Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak is the bar that licensed children’s games should aim to clear. It’s nothing too crazy or mind-boggling, but it’s Hamtaro; it doesn’t really have to be. Instead, you’re treated to a nice little Hamtaro-themed romp on your GBA. If you’re a fan of the series or just anything cute in general, it gets the job done pretty nicely and I think you’ll be satisfied throughout. Absolute worst case scenario, you might be the tiniest bit bored or frustrated. Either way, this game seems confident in knowing exactly what it wants to be and manages to maintain a consistent quality throughout.
In Ham-Ham Heartbreak, you play as Hamtaro and (kind of) Bijou. A devious little hamster named Spat has been traveling throughout the land and causing squabbles between the closest of friends, lovers, siblings, and more; ruining their relationships. An angelic hamster named Harmony calls upon Hamtaro and Bijou to stop Spat and help the feuding pairs make amends. Unfortunately for Hamtaro, he accidentally spills water all over his Ham-Chat dictionary from the previous game, Ham-Hams Unite. As a result, he is no longer hip with the latest Ham-Ham lingo, meaning he has no idea how to communicate certain words or actions to his fellow hamsters.
The game serves as a simple point-and-click adventure where you have to fetch objects or solve puzzles at the requests of multiple hamster NPCs. The only issue is that without his dictionary, Hamtaro doesn’t know how to speak or interact with the environment or other characters. While most point-and-click games have a small collection of commands such as Examine, Speak, Interact, and so on, Ham-Ham Heartbreak has a massive array of interactions, having about 90 in total. This may sound daunting, but each object or NPC you interact with only contains a small amount of actions to choose from, depending on the context of where they are. If you exhaust all the available actions and don’t quite get anywhere with them, it means you most likely don’t have the one you need yet. Actions can be obtained by completing quests, in which case a hamster will share a Ham-Chat that you’ll be able to utilize later. Throughout the adventure, there are also a few minigames to play and collectibles to find. You can buy little outfit pieces to put on Hamtaro in a photo studio and you can gather gemstones for no particular reason outside of vague education.
The presentation is where Ham-Ham Heartbreak really shines. It’s one of the nicest looking games on the GBA, as you can tell a lot of care and effort when into the spritework of the characters and environments. Speaking of, Hamtaro and Bijou steal the show with their sprites and animations, especially the Ham-Chat actions. Each one is goofy and super expressive. Even if you have to watch them perform the same action 100 times, the animations never get old. The music is decent for the most part; admittedly the loops are fairly short so some tracks can get a little grating after a while. All your favorite Ham-Hams from the TV show are present and they look great, though they aren’t used too often. The dialog is also very silly, lighthearted, and remains on-par with the show. Once the credits roll and you realize that this adventure is published by Nintendo, it begins to make sense as to why this game has so much charm.
My only real complaint is that some puzzle solutions can be very obtuse. There may be parts where you’ll want to bust out a guide for the simplest solutions because the answer isn’t as intuitive as it should be. Shoutouts to KirbyRockz and their GameFAQs walkthrough from May 2004. A minor complaint is repetition; like I don’t feel it’s necessary to make Hamtaro sniff for sunflower seeds when they’re sitting right in front of him. There are lots of small things in the game like that.
At the end of it all, it’s just a fun little adventure that doesn’t demand much from you. As said, if you’re a Hamtaro fan, you’ll probably enjoy it quite a bit. If you aren’t a fan, I think you’ll still have a decent time.
In Ham-Ham Heartbreak, you play as Hamtaro and (kind of) Bijou. A devious little hamster named Spat has been traveling throughout the land and causing squabbles between the closest of friends, lovers, siblings, and more; ruining their relationships. An angelic hamster named Harmony calls upon Hamtaro and Bijou to stop Spat and help the feuding pairs make amends. Unfortunately for Hamtaro, he accidentally spills water all over his Ham-Chat dictionary from the previous game, Ham-Hams Unite. As a result, he is no longer hip with the latest Ham-Ham lingo, meaning he has no idea how to communicate certain words or actions to his fellow hamsters.
The game serves as a simple point-and-click adventure where you have to fetch objects or solve puzzles at the requests of multiple hamster NPCs. The only issue is that without his dictionary, Hamtaro doesn’t know how to speak or interact with the environment or other characters. While most point-and-click games have a small collection of commands such as Examine, Speak, Interact, and so on, Ham-Ham Heartbreak has a massive array of interactions, having about 90 in total. This may sound daunting, but each object or NPC you interact with only contains a small amount of actions to choose from, depending on the context of where they are. If you exhaust all the available actions and don’t quite get anywhere with them, it means you most likely don’t have the one you need yet. Actions can be obtained by completing quests, in which case a hamster will share a Ham-Chat that you’ll be able to utilize later. Throughout the adventure, there are also a few minigames to play and collectibles to find. You can buy little outfit pieces to put on Hamtaro in a photo studio and you can gather gemstones for no particular reason outside of vague education.
The presentation is where Ham-Ham Heartbreak really shines. It’s one of the nicest looking games on the GBA, as you can tell a lot of care and effort when into the spritework of the characters and environments. Speaking of, Hamtaro and Bijou steal the show with their sprites and animations, especially the Ham-Chat actions. Each one is goofy and super expressive. Even if you have to watch them perform the same action 100 times, the animations never get old. The music is decent for the most part; admittedly the loops are fairly short so some tracks can get a little grating after a while. All your favorite Ham-Hams from the TV show are present and they look great, though they aren’t used too often. The dialog is also very silly, lighthearted, and remains on-par with the show. Once the credits roll and you realize that this adventure is published by Nintendo, it begins to make sense as to why this game has so much charm.
My only real complaint is that some puzzle solutions can be very obtuse. There may be parts where you’ll want to bust out a guide for the simplest solutions because the answer isn’t as intuitive as it should be. Shoutouts to KirbyRockz and their GameFAQs walkthrough from May 2004. A minor complaint is repetition; like I don’t feel it’s necessary to make Hamtaro sniff for sunflower seeds when they’re sitting right in front of him. There are lots of small things in the game like that.
At the end of it all, it’s just a fun little adventure that doesn’t demand much from you. As said, if you’re a Hamtaro fan, you’ll probably enjoy it quite a bit. If you aren’t a fan, I think you’ll still have a decent time.