Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! (Game Boy Color)

The Hamtaro cartoon produced some positively adorable hamsters going on little adventures in the human world. A tie-in Game Boy Color game could have focused on trying to reproduce the common plots of the hamsters helping Hamtaro’s human owner Laura get out of trouble, but Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! chose a very ambitious idea for how its gameplay is structured.  There are no battles here, there are barely any minigames, and you don’t really need to navigate dangerous territory. Instead, Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! is a game about communication, because there are 86 words to learn in a secret hamster language that you need to uncover and apply to explore the delightful and creative world occupied by the Ham-Hams.

 

The adventure in Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! doesn’t really set up any high stakes with how its framed. The player gets to assume the role of the orange hamster Hamtaro (although they can give him a custom name) and are tasked by his friend Boss to find the other Ham-Hams so they can see his surprise new addition to the Ham-Ham Clubhouse. While there are a few little moments that feature some peril, the game is generally pretty carefree and even when you encounter something like a snake or a cat it will thankfully stick to its spot and not truly harm you for approaching. Instead, the focus is all about traveling around the town to find where the other hamsters have run off to play and round them up, but the city is filled with other hamsters enjoying their day and the other Ham-Hams aren’t going to head to the clubhouse so easily. A little bit of convincing, puzzle solving, or assistance will get them to return, but to properly engage with the characters you encounter, you’re going to have to learn how to utilize Ham-Chat.

While all the hamsters speak English, Ham-Chat is a special language that seems to be catching on amongst them. While the words are mostly close to the kind of gibberish words a child might invent, there are a few things in place that not only make them easy enough to remember, but delightful to discover. Most importantly, when you talk to a hamster, a menu with eligible Ham-Chat words appear, meaning you do not need to have an encyclopedic memory of every term you’ve uncovered by talking with other hamsters. What’s more, each character will only have a response to a handful of terms, so even if your memory is a bit poor, you can click every option until one produces a useful response. Some choices in constructing the language help with retention though, many words having reasonable connections to their associated topic. Some like Noworrie, which means relax, pretty much are just another way to say the word. Others like Mega-Q include a recognizable word in the Ham-Chat version, Zuzuzu is easy enough to connect to the common Zs of sleeping, and some are almost onomatopoeia like Bluhoo being the word for sad. What really makes the words more memorable though is each Ham-Chat term comes tied to an animation, and the hamsters can get quite involved in portraying the word’s meaning. Overblown expressions, little dances, even prop work or actions that are almost supernatural can be used to represent the Ham-Chat term. Whawha means Frantic, so the hamster runs in place in a little panic. Even just seeing that animation will give you the gist of the meaning if you don’t want to pause and consult the dictionary should you have forgotten it. The begging face of Wishie or the deliberately cutesy butt shake of Koochi-Q are positively precious, but then there’s the overblown anger of Blash-T that really fires up the hamster or the practical sorcery a hamster uses to turn transparent to represent their word for invisible.

 

One of the best things about the animations tied to Ham-Chat words beyond just being adorable and funny is that most every hamster in Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! can perform them. A good deal of generic hamsters do look alike to probably make that feat easier, but this means when out in the field meeting new characters, you can have very expressive characters that back up their personality quirks well. There’s a positively precious reporter hamster who tries to turn the smallest things she uncovers into big scoops, there’s a helpful fellow who gradually gets sicker to a ridiculous degree each time you find him, and there are con artists hamsters trying to get you to overpay with the sunflower seeds the little critters use as currency, and those are just incidental characters rather than Ham-Hams. Not everyone you meet is a big personality, but the side characters all represent unique opportunities, inviting curiosity as you uncover them engaged in some activity that has a pretty strong chance of tying into a new Ham-Chat word for you to learn. Figuring out which of your words might help them along or get a good reaction out of them is key to getting them to toss a Ham-Chat word your way, but one extra benefit of having animations tied to the lingo is that the words can be means of action as well. Tack-Q is the word for roll, so whenever you say it, Hamtaro rolls forward, this useful for tackling objects to solve puzzles or even getting a rise out of most any hamster you meet. You even technically speak to interact with the environment, using the word menu to do things like tug objects or prod them.

