Customer Reviews

Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

This game is so much better than Island of Happiness. You collet sunstones to raise special islands that unlock characters. [mushroom island, animal island, volcano island, etc.] You get sunstones by befriending villagers and earning their trust. A nice feature is that livestock comes in different colors-

Chickens: Black, White
Cows: Black & White, Brown & White
Sheep: White, Brown

Same with pets

Dog: light brown & white, dark brown & white
Cat: black & white, white
Pig: black & pink, pink
Horse: white, brown

You have to unlock colored livestock by shipping a grade S egg, milk, and wool.

"Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands" is much more challenging than the former "Island of Happiness" game. This is because I sense a lot of structure in the game. The game's weather patterns are set a week ahead, so it's hard to cheat, making it fair to others.
Still, there's not a whole lot of tedious work, since your crops don't need a lot of water. Although you will have to work up to a higher experience level in which to obtain better quality items to make more money, so it's not as easy and random as "Island of Happiness."
The game forces you to work in all areas of the game mining, fishing, cooking, farming, and gathering to be able to move on in other areas. For example, you will need minerals in the mining area to make a machine that converts milk into cheese(which you can sell for more money)! The game's different aspects all mesh together in this way, creating a feeling of accomplishment. Besides that, you'll be trying new things in the game!
This game is extremely enjoyable for a mellow player like me, but is not recommended for people who demand action from video games.

My opinion is biased, as I've played just about every one of these games.

Pen tool- Unlike Island of Happiness, you aren't bound to the pen, which was annoying. BUT! You have to switch in and out of it, and once you're used to how it works in IoH, it seems sort of pointless.

Otherwise, it's almost the same game, just with more stuff and without the trouble of having to find every single person (that was a good experiment, bad in practice) and they give you wheat and rice to cook with from the beginning. It's like they fixed everything many things that were annoying about IoH but also made it feel like an expansion rather than a remake.

It's still not as good as older titles, but it's a wonderful addition to the series.

When I first heard that a new Harvest Moon game was coming to the DS, I was determined to buy it. After buying this game, I have not regret for one moment buying it.

This is definetly the most advanced HM game on the market, with specific "water points" and "sun points" for not only crops, but grains and trees too! There are even more animals involved this time too with cat, pig, badgers, sparrows, rabbits, ducks, mice and monkeys to name some of them.

The tool upgrade is a bit of a pain since you need to use "wonderfuls" which are very rare, and can only be won in festivals, and after many (game) years of work, made by yourself.

The romantic prospects are a plenty in this game, both for female and male players.

For those who liked the mining system in previous HM games will love this one with lots of challenging floors (255 floors to be exact) to explore.

A huge tips for players, both experienced and newbies: BUY THE STRATEGY GUIDE. I will pretty much say it is a "must have" to manage to play this game, and have fun with it (sadly, but true)

This game is without doubt a 5 out of 5 in my book, and a must buy for HM lovers and time managment / simulation fans!

Good luck, and happy farming!
Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands Official Strategy Guide (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))

Sunshine Islands is a redo of Island of Happiness, with a different map but mostly the same people. It has the same amount of stylus controls, but it also allows you to use the d-pad and buttons instead, unlike Island of Happiness. It is also easier to successfully grow crops. You don't get your objective until Spring 10, so for the first ten days you run around without any goals. The menus are informative but look rushed. The story is a little lacking, but I prefer it over the rest of the Harvest Moon DS games.

I'm a 31-year-old woman who mostly plays casual games on PC, but I completely love Sunshine Islands on DS. There is so much to do in this game (fishing, mining, farming, dating, etc). The replay value is high, which is great considering how long the game is. There are a few small annoyances -- you have to "meet and greet" the game characters repeatedly in order to build up friendships and relationships, so expect some repetition -- but it's totally worth playing, and very addictive.

love the harvest moon games. this one was very cute, and it was rather neat that you have to unlock the islands. i put in a lot of hours when i played this.