Released in 1996, Harvest Moon is a simulation game where you control a young boy who comes to a town to refurbish his late grandfather's farm. You can grow different crops, raise cattle and sheep, get a horse to ride about town, and even meet, charm, and marry a young girl. Overall, it's a nice, slow-paced title for the SNES that everyone should try.

Harvest Moon GB is a Strategy game, developed by TOSE and published by Victor Interactive Software, which was released in Japan in 1997.

The initial goal is that in three years time, the player must bring up the farm by growing and selling crops, and raising livestock. There are also plenty of secrets to unlock in the game. At the end of the first year, the mayor of the city comes back to the farm to check up on it. If he thinks it's looking good, the player may continue the game for another couple years. If he thinks the farm is short of success, a second chance is given to revitalize the farm.

The character may be chosen as a boy or a girl. The beginning and ending are different depending on which character the player chooses. The boy is a successful Rancher, living on the farm from Harvest Moon 2, who is asked by the mayor to help a girl on a nearby island run the farm of her father. The girl's beginning shows her trying to save Harry's farm by taking control of it. She then meets the boy character.

Harvest Moon 3 takes place on an island, which has some mountainous regions, a grassland, a small village, and the farm where a lot of the game takes place. There are no shops to buy things like tools, crops, and animals; every Monday and Thursday a ferry is available to take the character to the mainland, where all of the shops reside. This is an element unique to Harvest Moon games, as most allow players to buy things whenever they desire.

Growing crops and raising livestock are among the prime tasks in Harvest Moon 3. But, as with many other HM games, the player has the opportunity to marry his/her partner, and even have a baby. There are some differences between playing as the male or female character; the girl starts out with a free cow and a brush, but cannot upgrade tools, when the boy character can. The male also has more stamina than the female. Also when the player marries as the girl, the game ends, but as a boy, the game continues.

The initial goal is that in a year's time, the character must bring up the farm by growing and selling crops, and raising livestock. There are also plenty of secrets to unlock in the game. At the end of the first year, the main character's grandfather comes back to the farm to check up on it. If he thinks it's looking good, the player may continue the game for another couple years. If he thinks the farm is short of success, a Game Over is given.

To build a successful farm, players need to clean the debris from fields, plant seeds, water crops, and harvest them when they are ready. Additional sources of income include cows and chickens, but players must ensure their livestock are well fed and cared for if they hope to "milk" the results.