Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands

by Natsume, Inc.

Product Features

• Grow crops, raise livestock, and mine precious gems
• Befriend a variety of animals including sparrows, rabbits, and monkeys
• Build and develop your skills in cooking, mining, and fishing

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002HJUX7C
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.7 inches ; 4.5 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: November 10, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,439 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #14 in Video Games > Nintendo DS > Simulation

Product Description

The islands are in peril! Years ago, a powerful earthquake struck the Sunshine Islands. In Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands, it's up to the player to raise the sunken islands by finding the magical Sun Stones. Raise the islands to meet new characters, harvest new crops, and befriend animals such as ducks, monkeys, and badgers. In Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands, players rejoin all of the beloved characters from Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and get to meet a number of new friends as well. Players will grow and harvest crops, care for animals, mine, fish, and compete in festivals in their quest to restore the Sunshine Islands to their former glory. With a little luck, they may even find true love and start a family along the way.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A cute game, but one that takes patience, December 11, 2009

By 

S. Gibson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (Video Game)

As I'm sure most who read this review know, Harvest Moon is a series that is over a decade old and spans plenty of platforms(mostly older ones). It has a strong fanbase, but the games aren't too hard to get into for newbies. However, before I continue, those of you who like instant gratification and/or dislike repetition would do well to stay away. Basically, you start out with a plot of land that is covered with weeds, rocks and logs. Your job is to clear it out and plant crops to make money and in general improve your farm. There are four seasons with 30 days in each, and you plant crops according to the seasons, water these crops and harvest them when the time is right.

But there is a lot more to the game than this! The main focus of the game is collecting sun stones to raise new islands. One of them is the Volcano Island, which allows you to mine, and another is the Animal Island in which you can feed wild animals that will collect resources for you. There's plenty to do, some of which will net you sun stones: You can chop wood and use it to upgrade your farm (with such upgrades as a chicken coop, a barn and a kitchen), befriend the residents, raise new islands by collecting sun stones, get married, obtain animals for your farm to take care of and collect resources from, cook, collect recipes, fish, mine, enter festivals and a lot more. These things do take time, but if you plan right you can steadily improve your farm and find new things to occupy your time on the islands. However, this game is complex to play without a walkthrough, so I advise searching the web for a good guide. (No need to pay money for a game guide, good ones are readily available online!)

Even with all this stuff to do, the game can get slow, especially during wintertime when you can't plant crops. Therefore, winter is a pretty good time to go fishing and mining, since these both use up stamina that would otherwise be used farming. There are 143 fish to catch, and whether you catch a lot of different fish depends on how often you fish, what time of day you are fishing and your location. The actual act of fishing is basically just waiting for an exclamation mark to appear over your character's head and quickly pressing the "Y" button, but in a way it's still fun. (Keep those reflexes sharp!) I don't have too much to say about mining, except that it can be an exercise in frustration if you don't pack enough food to keep your stamina high.

Taking care of your pets is pretty fun. You feed them, brush them, pick them up, milk them, shear them, and occasionally pet them with the stylus. The horse and dog have their own little festival minigame that you can practice for.

The graphics of the game are a nice step up from HMDS and HM Cute, going for a more DS-friendly appearance instead of the GBA-esque graphics of the others. The sound has a nice cheery tune to it, it isn't memorable but thankfully it doesn't get repetitive. The controls work great, giving you an option of traditional button controls and stylus controls. I find that a combination of these works great.

To sum this up, HMSI is a game that long-time fans of the HM series will likely approve of, and for open-minded newcomers it's also a great deal of fun. Repetition does occasionally rear its ugly head, but long-time fans won't be bothered by this obviously, and newcomers who have done their research with expect this. Happy farming!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A big importment from Island of Happiness., December 14, 2009

By 

Katie Young "Kae-Chan" (GA, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (Video Game)

I've been a fan for the Harvest Moon series for ages. And I was very disappointed with Island of Happiness. But this game is a huge improvement. You DON'T have to use the stylus (you can use it if you want to). Very fun, new characters, old characters. It's basically a remake of IoH. So, if you hated Island of Happiness, you won't be disappointed! If you are decided if you should get this or Island of Happiness. Go for Harvest Moon : Sunshine Islands.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sunshine Islands VS Island of Happiness - Go for Grand Bazaar, June 4, 2010

By 

012467 (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (Video Game)

I am a huge Natsume fan and I buy every HM game I can get my hands on. I enjoyed this game the first time I played, but I groan when I think of making use of my second file - very low replay value. It is, however, a big improvement from Island of Happiness. Island of Happiness was so boring and aggravating, I gave it to someone else just a few weeks of attempted gameplay and, now, that person I gave it to doesn't play it either. Sunshine Islands is alot more fun, less work, and a more creative storyline. There are some annoying flaws though..

Pros:

*You don't have to rebuild the main island from scratch as in Island of Happiness
*Shipping items is made alot easier and quicker
*You're not limited to using only the stylus anymore
*Your field is easier to keep clear of stones and weeds
*Most the bachelors/bachelorettes are on the island from the beginning
*More variety in animal/pet colors and appearance
*The festivals are alot more fun and interactive
*The watering hole is alot closer to your field so you don't have to run across the field to refill your watering can each time
*At your wedding, you actually wear a wedding dress/tuxedo instead of casual clothes
*Upgrading your tools is made more simple so it's easier to keep a whole field of crops

Cons:

*The characters have a very small dialogue and it becomes VERY repetitive - especially after marriage
*Low replay value; gathering all the sun stones again is too much work and I don't want to do it again
*Fishing can get irritating and will frustrate you at times
*It's irritating that you cannot ride the horse around town and I also dislike that it's out in the barn with my cat and dog. I think the cat and dog should be kept in the house and the horse out in the barn with the cows and sheep. Also, the pig you can keep is located on a completely different island! It's annoying to go all the way out to Mushroom Island to feed it everyday
*Befriending the animals to help out with chores is a creative feature, but a hassle.
*Not enough character interaction. I wish there were more festivals to invite someone to and that there were more personal events instead of a few "heart events". For instance, I like how you go on a date and get a love confession like in Harvest Moon: Animal Parade for the Wii. It'd be nice if, in addition to the heart events, there were other more personal events with your intended spouse.
*Mining is just as annoying as it was in Island of Happiness. You pass out easily and the treasure you can find isn't usually worth that much.
*Lacks creativity and fun as experienced with Harvest Moon DS/Harvest Moon DS: Cute

Overall, I recommend you order Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar for the DS! It's coming out very soon and is a huge step up from this game! If you have a PSP, I would recommend Hero of Leaf Valley as well. Sunshine Islands is good, but there's been better HM games and there will be more to come.