the series for the Nintendo DS. All the graphics are fully 3D, there are nice 2D portraits of the characters with a variety of facial expressions, and the overall environment is very nice. This game is much more challenging than some of the original Harvest Moons, especially due to the difficult sun/rain crop system and the hard to obtain wonderful stones. The game forces the player to befriend many of the villagers, and the main objective is to build up Sunny Island and get more people to move in, some of them being the bachelors/bachelorettes. (The island itself is also very large and fun to explore.)
Considering that you can play as either a male OR female, and the fact that there are 2 save files, this is indeed a very good game--it's like 2 in 1. No more waiting for the girl's version, etc. The only main trouble, besides the challenge (which im sure many players will enjoy), is that the exclusive touch controls can get a bit annoying, especially when it comes to watering crops. However, it takes only a couple of hours to get used to, and after that, many players may find this option more immersive and intuitive. You can conveniently tap on characters from across the screen to give them gifts, and there's almost no chance of accidentally "littering."
All in all, Harvest Moon Island of Happiness is a wonderful step forward in the series, and avid fans will not be disappointed.
 What happened to my d-pad?? August 30, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have been waiting for this game to come out for many many months. After numerous setbacks with the release dates I was very excited when it finally arrived on my doorstep last week.
Once I started the game however I was sorely disappointed to find out the game only allows your character to move around via the "Stylus" and the d-pad works like the button pad. I am all for implementing the use of the Stylus in DS games, but it should be an option...not a requirement.
Everything in this game just seems to take forever. Moving with the stylus and only being to activate your tools with the buttons is just a pain. The character tires out quickly and is constantly having to forage for food. The whole thing is just awkward to me and I lose interest in the game very quickly. I played Zelda's Phantom Hourglass with the Stylus method of moving around, but in that game it just worked better.
IMO the biggest challenge about this game is using the controls while the game itself isn't very challenging. A lot of features seem stripped out of the game and it's just kinda boring. It doesn't even measure up to HM DS Cute. I am sure some people will enjoy this game and possibly will not be bothered by the Stylus interface, but Natsume missed the mark for me.
I am really disappointed and hope the D-pad issues are addressed in future releases or I will not even consider another HM ds game.
Can be a great game and great concepts, but the controls are terrible. August 30, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have this game and bought it at Gamestop, but I played this game for 2 hours now and seems like a really fun game so far. But all I have to tell you is that Natsume made a big mistake of the concept of using the stylus for the entire game which makes the controls really annoying.
Graphics
Typical Harvest moon graphics, you pretty much the same as the other Harvest Moon for DS
Sounds
I love the music in the Spring time pretty good and upbeating. I pretty much like all the Harvest moon music.
Gameplay
Great concepts, you have to get money to buy a new bridge and get more people on the island. The more you plant and gain more money and get more shippments, the more people will come.
Controls
By far the worst part, but yet the most important part. I know I complained about the stylus, but you use it for your tools, moving around shipping and pretty much everything. The Control pad and Buttons are only good to select crops or your weapons, but it is easy at this point to use the stylus. L and R buttons are pointless, it makes your character run, but you have your stylus do it for your automatically.
Maybe I have not got use to the stylus or controls part, but I like using the D-pad to move and the buttons to farm. It is sort of annoying because you farm much slower. Meaning you have to go to the square and tap the stylus and then move again and do it again. Now it was easy just using the D-pad, but it is a pain with the style because the character does not move where you tell him/her to do.
Also, you can not use the cheating method of getting something out of your rugsack easily you have to go tap the menu and then put it in your read box and then ship it. Then it asks you the question do you really want to ship it. I am not so sure if you loose friendship points if you litter or not.
Overall:
Natsume would have hit the mark if they implemented the controls like the other Harvest Moon games. If I known the controls were bad, I would have not bought the game nor the game guide because I loved every Harvest moon game I bought from them for the DS and gameboy, N64, Gamecube and etc..
 A fun new take on the Harvest Moon games! August 29, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
At first I didn't like the controls being completely stylus-based, but after I got used to it, the game was a blast! If you love all the other Harvest Moon games, I'm sure you'll like this one as well.
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