Harvest Moon: Animal Parade (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

There aren't many games series which have survived since the days of the Super Nintendo and even fewer which see such a regular release pattern as the Harvest Moon titles. Yearly, new titles in the series are announced and released for various platforms and since its launch in 2006, we've already seen 3 Harvest Moon titles grace the Wii. And now developer Marvelous Entertainment is back for their fourth outing on Nintendo's home console with Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, a game which takes very few liberties and sticks closely to the well trodden formula of previous games. Is it still worth the time investment or has this farm turned to a dust bowl?

Gameplay

Harvest Moon: Animal Parade begins in the series wide tradition of having you venture out into the world to begin life as a farmer, with your own plot of land and livestock. After creating your character from a shallow selection of 4 available caricatures, 2 of which are male and 2 of which are female, you'll be introduced to your character as he or she journeys to their new life situated near the seaside town of Harmonica Town. On the way, you'll be accosted by a harvest sprite known as Finn who'll continue to follow you around once you reach your new home, urging you to go and see the Harvest God or Goddess (depending on whether your character is male or female) as they seem to be suffering from a lack of power which is resulting in very few crops being grown and few materials being created. Upon meeting her, you'll learn that it is your sole responsibility to store power to the Harvest God/Goddess by creating a successful farm and ringing the 5 elemental bells scattered across the land.

From this, it would seem that there is a bigger story to the game than any of the previous entries but you're never forced into completing it before you can get on and create a living for yourself. Indeed, as with every previous game in the series, you're allowed to play along at your own speed and do the things you want, be that interacting with the locals in Harmonica Town, buying supplies, exploring the neighbouring landscape or getting down to building a reputable farm. As such, if you're willing to invest the time, there's plenty of content here to keep you entertained and the prospect of marrying in game and creating a family also carries over from previous games as well, adding an extra, and completely optional, dimension to the gameplay and keeping them happy as well as keeping everything else running definitely will require some heavy investment to get everything as you want it.

However, first and foremost, Animal Parade is every bit the farming simulation as its predecessors and pretty much all of the gameplay focuses on building up your farm. As you'd expect from this kind of game, you'll have to clear your plot of land of rubbish and weeds and then invest serious time each and every day into ploughing fields, sewing seeds, watering plants and harvesting crops to keep everything in check. Yet, the daily chores of running a farm are hard on a person, and as each action is undertaken, a stamina bar in the lower portion of the screen will slowly deplete. You'll have the manage this as well as your farm if you want to get the best out of what the game has to offer, making sure you eat meals to replenish your stamina and not staying out too late otherwise you'll develop a cold and lose a day or two from being unable to work.

Doing so will allow you to sell your grown items for money which you can put towards buying new items or seeds, the latter of which are seasonal dependent, as well as saving up to upgrade your farm with new out buildings and pens for livestock, which you'll also be able to rear to help bring in some cash. The farming is where you'll spend most of your time and it's where the majority of your money will come from, although you can wander about and go fishing, mining and even harvest mushrooms and other wild herbs which can be sold for cash, but the tasks are exactly as they have been in the previous games, leaving little new to explore. It means that the prospect of starting and running a farm has slightly waned due to the lack of anything substantially new in the game and things will become repetitive as a result. Similarly, Harvest Moon is one of those games you'll either love or hate; where some people will invest an hour at most or hundreds of hours making the perfect life. It's an acquired taste and while some may have tired of what the gameplay offers, anyone who hasn't played before should certainly take the plunge and enjoy Animal Parade's wealth of content.

It's not all a single player affair, however, as there is the inclusion of a livestock racing mini-game allowing up to 4 players to join in. It's a small diversion from the main chunk of content and won't really sustain any prolonged play but it's a nice touch.

Controls

As you'd expect from this kind of game, motion controls have been kept to an absolute minimum. You'll be using either the Wii-mote and Nunchuk combination or the Classic Controller setup, both of which work well with no issues plaguing them. Which setup you choose to make use of will ultimately come down to personal preferences or comfort, considering the amount of time that this kind of game asks you to invest, but there really isn't much difference between the two setups other than the Classic Controller being a more comfortable approach to playing as it feels very similar to how other versions of the game have controlled. There is a slight bit of motion control implemented with the Wii-mote setup, where you shake the controller while holding the A button and using one of your farm hand items to unleash a more powerful action but it's never really needed and you can get by just fine by simply continuing to press the A button.

Graphics

Retaining the same visual style we've come to expect from the games since their move into 3D, Animal Parade definitely fits in with its predecessors and certainly looks the part with a bright and vibrant colour palette used throughout the many areas you'll be wandering as well as for the various colourful and animated characters you'll encounter and while it may neglect to reveal the murkier side of owning and running a farm, it easily creates a very welcoming presentation that you'll never truly tire of should you be here for the long haul. That is unless you've played several of the previous 3D Harvest Moon games before now.

While everything looks nicely designed, with locations, although small and often cramped, looking habitable with a simple and charming aesthetic and characters being the animated and colourful characters we've come to expect from the series, it all looks and feels very familiar, looking very much like the previous games in every aspect. There has been little change to the overall engine or the style of the game and while it won't really be a big issue for those playing the game, as it still manages to be appealing and charming, it's definitely beginning to show its age and definitely could do with a spruce up to a level that actually acts upon what the Wii is actually capable of producing. A bigger issue, however, are the constant frame rate issues which run rampant throughout the game. While they never slow the game to a crippling crawl, they do rear their head more often than they should do in the open areas of the game and it can be frustrating.

Sound

Another facet of the game which falls very much in line with previous titles is the audio, with a collection of simplistic, happy songs doing the rounds in each location. They're by no means bad, and if you've been playing the games for some time you'll already know whether you like them or not, but they do seem to blend with one another; a distinct lack of variation never really managing to set any sense of differentiation between town and countryside or any of the other areas. Similarly, because of their heavy prominence in the game in setting the overall tone with the visuals, they may begin to irritate through prolonged play resulting in you reaching for the mute button.

Final comments

There's no denying that Harvest Moon: Animal Parade has a vast amount to offer those willing to invest the time, with a true sense of satisfaction coming out of turning your run down hobble of a shack into a fully operational and money making farm. But the repetitive nature of the tasks at hand and the gameplay in general ensure that only the most dedicated of gamer will get the most out of the game, and even fans of the series may well be turned away by how similar everything feels to previous games in the series. Frame rate issues and a dated presentation do mar the game slightly as well but for all the issues with it, that sense of achievement the game fosters still makes the game something well worth checking out.

Pro: Satisfying gameplay if you invest the time, overall atmosphere is charming, great longevity

Con: Continual frame rate issues, visuals are starting to look dated, gameplay feels like a chore and is decidedly repetitive
Final score: 7.8

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