Part 5: Elementary, my dear Watson!

Oh, looks like some of the clubhouse Ham-Hams are already here today. What’s going on?



He has something for you, Hamtaro.

Ah, it’s time for a visit from the on-again, off-again Clubhouse member.



I’d like to be a carefree traveller.



Where does he live? He might just be a stray, like me.



I’ll bet he eats tasty foods, too. I’m so jealous!



about it hundreds of times. And Jingle’s stories make me want to go see everything he talks about!

Have we established that Jingle is cool yet? Because he also plays guitar. And rides a hog (by which I mean a literal pig).

Jingle!





Oh yeah, he also can’t get Hamtaro’s name right at all.

How are things, Jingle?



Four-leaf clover?



Most clovers have three leaves, but some rare ones have four leaves! If you find a four-leaf clover, you’ll get your wishes granted!

Any wish I want? That’s amazing!



Well, no surprises there.



...Cool-looking, sure.



We should wish to find the ingredients!

Th-That’s Bijou! Whatta good idea!

With the clover, you and I can find what we’re looking for. I wanted to tell you that I thought I could help.

But just where is the four-leaf clover?



But I don’t know if it’s true or not. I’m sure we’ll see each other again.



My name’s Hamtaro!



And then Jingle just peaces out.



It’s worth investigating, at least. Next stop, the aptly named Clover Elementary!



You’re not feeling well, are you? Gain some energy by eating fruit.
The second luckiest one for today is...Aries. You’ll have a clear head all day long. Use it on your homework.♪
The luckiest one for today is...Sagittarius. You may find a new discovery. It might be a rare sticker!
Today will not be very good for...Capricorn. No matter what you do, it might not turn out very well. School is your lucky place!

Right after taking care of a few things here, of course. Jingle is the Sagittarius of the group, and Snoozer is the Capricorn. The latter’s hints are pretty spoilery again; if you talk to him before Jingle’s conversation, he’ll spoil what it’s about!



Jingle himself has moved out onto the Ham-Ham Lawn, where he’ll stay for the rest of the game.

Hi, guys. Can you hear the voice of this tree? It’s saying that it loves all of you. This is a present from this tree.



The mystical musician will hand over a walnut whenever you come and speak to him, so if you’re really struggling with a minigame, Jingle’s got you covered.



Now, let’s head to school! Make sure you’ve got your homework!



Man, this place looks huge. If we have to explore all four floors, this is gonna take forever.



We’ll have a little poke around the school grounds before heading inside… Perhaps this police officer can help us find the clover?



A four-leaf clover, you say? Umm. Wait! There’s a hamster by a telescope who knows a lot. Maybe that hamster would know where to find the clover.

I suppose that depends on what he’s using the telescope for, doesn’t it?



Unless you are on the case, access is denied!

There’s a problem? That’s not good!

Just what kind of problem is it?

That information is confidential!

Looks like we can’t even get into the school itself just yet. Perhaps we can find another way in… Or maybe it’s plot-locked. Only one way to find out.



Inspector Hams! He can solve any case! Ohhh! He’s so cool! Just once, I’d like to meet him!

Ah, surely such a talented inspector will need no help from the protagonists in solving this case, whatever it may be.



Moving on from my attempt to break sarcasm detectors, the screen west of the school entrance is populated by two similar minigames… Neither of which we have the right Ham-Ham for.



But only a really small Ham-Ham can do it.

Case in point.



So instead, let’s pursue this lead about the observer.



The school grounds have a lot of flowers growing around the place, including some growing on trellises for us to climb up. However, looks like someone’s in the way…



I’m scared, so I’m playing dead. Don’t talk to me.



Fair call, man. Fair call. Still, thanks for budging over in your panic.

_{The snake is adorable.}



Let’s move upward and see if we can either bypass the snake, or find something to use against it.



Oh? Where did he…



Oh, right. Also, Class 3-3 is doing a lovely job with their gardening.



I can’t get down because of this snake!

Nice coke-bottle glasses, nerd.

Oh, no! We’ll help you!



Perhaps try a slightly less gung-ho approach, Hamtaro.

Umm...if only we had something to hit it from far away!

H-h-helllllp!

Hang in there! We’ll save you somehow!



Well, time to look around for anti-snake weaponry. Preferably something high caliber.





...Eh, it’s worth a shot.



Bombs away!



Didn’t do much more than startle it, but if that gives him a bit of breathing room, I’d call the plan a success.



You saved me! Thanks! If you need anything, ask me, and I’ll see if I can do it!

Actually, we’re looking for a four-leaf clover. Can you tell us where it might be?

Umm, sorry, but I’ve never seen one before. But if you look through my trusty telescope, you might find something!

Fadecut to…



Alright, let’s see what it shows us!







There’s a lot of strange stuff at school!

Mm?



Let me see! Mmm… … It’s tough to see, but it just might be the four-leaf clover!

Maxwell! Where is that place? Where is it?

It looks a lot like the science room. We must go there now!

Great! Now, the question is… How do we get inside if the problem hasn’t cleared up?



Look for a hole in the left side of the school building. Use it to get into the building and into the science room.

Okay, that’s good to know. Now we just need to be able to get over there.

Unfortunately, we’ve got a slight issue. Now that the snake has been knocked closer to the feigning-dead hamster, he’s actually blocking off the exit.





Huh? I heard Penelope’s voice!





Ah, the path the snake was blocking originally! She’s been trapped down there along with the telescope hamster, only we didn’t know it.



Penelope!

Huh? Penelope was supposed to be with Pashmina!

Penelope, did you lose track of Pashmina?

Ookwee!

Penelope! Come with us!

Uh-huh! Let’s go look for Pashmina together.



