Part 16: But is it art?

As promised, it’s time to go wandering around the ranch again! Everyone in our party has either a task, a minigame or an invitation to take of; Maxwell also has that cow-spotting minigame he can play, but we need the invitation Ham-Hams for this trip.



The first order of business today involves finding the artist hamster. After each ingredient is gathered, the artist appears in a new location with a picture for us.



There’s one for each ingredient’s arc, except the crystal ball (because we already got Red Punster & Hamtaro). Bucket o’ Sun is the first, reminding us of that bucket relay long ago. Looks like Oxnard worked up a good sweat…





Above the second slippery slope, we can find the Maxwell Puzzle picture to commemorate the long search for the four-leaf clover.





Down by the couple we united earlier, there’s the Stan vs. Chicky-Chickies picture of that time we nearly got our butts kicked in RPG-style combat. There are two more pictures to find, but let’s take a little break from that to do other things.





The sacred grounds of bunny hopping, sure. Whatever you say, bud.



Actually, since the staircase is of infinite length until you beat this minigame, there might be something to those claims. If you’ve got good timing, you can clear 109 steps.



Not many Ham-Hams have been able to clear these steps. Oh! That reminds me. Please let me give you this!



Come again.



Seems like an odd thing to be recognised for, but hey, free trophy!



This .gif exists only because I want to mention that the jump sound effect here gets layered on top of itself into a cacophony of noise for about two seconds.



Ummm, Pepper, here you are.



Thank you, Oxnard!



Now that we’re way at the other end of Flower Ranch, there’s a couple of things to take care of. Pepper’s invitation is one of them, and we can now go further left along the fence than before.





The artist is here again to give us To The Rescue, showing just how determined the turtles were during our shell surfing.



_{No, no. Both arms.}

The sunflower garden at Flower Ranch is always great!♪



Don’t worry, Solara. We already took care of it.



Must be because it was raised with lots of love.♪

Now, we have the opportunity to offer Solara an invitation here. I went and found out what she says without the right Ham-Ham in our party:

If a fabulous boy invited me, I’d do it. Fabulous would be an energetic and happy Ham-Ham.

Which explains why we need this.



Must be Stan’s lucky day, finding a girl that’s actually kinda interested in him!



We’ve done all we can on the main path through Flower Ranch; all that remains is over in the side area where the stair-hopping games are, and where Elder Ham went to sleep. The artist has one more picture for us, but after we get it…



What? Why?

I’m thinking of going all over and drawing scenery! That’s perhaps why I won’t see you Ham-Hams for a while.

It’s going to be a little lonely.

I’m going to be lonely, too, but I’ve already decided. Take care of my pictures and be sure to use them! Bye!♪



And with one more picture entitled Let’s Dance, the artist hamster leaves Flower Ranch. Perhaps we’ll see them again somewhere, but who knows?



Anyway, let’s wake Elder Ham up and hand him an invitation.

Hm? Rainbow Land’s Rainbow Theater? That is great. But, no one my age will be there, so I will be lonely. If there was a Ham-Ham who would talk to me, I’d go.

Auntie Viv is coming too.

What? Really? Then I think I will go.

This is why I went to Tiptop Fair at the end of the last update.



There’s no longer that hamster sleeping here, so we can take a look at the next screen.



The next screen is long. Very long. It also has four dirt piles that Howdy needs to clear away before the minigame can be played…



Don’t you have other things to do? Mm. But you can’t go away empty-handed. Take this.



...and this old hamster who gives us a random three or four star sticker. In this case, one I had just gotten while cleaning up the course.



You will roll the empty can, won’t you? Go fast, and you’re good. Go slow, and you’re bad. OK?



Roll, Can, Roll is kind of an odd minigame. We have the balance mechanics of earlier minigames, sure. But after you dodge these three bugs, there’s about ten seconds of empty course you have to try and speed over without falling.



Still, it’s not like failed attempts would take very long.



