Hamsterz Life Review

It seems like Ubisoft wants to reinvent how we view hamsters. Back when my cousin had a pet hamster, I remember it being a dull creature who’s only memorable moment was when he bit my finger while I was trying to pet him. In Ubisoft’s Hamsterz life, the little critters are not only much nicer than the one who bit my finger, but they’re incredibly smart. Ok, so maybe developer Digital Kids simply ran out of things to do and delved into the realm of fantasy, but these hamsters are geniuses.

Let’s start with the basics, which is picking out a hamster and taking it home. After you’ve selected the type of hamster you want (I had no idea there were so many different types), you name the little pet and put it in its cage. Of course, the cage comes equipped with a wheel and water bottle at first, and there are a variety of ways to take care of your hamster. You start by giving it food (pellets and seeds at first, but you eventually acquire different types) and filling up the water bottle. After this, you can choose other ways to take care of your hamster, including cleaning its cage and brushing the little guy. You can also hold the hamster and move him around the cage. This part of the game isn’t much fun, but at least these actions are very easy to perform and don’t take up much time, meaning you’ll spend most of the game performing other actions. You can also upgrade the cage, the surroundings, the wheel, etc. if you’re so inclined.

When you’re done taking care of your hamster, you can let the hamster play with some toys. This part of the game consists of you placing a specific toy (such as a gnawing tree) in the cage and watching the hamster interact with it. Honestly, nothing is more fun that simply watching the hamster play on the wheel, in real life or otherwise. Tossing a ball at the hamster or using any of the other toys just isn’t much fun after the first few minutes. Where Hamsterz Life does offer fun distractions is in the mini-games, which include memorization and fishing. The mini-games are probably the most fun part of this game, but unfortunately Digital Kids only included seven of them. These games, which are chosen by the hamster after selecting the “play” option, are varied and reminded me of some of the mini-games included with the Nintendo DS Mario games.

The surprising twist with this pet simulation game is the fact that these hamsters………….talk. They learn phrases, which they can repeat back to you (through text), and they communicate with you pretty constantly once they’ve learned to talk. They are also moody creatures, and you’re required to talk to them about their feelings so that they can tell you later on in the game how they feel, rather than having to go through the status screen. Overall, the hamsters are pretty high maintenance, and require a lot of commitment and communication, like all relationships do. This part of the game is engaging, in the same way that talking to the dogs was fun in Nintendogs and Dogz. The hamsters will tell you things like “I’m lonely”, and it’ll be up to you to figure out how to fix the situation. It’s an interesting dynamic, but it’s odd to see the hamster stare at the screen and ask you to teach them how to communicate their feelings to you when someone steals their sunflower seeds. It definitely is an odd mix to go along with the rest of the game, which is pretty straightforward in terms of how pet simulations are played. Then again, the communication and the mini-games are what make this game different and breaks the monotony of other pet sims, so it was a good choice by the development team. Finally, you can connect with another hamster owner via a local multiplayer mode (two copies of the game are necessary) to have your hamster interact with your friend’s and to exchange hard to find items.

The graphics in Hamsterz are about average for a 3d DS game. Most of the textures on the cage itself are rather blurry and many of the items consist of low-polygon models, but the hamsters themselves look good and animate well. Left alone, the hamster will display a lot of animations, including riding the wheel, climbing, digging, scratching, etc. The mini-games have a separate anime art style, again in contrast to the rest of the game’s visuals. Nothing really stands out visually, but nothing distracts you from the gameplay either. The sound is equally average, with forgettable tunes, sound effects, etc. The volume seemed really low coming from the DS speakers, so expect to play this game with headphones.

Overall, Hamsterz is a pretty standard take on the pet simulation genre, with the unusual twist of having talking hamsters and a variety of off-the-wall games tacked on. While those are ultimately gratifying, your personal opinion of the game will probably hinge on how much you enjoy the basic activities of grooming and interacting with your pet hamster. If you already enjoyed taking care of dogs and horses, you’ll likely enjoy taking care of these talking hamsters as well.