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AtomTottoko Hamtaro: Ham Ham Sports
aka Hamtaro: Ham Ham Sports in the USA.
The Game Boy Advance has its fair share of game diversity. It has its own niche sports genre, which has a few decent titles. The system also features a couple of "communication" style games starring everyone’s favorite (and only) animated Hamster that stars in his own TV show. When Nintendo decided to blend the sports genre with Hamtaro it was a bit of a surprise.
Most people didn’t know what to expect in Hamtaro: Ham Ham Sports. The simplest way to explain it would be to imagine a fifth grade field day that has Hamtaro and company instead of kids. Hamtaro and his friends compete in different events for medals against other hamster filled teams. There are a whole bunch of different events in the game. Some like a 100 meter dash, tennis, hurdles and swimming you would expect. Others that you wouldn’t think of are events like a carrot pull, beach volleyball and bird riding. All of the events regardless of what they are share one thing in common simplicity.
Games like tennis and beach volleyball are really simple mini games. In these games you move Hamtaro or Bijou around and hit a ball back and forth by pressing a button. The game has a little mark that shows where to expect the ball to land. There aren’t any special moves, just bare bone gameplay. Most of the other games don’t play like a "sports" game. Instead they play like a "press the button at the right time" game. For the hundred meter dash there is a little meter that represents Hamtaro’s running speed. All you do in the game is press the A button when the moving cursor is at the end of the meter. The diving game is equally as simple. To make Hamtaro’s friend Cappy do spins while he dives you have to press the button displayed as soon as it comes up. Games like these are pretty much reaction based games.
One problem with having all these mini games is learning and mastering each individual game. Each game has a different set of rules, which will require most players to play through a tutorial and a couple of practice rounds. I have to emphasize the practice rounds because the computer plays each event near perfectly. If you don’t have at least the basic controls of the mini game you’ll lose hands down. You’ll need to practice against the computer’s flawless performances many times just to get a measly gold medal.
Another problem with the whole event system is the game has a built in schedule. Instead of letting players freely select events and play at their own pace you have to follow Hamtaro’s schedule. Each day in the Ham games starts with some free time. During free time you can run around, watch TV, request songs, get your fortune told and shop at the Ham Ham shopping network. You can also opt to go to your event, compete and eliminate the whole free time idea all together. When you go to an event you can only play the assigned event, no other games. Even during free time you can’t select any events except the upcoming event. The problem with this is that you can’t play your favorite events over and over again. You have to play what the game wants you to play next, which is an annoying feature.
Since you won’t be able to practice the Carrot Pull a thousand times after you beat it there is an emphasis on getting a gold trophy the first time around. You might wonder why to even care about getting a gold trophy. The answer is for sunflower seeds, the treasure of the hamsters. Sunflower seeds allow you to personalize your player card. Each game has one player card, that is like a trading card. You can customize your card with costumes you purchase from the Ham Ham shopping network and even add in a quote. These cards can be traded with friends, allowing you to build a database of your real buddies.
The costumes are something that would cover a Japanese stuffed animal. All that you can see exposed from the costume is the face of your hamster and the body of an animal. They’re pretty cute and there is a wide variety of them for you to pick from. One great thing about the graphics in Hamtaro: Ham Ham Sports is that the sprites in the game are large. The large sprites allow players to see the amount of detail in drawing the thirty or so hamsters in the game. All of the hamsters even have their own simple animations, which are a kin to the TV show. The detail and the animation makes the translation of the Hamtaro show to the GBA an excellent one. The music and sound effects in the game didn’t quite get the same treatment. Many sound effects like the one when a hamster gets a good idea and one where a hamster is shocked sounds like it comes from the show. While other effects sound like generic sound bytes. Hamtaro has a certain style subtle style with the effects and background audio that a GBA cart just can’t emulate perfectly.
Hamtaro: Ham Ham Sports is a game that kids and fans of the series will love. It has enough characters for show fans to enjoy and there is enough difficulty in each mini game to engage a child for hours. Maybe the way to look at Hamtaro: Ham Ham Sports is a ménage of mini games redesigned so they star Hamtaro. Even if this was the case, the polish that Alphadream and Nintendo put in this game makes a simple game and cute game easily sold to gamers of all ages.
Import Friendly? Literacy Level: 0
The Japanese version has the brilliant option of a language select. This means you can play the game in Japanese or play a fully translated English version!
US Bound?
Nintendo has Hamtaro: Ham Ham Games ready for a release on July 27, 2004.
+ Pros: Lots of different games, excellent sprites, trading cards with friends
- Cons: Games are as simplistic as a tiger handheld, can’t play what game you want when you want
Overall: Hamtaro: Ham Ham Sports is a nice diversion from other taxing games. It also makes a great mini game for the road, but if you’re looking for something that will last for over 20 hours look for another game.
< Screenshots >
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