Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue

"Incredible! You won't regret it!"

When I first saw this game, I thought it wouldn't be as good as Ham-ham Heartbreak, because it doesn't use vocabulary. Boy, was I wrong! You may have to get this game from an importing company (don't worry, you can still get it in English), which was what I did. Well, anyway, let's get to the review!

Story: 10/10
Most video games are not funny at all. Heck, they're downright pathetic. This game, however completely caught me off guard. If you've ever seen the TV show, then the game will seem quite humorous at times. It has that certain air that the TV show has, where the hamsters are so good-intentioned but so misinformed. As for the actual story, it's also actually pretty good. Prince Bo was flying on a rainbow, when his umbrella malfunctioned and he plummeted to doom! Now you have to get the colored ingredients to fix his umbrella, so he can get back home. You'll find plenty of foreshadowing, (Oh, so THAT's what that's there for...) and though it doesn't completely make sense, it probably won't hurt the way you feel about the game.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are superbly done. They really are top-notch when it comes to GBA, although granted, the GBA isn't as good as some of the other consoles out there. Regardless, they are colorful. (Get it? Ok, not funny. At all.) The parts where you decorate and color are not bad at all. You can make some pretty beautiful pictures if you take your time.

Audio: 10/10
As with other Hamtaro games, the music is astounding. If you were turned off by "Ham-ham Games"'s pop-jazz theme, you'll be pleased to hear it go back to it's Heartbreak roots: environment-relative and not bad at all. Though you won't find yourself humming along to the tunes, I can't help giving it a 10.

Gameplay: 10/10
Here's where it all takes place. You have a party of eventually 7 or 10 hamsters that all work together to solve puzzles. The puzzles are no pieces of cake, though. It takes a bit of thought to piece together the way the game is set out, which is refreshing, as most games' puzzle or horribly pathetic or pathetically horrible.There are plenty of mini-games, which are fairly easy, and give you infinite tries, which is nice. When you complete a mini-game, you get a sticker as well as some occasional plotline advancement. Here we are at the stickers. You can collect tons upon tons of stickers, and place them onto mats in any way you see fit. The mats are gorgeous, and every sticker has it's very own mat, although you don't HAVE to put it there. You may save your work on sticker mats. You may also obtain doubles of the stickers. Stickers and extra mats can be purchased at stores. Coloring pages, like stickers and mats, are obtained throughout gameplay. You have a large palette of about 40 colors to color them with, and your work is automatically saved, although you can't color a second page of the same kind without deleting the first one. Additionally, there are lots of levels! At least nine levels, each with it's own theme. All of the levels are very spacious as well. It took me a very long time to memorize the setup of them. Wonderful gameplay. A 10.

Replayability: 10/10
There's nothing more you can ask for here. With nearly 15 mats and nearly 400 stickers, there's so much to do here.

Overall:
Of you see it for $30 or less, BUY IT. You won't regret it!

Bye-Q!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/05