Gamertell

Natsume’s betting on one of its most popular and established series this year at E3 2009, Harvest Moon. Of the ten games being shown off, four are either entries in or spin-offs of the farming simulation. I guess it knows what its fans really want. The games are all Nintendo specific though, so Sony fans won’t be able to enjoy that virtual farming experience.

That isn’t all the company plans to show off though. It also is bringing a strategic RPG for the PSP, a few animal watching simulations, a cheerleading game, a tank puzzle title and a fishing simulation along as well. Since Natsume is known for sim games, it should come as no surprise that over half of the games presented can fall into that category.

Let’s see what they’ll have for us:

Adventures to Go
Platform: PSP
Tentative Release Date: Summer 2009
Genre: Strategic RPG
Description: It’s a strategic dungeon crawler where the player can customize the dungeon each time his party enters it.

Afrika
Platform: PS3
Tentative Release Date: Winter 2009
Genre: Photographer simulation
Description: Afrika is a bit like the classic Pokemon Snap title. You’re a photographer on safari who is tasked with taking pictures of African animals.

Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition
Platform: Wii
Tentative Release Date: Summer 2009
Genre: Photographer simulation
Description: Like Afrika, the goal in Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition is to fulfill photo assignments by taking the requested pictures of wild animals.

Cheer We Go!
Platform: DS
Tentative Release Date: TBA
Genre: Cheerleading sim / mini-game collection
Description: It’s a cheerleading adventure game where you’re trying to become the school’s top cheerleader. This is accomplished by doing well in touch screen mini-games.

Harvest Moon: Animal Parade
Platform: Wii
Tentative Release Date: Autumn 2009
Genre: Farming simulation
Description: It’s basically another Harvest Moon game. The gimmick this time around is that players can also assist with the circus by retrieving lost animals and players can raise and train exotic animals.

Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming
Platform: DS
Tentative Release Date: June, 2009
Genre: Puzzle
Description: Remember Puzzle de Harvest Moon? This is another puzzle game. However, Frantic Farming features different characters, a story mode and different puzzle gameplay.

Harvest Moon: My Little Shop
Platform: Wii (WiiWare)
Tentative Release Date: TBA
Genre: Shop simulation/mini-game collection
Description: Instead of managing a farm, you’re managing a shop of your choosing. You perform mini-games to create goods, and then sell those goods to familiar Harvest Moon characters.

Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands
Platform: DS
Tentative Release Date: Summer 2009
Genre: Farming simulation
Description: It’s an updated version of Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness that has you resurrecting the sunken islands with Sun Stones and making friends with wild animals. It features all the characters from Island of Happiness, and adds in extra bachelor and bachelorette characters.

Reel Fishing: Angler’s Dream
Platform: Wii
Tentative Release Date: May 30, 2009
Genre: Fishing simulation
Description: It’s a basic fishing sim with lots of fish to catch and different tackle to use. There’s also a multiplayer mode to see who can catch the biggest fish. One of the more interesting aspects is, after you’ve caught a fish, you can keep it, raise it and then release it.

Squishy Tank
Platform: DS
Tentative Release Date: TBA
Genre: Puzzle
Description: It sounds a bit like a match 3 puzzle game with a tank story line. The goal is to destroy tiles of the same color.

I’ve seen screenshots of Harvest Moon: My Little Shop, and it looks absolutely adorable. I’m glad to hear it’s getting a US release. Harvest Moon: Animal Parade and Afrika also look like they could have a lot of potential.

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