Harvest Moon 64 Heading to Wii U in North America This Week as Part of Anniversary Celebrations

Whoa. Seriously?! That's so cool! 64 is my all time favorite in the series!

I don't have any Harvest Moon games yet. I feel they need to sell me on a Switch announcement before Stardew Valley comes out.

It's about damn time, this game should had been on Wii VC since aeons ago as well as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Donkey Kong 64, Sunset Riders, and EarthBound.

@gcunit You should play a Harvest Moon, man. I played A Wonderful Life and it was pretty darn cool. I think Stardew Valley could definitely give that game a run for it's money, though. Whether it's better, I'm not sure, since I haven't played much of it yet. I have it on PC, but I'm considering just not playing it until the Switch version comes because of the portability.

WOO!! So excited for this!!

I never buy anything on Wii U VC, but on the switch with portability I'll buy thousand (THOUSAND) of titles!

Hands down, Harvest Moon 64 and Back to Nature are the best in the series. Do yourself a favor and play those 2 games

PS: play GBC 3 for the best Harvest Moon handheld

Hopefully one of those surprise releases is friends of mineral town on the 3DS 😅

@zipmon I love how a Farming Sim brings you out of the woodwork!

ah well I still have the original. ugh is the new story of seasons out yet?

I'll be waiting five years for the Switch to release it with its dying breaths instead.

So cool! Great 👌

@KirbyTheVampire I'd like to. I was reading up on the series last night to try and determine which one to try first. I think I opted for the Wii one (Magical Melody, is it?) for the combination of cheapness if bought used, and graphics.

But I've already decided to avoid Stardew on PC so that I can get it on Switch, so Story of Seasons needs to get a move on with an announcement to change that.

Harvest Moon is a great franchise and I hope we get one on the Switch. Its a shame the Wii U never got one.

@gcunit
Animal Parade is a great choice too. It's a good entry point.

I'm actually torn about this. Harvest Moon 64 has been one of the games I have been waiting to play since seeing it in a ToysRUs as a kid. I remember waiting for it anxiously on the Wii to no avail, and now here is the announcement for a Wii U release and I should feel excited; but sadly, the shoddy emulation on the Wii U has me hesitant.

N64 Emulation is terrible on the Wii U, specifically the dark look that it was given. I love Paper Mario, but the terrible look that it had turned me off of playing it on the Wii U. I just wonder if it would be worth it to grab it at this point or wait instead for a chance at a switch release?

@tankNZ may I ask you why do you have hidden "flag counters" in all your comments?

If you do not provide an answer I'm afraid I'll have to do something about them.

@Snow-Dust oh you better not be saying 3 is better than mineral town.

@gcunit magical melody for Wii is by far the worst of the series. Its basically magical melody for the Gamecube, which was already mediocre, with really bad controls and most of the options taken out. Start with $8 Mineral Town if you're going to start somewhere. ITs still my favorite. The N64 one and Back to Nature are each only a few bucks and well worth it as well

The N64 will be 20 years old in Europe on the 1st of March.

Please let one of the surprises be FoMT for the 3DS/Switch. Please please please. I want that game portable again.

@russellohh Mineral Town wasn't that good, back to Nature is the bare bone version of mineral town and btn is still better

@russellohh was it really downgraded that much? I never really considered getting it since I have the gc game.

I like MM, it's simple.

@Meowpheel it took out one entire gender- you can't play as a girl, thus removing half the marriage candidates and dating storylines. Considering the fanbase for the series is like 80% female, that was just bizarre. There were a lot of control issues as i recall, but one of the biggest was, they didn't change the dialog or prompts from the GC version- so while the Wiimote was used to wave the fishing rod into place, the game told you to press X or whatever- a button the wii doesn't have. I don't think there was even a gamecube control option, but i could be wrong.

I've never played a Harvest Moon game before, and I'm not really into simulation games. Would HM64 or another game in the series change my mind?

Oh gosh PLEASE a new Harvest Moon game in the vein of 64. No terraforming, RPG dungeon crawling and insanely complex crafting and all that - just a nice return to 64 and SNES-style gameplay. For people who want that other stuff, plenty of other options now exist.

