I solved Hamtaro's biggest mystery - Tama Hiroka
Вставка
- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
- Why were the Hamtaro video games, specifically Ham Hams Unite so good? Tonight, Tama investigates. Who made them? When? Why? And why was Nintendo involved?
Support Kawaii Bath and Body! www.kawaiibath...
Use code TAMA10 to get 10% off!
Click here to subscribe! www.youtube.co...
SOCIAL LINKS:
See more videos: / tamashiihiroka
Support the show! / tamashiihiroka
I stream on Twitch as TamashiiHiroka
Follow me on Twitter! / tamashiihiroka
NEW! Instagram! / tamagohiroka
Sources:
dubbing.fandom...
toonami.fandom...
www.animenewsn...
web-japan.org/...
icv2.com/artic...
en.wikipedia.o...
www.tapatalk.c...
www.giantbomb.... - based Bowl-of-Lentils for providing so much info on Pax Softnica
#Hamtaro #HamtaroHamHamsUnite #HamtaroGame #GBC #Gameboy #GameboyColor
One of my favorite parts of the game was if you go to the grocery store, you can meet a hamster who asks for help opening a pack of cookies. If you help him, he says they're good, but not as good as his mom's. If you return to the shrine level, you can talk to a lonely old hamster who will bring you inside her house and, if you've talked to the grocery hamster, will give you a fresh baked cookie. You can return to the grocery ham and give him this cookie, to which he'll realize it actually is his mom and she's been lonely since he left home. From that point on, you can return to the lonely ham's house and you'll find not her, being sad, but the grocery ham telling you how he's reconnecting with his mom. There's no objective to this, it's completely missable, but it's such a lovely little side quest just to do on the merit of it being adorable. There's a lot of charm in this game like that.
Lmao, the censored feet. Incredible.
This had me dying lol
Chaz' feet must be too perfect to be allowed on UA-cam.
Awsum!😸
Gotta keep within that TOS
Also, don't sleep on Ham Ham Heartbreak, these games are excellent to just relax and have a wholesome time
Honestly HHH is my #1 Hamtaro game
I still remember the legendary spoon.
Man, to this day I still use the "pffftp" whenever I want to express my version of an amused keysmash. I loved that game.
Came here to literally say this! 😂 Ham Ham Heartbreak is top tier!! lmfao
When I got my GBA SP, the only game in stock in the store was Ham Ham Heartbreak, so I got it. If it wasn't the only game in the store, I would never have played it, and I love it.
Chaz said “y’all ain’t seeing these feet for free”
Linguini Chaz’s feet are too hot for UA-cam
I didn't expect to see Linguini here lmao
Hailstorm H.
Am I a celebrity now?
@@kingofthebis1068 yes
...Or seeing Tama in the bathtub. For obvious reasons.
I had absolutely no idea Hamtaro didn't do well here ;-; thats genuinely sad I used to love it I think I even had a dvd
The ratings were actually really strong at first, but the merchandise was less successful than anticipated and hype around the show died fairly quickly. Still, there are certainty a fair number of Americans who remember it fondly
I mean it's quite the jump to go from Dragonball Z to cute little talking hamsters. It really needed other shows of its demo or to be relocated somewhere else in channel space.
sameeee all of my neighborhood friends and I were so into it!
SoupyTwist 2002 was the year Nintendo tried to make both Hamtaro and Kirby a thing in America. In hindsight, it was both to try and find a “Pokémon replacement” as that franchise had dropped in popularity, and a power move they were making as the majority of marketing rights were now in the hands of The Pokémon Company rather than Nintendo itself. Thus, they needed a Pokémon style success that they had more ownership over. Who knows?
@@Poever Kirby was the successful one, with hamtaro fading into obscurity
I'm baffled. Everyone I've ever talked with about Hamtaro loves it. I only learned it was obscure when trying to buy the entire series. It just doesn't exist haha...ha.
I have a fair amount of it on VHS, no idea if the tapes still work though. Also all of them are in Japanese. [but I also have a few of the American episode compilation DVD releases]
Hawk Talon
If they were stored in a dry and dark place they probably do.
Consistent Tama content has been one of the redeeming qualities of 2020.
