Harvest Crossing is trying hard to be a mash-up of Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing
Soft-launched in Canada
Harvest Crossing wears its inspirations in its name.
It's a free to play, casual farming simulator and virtual world. So, yep, you're able to build a farm, grow crops, and make friends with the local community, just as you do in Harvest Moon.
It also has animal villagers (including Mayor Farnum the Owl) whom you can befriend and trade with. You can also explore the vast virtual world, including the city where you can go shopping for new avatar clothes.
Then there's the Park, where you can chat with other online players and even visit their farms. All of these are elements that are available in Animal Crossing, of course.
Admittedly, the comparison seems a little weak despite the developer reaching for it so desperately with the game's title.
Yes, there are elements of both the games referenced in Harvest Crossing. However, its look and sensibilities means that Farmville might be a better comparison.
This looks familiar
In fact, I can do better than that.
Harvest Crossing has been created by PocketzWorld Inc., who has been running a virtual world game called Pocketz on the App Store [download] for a couple of years now.
I'd call Harvest Crossing a re-skinning of Pocketz, but in fact, it seems to be nearly the same game with a different title. Art assets have been copied straight over by the looks of it.
Compare the images from Pocketz below with those from Harvest Crossing above, and you'll see what I'm getting at.
The point is that this is a game that may not live up to your hopes for it based on the title.
Whether you'll want to give Harvest Crossing a go will depend on how desperate you are for a Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing game on iOS.
This developer is clearly hoping that the game's title will attract your attention more than Pocketz was able to. It'll probably work, too.
You'll have to wait unless you have a Canadian App Store account, though. You see, PocketzWorld Inc. has only soft-launched Harvest Crossing in there at the moment.