Now there’s just one more path we can explore. Another sleeping hamster has disappeared, leaving this boulder blocking the path instead.



So Boss gets to sculpt another statue using nothing but a hammer.



This leads us to where some of the ranch’s animals live; we could go north through that large opening, but I’m going to wait a minute on that.



The reason for bringing Penelope to the ranch is to play these two lucky games here, because completing the right one pulls out this blue chick. We’ll see what that does in a moment.



We have this yellow chick to attend to first.



I’d like to go on the record as saying “Fuck this entire set of minigames”.



The idea is simple (and probably very familiar to people who played certain Yoshi-related games), but the size of the goal area and the timing required to get a chick into it are questionable. This first one isn’t too bad, with eighty seconds given to round up eight chicks.



Heading right and into the hole…



...through the bunny-fluffing shed…



...and up through a window, we can leap down to the other side of the shed.



And into my own personal hell. (If you don’t pull the blue chick out of that hole, the third and final level of Chicken Roundup isn’t available.)



The second version cuts the timer to sixty seconds, and introduces faster chicks. Purple ones are just barely faster than Bijou’s walking speed (though you can make her run with B), and blue ones are even faster.



I think round three speaks for itself. You may want to just use a walnut for this one, because goddamn. The reward is pretty “poultry” too.



The rainbow for this area and one more five-star sticker are back here, but now it’s time to head around to the front of the shed again.





They buried any seed they could find!



Looks like they did a pretty job! Also, there’s that sleeping hamster again. There doesn’t seem to be any way of interacting with them.



I haven’t in ages, and weeds and rocks are all over the place.



You sure look bored. Will you tend to my garden for me?

Only for completion’s sake, old ham.





And because I manage to nail the rhythm on the first try this time.





...Thanks? (As far as I know, this item does absolutely nothing.)



Huff puff! It’s no use. If only I were just a little taller!

Maybe you should ask someone else from the Salad Kingdom to help you, kid.



I got it! What do you think of my tomato? Looks good, huh? It’s thanks to your “hamha”! Here, take this! I was going to give it to someone anyway.



Thanks, pal! If we talk to him again…



Huh… Now that I’ve got the tomato, I’ve got nothing to do.

That’s a pretty obvious invitation to… well, give Tomy-T an invitation.





Back to the beginning of this new section now, and it’s time to take a quick peek inside this part of the shed.



It’s a little rundown, so it’s time to put Panda to task repairing the place. We need to fix two out of the three holes just to be able to get through.



The place looks a bit better now, old ham. Someone's going to need a few new floorboards though.

Wow! You fixed the shed! I’m very impressed. I know! I’ll give you this.



Sadly, the reward for patching up all three little holes is just another three or four star sticker.



There’s just one last thing to do on this trip to the ranch, and that’s up out the window by the old hamster.



I’m totally lost. My best friend, Tomy-T, is probably tired of waiting.

If it’s Tomy-T, we’ve invited him to Rainbow Theater.

What? Really? Then I want to go too.



And that’s it for Flower Ranch! There is one other reason for us to come here, but we need to visit Ticky-Ticky Park first.



Ticky-Ticky Park is fairly full of things to do though, so we’ll save that for next update. Instead, we’ll pick out a party for Sparkle Coast. Since most of the minigames there are one time only, you actually only need Boss, Pashmina and Penelope to cover everything on return visits.



The first thing we need to do at the beach is talk to this new guy two screens north of the entrance.

What are you doing?

I’m collecting seashells here. I want you guys to try it, too, but my equipment is broken.





You want to use that shovel to collect some seashells?

Sure, why not. Who knows what goodies we might turn up?

Ok! When you go in, find a place you like and press A! I don’t know what’ll come out...but take whatever it is!



The place you choose is actually irrelevant, much like which string you choose in the lucky strings game at the festival. You can find seeds, carrots, stickers…



...and eventually, the area’s flyer.



Aside from the area’s rainbow being where we found the board for our raft, there’s only one more thing to do on the beach itself.