Move over Detective Pikachu - Detective Tama is on the case! Honestly Hamtaro deserved a better chance in the west for the anime. But I’m glad that the games were able to captivate an audience past the canceled anime.
aren't those the detective hat and magnifying glass she got *from* Detective Pikachu? I'm glad they came in useful again.
Today I learned Hamtaro bombed in America. TBH tho, I don’t even remember anything from the anime outside of the intro and ending (which the ending looking back actually makes the series that much more out of place in Toonami’s lineup). It sucks it wasn’t given a fair shot though. I believe Jason DeMarco, one of the dudes that ran Toonami, said they hated Hamtaro because it was pushed onto them when they knew it didn’t fit with what they had going. Maybe if it had been on the Miguzi slot that was for younger kids that came out in 2006 it would’ve worked out better but “c'est la vie” I guess. On the Hamtaro game tho, I honestly thought it WAS a GBA title until you said otherwise. That’s crazy high polish.
Glad I’m not the only one who thought it looked like a GBA game at first!
Yeah, I remember DeMarco and Gill Austin (another Toonami showrunner) putting it on a list of their Top 6 Biggest Fails in their history, saying that they liked the show, but that they should not have been forced to air it on the block at all. Hamtaro's airing on Toonami is half of what screwed it's chances of success in the US right out of the gate. Also, Ham-Hams Unite really CAN pass as an early GBA game.
Somebody in charge of Toonami actually said that?Honestly this makes me hate Toonami even more, I'm Italian and Hamtaro was probably one of the most successful anime here in the 2000's, it had so much merchandise, btw, Toonami and American networks in general always had bias against girly and cute looking anime, here in Italy we had literally all kinds of anime since the 70's, but I feel bad for Americans because they missed out on a lot of good stuff just because it didn't fit their idea of anime, which was action show for boys, Cardcaptor Sakura was turned into Cardcaptors and changed its protagonist because "boys wouldn't take a female hero seriously", Pichi Pichi Pitch, which was insanely successful here in my country, had an English dub already completed and was turned down by all networks, because they weren't interested in a girly anime, I don't understand why these kinds of anime were seen as not profitable and were gatekeep'd from getting a US following, such as Tokyo Mew Mew ending at episode 26 because they couldn't find anyone interested in making toys, but if someone wonders why I hate Toonami, let's say they're in part responsible in why we don't get anime outside of shonen anymore, they don't understand what kinds of anime we liked, making basically anime for children a rarity, with the very little stuff we get being the typical boys' toy tie-in like Bakugan, but I'm so sorry for Americans who never got to experience anime as kids outside of the typical marketable shonen
I was surprised when you described this show as a failure because here in Italy it was a pretty big success and all 200+ episodes got adapted
con un botto di sigle della d'Avena poi
All 296 episodes, Haai! (or Hi! Hamtaro), all four movies and three of the four OVAs.
HAMTARO IS VERY POPULAR IN INDONESIA!!
Im 26 and still love Hamtaro just as much as I did when I was 10.
Zero regrets.
"WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE GAMEFREAK?" 👌🏽
i was Obsessed with hamtaro as a kid, i still have one of those toy pencil toppers that looks like one of the characters. i was honestly really sad finding out a few years ago how bad it did here, and how few people knew about it these days. im still secretly hoping that one day itll get a reboot or something, since with the internet and old cutesy anime things becoming popular for “aesthetic” bloggers, maybe itll jostle up enough hype for some new stuff :) hamtaro will always be important to me
I like Ham Hams Unite. But Ham Ham Heartbreak will always be my favorite. Taking all the best elements from Unite and building on them to make this perfectly crafted, charming game. One of the few games I’d want to 100 percent every time I played it.
