Did you know Nintendo made a bunch of licensed games? Because they did. They made a Snoopy game for SNES, a Mickey Mouse game for Gamecube, and most interestingly, an entire line of shockingly high quality Hamtaro games. There was a pet simulator that may have been directly responsible for the Miis, some pretty fantastic minigame collections by Alphadream with stunningly good spritework, and what people would probably be most familiar with, Pax Softnica's duology of language-based adventure games, Ham Hams Unite and Ham Hams Heartbreak.
My history with the Hamtaro series prior to playing these games is practically nonexistent. I never really watched many shows as a kid nor was I attuned with the internet or media in general, so I didn't grow up with this franchise like many others around my age. Part of why I even made this blog to begin with was to document my experiences discovering all the TV shows and video games I never got to experience when they were big, and I guess you could say Hamtaro is one of them. Either way, when I decided to check out the Hamtaro games upon hearing that they were not only made by Nintendo, but were also actually good, I was a bit nervous that I'd be out of my depth. In hindsight, that was probably a silly fear, since Ham Hams Unite & Heartbreak are intricately designed to introduce Western audiences to Hamtaro and what it's all about. Considering the failed attempt at putting the series on Toonami, these two games may have even played the biggest role in boosting Hamtaro's popularity over here, which is pretty cool.
As games, Hamtaro: Ham Hams Unite (for the GBC) & Ham Ham Heartbreak (for the GBA) are very closely linked together in terms of writing and gameplay, though their stories are very different. Ham Hams Unite is a laid-back, low stakes introduction to the Ham Hams as Hamtaro is tasked with finding all twelve of his friends at Boss's requests. Meanwhile, Ham Ham Heartbreak has an actual plot where an evil hamster named Spat is trying to break up relationships all of the world, and Hamtaro and Bijou must team up to stop him. As you can tell, very different, but they both have their merits.
I love Ham Hams Unite's simple narrative because it's so effective at introducing the cast of Hamtaro to a new player. Each friend you save has their own unique little subplot that perfectly sums up their character, and when you bring them back to the clubhouse, they not only get a unique room fitting their personality but you also unlock a character bio you can read. The final area you visit, the Sunflower Market, manages to put such a perfect cap on such a low stakes story. Instead of defeating some grand antagonist, you're instead mediating a fight between Dexter and Howdy over a love triangle. And if that's not Hamtaro drama in its purest form, I don't know what is.
Meanwhile, Ham Ham Heartbreak's story is just so fun. Spat isn't a very threatening villain, but he's such a lovable menace who's a blast to watch. Every area gives you the opportunity to complete embarrass Spat, and it's always an absolute riot. It also works perfectly as a sequel to Unite. Where that game introduces you to the cast, Heartbreak focuses more on their relationships to each other. Where resolving Dexter and Howdy's fight was only the last level in Unite, you have to do this several times in every single area. I also love how Ham Ham Heartbreak isn't just about romantic love, it's about mending all kinds of relationships from romantic to platonic to familial. That's a really important lesson for kids to learn (and also something I think more adults should remember too).
As far as gameplay goes, Unite & Heartbreak pretty much have the same gameplay loop. These are adventure games with a very point-and-click style of progression where you run around big and open areas, talk to any NPCs you see, and solve puzzles. The twist that makes the Hamtaro games so special, however, is the addition of Ham Chat. Ham Chat is essentially the Ham Hams' language, and in both games, you start out only knowing a few words. As you explore and talk to people, you learn more words which you can use to talk to even more people, which forms an incredibly addicting gameplay loop where you're constantly learning new words and gaining more tools at a fast rate. It's just such a cool concept too, the feeling of slowly learning a new language through experience is captured incredibly well here, and Ham Chat itself is such a charmingly fun language. There still really aren't many games based around linguistics like this outside of the recent Chants Of Sennaar, so Hamtaro still feels like one of a kind in this aspect. It also helps these games avoid the pitfalls of most point and click adventure games when it comes to how easy it is to get stuck, as just talking to every single NPC with all the Ham Chat words you can will pretty much always point you in the right direction.
I think in terms of the core gameplay, Ham Ham Heartbreak is the better of the two. Ham Hams Unite is already a ton of fun and nails the Ham Chat formula right off the bat, but Heartbreak does make a bunch of great quality of life improvements especially with the snappier menuing and UI. It also lets you play as both Hamtaro and Bijou, and several of the Ham Chat words you get will let you perform actions that require multiple people, like having Hamtaro and Bijou stack on top of each other to reach higher places. In general, Heartbreak has far more interesting setpieces and minigames than its predecessor. There's a beach area where you can play volleyball and do the hulu, there's a haunted house area where you slowly work your way up the floors and solve tricky puzzles, there's several boss fight encounters, and my personal favorite, there's an amusement park with a bunch of rides you can go on. It feels like you're always doing something fun.
