Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming

by Natsume, Inc.

Product Features

• Set in the world of the recent DS hit Harvest Moon - Island of Happiness!
• Continues the tale of the island and its residents with 12 playable characters, each with their own unique story!
• A variety of modes including Story Mode, the brain-teasing Mission Mode, and the action excitement of Score Attack Mode!
• Unlock character art, music, and some special surprises in your Collection Room!
• Test your farming skills as you play with or against your family and friends in Multiplayer Mode!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00257CKTA
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: August 25, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,926 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Have you got an apple growing out of your DS screen? Something strange is happening on Sunny Island! Crops are popping up everywhere and growing out of control! If something isn't done soon, the once-tranquil island will be buried in an avalanche of vegetables! It's up to you to solve the mystery of this produce predicament as you try to tame the crops and gather as many vegetables as you can! Choose from 12 playable characters, each with their own unique story. See how the mystery unfolds from each character's perspective, and whom they meet along the way! The game features a variety of modes including Story Mode, the brain-teasing Mission Mode, and the action-puzzle excitement of Score Attack and Free Play Modes. Players can test their farming skills against their friends and family in multiplayer. Players can also unlock character art, music, and some special surprises in their Collection Room.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just for Harvest Moon fans, January 1, 2010

By 

Lace C - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming (Video Game)

By way of background, I'm not a heavy-duty HM fan. I've played and enjoyed the Rune Factory games for DS but stalled out quickly on Harvest Moon DS and haven't tried any of the others in the series, nor have I played on any other platform.

Overall, I'm enjoying this game a lot. It's a puzzle game based loosely on the crop-growing activity in regular HM games. A sprite moves through a field harvesting ripe crops and watering adjacent crops. You swap crops around in the field to keep the sprite moving and maximize your score. There are gold crops and giant crops with additional effects, and putting together chains of the same type of crop is key to success. Although you aren't putting together lines of items as in a Bejeweled-type game, the basic action is of that general group of games.

In the main story mode, you're gradually unlocking additional characters to play, from the most recent HM games. Each character has a series of 7 puzzle boards with various challenges, and pieces of the games story are revealed in between, in scenes much like conversations in other HM games. Some of these story pieces play out too slowly when I just want to get to the next challenge. I think I'm roughly half/two-thirds of the way through and I've just hit the first really taxing challenge for me. All of the previous challenges took no more than 2-3 tries, usually one, while this one has taken six unsuccessful tries so far and I think it'll be partially luck when I do get through. I'm hoping this isn't representative of the overall difficulty curve or things will be frustrating from here.

There's also a mode where you just pick a board and a character and play for score, and a non-timed "mission mode" where you try to arrange all the veggies to achieve a goal given a limited number of swaps. There's also a tutorial that introduces the gameplay quite nicely.

I imagine this game will stay pigeonholed for the HM fans, but people who enjoy gem matching games might also find this an interesting variation.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Harvest Moon, September 20, 2010

By 

Sandra E. Shaw "Book Eagle" (Shreveport, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming (Video Game)

I received new. Was not what I expected. Should have gotten for my grand children instead. Product was all it should be, game just not for me.

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Strongly Do NOT Recommend, January 2, 2010

By 

Mary Hansen (Riverton, Utah) - See all my reviews

= Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming (Video Game)

I am a fan of the Harvest Moons. I love them. I think they are a blast and can usually barely put them down once I've opened them. I also love puzzle games. I thought this game would be a great balance of two of my favorite types of games. This game, however, hardly can be called a Harvest Moon or puzzle game.
You never get your own farm. You never get a house. After doing the tutorial I kept hoping there was more to the game then basically the same mini-game type of a puzzle over and over again, but by chapter ten it still hadn't changed and I decided to not waste my time on it anymore. It was the most boring game I've ever played. Really, don't waste your time or money on this one.