Ham Ham Heartbreak was the first one I ever tried playing and it was good enough I had issues getting into any other Hamtaro games
I remember being at first thrown off with the art style of Heartbreak when I first got it. But I fell in love with it a few hours later. The summer I got the game, I played the heck out of while my sister was doing basketball tournaments
Heartbreak was the only one out of the two that I could finish. I couldn’t finish Unite! as a kid, and I replayed it as an adult, but lost it before I could finish it. 😩
"what's your excuse game freak"
I was in middle school when the Hamtaro anime came out, so I *was* the right demographic for it. But damn they did the show so DIRTY and I was absolutely PISSED!! Because it wasn't popular with boys and because the plots was seen as too zany or childish, they thought it wasn't worth the time or effort. Fun fact, even though it was a shoujo based manga, the anime took it in a more gender neutral direction with the color palettes while still being cute as all heck.
Hamster Dance was still pretty popular in the early 2000's, if I was an executive I just would have played up the quirky rodent vibe and of course boost the hype up around the games.
*That moment when you watched and loved the anime despite being a male when the target Audience wasn't for boys. And also didn't own or play any of the hamtaro games-*
I loved literally everything about this video. You made really good points about the game, the writing and jokes are very well done and on-point, I loved that you mentioned Toonami's airing of the show (I'm sorry, I'm a HUGE Toonami geek), and even the promotion for the BATH PRODUCTS was great (bonus points for that very brief scene with Chaz).
As for more on the game itself, I love how the devs really tried their hardest to make the Hamtaro games as faithful to the source material as possible, and how they used different ideas that have been underutilized in other video games, such as the hamster slang, to a great effect. It really is too bad that Hamtaro never really caught on in the West, because it could have been very successful had it 1. not aired on a block everybody watched for it's Shonen fare, and 2. had been introduced to the US a bit earlier with more marketing.
(very) Long Story Short: Great job on the video, and R.I.P. Hamtaro. May you long be remembered.
Hamtaro was massive around here. Still is in my heart uwu.
this is such a good video but i also really appreciate you going out of your way to promote and support black owned businesses
brandon roberts sure but right now at a time where we are fighting for black rights to not be murdered, I do think black businesses deserve more attention. Especially as black businesses are the least likely to receive aid during the pandemic.
Support yes. But I do think promoting black businesses is priority right now.
What a story!! Didnt like the anime but now I kind of respect it.
Who would think that a game would start a pet fever like tamagotchi? Interestign
not much related to the video but the little "obey" thing with the subscribe and notification button made me giggle
I was delighted to see a video about Hamtaro in my subscriptions! Interesting that you know of this franchise from the games - I got into it from the anime! Even though it didn’t live long on TV, I was in kindergarten or first grade when it was on so I was in the right demographic for it. I recall my mom searching the clearance sections of toy stores to try to get the figurines for me before they all disappeared from the shelves. I was obsessed! Later I got a DS and was able to play Ham Ham Heartbreak (GBA) on it. I think I actually never beat the game cause there were so many puzzles to work through… I’d like to revisit it now and see how I fair as an adult, haha.
Y'know the Olympic Games Hamtaro game is actually so good too! I remember playing that all the time on the gameboy advance. I now wanna go back and play the other ones! This one looks so good!
I'm from Germany, and I actually loved Hamtaro as a kid. I even had that exact game and loved every second of it. But until now I didn't know that the game was actually received so well by the general public. I feel a sudden urge to rewatch the show and show it to my daughter once she's the appropriate age. Thanks for that lovely reminder of a gem of my childhood, Tama. 😊
Learning about this is so cool. Hamtaro is the reason I raised so many hamsters in fact.
This game looks so nice, the colors, animations, music, etc. It's a shame how it ended though.
Happy to see you cover this game! It's one of my favourite GBC games and for good reasons, as you said in the video.
I'm actually a big Hamtaro fan! I was one of the lucky kids to had a lot of Hamtaro figures, toys etc while growing up and the anime was aired quite a lot where I live, but still possibly not all the episodes compared to Japan. Still, a lot more compared to the US, that's for certain.
If you ever have the chance, there are a lot of good Hamtaro games on the GBA too, one of which is similar in gameplay to this one, so I definitely recommend playing at least that one! You probably already know, but I still had to say it.
I remember Hamtaro playing on Toonami back in the day, and I exactly remember it stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all these shonen action shows like Dragonball z as you said. Still enjoyed watching it a bit but haven't watched a single second of it since then.
