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No Ham-Country

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 29 / 33
Date: January 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

According to the Q&A area of Ubi-soft's website, there is no Ham-country per se. They say that the cage is Ham-country because it is a school (you teach the Hamsterz there), a bakery (you feed them from the food menu), etc. I think I would be happier had they just said that it wasn't included in the programming rather than trying to make it sound like the customers are all mistaken. Some people are going around claiming that you have to play the game for 72 hours to get Ham-country. However, I have it from the source that this is false and I don't recommend wasting 3 days of your life unless you truly enjoy the game.

Now, for a review of what is included in the game. I find it cute and my children all find it fun to play in small doses. A few of the mini games could be frustrating for younger children (and Mom), but my 7 year-old is able to tackle all of them. He is a very computer literate child though, so your mileage may vary. All in all, the controls are very intuitive, so there shouldn't be a problem.

You can not buy food and supplies. To get them you have to play mini games (only when the Hamster is in the mood) or find presents. When the Hamster asks if you want to play, you will see musical notes. Go to the main menu (i.e. so the Hamster is on the top screen) and press the button that appears with a musical note in it. If the kids have trouble playing the mini-games to get food and items, encourage them to use "Outing" then "Open Cage" to collect presents in the "bedroom." If your Hamster is hungry or thirsty and you have no food or drink items, I suggest adopting another Hamster. When you switch with "Hammy" the hunger and cleanliness of the Hamsterz will revery to "normal/ normal." That way you can get more supplies without having a tortured and complaining hamster (did I mention they complain?). You can have more than one Hamster, but only play with one at a time and they do not interact with each other.

Speaking of complaining... One of my favorite features of the game is that the Hamsterz will converse with you. My kids love it and it encourages my 5 and 4 year-olds to read. They have already picked up on some phrases like "Good Evening." With that in mind, the breeds all have different dialog accents (Australian, baby-talk, etc) so you may have to explain this to early readers. My kids get the biggest kick out of the voice recognition. This feature is very well done. We have had no problems at all with settings, background noise, or changing settings for more than one user (completely unnecessary for Hamsterz).

The holidays included with the game have strange (often culinary) names, so expect questioning as to why your child doesn't have A holiday from school on "Miso Day" or "Strawberry Day."

All in all, this is a fun "pet" game. My kids love it with or without Ham-country and I let them "take out" their hamsterz to play with and take care of for a half hour a night after dinner. That way, they are getting the most out of the program without getting easily bored. They received it on Christmas and still look forward to Hammy time every night. The only reason I have it less than 5 stars is because I do not care for the misinformation on their advertising regarding "Ham-country."

BEWARE!!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 20 / 23
Date: December 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game has a MIS-PRINT on the box and description!! It says that this has a Ham-Country with a bakery, school, playground, bookstore, etc. THAT'S NOT TRUE!!! If you are buying the game for that reason, dont do it! You will be very disappointed! I have had this game for almost a month, and I have played it for over 40 hours (total time). I raised 6 hamsters, acquired every single accessory, cage, toy, food, and everything else (of which there are generally 6 of each type of item). I played all of the mini-games, and of course I let my hamster explore my "room" every day. I clean up after the hamster, brush it, feed it, etc. The game gets very mundane & boring after a few days but I only kept playing so I could see the "ham-country" which I have now sadly discovered does not exist. I called UBIsoft about this, and they were clueless about the whole thing. Imagine that! I feel like I wasted my money and all my time on this game. It's cute that the hamster learns to "talk" (you speak to it, but it responds with text in a message box), and it's okay that you can play "catch" with the hamster (you throw a ball with the stylus, he catches it and throws it back to you). And most of the required item-acquiring mini-games are tolerable at best, but seem geared toward the pre-school aged children, so except for on the "difficult" setting, they can be done with your eyes closed, pretty much. But your hamster himself doesnt really do anything. He just runs around the cage, plays with a toy sometimes, runs in his wheel, eats, and occasionally sits on his hind legs and says something quirky to you. This is all adorable and fun the first few days, but like I said, the fun-factor diminishes greatly after that. I definitely dont recommend this game, unless you just rent it or borrow it from a friend.

