It’s quite a rarity when a licensed game is considered decent or even good, but Hamtaro has managed to make one of the best licensed games I’ve ever played! Hamtaro is a children’s anime that premiered on Toonami in 2002 among Tenchi Muyo!, Gundam and Cowboy Bebop, with everyone questioning Toonami’s decision. It’s like putting up G3 My Little Pony with Batman and Courage the Cowardly Dog. But despite that it’s considered a cult classic with people who tuned in and watched it, unfortunately Viz who distributed Hamtaro in the states just thought it was a lost cause and cancelled it after 104 episodes and two and a quarter OVAs, less than half of the actual 295 episodes four movies and four OVAs of the series with a small spin-off in 2006. What’s odd is that they still have a vice like grip on the license since they’re not doing anything with it, so it’s not like they’ll gain anything by selling nothing and they should probably give the rights to a company that’ll nourish it but I digress.

 

 

Hamtaro starred a little golden hamster that always had big adventures with his little hamster friends. Occasionally they’ll meet a new hamster of the day, especially in the later seasons. They’re not too action packed or emotional, but it’s an extremely fun romp through a world of cute fluffiness. Oh, and they have owners, but they’re not particularly interesting.

Hamtaro’s game count is seven excluding the horrific edutainment CD-rom game “Wake Up, Snoozer!” and a bizarre plug-and-play laptop circus game that was released in Japan only. However because of Viz being a dummy they only released five of them internationally with one of them being EXTREMELY rare.

HAMTARO HAM-HAMS UNITE

Hamtaro Ham-Hams Unite was released way near the end of the Gameboy Color’s life. You take control of Hamtaro of course by trying to find the rest of the Ham-Hams in time for a party that Boss has prepared. You also learn Ham-Chat, which is slang that hamsters use and is important to your progression in the game.

This game isn’t particularly perfect, it’s kind of ugly and brown but I guess that’s to be expected with the GBC’s limitations. It’s also not the best story wise since the latter games get better with plot and characters but it’s a good start for what the series has in store. (Please excuse the use of Japanese boxart, finding a quality picture of the American one is hard to find but your better off this way. The American one is stock vector garbage compared to the made-for cover the Japanese box has.)

HAMTARO HAM-HAM HEARTBREAK

This is somewhat the poster child of Hamtaro games, if you’ve played any of them, this is the one! After waking up from a nightmare Hamtaro needs to go find Bijou but when Bijou needs to hang back to fix Oxnard and Pepper’s relationship, the hamster from Hamtaro’s nightmare, Spat, has announced that he will ruin all love across the land. Hamtaro and Bijou will stop him for sure though, along with the angel hamster Harmony!

This game gave me a lot of trouble for the past few years to the fact that I couldn’t beat it because of a stupid slide puzzle, but a while ago I figured out the slide puzzle and beat it! I didn’t think an easy game like this would take a few years to beat. Either way Ham-Ham Heartbreak is an extremely memorable experience with cute graphics, neat characters and an interesting story.

HAMTARO RAINBOW RESCUE

Hamtaro Rainbow Rescue is the rare one of the bunch, only being released in Japan and Europe. A hamster named Bo has fallen from the sky and Hamtaro and the Ham-Hams must take him back to his home in the sky, Rainbow Land by finding an object that matches with the seven colors of the rainbow.

This is my favorite game of them all, I was lucky enough to get a bootleg import from China to play it. Unfortunately it died a month after I got it but I managed to beat the entire story and after story and it was extremely adorable. It’s such a shame that it never got to be released. Like Ham-Ham Heartbreak it has amazing graphics and story. I also really like that there’s a lot of extra hamsters that weren’t lucky enough to get placed into the show or at least into the dub of the show.

HAMTARO HAM-HAM GAMES

Before Mario and Sonic and the Olympic Games sunk their hooks in every Nintendo console ever, this was the quality Olympics game to play. Bo from Rainbow Rescue is holding the Ham-Ham Games, which is held every 8686 Ham-Ham years. Take control of Hamtaro, Bijou, Boss and other Ham-Hams to take the gold in a multitude of sporting events including Tennis, Sailing, Volleyball!

This is an interesting turn in the series due to it being a change in genres, from adventure puzzle solving to general sports. However that makes it a little challenging at first. I remember when I first got the game it took a little bit of practice through the different sports but you learn fast. Another plus is the fact that a few of these characters popped up in the third Hamtaro movie. It’s good to see some of the movie characters show up since the movies are exclusive to Japan and all.

HI! HAMTARO HAM-HAM CHALLENGE

The last of the games in the Hamtaro series, Hi! Hamtaro Ham-Ham Challenge is based of the Hi! Hamtaro shorts that were introduced after the main series. This is an edutainment game based for younger children that teaches simple math, memory and word comprehension. Hamtaro and the Ham-Hams have different mini games in store to play.

This is definitely for little children or fans of Hamtaro only. If you’re expecting a story, look to the previous games. It’s cute for what it is, and looking for all the scratch off cards will take forever, so that’s basically the only reason for anyone to keep playing besides the Ham-Hams.

Unfortunately, Nintendo has no plans of releasing the first few on virtual console due to Hamtaro being “dead” so your only hope to play them is either ROMs or finding used copies on eBay, Amazon or Gamestop. If you do manage to find them and play them for yourself, I assure that you will be treated with a hidden gem of a license title!