There's too much to do in these new games and I miss having to explore a mine to find what you're looking for rather than just having a mining point. I've found the most recent games haven't really captured the fun of Animal Parade and I wish they'd do another game closer to that soon. There aren't any rivalries and the mine is pretty disappointing (as in there is none) so your mileage may vary.

Grand Bazaar is pretty ok for about a year in game too, although the bazaar gets a bit frustrating and boring after a bit.

I feel more friends of mineral town and Harvest Moon DS/Cute are really great games to try next when you're ready. The pace of everything is a bit slower but it's fun enough. YOU CAN HAVE ORCHARDS EVERYWHERE! It's a lot of fun. There's also the idea that you can own land anywhere and build anything you want in that area. The festivals are fairly interactive in that you do have to contribute eggs/pumpkins/etc to the festivals and there are quite a few competitions with cool prizes. It's not as tedious as HM DS with the touch glove thankfully and there are quite a few rival cut scenes (no marriage though). It's actually pretty close in pacing to animal parade, TOT, and A Wonderful Life. Play it for a bit and you'd surmise that the average farmer chose the career simply to get direct access to. The gamecube version is a really great game, but the wii version dropped the female gender option (which is BULLSHIT!) Harvest Moon: Magical Melody teaches us that farmers are the hungriest people on Earth.

Harvest moon magical melody