I recently had a chance to sit down and play Harvest Time: Hop and Flop for the Nintendo DS. This title from the American Game Factory actually surprised me with how impressive it was. The game revolves around a very simple premise: it's harvest time, and the bugs of Sunny Patch need to collect fruit so they can settle in for the long, cold winter. Miss Spider takes you through the patch, stopping at various locations so that her friends can collect the fruit. Each level stars a different insect friend, and each bug has unique abilities, all of which vary the gameplay nicely and add greatly to the fun factor.

I had the most fun with Bounce, the blue, bouncy bug who bounces his way through his levels collecting fruit. He could perform summersaults, and bounce high into the sky on leaves, and his bouncy noise was also super cute. I also enjoyed playing the levels belonging to Shimmer and Wiggle, a fly and spider tag team. In order to get through their levels, you have to use the DS stylus to circle the fruit, as well as tap on all of the obstacles to make them disappear. The obstacles include spiky plants on the ground, and leaves falling through the sky. The other levels star Squirt and Dragon respectively. In Squirt's levels, you use the control pad and the DS microphone (by blowing into it) to navigate Squirt and her spider web parachute as she glides down to the ground, picking up fruit and avoiding random obstacles as she goes. Dragon's levels, however, were much harder, and I found myself extremely frustrated by them. Dragon, as you might expect, is a dragonfly, and you have to navigate him across the screen, collecting fruit and avoiding various moving plants. These levels were the trickiest, and Dragon's energy drains quickly. There are power ups to restore his energy hidden throughout the level, but I had a very hard time maintaining a respectable energy level.

Harvest Time: Hop and Fly is extremely cute and colorful. The characters are adorable, particularly when they beat a level and celebrate by dancing. Each level is colorful and vibrant. With the exception of Dragon's levels, the game isn't very hard, and young kids will catch on quickly to what they need to do. The game begins with a nice tutorial, which teaches you what to do and sets you up for the remainder of the levels. The game does require a small bit of reading during the tutorial section, but beyond that, kids should have no problem navigating their way through the levels. There is no violence (the two times that I failed to complete Dragon's levels because I injured him too much, he just looked tuckered out), and contains no adult themes.

Harvest Time: Hop and Fly is an adorable game, and one that younger kids will have a great time playing. The game is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.