Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness

Your farm, your island, your life! Bring a little peace and harmony into your life this Christmas by becoming an island farmer in the latest instalment of Harvest Moon, released across Europe on 12 December, 2008 on Nintendo DS.

In Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, players find themselves stranded on a deserted island, following a disaster at sea. From there, they must start from nothing to build a new life. By growing their own farm - taking care of their crops and raising animals - players can make a fortune, find the love of their life, get married and start a family.

The bright and colourful 3D graphics provide a visual feast, creating a lush idyll where players can experience the excitement and challenges of nurturing an expanding family, business and community. The convenient enhanced stylus control scheme means that even inexperienced farmers can take control and shape their destiny. Players can control their character and perform farming actions such as seeding, digging and watering by pointing the stylus, in combination with +Control Pad and buttons.

There is the option of multiplayer action over Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection, adding the opportunity to check your farm‘s world ranking and compare it with others from around the globe.

On day one, players choose between a male or female character from 10 bachelors and bachelorettes. Joining you is the old timer Tarou, his daughter Felena, and her two kids, Natalie and Eric. The island offers some hints that it may have been inhabited in the past, but it now seems to be deserted. Working with your fellow castaways, your first order of business is to create a farm.

As you build up your farm, people move over to the island, opening up shops and facilities, contributing to the island's development. These new residents provide new areas to explore and new people to speak with, creating an endless world of discovery.

Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, the second Harvest Moon release for Nintendo DS which is published by Rising Star Games & distributed by Nintendo arrives to Europe on 12 December, 2008.

About Nintendo

The worldwide pioneer in the creation of interactive entertainment,Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii and Nintendo DS systems. Since 1983, when it launched the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.7 billion video games and more than 470 million hardware units globally, including the current generation Wii and Nintendo DS as well as the GameBoy, GameBoy Advance, Super NES, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Gamecube. It has also created industry icons that have become well known householdnames such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Zelda and Pokemon. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of Europe, based in Grossostheim, Germany, was established in 1990 and serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in Europe.

About Rising Star Games

Rising Star Games Limited is a video games publisher for Sony PSP™, Nintendo DS™ and Wii™ plus PlayStation®2 in the PAL territory. A joint venture between Japanese publisher/developer Marvelous Entertainment and long standing Nintendo Nordic distributor Bergsala AB, Rising Star Games has published original, enhanced and updated versions of some of interactive entertainment’s most successful franchises plus has a roster of exciting titles in store for 2009. www.risingstargames.com