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Three years had passed since Pure Heart, the final entry in the Hamster Paradise series.
Would mankind ever feel such kinship with hamsters ever again? Would any be able to
step into Atlus� place as the ultimate purveyor of hamster-raising simulations? Sure enough,
it took Nintendo to open the world�s eyes to the fact that, indeed, even American gamers
were willing to poke at a screen for hours and days on end to raise a dog that doesn�t
exist. And if Nintendo can do it with a dog, by gum, Ubisoft can do it with literally EVERYTHING
else. And they�ll jam a Z onto the name, because they can. Catz? Of course. Dogz? Naturally.
But in a new development for Western gaming... the Hamsterz came along for the ride.
And... for whatever reason, this hamster happens to speak Chinese. I�m not sure what to make
of that. Here we have a strange crossroads of two different schools of hamster-rearing:
The Hamtaro school of language adoption, and the Hamster Paradise school of practical hamster
management. It should be mentioned that Hamsterz Life is, in fact, developed by Digital Kids,
the same outfit what created five of the six Hamster Paradise titles. So the lineage lives
on! In English! And Chinese, apparently. And there�s katakana on that little �Speak�
icon right there, but touching it merely reveals that the two things I�m allowed to say are
�Good Morning� and �Cavity Prevention Day.� I appreciate good Hamster Hygiene
as much as the next guy who doesn�t actually own a hamster, but... y�know what, screw
it. CAVITY PREVENTION DAY.
Dude�s just as confused as I am. Maybe I should take this Hamster Wand - won from a
minigame buried miles deeper than its Game Boy bretheren - out of the toys section and
traumatize my hamster with a floppy object. No, never mind. I�m sorry. I take that back.
(Even though it did make some cool noises.) You can feed, brush, and pet your hamster
in its cage, tend to said cage (man, that water texture is... it sure is watery, huh),
and even remove it from its cage and give it free reign over your bedroom. Maybe it�ll
find a present somewhere. Maybe it�ll start talking to you in Chinese again. Maybe it�ll
ask a question on linguistics in adorable broken English (which might be intentional,
though there are some dicey spots in the translation that might also be culpable). Or maybe it�ll
just ram its cute little hamster head into a wall. Still, we have Felicity in Worcestershire
to thank for this first DS offering in the Hamster Thursday saga. Even though all these
hamsters totally makes my Pikachu 3DS jealous. Just sayin�.