I will always love this series, Hamtaro was a part of my childhood and was the major drive of my first pet I ever wanted for myself to be a hamster............he was a dwarf hamster and named Oreo he was so cute! x3
Ham hams unite and Ham Ham Heartbreak are the two best games out there. The pixel art is still beautiful. I still have both games, vhs tapes, and merch. And may have bought a giant hamtaro plush that banpresto released last year.. Definitely impacted my childhood almost as much as Pokemon, and I hope they release these games on the virtual console of the switch so my little brother can play them.
God I love those games. I still have both my vopies of Ham-Hams Unite and Ham-Ham Heartbreaks because they were that good. And now I have a reason to play them again...once I hunt down an old Gameboy SP from an old game shop.
I never got to play this one...
...but Ham-Ham Heartbreak was one of my fave GBA games. Just a charming little game.
"and for those that don't have a bath, shower steamers"
*Tall people entered the chatroom
Absolutely a fantastic video, diving into the development and impact of Ham-Hams Unite~ You definitely did your research here, despite a few hiccups. Definitely more people should play this game. Well done :)
Over here in Argentina Hamtaro aired at 8am. During elementary school I was in the afternoon turn (from 12 to 17 hs). I remember waking up at 8 and watching Hamtaro while still in bed. It made every morning much happier =).
I remember getting up and watching Hamtaro before school. That was me. I've played Ham Hams Unite, Ham Ham Heart Break, and Ham Ham Games. I'd play Rainbow Rescue as well, but it wasn't released in North America. The games are severely underappreciated....
I remember watching Hamtaro as a kid here in the Netherlands, have some merch from it somewhere aswell and used to love it.
The GameBoy Hamtaro games are honestly some of my favourite GameBoy games out there, along with Pokémon and Golden Sun, good times.
Does anyone remember that one time Cartoon Network had a contest going on, where if you won, you'd get to pick what shows aired on Cartoon Network for a whole day and the kid that won the contest only played a full all day Marathon of Hamtaro?
I'm so glad I got to experience Ham Hams Unite and the GBA Hamtaro games as a kid. I barely knew any English when I was like 7-8 years old, but, as you said, Ham-Chat represented the struggles of language barrier and it did its job very well. When I replayed all Hamtaro games some years ago, with better english skills, it was so much fun to finally understand the silly things the hamsters say. Honestly I can't even choose which game is my favorite, they were all so good (but I remember playing Rainbow Rescue the most).
9:30 I believe Final Fantasy II did this with the password system where you have to use the a certain word for certain characters and they tell you what to do next.
I really love that you are making consistent videos again. I was a HUGE fan of yours when i was a child.
Ham-Ham Heartbreak will always have a special place in my heart
ham ham heartbreak was one of my favorite games ever. In Germany Hamtaro aired at a better time and timeslot I think, it was really popular when I was in elementary school. I need to play ham hams unite, thanks for the video :)
I could have sworn the biggest mystery of hamtaro is WHERE THE FUCK ARE 296 EPISODES AT ONLINE???!!
I remember hamtaro being really populair here (the Netherlands) def mostly girls but enough boys who liked it. They were Happy Meal toys and it was aired dubbed on the television daily. My Italian friends also remember it very fondly. Maybe it did better in Europe?
I don't say this often, but they should've went with 4Kids (or the Fox Box as it was called at the time). Hamtaro probably would've gotten more mainstream attention there. Dubbing quality might have been compromised lol, but maybe they could've pulled it off.
Its sequel, Hamtaro Ham-Ham Heartbreak for the GBA, is a game I played over and over when I was a kid. And I hold it very dear to my heart, And at times I want that rush of comfy nostalgia, I'll pick it up and play through it again.
I remember Hamtaro being on Cartoon Network and that it had Burger King Toys.
I never heard of that one I had ham ham heartbreaker and loved it as a kid. Also had the sports one.
Wow Tama! I've literally been watching your videos since 2013! Glad to see you're still at it! Keep it up 🤗
I live in France, here Hamtaro was pretty popular I think, at least I remember clearly that it ran for many many years on TV when I was a kid.
