Part 10: Fairground festivities.

Having helped out with the gates after those hopeless workers went walkabout, it’s time to explore some more of the festival! We’re at the left end of another long screen, and this booth here is the Lucky Strings game where that Jingle picture came from. Its prize seems to be determined before you play, so which string you pick is irrelevant.



It’s scaring away all the customers! I’m competing with my big brother, and now I’m going to lose!

No prizes for guessing who the two booth owners happen to be.



Ookwee…

I’m sorry, Penelope, but I’ll come back as soon as I can.

Pashmina! Don’t you worry! We’ll be just dandy. I promise! I’ll get Penelope laughin’ in a jiffy with my gags!



You can leave it all to me! Though I don’t look like it, I’m extremely good with children.

Penelope, I’ll be back soon, so be good and wait for me, OK?



Penelope! Please stop that cryin’! I’ll make you a tasty broiled seed!





My booth is a lot more fun than that sort of boring thing!

What’re you sayin’ about my booth?!

I’m just telling the truth, that’s all!



Yep, that went about as well as expected. We can’t just look after Penelope ourselves though, so we’ll have to leave them to it and hope for the best.





The next couple of booths are just flavour; sadly, we can’t play darts against this mysterious dude.



The TSF did help me learn how to make this, though.



We’ve reached the right side of the screen (putting the weight-lifting game to our south), so let’s take a peek up north.



There are juice and cotton candy vendors here, but all they do is give obvious hints about the two nearby minigames in exchange for a few seeds. We can’t play one of them yet, but we can try the other…



...which is Panda’s first minigame!



It’s also an absolute bastard if you happen to be rhythmically challenged.



You see, there is no way you’re going to meet the score requirement unless you get a couple of half-decent combos going, or one really amazing one. And of course, missing or whacking a nail with the wrong hammer resets your combo.



Pictured: My first attempt.



Second attempt was better, but I lost the rhythm and just couldn’t find it again.



Third try, nailed i- *shot*



...I may have celebrated a bit.



The payout is your score divided by ten, so it’s not worth repeating. Still, one more stamp for our card!



...Something seems to be missing here.



It’s my fault! I shouldn’t have been tellin’ those stupid jokes!



She must have gotten mad because we are always fighting.

Gee, you think? You two dinguses should probably go find her.



Anyway, the northwest exit from this long screen has this mother hamster who will give us one-star stickers for three seeds (she wants to buy a treat for her son), and another toy to get some out of.



It also has a pair of minigames we can’t play yet, so we’ll have to come back later. Without anything else to do, we’re going to have to find where Penelope wandered off to.



After a bit of running around, it appears she went to see someone a bit more responsible.



Ookwee! Ookwee!! Ookwee! Ookwee!!

What? You’re not moving until they stop?

Darn! Just when will I be able to open my booth?

Maxwell’s not having the greatest day today. At least we know where Penelope is now, though.



Is that true! Then, hurry and take us there!



And with Dexter and Howdy eager to get her back, surely everything will go smoothly.



Huh? Penelope? She is looking at the masks? I wonder if there is a mask she wants? Why don’t you go look?

Aside from Maxwell using up the question mark budget, it seems Penelope changed her mind slightly… Well, have you ever known a little kid to sit still?



Ookwee! Ookwee!! Ookwee! Ookwee!!

We’ve been lookin’ for you, Penelope! We won’t let you get away now!

Ookwee!

Be a good girl, and let’s go home, Penelope!



...And also possibly because you were acting like a pair of creepy kidnappers.



We’re working on it, buddy. There’s not that many places Penelope could have gone, so…





She’s a quick little thing, isn’t she?



Be a good girl, and let’s go home, Penelope!



I see… Now I know! Penelope doesn’t want to be around you because you fight so much.

Say it ain’t so!

We won’t fight anymore.

Ookwee!

She seems to be pretty upset by it all. It might be best if you had a present to cheer her up.

