Harvest Moon is a quirky farming simulation series that has been published for various console platforms for several years now. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, for the GameCube, is the latest edition to hit the shelves.

We join Farmer Boy as he listens to his dad's best friend tell us about dad's dream to own a family farm. He died before his dream was realized, but his faithful friend Takakura has taken it on himself to provide the basic necessities for a working farm, like tools, a few animals and a house. In return, he requests that the young farmer join him on his mission to live a wonderful life on the farm. Farmer Boy agrees, and thus begins the tale.

It's all about sweat equity. You, as the young farmer, have to immediately begin planting the fields, feeding the cow, and selling the milk. As soon as a little money starts rolling in, it's time for more seeds, a fishing pole, and better tools. More animals will need to be purchased to increase the money-making potential of the farm, as well. And, players must find a little time for romance, as marriage is a must before the year is out.

The first several game "days" are pretty mundane, and simply involve taking care of the cow and planting crops. After a few days, it's possible to buy chickens and more seed, and also buy a fishing pole from Van, the traveling salesman. This will increase the money-making potential of the farm, which will in turn allow for the purchase of better tools, more animals and more seed. You get the picture.

However, as the game continues, the gameplay becomes more complex and offers more choices on how to spend the few hours of free time. Should you chat up the neighbors and give them presents to build future contacts, help out at the local archeology dig to earn some more bucks, spend money on another bull to crossbreed your cows with for a better herd, or spend that all-important hour romancing the local girls with some home-cooked recipes?

The game is separated by chapters, six in all. These encompass stages in a typical person's life, namely, getting married, raising kids and finally launching them out into society. The first chapter focuses on getting married to the right girl from a choice of three possible candidates. Each girl has a distinct and different personality, and must be wooed accordingly. The choice is important, as it will directly affect the personality of the future offspring. Wooing mostly consists of the giving of gifts to the girls, and reading their diaries to find out if the time is ripe for proposal.

The interface is simple and easy to use, but suffers from hypersensitivity. It's much harder than it should be to water the fields and cut the hay, as the actions jump around every time the farmer moves a millimeter. Opening doors is annoying, too. On the upside, there is an excellent map that helps to orient locations in the large community, but accessing it could be a little easier. Players have to choose the status window, then select the map, when it would be better to have either the "L" or "R" buttons assigned to the map function.

Ordering goods and supplies is simplified in this version of the game, with a one-stop ordering service with Takakura for the selling of dairy products and buying of animals. Seeds can be purchased at a nearby farm, and Van the traveling salesman can always be counted on to have some interesting wares.

The graphics are a mixed bag for a GameCube game. Some of the backgrounds, in particular the water-based ones, are exceptionally well done. The water flowing past the bridge is a joy to look at, as is the water at the beach. Other backgrounds, like the roads and paths, aren't quite as detailed. The characters are adequately animated, but could have been drawn more precisely. The characters still preserve their unique charm, though. One odd addition is the transparency of the buildings when the camera moves behind them; some people may enjoy this ability to see through buildings, but I found it disorienting.

This is my family's first experience with the Harvest Moon series, but we have always wanted to try a copy. We have Animal Crossing and thoroughly enjoy it, so expected we would also love Harvest Moon, especially given the quality of the previous editions. We weren't disappointed, and find that this game has the potential to really eat up the hours in a day. Harvest Moon is definitely more goal-oriented than Animal Crossing, where players can do anything they want without worrying about the time, but the strategy involved with the time constraints in Harvest Moon is compelling. On the other hand, we would have liked to have seen more interactivity and things to do, especially with the townspeople.