Part 5: The good, the bad and the heroic

Update 04: The good, the bad and the heroic



Welcome back, one and all! Last time, someone seemed to be upset by our efforts to save Oxnard and Pepper's relationship. Let's meet that someone now, shall we?

WATCH THIS VIDEO. The first scene is possibly my favourite in the entire game.



Seems they're rather pushy too. (I'm going to be quiet for a moment...)



perfectly unhappy!! How dare you unbreak the hearts I broke!! I will not be undone, pfpth!!







And I'll not stop until I crush your hamsters' ham-witted love, pfpth!
Bwah ha ha ha haaaa!



Pppffptth! Pppffptth!



...And with that, the game's greatest character completes his introduction. Spat is the perfect cartoon villain in my eyes; he has no goals beyond making everyone miserable, he has a very unique manner of speaking... and he has excellent theme music. If I could find music clips somewhere, I would have to link his every time.



Just in case it wasn't totally clear that we just meet our main baddy, his face appears on the map at this point. At least we can keep tabs on him...



Heh... An entirely reasonable reaction to someone who barged in and left your friend twitching on the floor while he monologues.

Again, Spat is the best character.







...I don't think you should shake hamsters like that.



Right, Hamtaro?



Huh, maybe he's not so oblivious after all.



...the Clubhouse! Let's go, Hamtaro!



And with that, our first outing to Sunny Peak comes to an end. Now, time for more plot!



Oh yeah... What did Boss want her for, anyway?



Pity we're not going to find out. We have a threat against love itself to worry about!



Actually... There was... and so... And that's that.

What?!?



Yep-P! Thanks for the clear and concise summary, Boss.

...Also, we could apparently tell that Spat's wings were part of his costume. But then again, Heyhoo-Ham said Spat could fly...





Way to downplay Hamtaro's prophetic powers. As for what to do, I sense we may be getting an answer to that question...



...right about now.





Uh-huh... Who are you, and why have you barged into our Clubhouse?



Everyone, say hello to Harmony. I tend to dislike her for a number of reasons.





...getting tired of chasing him.

See, Harmony is that little bit too much of a do-gooder.



Let's see it! Tee hee! ♥





She also seems to just expect help from us, no questions asked.





...to the top!♥ So you'll do it, right?♥

And although she tries to tempt us with nice offers...



...wait here!



She's about to just bunk off and make our duo do all the work.



Okay, I'll be upstairs. Toodle off now!♥



...And there she goes, to lounge about on our beds and occasionally poke us to go deal with Spat for her.

In all seriousness, at least we now know that we have to undo Spat's dirty work to be able to defeat him. That's something, I guess.





Yeah, unique... That's one word for it.





Mmm-hmm. Totally up to us, seeing as we are the protagonists and all. That's how this usually goes.



...Hamtaro and Bijou.



You got it, Boss.



C'mon, Hamtaro! Let's go!♥



And with that, the cutscene conversations finally end. That's almost five minutes of chatter without our input, which is kind of rare for an adventure game.

At least we got to meet the two big new characters, huh?



Before we head on back to Sunny Peak to check on Spat, let's take this chance to poke around in the Clubhouse a bit.





Really! That's what she said!

Boss still isn't being terribly useful, but at least he tells us a bit about some of the rewards Harmony has on offer. In order to fill up our dictionary, we're going to have to help her.



On the second floor, the angelic ham in question is enjoying the comfy beds.







...You really think you're cute, don't you?





(This is her concentrating face, apparently.)



Thank you for that entirely redundant piece of information, Harmony.



Also, I think you deserve this on principle.



Boo hoo...



...I have no comment.



Checking in with Snoozer, since we're already here.



Keep on dreaming, buddy.



The Photo Studio is open, but since we don't have anything to wear yet... There's only this one silly thing to show off.





...I'll take Seamore's word for it. I'm no photographer.



On a slightly more interesting note, we have something else new available to us now that Bijou's been rescued.



Ham-Jamming, baby!



This is a little side-feature where we can make up dances to go along with various bits of music, using whatever Ham-Chats we happen to have learnt so far. All songs come with a default dance, and I'll be showing off all of those in videos.

Hamtaro Time is the one music we don't have to find, and the anime's English opening theme. It still sounds good coming out of a GBA.

Condor's Wings... I don't know how to describe it. It reminds me of something from the Klonoa LP. (Most of the default dance contains Ham-Chats we haven't seen, either. )



After that little musical interlude, it's time to poke around on Sunny Peak some more. Surely Spat can't have gotten up to too much trouble yet...



First order of business: Retrieving this easy-to-miss Ham-Chat. As you might guess, rescuing Bijou is enough to satisfy this boat-admiring hamster.



Taking the long way around leads us to... just one of the seed-scraffing pair. With that broken heart there, we should probably talk to them.



He was only supposed to be taking a short break, and yet he still hasn't come back.







...Now I just feel sorry for her. Better add this to our growing list of objectives.



Pepper and I are gettin' along great! It's just like it was before!

Glad to hear it, Oxnard!











...You two are just concentrated , you know that?





Pity that bothering them with Tack-Q isn't quite so interesting, even with their expressions.



Anyway, there's really just one more thing to do out here in the part of Sunny Peak we've already seen.

That's good! I'm still lookin'...
...
How about this?





Sure, we can lend you a paw, Arnie.



Especially since we already know where that training seat is.



...Why is he wearing it as a hat?



In that case, it's all yours! Put it on, and you'll surely get a laugh!



I think Seamore might need some help.



At least we got what we wanted without a lot of fuss, though. How often can you say that in an adventure game?



...Okay, I'm curious. What happens if we say no?



Ah, we get locked into a 'but thou must' situation. Gotcha.



Without this... Uh... Just trust me, it's vital!



And you too, cutie!

See you soon, Arnie.



Very soon, in fact.





Yep! I did just what you told me to do!



Yep... Vital indeed. Good thing we didn't take any longer with that.









Yippee yahooo!!

I really don't have to add anything to this.



Yep!



...Of course that's the Ham-Chat for opening doors. How could it not be?



At any rate, we now have a new area of Sunny Peak to explore!



Oooh, a switch! Not to mention what looks like the end of minecart tracks...



Oddly, the only option to interact with the switch is Putput, which hardly seems appropriate.



Onwards it is.



Through an empty transitional room...





And into a four-way intersection, which sparks this little outburst from Bijou.



...Super helpful. What if I want to go another way?



...Oh. Not sure how that works, but I guess we're not going that way.



Toward the peak, then!



Well, this seems kind of nice. And is that... a monkey in the background there?



...Hang on a minute.







Oh boy. Looks like we have yet another problem to deal with; but it's going to have to wait until next time. See you then, folks!

Bonus video:

Just a small helping today.