1727 - Hamtaro - Rainbow Rescue

I remember looking at that box in the store and thinking: what the heck is this? Hamtaro – Rainbow Rescue. A game about hamsters. On Game Boy Advance. Year 2003. I wasn't the target audience, but I couldn't resist when a game is this weird.

It's a puzzle-platformer with collecting mechanics. You control Hamtaro the hamster, who's trying to rescue his friends – each level is basically a small world made of blocks that you need to navigate through and collect all the cosmic diamonds or whatever you're supposed to gather. The game never really explains what's actually happening in it. There's something about a rainbow, something about rescue. Honestly, the plot is pure filler – a reason to keep moving forward, and that's it.

It plays simply. Movement, jumping, collecting stuff. The GBA controls are instant, no lag. The levels aren't hard – just boring. Their design screams that someone sat down and said: "Let's put some blocks here, add something for fun." No mechanical ideas. There's no invention to keep you hooked. Add in long stretches of dull gameplay and you've got the recipe for why nobody remembers anything good about it.

Same goes for the graphics. Hamtaro's sprites and his friends' are decent enough, small and pudgy, but the backgrounds have zero personality. The sound is classic GBA – quiet, plastic-y, nothing that sticks with you. The game isn't broken, just boring.

Today it appeals to those with nostalgia for this franchise or who collect every GBA game without discrimination. Everyone else will skip it. It's not a bad game, just pointless. It exists legally, nothing more. If you want a puzzle-platformer from the Game Boy Advance era, there are a dozen better choices. This one doesn't crack the Top 10 or even the Top 50. It's a job someone did because they licensed the property, and that's where it ends.