Harvest Moon. Farming made fun.
Imagine the pitch: "In our game, you're given a bit of land. You have to weed it, get rid of stones,
plant crops, feed animals, and water the crops. Then you get to do it again the next day. And the next. And the next. In fact every day you play the game, you'll be doing this." When you put the concept down in simple English, it sounds ridiculous. Yet oddly, Harvest Moon is probably the pinnacle of relaxation in gaming. There is something soothing and relaxing about the repetition of the tasks. In short, if Zen was distilled into game form, it would be Harvest Moon.
The latest game, More Friends of Mineral Town, despite having been out in Japan since 2003, has finally made it's way to us English speaking GBA owners, and very good it is too. Also, due to it's relative obscrurity, you can pick it up pretty cheaply at your nearby evil corporately controlled retail environment. Score!
So if you want a bit of mellow gaming while waiting for the train, Harvest Moon can be your happy place. Now excuse me, I have a cow to inseminate.