Hmm… Well, we already know Penelope was looking at the masks. Let’s see if our eyepatch-marked friend can help us out. (His name is Sabu, by the way. He appears occasionally in the show to rescue hamsters, typically with the aid of Françoise the pigeon.)



Give her this mask. I’m sure it will make her feel better. It’s OK, take it! Don’t mention it!





...Now all I can imagine is Howdy and Dexter desperately trying to flee from an Intenso’d Penelope. Which would be totally hilarious.



See, Penelope, it’s the mask you wanted!



Tsk, not even one sprite of Penelope with the mask on properly? Booooo.

That’s great! Well, it looks like she forgives you guys.

Thanks, y’all! Now we can open our booths.

Everyone, please come play at our booths later.

Well, shall we go, Penelope?



Someone missed a real opportunity there.



Still, we had better check that everything’s going alright. Just to be safe.



It’s rented out just for you, Penelope! Play all you want!

Ookwee!



Did you behave, Penelope?

Oo...ookwee… Ookwee.

Penelope really behaved herself! Right, Dexter?

Sure! We’ve been right here playing all this time!

It was tough for the both of you, huh? Thank you so much.

Heheh… Guess Pashmina figured it’d be hard for both of them to work together on something.

Hey, if we’re all going, why don’t we all go together?

Sorry, but Dexter and I have to work our booths.

Pashmina, why don’t you go with everyone and have fun?

Thank you both! Good luck with both of your booths, too!

Their success seems to have scored Howdy and Dexter a few points with Pashmina, though. All’s well that ends well!



Aside from getting Pashmina and Penelope to join our little group, we’re now able to try out the guys’ booths, so let’s earn a couple more stamps.



Ah, brings back memories of feeding dragons in Chrono Cross.



...Well, that’s an oddly familiar-looking balloon.



Ookwee!

Penelope is also quite happy!

I bet she is; she’s the one who got to eat the seed!



Alright, let’s see what Dexter has to offer.



…







Well, at least the pictures of Pashmina and Howdy vary. Interesting how much attention and detail Dexter seems to have put into drawing his rival…



Ookwee!

You’ve got talent, Hamtaro! Come back again!

And after that, we have six out of twelve stamps! We still can’t do the one over by Nail the Rhythm, but the pair to the northwest are available now.



Penelope Pinball requires hitting all four sunflowers enough to turn them from yellow to green and finally to red; there’s no bonus for time, so don’t worry if it takes a while. Sometimes you get a lucky shot, though.



The other minigame, Toy Corral, is all about timing and making sure to get scarves on the same toy multiple times in a row. The wheel changes speed and direction with each successful throw, and a toy gets removed if it has five scarves on it. So all in all, you can get a score of 800 and earn 80 points.





With a new selection of stamps and stickers, it’s time to explore some more. The workers have run away again, so there’s some more gates to build with Penelope and Pashmina’s help.



Now that’s a little more like it! And yes, it’s recommended to do this on both sides again. We’re going in through the eastern side here…



...to arrive at another long area, and the northern-most minigame. Sadly, it’s not available to us just yet.



The area’s flyer is hidden over behind it, though! This will be handy when we actually find the store.



...Well, I’m sure this comes as a surprise to no one.



Fortunately, the festival happens to have a medical professional on hand, so let’s see if Flora can help us.



Geeze, lady. And no, that’s not me being bad at looping .gifs. Her animation genuinely looks that strange.



Eeeeeeeeya!

It’s been nice knowing you, Oxnard…



For the second time in this LP, RIP Oxnard.



It’s OK, Oxnard!

Huh? Hamtaro? Did you say something about food?



Now that I’m better, I’m starting to feel hungry again!



That’s our Oxnard! :laughtrack:



Now that we have Oxnard all healed up, there’s a little more we can do up the north end of the fairgrounds. Looks like Maxwell is almost ready to open his booth, too.



