Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands - The Next In The Saga of Harvest Moon DS Games

Written by:  • Edited by: Michael Hartman
Updated Nov 27, 2009
• Related Guides: Gamecube | Harvest Moon | Nintendo Ds
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Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands is a remake of Island of Happiness. Does it fix what that game did wrong while improving upon the whole Harvest Moon scenario? Let's take a look at this newest Harvest Moon DS title and see what it does, and doesn't, do.

Harvest Moon DS Titles

Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands was released in Japan almost a year ago, but is only now coming out in the US. While it is a remake of Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, it one of the best Harvest Moon games since Magical Melody for the GameCube.

Story
Rating Average

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In Harvest Moon Sunshine Islands for the Nintendo DS, you are a rancher who has come to a little island community to take over a ranch. Once there, you find out the small island chain was once much larger, but an earthquake caused many of the islands to sink beneath the sea. In order to raise the islands you must find Sun Stones and give them to the harvest sprites.

Yeah, right away Harvest Moon Sunshine Islands has one up on Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness. It actually has a story, albeit a very thin one. However, the story isn't really the point, but it does offer some guidance which is nice since so few Harvest Moon DS games do.

Gameplay
Rating Excellent

Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands plays similarly to Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness. You own a ranch with a large plot of land on which to grow vegetables and raise animals. While you can grow stuff right away, you have to build a chicken coop before you can purchase any animals (although you have a barn, so that is a bit stupid).

Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands improves upon Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness' control scheme. You can control movement via touch screen or the d-pad, which makes watering and harvesting crops much easier. You have four open equipment slots that you can fill, but in order to use a tool you must select it with the touch screen then press Y. The shipping bin is the biggest improvement in Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands. To place items inside all you have to do is touch the bin and it opens a new screen that allows you to drag and drop items inside of it, sort of like a folder on a computer.

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