I always wanted to play this and Ham Ham Heartbreak. But I only had Ham Ham Games growing up. ☹️
Aw, I had no idea Hamtaro flopped in the US. I loved it growing up, but had no idea any games existed
What I understand from this video is that the hamster overcharging for the hot pack is definitely a satirization of Pharma Bro.
Bruh, Hamtaro was the goat we really dropped the ball with it. I remember wanting the game too but it was either that or Pokémon Crystal :(
I loved Hamtaro so much as a kid I had no idea it ever flopped. Sad to hear 😢
Can we take a moment to appreciate your player name "Tamtaro" hahaha when I first noticed it I lol louder than I should 😂
2:50 I see you are a man of culture. Jokes aside, I remember having this game and I enjoyed playing it.
Ham Ham Heartbreak was one of my favorite games as a kid
I loved this game. I still notice friends playing it though every now and again.
One of my favorite videos yet! Love the bath bomb ad! Keep doing great work !
I've watched playthroughs of the first 3 Hamtaro games after remembering they exist. I never watched the show on regular tv, just dvd and vhs, but I loved it! I even still have my Hamtaro plushie!
Thanks for censoring the feet, I would have had to report this video otherwise 😌
I remember in Super Smash Bros. Brawl there was a feature where you can see an index of every Nintendo-made game released on their consoles up to that point, or something like that. As a kid, I was confused at why there were Hamtaro games in that list, but now 12 years later I guess I finally have my answer lol
I got this from my grandma when I was 10 or 11 and LOVED it. Wish I still had it.
Ham-chat reminds me of the reactions in Animal Crossing: New Horizons...
I love Hamtaro and played the Ham Ham Heartbreak when I was about 8. Looking back I’m surprised to see how good it was and how much it taught me.
Hamtaro is part of my childhood and I have no regrets.
When if first met my wife of 11 years (at an anime con) we bonded over this game (we were each the only people the other had ever known who had played)
I'm glad I didn't skip the add. The censored foot had me
i genuinely am loving these not-sponsors, please keep them up!! :)
I used to watch hamtaro as a kid, I loved it
Im just really happy that you came back to UA-cam, probably my fav content creator and I love your more consistent uploads !!!!!! Keep up the great work man
In france we got more luck. We didn't got the complete series either but it stayed longer, and with a somewhat good french dub (for once). I'm a big fan of the series. I played all the games and indeed, they're all surprisingly good. Ham hams unite was awesome, and yet, it's the one i liked the less in the series :p (my fav one stays ham ham heartbreak)
where is that pikachu's nose in the background
I’d never heard of hamtaro but I love that it was a game more or less aimed at a female demographic that is also really good. Game developers really took advantage of young female gamers in the 2000’s by pumping out pink garbage. It’s nice to know there were some hidden gems.
I'm just gonna go grab my copy of this game and Heartbreak and I'll be back after I 100% them. Bye and thanks for the wonderful memories
Why yes, I AM tryna take a bath with Kirby
I LOVE this game!! Its so cute and the graphics are ahead of its time. Almost as you said, like a GBA game. I replay it every so often and its a cute time passer. I also like the GBA games. Wish they had made more of them for Switch etc.
This was the stuff alongside Code Lyoko in the after school lineup
CODE LYOKO IS GREAT.
Oh it’s about the GBC game, you see the mystery I was thinking of was years the show and merchandise stopped in America that during 2009-2012 @ Dollar Stores you could find randomly find vol. 1 & 2 aka Hamtaro and the Ham-Hams + Ham-Hams Head Seaward when the Dollar Store put out DVDs when other stores didn’t want.
Hamtaro Ham Ham Heartbreak was the Hamtaro game I was lucky enough to play as a kid. One of my favorite games to this day.
Maybe the anime failed (and indeed, I never saw it. No cable.) in the west, but the little Ham Ham figurines were the Shopkinz of their day in my friendship circle in Canada haha. I was around 5-8 during this time. My sis and I loved playing with the little hamsters and their clubhouse and handful of expansions. I never played Ham Ham Unite but I LOVED Ham Ham Heartbreak for the GBA. The gameplay was very similar.
