E3 Disclaimer: AMN's E3 previews are designed to inform you of what each game at E3 plays like, and what we think of what's shown. These previews are not reviews, and we reserve final judgment of each game until it is finished and released. These previews offer an honest opinion of what a publisher chose to demo at E3. So without further ado, read on.

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What the Game's About
In celebration of their 10th anniversary, Natsume is releasing their Harvest Moon Wii version of the game. The sim farming game keeps true to its growing fan base with the style and traits we have come to expect. We had the choice between being a boy or girl and are once again the source of hope for a suffering village.

You are set on an inhabited island which was once beautiful, vibrant, and enchanted. The island had The Mother's Tree which once brought enchantment to the village, but has shown no life in years. The Harvest Goddess has disappeared. The villagers look to you and your work to revive the island.

What's Hot
In the part we played, we were planting, watering, tilling the land, fishing, and milking cows like we had before in this series; however, with the Wii remote, the chores were even more fun. A welcomed and awesome option that Natsume offers is to assign controller buttons to your chores if after hoeing for the hundredth time, you decide the novelty has worn thin. We appreciated this feature immensely. We also like how you could set one chore and keep another if that particular one was not cumbersome. So you choose to assign all your chores to the buttons or just a few.

This Harvest Moon has a much larger environment as well. In fact, even in the demo we got lost once. Fortunately, if you find yourself unable to find your home, you can faint and be revived by a nurse.

What's Not
For those gamers who need numerous goals or a great deal of action in order to maintain interest, this is not the game for you. However, Rune Factory, a new game in the series, might be more along your liking as it combines rpg elements in with the traditional Harvest Moon aspects. Aside from style preferences, there were no mechanical, graphical, or issues with the physics engine in this game that cause us any negative feelings.

Outlook
One of the best parts of Harvest Moon is that it is non-linear giving each player the option to fulfill their destiny in the way they desire. There is the underlying foundation that hard work will be rewarded, but how you choose to do it is up to you. The goals the individual player sets and then accomplishes is what brings the satisfaction. Attaining these gratifying goals is why Harvest Moon's fan base continues to grow while keeping the original fans coming back for more.

We look forward to seeing the Harvest Moon for the Wii released by Natsume in November of 2007.