I've watched the newer harvest moons being played. Theres a few trends that I've never really loved and I think they started right on the other side of magical melody. The newer harvest moons are SUPER hand holdy. They blockade you behind a lot of silly plot devices "build this bridge!" It seems like a really sad attempt to keep you from experiencing the game too quickly. Also, Newer harvest moons have really cut back on the amount of ground you are allowed to farm with the focus being on individual crops and fertilizing single squares. They do have some cooler animals and the ability to get bears and stuff as pets but that takes 2 years worth of feeding the animal its favorite food. So... That's about the time, though. (and harvest moon DS) that I switched rails onto rune factory. Have you ever played those?

Have you played the newish harvest moon? I really liked the mystic melody one.

I was totally lucky like that. Those are the 3 that I have some of the strongest memories of. Maybe it was because they were so amazing. I mean, I played my share of terrible games that I love just as much. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is one of them.

You played awesome games when you were young.

I can't remember how old I was but I remember some things very clearly about the start of my gaming. I remember the christmas I got a Super NES. I think i was five. I couldn't have been much older. I remember the first level of Super Mario World and the multiple deaths that befell me trying to jump a 2 block wide gap (You know, the one that fills in when you hit the yellow switch). That was long before I had any sense of hand eye coordination. It's funny to me that one of my first memories with video games is of total failure. I woke up at 6 AM every morning to play the SNES since nobody wanted the TV at that time. I was totally hooked.

Another early one was the gameboy and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. I swear I saw something like a kneeling link or something. I swear! … I digress. I remember breaking that game in a way I've never heard it broken before. For those of you curious, I know, I have no followers so none of you may be curious. Gotta at least act like you have an audience, right? Theres a cheat that involved pressing select as the screen transitioned. This allowed you to skip straight to the other side. Well if you fished out the pond out completely, the man tells you to go fish in the ocean. If you use the select trick when heading down off that screen, the fisherman ends up standing in a tree. Ask to fish again and you get transported to a strange world where floors are water and shopkeepers are goblins. Oh, you can also walk through walls. Its pretty trippy. If you have the game, you should give it a try!

I remember the first time I cried over a game. This game might have defined me more as a gamer than any other game I've ever played. Take a guess. Maybe look at my profile background. Harvest Moon for the GameBoy. It ate hours of my time. I owned every item except for some of the game clear ones(I'll get to that). I had sprawling farms and was richer than any young child had a right to be. Then, one fateful day, I turned on the game to find no save file. I cried. My mother and I called Natsume customer support. They sent me a new cartridge. I played another full year from scratch before it was deleted again. I think Natsume wanted me to become jaded.

To rein this in a little... If you are going to decide to follow me and read what I write, I want to invest in you as much as you invest in me. Giant Bomb is successful because its a site of personalities. Without knowing a little about me my opinions are just noise in an already noisy room. I've changed a lot as a gamer over the years and it took watching my girlfriend play games to notice what really makes me excited about video games. After watching her play story heavy games I realized, no matter how strong the story, I love game mechanics. Its what makes the games for me. I've never been a blogger but theres just something about this community that makes me want to give sharing a shot. My first blogs are going to focus on a single mechanic that I think makes games great OR a mechanic that makes games bad. Until I get bored with that or come up with another idea that will be what you can expect. I hope you'll follow along with me, chat with me, even argue with me.