I try to give every game a chance, but there are some games to which I am so morally opposed, it's difficult to remain impartial. No, I'm not talking about Grand Theft Auto or JFK Reloaded. I'm talking about the Harvest Moon franchise, a series in which you play out a mundane rural life with repetitive farming tasks. When the point of a simulation is to perform chores, it's only a matter of time before the whole game feels like one.
But Harvest Moon does have its devoted fans, and whatever it is they like, they should reap plenty of it here. The only noteworthy difference between this title and last year's A Wonderful Life is that your farming avatar is a girl, which eventually adds a little depth to the child-rearing aspect of the game after you've bagged one of Forget-Me-Not Valley's three eligible bachelors. And the game is filled with subtle touches: Your cow will produce better milk if you regularly talk to it. Now, you just have to decide how much fun it is to converse with a cow.
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2: CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ELIXIR (T) (3 stars)
Square Enix
PlayStation 2
It would take a magical transformation not unlike alchemy to turn last year's Fullmetal Alchemist into a decent game, and despite its linearity, Crimson Elixir barely does it. Unlike the original, which gave you the power to turn junk around you into weapons weaker than your default sword, this sequel actually lets you turn items into weapons with menace ... like exploding robot mice.
COLOSSEUM: ROAD TO FREEDOM (M) (2.5 stars)
Koei
PlayStation 2
Colosseum makes the gladiator arena feel like a soul-sucking day job. Day after day, you go back to the same battlefield and button-mash with the same generic co-workers—even the ones you killed the previous day. It's like a cheap version of Capcom's Shadow of Rome, only you can't pick up the severed limbs of your opponents and beat them to death with them. And where's the fun in that?
RIVIERA: THE PROMISED LAND (T) (4 stars)
Atlus
GameBoy Advance
When the world is under siege by demons, and the only hope for mankind rests with a fallen angel, some giggly girls, and a talking cat, you're probably playing a Japanese-style RPG. With its epic story that unfolds like a well-paced novel, and its deep weapons-upgrade and character-building options, Riviera is the best RPG on GameBoy since Fire Emblem 2.
Matthew Scott Hunter has been known to mumble, "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start" in his sleep. E-mail him at
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