Format: Advance
Genre: Action
Developer: Pax Softnica
Publisher: Nintendo

had to redefine my rating standards due to this game. To start off, this is one of those "games" that's a story driven experience rather than something with a win/lose scenario. That means I had to treat this a bit differently than everything else I've played up till now. The main gameplay of the game is to experience the story laid out before the player, and thus, I had to shift my values to respect that difference in design. nearly 95% of this game is a "go here and talk to X" situation. In that way you could classify this as a walking simulator. Ham-Ham Heartbreak takes many core elements from the anime it spawned from, Hamtaro. The anime itself ran in the early 2000's and headed up the lineup during the "Trapped in Hyperspace" arc of Toonami. The game itself has it's own unique story and faithfully recreates several of the hamster friends known as hamhams in the game. The way you play this game is to go around and talk to the other hamsters and help solve their problems by using unique key words that you learn throughout the game by listening or talking to other hamsters. Sometimes you interact with objects as well, and there are a rare few actual bosses in the game. From what I can tell, there's no actual possible way to lose the game at all. This put me at a quandary when it came time to rate it because all games have a win/lose condition. That's part of what makes a game a game. This is the reason I had to invert my thinking when it came to this title. Instead of viewing it as something that was game-like, I viewed it as a storybook instead. Since there is progression, and there are some things you can lose, and the most lose-able element you have is time, it can be viewed as a proper story game. The graphics of the game are very on-point. Dynamic emotes and contextual dialogue are surprisingly fitting. I guess that's what you get when you focus 100% on story. What really struck me as amazing about this game though was the detailed level of concept that went into the main villain. His name is 'Spat' and he resembles the best and worst of what you want a villain to truly be. He doesn't have any arbitrary ideals or world conquest or anything like that, he simply hates love and wants to destroy it. Not only does he want to destroy it, but has the ability to destroy it and carries it out in every possible way he can! It's a game about hamsters, but you never get the feeling that spat is under-powered as a hamster at all. In fact, if anything, he's possibly overpowered since he has the ability to fly, transform, steal, and lie. I'd be lying myself if I didn't say I enjoyed his antics throughout the game and his classic "ptfphtff" line. To progress in the game you must learn words called "Hamchats" which allow you to progress through the game as actions you can take. There are 86 of these in all and you only get a few after you beat the final boss. Getting all 86 means you get the True Ending. You always have 4 basic hamchats you can choose from, and when you need to use a unique one, it always appears as an additional option. Most of the game revolves around this action of talking to people or using a hamchat on them and they themselves teaching you another hamchat which you use somewhere else. You start the game by yourself as Hamtaro and have to rescue Bijou in Sunny Peak. After you rescue her, you are more or less bound together for the rest of the game. The game advancement revolves around using these hamchats you learned to solve the heartbroken hamsters you meet. They are identified with the broken hearts hovering over them. By bringing 2 hamsters back together, they form a full heart and thwart Spat's evil plans, which fills up your love meter as well. You can get 19 hearts before the final boss and 2 additional hearts after the final boss to polish off your love meter. The dancing minigame can also be completed after the final boss to get the final hamchat and true ending. Both endings get you credits, but I went the full 10-yards on this one and got the true ending. There's some post game stuff you can do with collectible rocks and accessories as well. It's an odd story driven game that turns post-game into a collectathon. Good for nostalgia and quirky reaction designs.

All in All, This game earned a 7.0 for quirky story driven nature. Slow Progress, Every action has an animation, Some things aren't intuitive, Rubbing rocks is slow until you beat the true ending, Story Driven Walking Sim.