Harvest Moon 2 (HM2) is an excellent game, however, being a farming sim, it's not for everyone.
If you've played the first Harvest Moon for the Gameboy and even remotely liked it you'll love HM2
- it's improved over the first version in dozens of ways.  Minigames, horse racing, a greenhouse, 
sheep, a village you can actually walk around in, the mountain - all of these are added features
not found in the first version.

Graphics in HM2 are basically the same as in the first version; fortunately, that means that everything
is clear and easy to understand.  Since it's been optimized for the Gameboy Color, HM2 has a great
array of splendid colors, and you can even tell when it's getting darker and you need to go to bed.
Overall, the graphics are simple, but excellent, as everything is clear and well-animated.

The sound effects in the game make it much more lifelike, however the music can get repetitive after
awhile.  Good thing the songs change with each season...

HM2 is quite easy to control.  You have the ability to carry four tools at once.  Pressing select brings
up a menu where you select which tool you have equipped, or you can have all four tools unequipped and
just use your bare hands.  It's quite easy.  An added bonus is that there are actually two ways to
switch tools: pressing select and bringing up the menu, or simply pressing start and cycling through
your available tools.

There is a whole town full of other characters to talk to, and you can develop varying degrees of
friendship with these people (you can tell you're getting to be better friends with them when they
start saying something different).  If you become good friends with people good surprises may follow...

The storyline is fairly basic, but that's all it needs to be.  Basically, you're just farming so you
can turn the ranch around and keep it from turning into a theme park.  Really, all you need to know is
do your best to ship a lot of crops and raise a lot of happy animals.

Overall, HM2 is a great little game with many surprises and challenges.  Its gameplay is so non-linear
that it's fun no matter what you choose to do (fish all day, just talk to people in town, explore the
mountains, play with your dog, ride your horse, grow pretty flowers, care for cows, chickens, and sheep,
or plant and harvest crops).  I'd recommend this game to anyone who doesn't mind a good RPG.  Two thumbs
up!