deal breaker: harvest moon: sunshine islands

So I started playing the newest DS Harvest Moon game, Sunshine Islands and I have to say that I no longer can play it. Why? Because Natsume decided to only include stylus controls to move your character around! You can’t use the directional pad and it’s a bummer, because unlike Zelda’s fairly accurate stylus controls, this game is the butts to move your character around.

I haven’t really enjoyed a Harvest Moon game since Harvest Moon 64 and it’s such a bummer, because its one of my favorite games. I have enjoyed the new Rune Factory series and I think it’s taking the Harvest Moon formula into a new and exciting direction, but it’s always disappointing when Natsume releases a new and potentially cool game that gets held back by poor game design decisions.

I could see this being okay back when developers felt it essential to always include touch screen controls in DS games, but in the last couple of years it’s kind of inexcusable to include gimmicky touch screen controls just for the sake of it.