Following hard on the heels of 2004's Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, comes Natsume’s Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life for the Nintendo GameCube. Has a mere year and odd months been enough to see real changes to this game? Yes and no. This time you’ll be playing as a young woman who inherits a farm and faces the daily grind of the country life, instead of a young man who inherits a farm and faces the daily grind of the country life. See that big difference? As far as the actually gameplay changing – not so much.

The game opens with your character, a young woman tired of urban life and desiring the simple rural life, inheriting a farm in bucolic Forget-Me-Not Valley. The farm’s hired hand, Takakura, shows her around the farm and the community, and introduces her to the neighbors. He also shows her the two animals that are the beginnings of her farm empire. After naming the critters, it is time to move on to working the farm and making a success of it.

Like another favorite of mine, Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life is about doing tasks on a regular basis and making the correct decisions to create – well, a wonderful life for yourself. In this case, lots of farm chores. Fields must be planted and tended with careful watering and fertilizing. The producing animals of Forget-Me-Not Valley (cows, sheep and chickens) must be fed, sheltered, groomed, milked, sheared, etc. They also like to be hugged. (They can be a demanding bunch for farm animals.) The products of the farm must be collected and sent to market. Buildings must be maintained and new ones erected as the need arises. All this work will earn you money to further improve your farm and make life better. While it is somewhat similar to Animal Crossing, the day-in-day-out activities in Forget-Me-Not Valley just never seem to be as much fun.

To keep track of all that is going on at the farm, the game provides an Assets Book. This handy ledger keeps track of all the activity on the farm, including statistics on your produce and how contented and productive your animals are. This valuable tool will help you forecast and make intelligent decisions for your farm.

On the farm, seasons change with the passage of time and changing weather means changing work patterns. In winter animals require more care as they must be sheltered and feed brought to them instead of grazing in the pasture. At the same time the growing season has ended for most plants. This keeps the game changing and somewhat new.

Of course there is a world outside the farm and all work and no play makes whatever name you called your character a dull girl. There are three eligible bachelors in the village. Finding the one you want to settle down with and raise a family will occupy a bit of your time. (Guys, yes, this weirds me out a bit. But at the same time it does let you have a glimpse at how the other half lives.) In addition to the quaint tribal mating rituals, there are also interesting places to visit (like the local archeology site), neighbors to exchange conversation with, and even horses to ride.

Unlike many games that have a very set amount of gameplay time and a set path through it, Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life can probably measure its game life in months. It is possible to play for hours at a time, but the more likely scenario is a bit of play each day over a long period of time to build up your farm. Visiting a couple times a day to do chores and look in on neighbors and animals is a good strategy that will keep you from finding the gameplay too repetitive. Small doses are the most fun.

Adding to the playability of the game is the ability to connect to the Game Boy Advance game Harvest Moon: More Friends In Mineral Town. Of course you’ll need a GBA, copy of the game and linking cable to make it happen. This communication between the two games opens up some bonuses that are not available any other way.

Controls are never taxed in the game. The uses for the context-sensitive buttons are displayed in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen and will let the player know what can be done with those buttons depending on where her character is on the farm and what she is doing. This is not an action game, so fast reaction is not required. It is mainly item/task selection.

Graphically the game is attractive if not outstanding. They are approximately the same as last year’s game. This also holds true for the audio. Some nice, forgettable tunes and minimal sound effects, but no extra development money was spent here. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.