Ham-Chat ends up not only a means of seeing appealing animations and speaking with characters, but it is practically a tool kit for engaging with Hamtaro’s world. The places where other hamsters hang out can be quite varied but notably they are all viewed from a hamster’s perspective. Head to the schoolhouse and staircases and tables tower high. Climbing up power cords or up gutter pipes is sometimes the only way you have a hope of reaching high ground, but the hamsters still find ways to play with things built for human use. A hamster might be hanging out in a freezer trying to carve an ice sculpture or using an old broken cuckoo clock as a stage for their dance, the creative area design giving you another layer to consider for how you can use your abilities or interact with other characters. There are items you can acquire and give to other characters, some true minigames including a decently tough balloon popping bowling game, and sometimes a chain of proper reactions is required to help disincentivize guessing words blindly. While conversations are definitely so present that particularly young players or ones averse to reading might not be charmed by Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!, there is a rather original and varied adventure for people who are captivated by the idea of a gradually learning a language to help better interact with others.

 

There are some ideas in place to make the language management a bit easier, such as characters you speak to having question marks in place of terms you haven’t learned yet but can use on them, making it easier to know why you might not be making headway in speaking with them. It can still get a bit difficult to figure out what exactly a character might like or want at points, the area map at least making the sunflower icons on each level dance once you know all Ham-Chat words in that area. There are things to do beyond just trying to learn more lingo to round up the Ham-Ham gang. Some of your interactions with the world might turn up sunflower seeds you can then spend on outfit pieces for Hamtaro, although these are only used for a photo shoot feature that then becomes tied to your save file. A bit more involved though are the Ham-Jams, the player able to find hidden music they can later choreograph a dance to and share with friends. The dance moves you have access to are actually the Ham-Chat animations, the full-bodied motions and crazy expressions perfect for putting together appropriate routines. These are just there for your own amusement and some songs are made surprisingly difficult to unlock, the post-game quest to collect 12 stars requiring some of the game’s worst leaps of logic only to give you Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to dance to as your prize, but there is some good music to be found both in Ham-Jam and elsewhere. Beyond the easy win that is including the Hamtaro anime’s theme, you also have a positively peppy credits theme and the catchy tune played in Sunflower Market, some music bound to get stuck in your head as you figure out where to go and what to do in this unique adventure.

THE VERDICT: Learning the Ham-Chat language in Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! is a compelling little activity that constantly stokes your curiosity. So many hamsters to meet and interact with, such a range of appealing animations tied to your actions that can solve puzzles or provoke funny reactions, and such a unique way to solve puzzles in a creative and wholesome little adventure. It can get a touch confusing at times despite the safety rails in place to make managing your growing lexicon feasible even for a young player, but cute situations carry things far and figuring out what to say can sometimes be a puzzle that does require some smarts so that you do feel like you’re doing more than trying every option to make progress.

 

And so, I give Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! for Game Boy Color…

A GOOD rating. There is no doubt in my mind some young players discovered Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite!’s unique interaction system and it cemented itself as their favorite game for it. It’s a creative way to approach interacting with the world and one that has a positive influence on so many other elements of the game. Even basic characters you interact with briefly can be made more expressive and memorable, a conversation can be a little puzzle in itself, and knowledge feels like a more interesting problem solving tool than lugging around a pack of items. You’re constantly experimenting to find out what to say, and each Ham-Chat word can be a bit layered. A word can have more than one purpose and it can be situational to characters, like a petite hamster being offended you might be calling her huge when you say Mega-Q or characters interpreting Hamsolo as either you being lonely or you asking if they are lonely. Learning new words is a simple and common reward system too, it fairly easy to figure out most new characters will provide you something of value so encountering someone new is made even more interesting than whatever situation or location you find them in. The inventive system for interaction and the overwhelmingly wholesome charm of Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! makes me want to rate it so much higher, my heart warmed by its precious visuals and delightful little world. I do have to admit that some situations involve too much guesswork or conversely leave you with little direction, but this game also gets a very easy recommendation for younger players, although probably ones who already enjoy reading as an activity due to its reliance on so much text.

 

A lovely and grounded adventure with a unique perspective thanks to its tiny point of view, Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite! is a wonderful little surprise that invented a little language to use as a compelling problem solving method and yet still supported that focus on brain power with plenty of simple appealing elements like adorable animations and silly situations. It won’t get your blood pumping, but it still feels like a highlight of the Game Boy Color library for its creative concept and an adorable and lively appearance that doesn’t feel compromised on the 8-bit handheld.