Platinum Egg comes out with Puzzle de Harvest Moon

By Katie . July 28, 2006 . 11:50am

In the fast-paced land of game dev, there is a prescribed method of keeping a property interesting upon its decennial – the genre jump. Be it kart racer, sports game, fighter, or puzzle, spinoffs have produced some of gaming’s best – and worst – moments. Of these, more puzzle games, like Tetris Attack, Bust-A-Move and Dr. Mario, have taken their place as happy endings in the history books than any other. Harder to come up with than a stock driving game, a good, fresh puzzle title promises hours of aimless enjoyment, and this October, virtual farmers and puzzler fans alike will be the judge of whether Puzzle de Harvest Moon takes home the blue ribbon for developer Platinum Egg and publisher Natsume.

What’s that you say? “Harvest Moon what, now?” Yes, if you can say it, you can play it, as you assume the likeness of a Harvest Moon: Back to Nature/Friends of Mineral Town character to out-maneuver and out-plant up to 3 other players or, possibly, skirmish it up in teams. If you’re the asocial type, you can still enjoy the Story and Puzzle modes, the bastions of identity for any puzzle game amongst its great many generic counterparts. 

It’s amazing, but the above paragraph states all that can be culled from the farthest fact sheets of the internet’s great many game sites. So even for those who did attend this past E3, where the game was showcased, scarce little seems to be known about the play modes or mechanics. What can be derived from the few existing screens is that, a la Brain Age, Puzzle de Harvest Moon appears to be played with the DS held book-style – in other words, turned 90 degrees, hopefully accounting for right- and left-handedness by swapping the displays. I’m not a south paw, but 1 in 9 people are, Natsume. In all screens thus far, the right side shows the playing field, where each square in a grid represents a crop in a stage of development from seed through veggie (shown here as seedling, plant, flowering plant, and finally the tomato itself). Fun fact: tomatoes are actually fruits, but I stand by using the word ‘veggie’ since it’s kind of a sore spot for them. Plus, it’s not clear whether we’ll have other crops to grow, or other, non-vegetable themes to the pieces (like rearing livestock or mining). The left screen shows the status of other players’ boards, with what appears to be guidance turned on to show possible moves, and their health bars.

Try as I might to find similarity to the proliferation of past puzzlers I’ve played, there’s just nothing but tentative observations that can be made about Puzzle de Harvest Moon. Mystery cow icon appears to act as cursor, although again, that could equally be the role of mystery rain-cloud. On the flipside, some screens appear to have no cursor at all. Little hearts around the player’s head suggest that, as in the farming games, you may be making friends with your character by unleashing big combos and giving him/her crops, but then again, that might just be an animation for the happy-go-lucky Popuri.

With so little information available, much speculation could swirl around Puzzle de Harvest Moon if it weren’t being overlooked as everyone waits for the more traditional Marvelous-Natsume offerings. But keep your eyes glued to Siliconera for the next big scoop on what could be the DS’s next big puzzler, Puzzle de Harvest Moon!