Harvest Moon: My Little Shop was released for WiiWare this afternoon in North America!!

You can download the new game from the Wii Shop Channel for 1,200 points ($12). For this many points, you can expect the game to be filled with lasting gameplay. Expansions packs are also planned for the game, worth 400 points ($4) each, where you can play new mini-games and meet new characters!

Here's the official announcement by Natsume:

"Harvest Moon: My Little Shop is coming to WiiWare Monday, November 23rd! It's a fun new twist on Harvest Moon--you'll make zany fruit juices, towering ice cream cones, and extravagantly decorated eggs in a series of fast-paced activities that use the Wii Remote to its fullest potential. Meet and befriend lots of new an...d interesting people, as well as plenty of your favorite characters from the Harvest Moon series!"

Enjoy the first HM game for Wiiware, and let us know what you think about it! :)

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The Harvest Moon: Twin Villages website has updated a few more things since we last posted

Owl - A new pet owl has been added to the game! It seems like if you go to the edge of the village and call the owl, it can be used to fly you to and from the mountains. Just make sure to hold on tight! You can see screen-shots of the owl as well as new farming and bee-keeping features here

New Characters - A new bachelor, Kiriku, and a new bachelorette, Nana, have been added. Nana is a nice and tolerant person, and Kiriku loves to exercise. See them both here



Box art & Pre-order Bonus - The official box art for Twin Villages was released recently and can be seen above (click for larger image). The game is set to release in Japan on February 25th. And if you pre-order it, in Japan only obviously, you get some sort of strap alpaca keychain as a bonus. Hopefully if/when it's released in North America and Europe, we'll also be lucky enough to get a pre-order bonus. Plush alpacas anyone?

Also, IGN just reviewed Animal Parade. Check it out here

Overall, they weren't fond of the graphics or sound, but liked the gameplay and gave it a solid 7.5 out of 10. They say the HM veterans will feel right at home with the freedom of the gameplay and can expect another quality harvest moon title. And for those that are new to Harvest Moon games or have never played one, this would be a great game to start with!

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Just letting you guys know that you can now follow us on Twitter!

If you're unfamiliar with Twitter it's probably best if you check out and explore the site a bit. But basically, we'll be using it to post whenever we have a new update to our main site - in this way, it'll also act as an RSS feed. We're hoping this will make it easier for some people to follow the updates to the site (yes we'll be updating more frequently :P). Hopefully we can also connect with some Harvest Moon fans on Twitter that might not have ever heard of us.

And it just so happens that some other familiar groups are twittering too, such as Natsume and XSEED. So if you're interested follow us on twitter, and if you're not... then kindly disregard everything you just read! :)

HMOtaku Twitter page
HMOtaku RSS Feed

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This past Tuesday, the two newest Harvest Moon games were released in North America - Sunshine Islands, the sequel to Island of Happiness, and Animal Parade can now be found in your local game/electronic stores, so go check them out!

Here's the official press release Natsume sent out for Animal Parade:

Burlingame, Calif., November 10, 2009 - Natsume, a worldwide developer and publisher of family-oriented video games, announced today that Harvest Moon: Animal Parade for the Nintendo Wii has shipped to retail. The game is priced at an MSRP of $49.99, and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

"Harvest Moon: Animal Parade delivers the ultimate in farming fun! It features entertaining new characters, a huge variety of fun pets, and exciting new activities, " said Hiro Maekawa, President and CEO of Natsume. "Anyone looking for a family-friendly Wi title this fall should make sure that Harvest Moon: Animal Parade is at the top of their list."

There's trouble in the once-prosperous village of Harmonica Town! Crops aren't growing, the wind isn't blowing, and the five elemental bells are missing. Only the power of the Harvest King can revive the land, but he's nowhere to be found. It's up to the player to find the five bells, awaken the Harvest King, and save the town!

Players will find plenty of exciting activities in Harvest Moon: Animal Parade, including fishing, mining, cultivating crops, and caring for wild animals such as penguins, pandas, and monkeys. Players can take their exotic pets out for walks, teach them tricks, and even ride them around town! When the circus rolls into town, players will also need to help the ringmaster find the escaped animals. Befriend the lion, giraffe, and hippopotamus, or the show is doomed!

and for Sunshine Islands:

Burlingame, Calif., November 10, 2009 - Natsume Inc., a worldwide developer and publisher of family-oriented video games, announced today that Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands for the Nintendo DS has shipped to retail! It is available at an MSRP of $29.99, and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

In Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands, players rejoin all of the beloved characters from Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and meet some new faces as well! Years ago, a powerful earthquake struck the Sunshine Islands chain, and most of the islands sank forever...or did they? It's up to the player to find the magical Sun Stones and raise the sunken islands. As they do, they'll meet new characters, harvest new crops, and befriend animals such as ducks, monkeys, and badgers. Players will grow their farm, care for animals, mine, fish, and compete in festivals in their quest to restore the Sunshine Islands to their former glory. With a little luck, they may even find true love and start a family along the way.

"Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands is here just in time for the holidays! You get to meet some great new characters, train your pets in fun minigames, and grow a huge variety of crops. It's a fantastic Harvest Moon experience!" said Hiro Maekawa, President and CEO at Natsume. "This is a great game for players of all ages, whether they're loyal fans or brand new Harvest Moon players!"

-click for more-

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If you haven't checked out the ever-updating Rune Factory 3 website yet, you should definitely click over now. There have been tons of updates over the past month or two, including new characters, game features, commercials/promotions, and in-game videos - and all in an amazing layout!

Marvelous has announced they will be releasing the single of the Rune Factory 3 theme (sung by the Summer Vegetables) in Japan on November 4th. But it seems like there's no word yet on the official soundtrack. Play-asia.com has sold the previous two DS Rune Factory games' soundtracks though, so hopefully they'll feature Rune Factory 3's as well. We'll let you guys know if/when we see it show up!

And for more Rune Factory 3, you should check out Aubergine Bianca's channel on Youtube.

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Yup. That Rune Factory 3 we mentioned a couple updates ago? Information's finally coming out for it. It's for the DS, and its official site is finally up.

Scans. Famitsu scans first. Neogaf has some here, and true-gaming has some too.

Screens. Next, screenshots. Famitsu.com has posted some. Check them out!

Gameplay Details. IGN wrote an article about the game. Here are a few snippets of it:

• the main character's name is Maisu.


• all the classic aspects of RF are still here---raising monsters, farming in caves


• but you can also take plants into battle!


• a "transformation belt" lets you transform into monsters! which will unlock different abilities and conversations


• also, you live in a tree. it's supposed to be much larger and roomier than the usual HM house.

Siliconera also wrote an article: he mainly comments on how the character interaction has seemingly improved. Apparently now, the dialogue and actions of NPCs will actually depend on each other a bit---they'll go about their daily lives as normal, but what they do/say will alter depending on the relationships you form and the decisions you make in the game.

Now, onto the headline.

MANWOMAN ? That's what Siliconera thinks, at least. You can see a picture of our new protagonist up at the right. Do you think it's a boy or a girl? Now see this very amusing quote by the writer at Siliconera:

I don’t have anything against effeminate characters. I’ve played and loved enough Square Enix games, but this…this…manwoman…with his fringe (is that what it’s called?) and bangs and hairband is a bit too much.

lawls. Well, the last time they tried to make a manwoman, they came out with Jamie (Magical Melody). I'm pretty sure this one turned out better.

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We somehow have internet access here, yay. However, I'm rushing for time and I do not have my laptop with me so I won't be able to crop out any pictures for you all. I'll do that after I get back.

Screenshots & Art. There are more screenshots and a few pieces of art for the WiiWare game, Ranch Store, including a strawberry cow. Strawberry cows!! Click the link and scroll down a bit to see.

New Characters. Saibara, Nami, and the red Harvest Sprite (known as Nic in STH, among other names) are confirmed characters in Ranch Store. Nami's hair became very messy. I'll upload the character art next week so you can see.


And.. that's it for now.

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Heyy people. Sorry for the obvious random disappearance of updates. Hopefully they'll happen a little more frequently for at least a little while (minus next week probably because I will not have access to a computer).

First, last week Cher from UNoT informed us that her issue of Marvelous Entertainment DREAM magazine specifies

• a Rune Factory 3 80% complete (no console announced yet)
• another DS HM 75% complete
• and a Harvest Moon Online! in the works! only in Japan, though, right now. :(


Anyway, we missed a lot of stuff!---most important of which would be E3! So for any of you who didn't see, this was Natsume's E3 lineup:

• HM: Animal Parade (Wii) - September 2009
For the last half a year or so, this was known as "Exciting Animal March." As you can see, it's supposed to be a sequel to ToT.
• HM: Sunshine Islands (DS) - August 2009
This was known as "Sparkling Sun and Friends," and many of you will be happy because for the longest time we thought this was not going to come out in English!
• HM: Frantic Farming (DS) - July 2009
You've seen a couple updates about this. It's the sequel to Puzzle de HM, a new and improved version.
• HM: My Little Shop (WiiWare) - Q3 2009
You've seen a couple updates about this too. We don't have a section up for it yet.
• HM: Sugartown (PSP) - Q4 2009
And you've seen a LOT of updates about this one! It was known as "Sugar Village & Everyone's Wish." (As you can see, they shortened the name, lols.) It's almost like an improved port of the old PS2 HM, Save the Homeland.

They have other non-HM games in their lineup, too. You can see their full brochure here.

As you can see, the official English names have pretty much come out. I would update our own sections accordingly, but I am currently ...

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