This is great and everything, but I wasn't planning on buying anything else for the Wii U with the Switch out in a week and a half.

Kinda funny they are doing an anniversary for this when the brains behind this series is off making story of seasons games now. But having said that, I'm still on the fence about this harvest moon 64 game. Despite not having a Wii U and no intention of buying that or this game for it, I do actually have the harvest moon 64 original cartridge and a working n64 system anyway so I can play it anytime, but as much as I adore the harvest moon series, this one and the first ps1 version have this awkward 3/4 overhead view to them that drives me crazy. I'm so glad they did away with that soon after.

@KirbyTheVampire
Wow, really ?
I think HM Wonderful Life has the worst storyline in my opinion. It was good to see about family life until your main character "passed away" due to aging but.... it was too linear and predictable. I still didn't understand why should I got married in storyline or Game Over if I refuse to get married. Also, the other character ages when aging from chapter to chapter didn't make a sense I mean really ? Look at Grandma Romanna. She was an old lady start from chapter 1 - chapter 6 ( and still maintained at same age when my character become elder ???). Same as Galen, Nina's husband that still stayed on Grandpa age until chapter 6 while Nina has passed away on chapter 2. Age system on Wonderful Life didn't make a sense at all. Also, I noticed the whole place in Wonderful Life felt like.... empty village. There was NO Shopping place at all except Vesta Farm ( That means No Blacksmith, No Poultry Farm, No Ranch, No General Store, No Clinic, No Mayor's house, No Library, No Church, etc). The other places in Wonderful Life just felt so empty, there was nothing can I do except wandering around inside their places (Bored quickly). And I still remember from my experience playing Wonderful Life back on year 2006 on my PS2, your main objection in Wonderful Life was raised your son until grown up and watch his destiny to become a Farmer / Rancher / Athlete / Scientist / Artist / Archeologist. Just only that. The marriage on Wonderful Life was pretty strange. There was No Pastor or Mayor so how could my marriage was legal ( The cutscene showed about me and my lover walking together, show off to villagers that we were married without being registered in law, no wedding ceremony at all).
The day system on Wonderful Life was pretty weird too. No days name, the season's name for Japan version was pretty weird and just only 10 days in one season ??
The only interesting part on that game was Hybrid Crops. I like to have Unusual and Rare looking crops with better selling price and Dhibe (Mixed of Turnip and Strawberry) was my favorite crops to get very high profit (Cook your Dhibe into Dhibe Cake, sold to Van and try to haggle to get more than 2000 Gil for each Dhibe Cake).
Well, overall I gave 5 from 10 for Wonderful Life due to lack of proper business places, linear storyline and small village size. In my opinion, Tree of Tranquility Wii was the Best HM so far, compared by other HM. Sorry for my long comments, I just want to share my opinions and my experience about Wonderful Life.

@LegendOfPokemon
Yes, of course.
My first Harvest Moon was Back to Nature on PS1. Me and my siblings was so addicted to grow sooo many crops to get more money and raised animals to get their products (Egg, Milk and Wool).
Oh, you should try also Harvest Moon Tree of Tranquility Wii. That was the Best series in my opinion, though still lack of proper item stacking. Starting from Tree of Tranquility, you can play as Boy or Girl and still have same duty.

This makes me extraordinarily happy

I never got into the series, but I always thought that this one would the one to do it. My body is definitely ready for digital farming!

Never played it but I needs to save my money for a console that is coming out.

@Anti-Matter I'm sure there are better ones in the series, but I've only played AWL, so I have no experience with the others.

Sweet!

@flapjackashley2 You know it! (^_^)b

Save your money and get Stardew Valley when it comes out on Switch, it is amazing!

What's a good place to start? I got one of the PS1 titles on the Vita and it didn't really grab me. Or should I just pick up Stardew instead?

Calling it, Harvest Moon First Person VR announced for E3. XD

But hey, maybe we'll see at the Nintendo console games on the Switch VC this year at the very least, including 64....