I want you to have this!

Dude! For me?

It’s an invitation to the Rainbow Theater!

Totally! Sounds like there’ll be a lot of girls there!

...

Much thanks, dude! I’m totally there!

He may not be the most useful friend to have in a crisis, but Broski’s still a cool dude. I wonder what he’ll think of the Theater?





We can indulge in a bit of ocean fishing outside the aquarium, which is the same as pond fishing except for which things you can catch.



Oh, and the other gate to the rainbow train stations is out here where the turtles dropped everyone off.



My fabulous art is finished!

It’s amazing! It’s great!

Ho ho! Don’t you think? Now that I’m done, I wonder if there’s another colossal canvas that’s calling my soul.

Artists, man.



Over by the shop I’m about to buy out, we can invite Salia to the Rainbow Theater despite her still sleepy-looking state. Apparently she’s also Tux’s grandmother.





Those rocks we saw on our first visit can now be dealt with, yielding another sticker for our collection. (Anyone else think that ribbon looks like bacon?)





Since Hamtaro wasn’t around for all that lightswitch stuff, we can actually use this to make the back rooms dark again. We could just go switch the lights back on over by the jellyfish tank, but we have another option too.



On the way, we can climb down to another five-star sticker. There are more of these ladders further along, but they all yield a high amount of sunflower seeds and nothing else.



The way past the second tank gets blocked off in the dark, which means we have to climb up here…



...and play a new minigame to reach another lightswitch. Quick Crossing requires patience despite its name, at least if you’re after the candy. The tiles appear and disappear just like the glass walkway Tux hangs out nearby, but it’s not hard to remember where they are. Just don’t make any risky moves.



About a minute later, we can restore power and move on.



I want you to take this!

Really? There’s a place like that?! Thank you! You bet I’ll go!

Don’t worry about it, Seamore! You helped us get the indigo ingredient, so it’s all good.



if I’m not here, no one will know about the floor. Isn’t there an artistic hamster somewhere who likes to paint? He could paint the floor so that everyone would be able to see it.

Ah, an obstacle to the giving of invitations. Fortunately, we already know that one of our two artist friends is looking for a new project.



I’m in trouble!

What’s wrong?

My children look like they’re going to fall!

That’s terrible!

One’s at the end of the pipe that runs left and right. Please do what you can to help my children!

Why were you letting your kids run around up here anyway? Also, the dialogue’s a bit misleading. Each of her two kids are at opposite ends of this pipe.



Uh...uh-huh.



The kid on the left side is nice and easy to save, since we can just form a ladder on down to them.





The other kid is a couple of screen lengths downward though, so there’s no way we can just chain ourselves down to them.



Instead, we have to make a very worried-looking Pashmina bungee down to rescue the kid. Why Pashmina? Your guess is as good as mine.



Go on, kids, what do you say to them?

Thank you!

Thank you!

Oh! That’s right! Please, take this.



Thank you so much.

No worries, ma’am. Thanks for the sticker of… a swingset?



Anyway, let’s slide down the pipe and ruin that sign at the bottom again.





If you’re looking for one, there’s a great place!



I think Tux is looking for an artistic hamster.

I see! I got it! A new canvas is out there, just waiting for me!



And as the artist walks off, the game does something very unusual. It doesn’t teleport us to Tux’s screen; we have to walk there ourselves.



Really? Where?

Huh? He hasn’t shown up yet?



It’s OK if I throw my heart and soul into the place, right?

That’s right!

Leave it to me!



Incredible! Thanks! Now I can go to the Rainbow Theater and not worry about the floor!

Well, Tux, here’s the invitation!

And with that, we’ve handed out twenty invitations! That’s half of them done!



The floor will no longer fade in and out of view in this room, so that’s nice if you want to come through here again. We’re done here though, so it’s time to head back to the Clubhouse and prepare for our trip to Ticky-Ticky Park. See you all then!