And since we already know where Pashmina went, it’s just a matter of getting rid of that snake and into the science room!



I say we’ve got to hit it with the ball one more time.

That’s it! Let’s drop the ball down the pipe!

A good plan, but I’m sure you can all see the problem here. The snake is no longer in front of the pipe! We need to make a slight adjustment…





Heading past the little hamster the ball apparently belongs to, we can find part of the solution to our problem. The hamster there even says the curved pipe is supposed to connect to the rest of it, and asks us to put it back.



So let’s oblige him. Amusingly, we can’t actually lift this pipe piece without Penelope’s help.



Got to make sure to push it on properly, so the tennis ball doesn’t just slam into the turn and knock the piece off.



Now, we just need our ammunition.



What? You want this ball? Umm… Just over there, there’s a hamster that makes caps. His caps are really cool! If you’ve got one, I’ll trade you for the ball.





It’s a short journey to the cap maker, but there’s something special to be done here. If you slip around the glass and examine the shogun wig…





You can press L, A, B, L, R for our second secret picture! Like I said, Boss has got it bad.



I’ll drop the caps I’ve made, and you catch them! If you catch them all, I’ll give you the very best one!



If you didn’t guess this was a Cappy minigame, you seriously need to work on basic pattern recognition.



Crazy Cap Catch♪ is fairly simple, though the bugs do flop around on the ground for a while before letting you pass by again. You do have to catch every hat, so stay on your toes.



I got a pretty sweet sticker this time. Look at Hamtaro being all heroic and such.



Out of all the caps I’ve made, this one’s easily the best!

Uhh…



I think we just got cheated.



Uh-huh, sure!

Thanks! Then, here’s the ball, as promised!



Well, so long as he’s happy. Now, there’s just the little matter of getting the ball back up to the ledge, and we can finally deal with that pesky snake.



Then, all you need is to push it up the ramp to the leaky faucet!

Ah, that’s semi-convenient.



Tennis-Ball Ball still requires a lot of work on Boss’ part, though. Getting a good initial push helps, but you have to mash A pretty damn hard.



The game is nice enough to warp us straight up to rejoin Boss, because AlphaDream are good like that.



Then it’s just a simple matter of carrying the ball over to the pipe, and we can finally head back toward the entrance.



Although it should be noted that the repeatable version of Tennis-Ball Ball (called Hamster Press) is a separate minigame, so make sure to do that too if you want to try each one once.



I got sleepy from playing dead… Good night…

Playing dead sure does take a lot out of you, I guess.



Back on the west side of the school grounds, we can try out those two minigames now that we have the petite Penelope in our party.



Water Crossing is basically the practice round, here to showcase that Bowl Boating was just a freebie, and you do indeed have to worry about tilting too far in this type of game. Mainly because Penelope is actually having to balance on top of something.



Speaking of which, Balancing Act is just plain vindictive. You need enough speed to overcome the current caused by the hose, but Penelope slips further down the side she’s on as time passes, so you have to keep her just barely on the edge of falling off for a few seconds.

_{The single-frame flicker where Penelope vanishes is caused by recording with Fraps, not the game itself. It happens fairly rarely.}



Getting across takes more attempts than I care to admit.



Of course, just because Penelope got across that way doesn’t mean everyone can.



Huh? What? You want me to turn off the water?

Ookwee!

Oh! You want me to make it go “ookwee!” Isn’t that right?





And then he hurled.



Seriously though, the puddle’s been taken care of. Must have some pretty good drainage around here.



Go away, Carrobo!



Moving swiftly along, we just need to shove this rock aside to find that hole in the wall we’re looking for.



And we’re in! Also, Penelope is leading the party since she split off from everyone for a minute there.



This means that instead of starting every single conversation with Hamha, we give people a different greeting.

I’m keeping an eye on the principal’s office! Even important Ham-Hams on important errands are not allowed in until the case is solved!

Still don’t know what this case is, but it must be a great mystery.



I saw her go into the science room.

Thanks for the reminder, weirdo.



Something about it is very fishy.









The western corridor doesn’t lead anywhere of interest yet, aside from this rock…



Which is hiding the area’s store. I don’t have anywhere near enough to buy even the normal stock, so not having the flyer isn’t really a concern at this stage.



At least I managed to buy Best Friends Forever, which is my favourite picture yet.



Heading east from the hole we entered through, it looks like somebody spilt their milk. The hamster there wishes they had a sponge to clean it up with, so that’s something to keep an eye out for.



There’s a few little holes here and there which serve as Penelope’s task, but…



It’s kind of a pain. You can win stickers and sunflower seeds, but a single X leads to automatic failure.



They gather things from the school and hide them all over. I think you should go ask them about the shoe.

Hmm? What shoe?



Right now, we’re asking questions. Come back.

Mm-hm...we heard about the problem. Just what’s going on?

Ask Inspector Hams about it. He’s at the shoe box.

...Oh, right! This is a Japanese school, so you’re supposed to take your shoes off indoors and wear uwabaki instead.



The eastern corridor just leads to an area exit hole and this guy, who explains the five different rarities of stickers. Kind of a public place for a hermit to be hanging out, isn’t it?



Anyway, let’s head to the school building’s proper entrance and meet this inspector.



The victim is a 1st-grader named Hamlin Hampton. His grades aren’t that great, but he’s a very friendly kid!





A girl, who likes Hamlin, took it as a souvenir! Maybe I’ll shift my focus to this possibility…

Wow, get a load of this guy.





I think we may need to take care of this ourselves.





Sure you do, Hams. Sure you do.



Until then, Hamlin’s foot is in grave danger. I need to check the shoe, but I don’t want to smell it!

...He could be here a while. We’ll leave him to his investigation, and go look around the science room… next time.