That being said, where Ham Hams Unite excels is in its world design. Heartbreak has more unique areas, but they're all pretty standard video game settings like grass, beach, haunted house, and forest. Ham Hams Unite, on the other hand, plays up the size of the hamsters by having each level take place in mundane settings where you're really small. So you get to explore a school, a market, and a sandbox that the hamsters use as a beach. I love some of the level names too, like how the "Ruins" is actually just a junkyard and how the "Sky Garden" is a balcony pool. For a Game Boy Color game, there's a great sense of scale to how these real-life objects tower over you, and as a result, Unite's areas have a ton of verticality, especially in the last few levels. It's like Minish Cap all over again! While Heartbreak focused on making the stuff you do from minute to minute interesting, Unite's worlds are just simply more fun to explore.
Aiding in the exploration, both Ham Hams Unite & Ham Ham Heartbreak also have an absolutely massive amount of collectibles to find beyond the required goals. There's 86 Ham Chat words to learn in each game, costumes you can buy to customize Hamtaro (and Bijou in Heartbreak), and silliest of all, music tracks called Ham Jams that Hamtaro can dance to. You can even make your own dance using the Ham Chat words you learn. Ham Ham Heartbreak also has a ton of gems to uncover, and accessories you can make with those gems to keep you playing for hours, while Ham Hams Unite has a postgame where you have to track down a bunch of stars that fell from the sky, some of which may take you to secret areas you never got to visit in the main game. That being said, I do personally think Unite has the better 100% campaign. All of Unite's collectibles serve a visible purpose and the way everything clicks together makes the whole game feel like a perfectly-calibrated puzzle box, it's just so satisfying to fully complete. While Ham Ham Heartbreak is also a ton of fun if you focus on defeating Spat, reuniting all the couples, finding all the Ham Chat words, and getting all the Ham Tunes, getting all those gems and accessories will require a lot of grinding and is just not worth it by comparison.
Part of the appeal of the Hamtaro games is just how charming they are. They're just so silly, never taking themselves all that seriously. As I mentioned earlier, Spat is kind of ineffective as a villain and that makes him all the better. The hamsters you interact with usually have some funny line to catch you off guard, and the game is filled with adorable and expressive bits of animation. There's also some hilariously out-of-pocket moments scattered around too, especially in Unite. There's the fact that one of the Ham Chat words is literally just "go pee", the several instances where Hamtaro gets punched in the face, the very sleazy salesmen you repeatedly run into across both games, the hilarious and adorable reporter who writes a new (usually fake) article every time you run into her, or my personal favorite, the gag in Unite where you knock a hamster off a ledge and Hamtaro just looks at the screen with a blank "heke?". Seriously, these games are hysterical and I love them. Oh, wait, and I forgot to mention the actual best gag in the series:
Part of the charm comes with just how clean and expressive the spritework is. While Alphadream's output like Rainbow Rescue and Ham Ham Games are arguable even better looking, Unite & Heartbreak still look incredibly good. Being on the GBA, Ham Ham Heartbreak obviously looks jaw-dropping with its bright colors, detailed environments, and fluid and varied character animation, but even Ham Hams Unite is super impressive-looking for a Game Boy Color game. Hamtaro himself has at the very least 86 unique animations, one for each individual Ham Chat word, which is kind of wild when you think about the hardware. It's just another instance of the Game Boy Color being the most extra console ever. I also love the soundtrack of these games, they're so cute and silly, perfectly fitting the comfy vibes the Hamtaro games exude. Unite's music in particularly gives off this "head empty, no thoughts" energy that I can't get enough of. Highlights would probably be Acorn Shrine, Sunflower Elementary, and Sunflower Market from Unite, and Sunny Peak and Spat's Theme from Heartbreak.
Even though I never grew up with Hamtaro, it's not hard to see why it became such a hit when playing these games. Hamtaro: Ham Hams Unite & Ham Ham Heartbreak do a phenomenal job at introducing the cast of Hamtaro to new players and capturing the energy of the original anime, while also just being fantastic and innovative adventure games in their own right with the creative Ham Chat premise, charming presentation, and satisfying exploration. Both games have their own individual strengths like Unite's low-stakes silliness and world design, and Heartbreak's Spat plotline and fun setpieces, but they add together to form one of the most endearing gaming experiences one can have.
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