Just like my old Hamster

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: January 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am a ten year old who recently Had her hamster die.Rather than buy a new Hamster we got this Game.It acts like my old hamster.She looks just like her too.My Hamster has been growing and growing and today I just received a roller coaster.I love the game and would totally recommend it!I like it way better than any of my other games.The hamster game is better than the dog game.

sincerely Mocha

Disappointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 15
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yes the Hamsterz are cute...but after a while they do and say the same things, and nothing new really happens after you've acquired all of the items. You can teach them to play with a toy, only to find that a minute later they have forgotten how to, and you have to sit there and wait for them to figure it out all over again. You can pet and brush them and make them happy, then when you try these things again a little later, they run away from you and their happiness meter drops to zero again. It makes no sense why these things happen and it's very frustrating! I've put hours and hours and HOURS into this game, expecting one day to find my Hamsterz built a "Ham-Country", but this never happens. Actually, you can only play with one hamster at a time in the cage and they can never interact with each other. Overall, I'm pretty disappointed.

DONT BUY! THE UBISOFT COMPANY LIES!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 22
Date: January 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I like hamsters so I bought this game espically since the thought of them building "ham-countries" would be really cool.To the point: there is no ham-country. You can keep more than one hamster but not at the same time. If they had the ham-country the fact that the hamsters say and do pretty much the same thing would be excusable, but Ubisoft downright lied on the packaging. I wish I hadnt bought this when it first came out. That I couldve read reviews about it before I bought it. Now Im stuck with this crappy game. I dont even want to sell it on Ebay and have someone be disppointed with it too. They'd probably as for their money back as well.I wrote to the Ubisoft company twice and they NEVER returned my emails. I'll NEVER buy another Ubisoft product again. Want a hamster? Go out and just buy one. It'll be alot cheaper than raking out the 32 bucks like I did for this stupid game. Ubisoft-you suck!!Stephany

Perfectly Good Game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is perfectly alright. Who cares if there's a Ham Country or not? Some people do, but seriously, even if there isn't one, it's fine. It's fun to take care of a hamster, even if it is a virtual one. Some people don't want to go out and get a real hamster. This hamster doesn't bite or get sick. It can talk and you can play games with it. I would like to have a real one, but this suits me just fine too. I don't get why people are getting so mad about the Ham Country thing. It's just a game. If you're not satisfied, scrap this and go get LoveLove Hamster. It might be better, but that's your opinion. This game is fun and I totally recommend it. I think that the English that they have typed onto there is poorly translated, but I think it's cute as well. If a hamster could talk in real life, what do you think it would talk like? More like a baby. I think it's really cute that your hamster asks you if you're alright. There are holidays and really enjoyable games that keep you to the screen for a long time. The hamster acts like a real animal, and has realistic needs. I rate this game 5 stars because it's fun and is just what it says: Hamsterz Life. It's the life of a hamster. Ham country or not, you still have to take care of it because the Hamsterz dies. If your real pet died, wouldn't you be heartbroken? I know I would. The thing is, this game is perfectly fine and doesn't need a Ham Country to complete it. I suggest you go get this for an animal lover!!! This game is the best!

grace loves it!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: May 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My daugther,Grace, got this game for her 6th birthday. She loves it. She has three hamsters in the game now, named, and she can buy them accessories , feed them and talk to them. It's really cute and easy enough for a beginner at DS to learn quickly.

Better than expected

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I wanted this game for a while, and, of course, reading the Amazon reviews gave me seconnd thought. Even though there may not be a Ham-Country, the game is still fun all-in-all. I think people who like Nintendogs will like it best, because it's quite like it.
To be honest, I got bored with Nintendogs after a while, but it's one of those games where you sorta 're-discover' it after a bit and play it again.
That's what I'm thinking this game is like. I've only had it for a few days, so I can't give you a completely acurate low-down on how long it takes to get boring.
But, personally, I still think there is a Ham-Country, because my friend told me she has it. Maybe she has the Japanese version, (she can speak it) because I've been told Ham-Country exists in LoveLove Hamster.
But all in all, the game will be fun for people who are into either animals or Nintedogs.

-Riley

P.S. I only gave it 4 stars cause' it doesnt have the makings of a 5 star game.

It's a good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Hamsterz life is a fun game with lots of neat things to do and places to go. I think that any kid who likes animals, especially hamsters, will enjoy this game.

Furry feet

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 31, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Want a hamster? If yes, this is a game for you! Start off picking from 5
different breeds of hamsters and then take care of it! You can feed it,
groom it, hold it, pet it, play with it, let it out of its cage, and
A LOT more. Here is a tip, let your hamster out of its cage often to find cool stuff lying around. Also, you can play hamster mini games! Although
its weird, you can teach your hamster to talk too, and you can do downloads with other peoples hamsters if they have the game.

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