Last week Natsume released new versions of Harvest Moon: Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life for GameCube and Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town for GBA. I hesitate to say that I'm a "big fan" of Harvest Moon, but like Animal Crossing it's a game that charms and allures me, both as a player and as a designer. The 3d Playstation and Gamecube varieties felt too complicated, but I've played an embarrassing number of hours of Harvest Moon on GBA, and I've still yet to convince someone to marry my sullen, zucchini-planting avatar. I do still carry my chickens around and brush my livestock from time to time. Aside from my personal victories and failures with the game, there are a few reasons it's worth mentioning the new release for our readers here.

First, Harvest Moon is sometimes cited as a good example of an educational game. It creates an embodied experience of farming and farm management and yet is simple enough for kids to play.

Second, the new version features a female player-character! The gameplay appears utterly identical to me, save the fact that your avatar has long hair. Our friends at Kotaku called it "hetero-normative as hell," and that seems pretty accurate. Is the game supposed to appeal to girls and women now that it has a female character? Seems largely interchangeable with the last version. Gender has more meaning even in Animal Crossing, and that's saying something.

Third, someone once told me that Harvest Moon actually mounts a critique of contemporary Japanese agrarianism. I have no idea if this is true. Does anyone else know? And if so, what is it?

Fourth, if you like Harvest Moon and over 18, then you might want to try Dope Farmer. Featuring "the mechanics of Harvest Moon and the theme of Dope Wars," Dope Farmer lets you grow and sell and sell a variety of illicit drugs, including marijuana, coca, poppy, and mushrooms. The game also lets you synthesize your own chemicals. Watch out for the police raids!

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