Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9625 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2004-03-26
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: Game Boy Advance

Amazon.co.uk Review
To the uninitiated, the farming simulator Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town may not sound like a barrel of high-octane arcade thrills. But as anyone who's played any of the previous Harvest Moon games will know, what the series lacks in button-bashing excitement it more than makes up for in charm and addictiveness. The game begins with you gaining ownership of a rundown farm; it's then your job to plant crops, raise livestock and reap the rich rewards of a country life. Fortunately (or not) this is a dairy farm, so although you milk cows and collect eggs there are no unpleasant visits to the abattoir.

Instead you spend your time pulling out weeds, watering crops and making sure you're back in time for a good night's rest. To ensure that things don't get dull (and if that's all you did it would be excruciatingly so) there's a whole town to explore, with lots of mini-games to play and various shops to explore. Visiting the town also allows you to pursue the game's other main goal: to get married. There are six beauties for you to try and tempt into wedlock with flattery, gifts and the odd favour.

With a link-up option to the GameCube version (which among other things gives you access to an exclusive seaside cottage) this is one of the most unusual and engrossing games around. So don't be put off by the lack of explosions: this is one of the best GBA games yet released. --David Jenkins

Manufacturer's Description
Childhood visits to your grandfather's farm were filled with discovery and excitement. In Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, return to the farm that holds fond youthful memories and rejuvenate its long-neglected fields. It's up to you to build and maintain your farm while forging friendships with the townsfolk, living and accomplishing your goals however you wish.

Customer Reviews

Who would have thought a game could be this absorbing?!?
Incase you don't know Harvest Moon is a game in which you take control of your very own farm and your aim is to make it successful once again. All the while your making friends in the village and attempting to woo potential brides! Sounds boring? Believe me it isn't! As soon as you pick this up and play, you know it is going to consume you! Much like the Sims or Animal Crossing but better, and older! Harvest Moon started its life back on the superb Super Nintendo and then transcending the GameBoy, Nintendo 64, Playstation and more recently the GameBoy Advance and GameCube. You could say it was the influence for both of the afforementioned games.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson I think! This iteration of Harvest Moon is set in Mineral Town, believe it or not, and is based on the sublime Playstation 1 hit, Back To Nature. The graphics have been changed to a Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire style and the game suits it perfectly. You can easily tell what everything is and it all looks fantastic.

The sound is nice, nothing new to the Harvest Moon series which is good in my opinion because there was nothing wrong with the sound in the previous versions. However, whilst I was playing this on my GameBoy Player the sound did go distorted at certain points, if this is the game though I don't know, it could be my surround sound set up or my actual copy of the game. Other than that the sound is perfect.

The gameplay is fantastic. If you've played any of the previous Harvest Moons you'll understand! On paper, it sounds so boring. Planting crops, watering them, feeding and grooming animals, collecting fruits from the mountains and giving presents to the girl of your dreams. But it isn't boring at all! Its addictive as hell! Its an amazing experince when your crop of sweet potatoes or pineapples are ready and your get your massive paycheck at the end of day enabling you to invest more money in you farm! You could buy another cow, sheep or chicken! Or how about paying the builder to upgrade your house or barns? Everything is in here. It is a truly fantastic package. Start playing and you won't be able to stop! Oh, that reminds me. The game doesn't end! Thats right, it doesn't end! The main aim is to get the farm popular and get married but it doesn't end there! The years keep ticking by, you have kids with your wife, you get a retirement cottage as a 50th anniversery present from her!! Now that is longevity! I don't think I've played a longer game, except for Animal Crossing.

The controls are strange at first as you need to use a combination of buttons to do certain tasks. For example to change the tool you have selected you need to hold down the L Button and press the A Button. However, after about 10 or 20 minutes of playing the controls will be second nature.

Overall I'd say this is easily one of the GameBoy Advances finest games. If you like your games to have hidden depths and last you a long time, this is easily a game for you! Also, if you've played Back To Nature on the PS1 this game has enough new features to keep even the most experienced player coming back for more! There is so much more to this game than what I mentioned here, this is just scratching the surface!

Almost forgot! It links up to the GameCube version, A Wonderful Life as well for even more features!!

Buy it! I promise you won't regret it!

What a childish game, I DONT think so.
Harvest Moon Friends of mineral town. I had never thought a game that looked a little childish and not fun to turn out to be my favourite GBA game. I never even heard of it until there was a review on it in the magazine i collect (games master gave it 87%). so i did buy it in the end and i played it for 5 hours straight, i abosultly thought that it was brilliant, i was fed up at the time of all the killing games, i wanted a change of a more friendly and explouration game, and this is perfect for those people who want to be almost free for roaming about and looking around for stuff, this game will last for months, maybe longer, there are 5 girls to get married to, to get them to like oyu you have to keep giving them gifts and talk to them. there are a few chores like keeping the animals happy by feeding them, talking to them, brushing the etc... and they reward you with what they give out weather it be milk from a cow, wool from a sheep or eggs from a chicken, the more hearts they have the bigger the egg, wool or milk. they will then sell off to make money. you can upgrade tools and make your houses and barns bigger and the rest is for you to find.

I suggest you buy this ASAP.

Brilliant game!
i'm sure you know what the objective of this game is so i wont tell you about that.ive gave this 5 star because the graphics are great the gameplays excellent.you can choose when your birthday is,what your farms called,what your name is, and what your dog's name is!there are so many features to the game like wolfs at night, your dog growing bigger,you getting bigger!if your looking for a long challenging game then get this becauseit's worth your money!there are 2 weakpoints though: you dont get any presents for your birthday and christmas isnt even on your calender. however, still buy the game, you wont regret it.