Instead of using the Ham Chats to unite Hamtaro's friends at the clubhouse, you healed heartbreak of the residents of the universe with the chats. Couples, friends, and parents/children were experiencing issues thanks to the villain. And your job was to help them and gain power from the healing process to defeat the villain. It was so cute and fun!
So glad to see a spotlight on the Hamtaro game! I feel like the series has had renewed appreciation and nostalgia recently, which makes me happy. I just the show was easily watchable in some form again!
I will say that Cartoon Network kept Hamtaro on air much longer than its run on Toonami. It was around for about two years in various time slots - one of the most memorable for me was a 7pm weekday slot alongside The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries. I remember the last time they played it was a part of their Cartoon Network Block Party Marathons in August 2004, when they played the Ham Ham Games special and the last few episodes of the dub. I remember taping it because Hamtaro’s broadcasts had become sparse around that point - little did I know that would be the last time they would play it! I think I still have the tape somewhere - I really should digitize and archive it at some point.
Oh man, I was super obsessed with Hamtaro and was so sad when I realized the show was gone--
I even tried hard to collect all the Burger King Halloween toys for Hamtaro--
I even had 4 hamsters over different times that I named after Hamtaro, Bijou, Penelope and Cappy--
I totally missed out on Ham-Ham's Unite, but I played the absolute hell out of Ham-Ham Heartbreak and nowadays if I meet ANYONE who knows Hamtaro I get a little excited. I really wish they'd hit us with something new since so much nostalgia has been hitting the gaming industry in recent years. Like, I'm a grown up now, please take my money--
I never played this game, but I did play Ham Ham Heartbreak a TON when I was a kid, and based on the footage in this video; that game is basically a direct sequel to Unite. It has all the same elements of exploring, gathering ham chats, and solving puzzles with them. So they had 2 banger games for a failed kids anime. What a world we live in...
When I was little I played ham hams unite on my Gameboy color so much that it BROKE after 4 years of basically playing it non-stop........... I had no idea how to properly progress, i was just really obsessed with the songs...
I remember seeing a video game magazine dismissing this game with a bad review of something like: "Leave these hamsters in someone else's cage." or something. I myself never played Ham-Hams Unite...but Ham-Ham Heartbreak, oh man.
That game might just be one of my favorite GBA games of all time.
I'm glad somebody really dug into the story behind the game, the show and the rest of it.
But now I'm curious to know...I've been told that Hamtaro still goes on in Japan... Mmm...but how?
I was 13 or 14 at the time the anime was airing in the mornings on Cartoon Network. Me and my younger brothers (8 and 6 at the time) absolutely loved it. I even made a Hamtaro fangame on my computer once for my youngest brother to play (based on the episode where they're daydreaming about a fantasy adventure story).
Back then I wasn't able to speak English, so it was a good challenge finishing this game with my limited vocabulary and a dictionary from the 70's that my family owned.
I remember receiving this game as a gift while I was sick on vacation, so I played its first stages in that state.
The name of my Hamtaro was the one of my real life hampster, Bolita, who died like 18 years ago.
I still have the old playhouse set from way back when, with as many of the Ham-Hams as my family and I could find. And in 2009, I also desperately needed a haircut.
The Anime didn't last a year?!? It felt way longer then that.
Same. I didn’t really watch it, but I remember constantly seeing bumpers and commercials for it.
When you’re a kid, time just exists as an abstract concept in your head.
It may come as a surprise but I know and love Hamtaro. Probably because I had two of the video games, one was on the Gameboy Color the other was on the Gameboy Advance, and I watched that show as much as I could whenever it was on. Don't ask me why I can't explain it either
I suddenly really want to play this Anime Hamster Game from the early 2000's
I love this game so much T-T it was my childhood. I played far to many hours without finishing the game. I guess even more then Pokémon yellow....
I know I had that game where you collect Ham-speak vocabulary... but I don’t remember any other games from this Franchise.
In my honest opinion, all the Hamtaro games from the GB & GBA were really good. Especially the ones from AlphaDream. Real cool to see someone finally talk about them. :p
It's Hamtaro Time!
I love your sense of humor 🤣 it's one of my favorite things about your content. Whether I'm familiar with the topic of the video or not, I'm always guaranteed a giggle 🤣🤣