@Snow-Dust I thought the Friends of Mineral Town line were considered the best HM portable titles? HM3 GBC was basically a watered down HM64.

HM64 and Back to Nature are generally considered the gold standard for Harvest Moon, so it's good that more people will get to play this without having to pay $60+ on Amazon etc! It was a good thing for the original SNES HM to get the VC treatment as well, since the cart runs for $200+ now... I'm lucky enough to have it from back in the day, used from Funcoland, but who knew it would become so rare?

@LegendOfPokemon HM64 is basically a highly enhanced revision of the original SNES title. It may feel a bit archaic at this point, but everything about it still feels right...

I used to like Harvest Moon, but the games didn't grow with me.

Now they're all gimmicky slop.

So much for the Wii U "not being able to emulate this game". I call bull crap.

@Mart1ndo
Really!?!
Wow, makes me feel old.

So my 64 collection will increase in price again soon.

Better stop making walls out of them then since they're nearly vintage.

@Anti-Matter SPOILER ALERT:

HM: A Wonderful Life is actually all a huge imaginary flashback in the mind of the main character, and the old man who helps him is an angel, because how else would an old man live so long that someone so much younger than him would live to a ripe old age, then die? Everyone else like the old lady is immortal in the mind of the MC, since they're just a memory. The MC may have died from some type of degenerative disease or cancer, so their memory is spotty. But their spouse is the strongest memory they have. You get a game over if you don't get married, because that's not what happened in the canon MC's life.

@PlywoodStick
Wow, really ?

I'm confused there WAS a Harvest Moon on Snes so wouldn't that make the franchise older than 20 years?? Unless it wasn't released for the Snes until 1997?

@mikegamer if you remember Natsume once said that Nintendo said that they were no longer interested in putting snes vc games on the Wii U when everybody was bugging them to post pocky n rocky 1&2! PS- other Snes vc games followed afterwards but NOT those games...or Wild Guns either! I still wonder if Natsume was full of crap then? But here's hoping these 3 games show up on the Switch vc! I hope....

@Meowpheel hello, it is purely a harmless hobby, I am not a spammer and they aren't necessarily hidden, so it shouldn't negatively affect nintendolife, my apologies if they bother you.

64 was good, but Friends of Mineral Town was my favorite.

Switch, or it didn't happen.

Lately I have been playing a ton of Stardew Valley and have put nearly 70 hours into the game so I think I will be sticking to that for my farming addiction. Such an excellent game!

@tankNZ do you get anything in particular out of tracking the locations of our readers?

@Meowpheel if you mean like IP or anything no. Literally just the flag

@Anti-Matter No, I just made all of that up to make the story more interesting than it really is. Sorry.

@joey302 Yep, Harvest Moon came out on the SNES in 1997. REALLY late. That's why the SNES carts are so rare, because hardly any were made. HM64 is when the series hit it big.

@PlywoodStick Well I can see why some people like friends of the mineral town but I GBC 3 is no where near 64 and is filled with content

@Snow-Dust Yeah, it was pretty damn impressive for a GBC title.

Saw the 3ds one somewhere and was thinking of getting it but decided to get another game. Think I might get this VC for the wii u

What fantastic news! Now I don't have to pay Gamestop a ridiculous amount of money to play this game!

@joey302 Eh, I still call bull crap on their part

"tons of surprise launches, announcements, and more are still yet to come throughout 2017!"

Yes, please! Older HM games are among my all-time favourite games, so please do surprise me, Natsume.

I'd absolutely love to have this on the Switch. This, and Pokemon Snap, and all the other VC games really.

Think I had it on cube what was that version called?

Let's not forget that the true origins and development history of the Harvest Moon series belongs to Marvelous, who broke ties with Natsume and now make the Story of Seasons games.

Harvest Moon under Natsume is Harvest Moon in brand-name only. Though I will give them kudos for supporting Marvellous in publishing the franchise at its inception.

A very rare game to find. I will download it.

@Meowpheel Somebody is tracking the location of commenters on NintendoLife? As a hobby no less? I don't feel safe commenting here.