|| REVIEW || Hamsterdam (PC)
Developed By : Muse Games Published By : Muse Games
Category : Action, Arcade, Fighting Release Date : TBA (2019)
Welcome to Hamsterdam where our main character, Pimm, might not be the hero you expect...but he's the one we (and his town) needs! When the evil Chinchilla mafia boss Marlo rolls into town, he and his goons take over everything and everyone. Pimm manages to avoid them all, but quickly learns that he's the only one, and his Grandpa has been taken along with everyone else. Luckily, his Grandpa has been teaching him the ways of Hamster Fu, and as long as Pimm can remember his lessons he'll be able to save his Grandpa, the town, and everyone in it form the evil clutches of Marlo.
Developed as a mobile game, the PC build features keyboard and mouse controls, as well as controller support. And while the game boots up strongly suggesting you use a controller, I personally had more fun with using the mouse for the increased challenge. No matter which scheme you use though, it's clear to see the mobile origins of a lot of the controls, and how well they implemented the other inputs.
Through the game you'll come across three types of levels. You'll have your normal levels which make up the majority of things, boss levels (which actually have their own sub-set of mini-boss levels) and then special seed levels. For the most part, they all utilize the same controls, but with a few minor tweaks in specific instances.
For the normal levels, this is where the majority of your Hamster Fu will be on display. Pimm will be positioned on the right side of the screen, with all of his enemies on the left. They will attack a few at a time, and it's up to you to attack back or to defend yourself if necessary. The way you attack is by clicking on the screen (if you're using a mouse) or pressing a button on a controller (for me it was the Circle button on a PS4 controller). When you need to defend against an enemy attack, they will flash and you'll need to counter by swiping in their direction (clicking and dragging towards them with the mouse, or flicking the joystick respective to the flashing enemy's screen position). Occasionally, an enemy will really get the jump on you and you'll need to respond to a quick time event, represented by either directional arrows where you'll need to click-and-drag or flick the joystick, or button mash the attack button.
Boss and mini-boss stages rely more on your movement, while Pimm buys time waiting for that opportune moment to strike. You'll have an enemy hurling bombs at you, and the only way to survive is to avoid them. Luckily (or rather, unluckily depending on who's position you look at it from), your baddies will periodically throw other hamsters at you. The silver lining is that if you can get into position underneath them, you'll throw the hamsters back and they'll start attacking with you. These stages come with a few phases that will increase in speed and difficulty.
Lastly, the seed levels are more of a bonus than anything else, and are a means to provide you with extra seeds, the games form of currency. These stages are side-scroll style and you'll need to collect as many seeds as possible in one run. However, this won't be your only way of earning currency. Every level in the game comes with a total of six different objectives : three that will earn you earn you a star for each one you complete, and three that will earn you a chunk of seeds for each that is completed.
What can you do with your seeds? Pimm has four outfit areas that can be customized : headgear, eyewear, hands, and upper body. Most of these are purely cosmetic, giving you silly outfit options while you beat up Vermin, but some later on offer special abilities such as making his attacks stronger and charging up special abilities a little faster.
Special moves are just that, special Hamster Fu abilities that Pimm remembers from Grandpa's training, and practices along the way. They start off pretty simple, introducing perfect attacks that deal a little more damage if you time them specifically instead of just mashing away. But, they can get to be pretty intense, bringing in charged attacks to bust through shielded enemies, and the ability to slowly heal yourself over time.
I can honestly say I extremely enjoyed my time with Hamsterdam. I chose to play the game with the mouse as it added an extra challenge, needing to be extremely aware of your screen presence. Even with that challenge though, I had more fun than frustrations. Typically in games like this that have requirements for 1- , 2- , and 3-stars, I like to constantly push for all three and hope it doesn't drive me nuts. Hamsterdam managed to drive me nuts meeting both sets of requirements, but I was enjoying it thoroughly along the way.
As of right now, there is no firm release date yet for Hamsterdam, but once it's ready you can expect to see it on PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android systems. And in the realm of potential expansion, there's ideas for adding in some different game modes such as surviving wave-based attacks and endless bomb levels, even harder modes and items that could make playing the game extremely difficult, but if you manage to beat the game with said item, the reward will be quite juicy. Personally, after my time spent with this game, I can't wait to see any or all of those ideas get implemented. This game is incredible as it is, and adding these things will only serve to stoke the fire.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter (here), as well as the source for this amazing game, Muse Games (here) for any updates on this game and it's release. This one will be worth the wait, so when it drops, go running.
Game Rating : 9.5/10
Played on : Steam (PC)
Also Available on : Nintendo Switch, Apple iOS, Android
