Harvest Moon

Release Dates

The very first installment in this long-running franchise released 20 years ago on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Unlike anything that preceded it, Harvest Moon introduced the concept of a friendly, combat-free, farming simulation to the world of video games. As a young farmer, the player inherited their grandfather’s unmaintained farm and was given two and a half years to restore it to its former glory.

The original Harvest Moon may seem limited by today’s standards—there were only four available crops—but the game contained a robust scoring system that evaluated the player in a host of disciplines including happiness, friendships, crops shipped, animals raised, and their devotion to the family.

From the start, Harvest Moon included a number of secrets for enterprising farmers to unlock, ranging from a mysterious Golden Egg to Power Berries. The game’s tradition of including seasonal festivals and weather events (even earthquakes and lightning strikes!) dates all the way back to the original entry in the series. And yes, the player could go fishing!

Fun Facts

• The player had five available bachelorettes to try and woo: Ann, Ellen, Eve, Maria, and Nina. You could propose marriage with a Blue Feather.
• Major storms and earthquakes could occur, wrecking crops and fencing, and causing you to be stuck indoors, losing a day’s productivity.
• Crops would only be grown in spring and summer. Grass grew in the fall, for use as fodder, but nothing grew in the winter.
• Cows were prone to disease if left unfed, but chickens had the added risk of blowing away in a storm or being eaten by wolves.
• The Harvest Sprites and Harvest Goddess trace their roots all the way back to the initial Harvest Moon game.