Harvest Moon 3D: The Lost Valley and iOS mobile games highlight what Natsume was showing at E3 this year.
Natsume knows how to handle the large crowds that head over to their booth over the course of E3 week. They were giving out a little stuffed puppy that can be the pet of your character in the newest 3DS Harvest Moon game. The only way you could get it is play all their demos and have their card stamped. You could also be media like me and get it. Anyway, Natsume is taking a page out of Nintendo’s playbook by going for the nostalgia factor regarding Harvest Moon. It worked for Nintendo so why wouldn’t it work for Natsume?
Harvest Moon 3D: The Lost Valley pays homage to the old school Harvest Moon games. Natsume made the characters look the way they do because they’re paying homage to the N64/SNES versions of the game. Details on the story are you get stranded in the mountains and get caught in a freak snowstorm. You get help from a harvest sprite who informs you that the valley you find yourself in is in perpetual winter. You’ll need to help everyone to get the seasons up and running again!
The game is the first game in the series to be truly 3D and adds other things to the series as well. For the first time, you can mine from an actual mountain as well as a custom environment. You’ll be able to customize pretty much anything in the game, like the field by your house so you can fish right next store. It will be interesting to see how being able to create anything, anywhere can create new solutions to puzzles as well as new challenges. In the game, the crazy doctor will give you the Insta-Builder and just like the name insinuates, it can build anything and why wouldn’t a game that allows you to customize pretty much anything not have a tool that can build anything? Just the like older Harvest Moon games, you can get married and start a family but the game doesn’t end there. Natsume plans to have free and paid downloadable content so when you there’s more to do when you think the game is over. Harvest Moon 3D: The Lost Valley is expected to have a late fall release so stay tuned.
Natsume is bringing some of theirIntellectual Properties to the mobile scene this year with the likes of Hometown Story: Pocket and Ninja Strike. Hometown Story: Pocket plays like a cut down version of the 3DS game. You run a shop and if you don’t put the products out fast enough or what the demand wants, they’ll leave the store. Expect Hometown Story: Pocket out in the summer. Reel Fishing Pocket 2: Ocean is a good-looking fishing game for iOS operating systems. You hold down the right corner of, say an Ipad for example, and that power-bar is your cast power. You draw the fish in by letting the line drop in the water and then you set the line by flicking up on the screen. If all goes well, you should have caught yourself a nice, looking fish. Reel Fishing Pocket 2: Ocean lands the big one in the summer.
Natsume showed off two more iOS operating system games; Ninja Strike and Gabrielle’s Monstrous Duel. Gabrielle’s Monstrous Duel plays like tic-tac-toe in terms that you and your monster opponent pick power-ups/attacks from the grid to use a la rock-paper-scissors. Each character has a different ability and skill/luck come into play when the game is on the line. Gabrielle’s Monstrous Duel comes out in the summer as well.
Ninja Strike was the last game I got my hands on and it has the most action out of the four mobile/iOS games Natsume was showing. Ninja Strike has you as the Ninja dashing/running to no end while jumping/dodging enemies. You can glide or double jump and attack the enemy ninjas while you’re on your way to victory. Ninja Strike is due out in the fall so fans of the first Ninja game, Ninja Climb, should keep their eyes open for this one.