The north-most minigame lets Oxnard show off his skills on the balance beam, twirling the baskets around to gather up seeds. As shown, it’s super easy.



On the west side of this screen, there’s a few NPCs worrying about some tower building being behind schedule, and this little dilemma. Looks like Cappy’s game of Ham-and-Seek might have gone a tiny bit wrong.



Please! I need you to help him!

He seems to have gotten stuck in two pipes, at that.



Of course he will, Cappy. Now, join the party and let’s give this a shot.





Don’t worry, kid! We got ya!





I didn’t mean to make you worry. Sorry, Cappy.

It’s OK, Stucky, so long as you’re OK!

Really! Whatta troublemaking hamster!

Everyone, thanks for saving me!

No worries, Stucky! I hope you’re happy being stuck in your own little pipe.



Yeah, looks like he’s fine. Just a few more things we have to take care of, now…



Like making Cappy run a gauntlet of squeaky hammers! This is the minigame over by Nail the Rhythm, and it’s fairly simple even if Cappy has to run against a conveyer belt. You can press up against the sides of the hammers, just so long as you aren’t under them when they fall.



There’s only two stamps left to get now… The dancing competition, and Maxwell’s minigame! But before the dancing can begin, we have one more place to visit.



Back where Oxnard was lying about with his sore stomach, there’s another path to the north.



Because you’re a bunch of hopeless slackers, most likely. Yes, this is where the tower is being built, and it’s still behind schedule.





There are a couple of five-star stickers on the trees at either side of the screen, the latter of which is something that came up in Ham-Ham Heartbreak.



You see, this ticket was needed to enter a Couple’s Night at a haunted manor. Drawing an umbrella and writing a couple’s names under it is similar to the classic heart with an arrow through it you’d see carved into trees.



In order to build the tower, I need more help from the Ham-Hams. Will you all help out?

Hey, you gave us that mask for free, and one good turn deserves another. Let’s do this thing.



The festival will really get lively once this is done!

Building the tower is definitely best watched as a video. For those who can’t, the main thing to take away from it is:





OK! Everyone, go get all the other hamsters here at the festival! It’s time to boogie like we mean it!

You got it! You guys better not try to escape this time! Let’s go!



Hamtaro! You look so cool!

B-Bijou…

All right! I’m gonna hit the drums, too!

Boss, there are times when you should watch. This is one of them.

That’s right. Let’s all have fun dancing.

You look fabulous, Hamtaro!

Hey, hey, Hamtaro! Let me take a swing at it too!

I don’t think so, Howdy! I’m going before you!

Isn’t it possible to have fun without making so much noise?

Ah, how quickly some folks can change their tune…



It’s all because of your hard work. Thanks!

You’re very welcome, Sabu. Now that the tower is built, there’s one last screen up north we can access.



Gee, a carrot. In an area where we have seen no other carrots. I wonder…



Yeah, it’s totally Carrobo. We also have the last two of the seed dispensers here, and they’ve got plenty to throw out.





Which is definitely a good thing, because inside this building (with a five-star sticker on top)...



...is the area’s store! Since we got the flyer earlier, it takes 274 seeds to clear the place out entirely.



The picture we got is called “Maxwell’s Great”. Actually, it comes at a really good time.



The dance contest at Sunflower Stage is now open. All confident Ham-Hams are invited to take part.

Because now that we’ve done everything else (including getting ten out of twelve stamps), it’s finally time for Stan and Sandy to strut their stuff!



...Oh. This doesn’t look good.



Big Brother! I’m starting to get nervous.





This isn’t good at all!



My concert is waiting for me!

You’re not helping, Sparkle! Actually… Well, we know someone that might help Sandy perform.



Hamtaro! Please take me to where she is!



That’s right, Maxwell. You gotta help whenever you can!

So, Cappy, stay here at the booth!

What? Why me?!

Ham-Hams always help one another if a problem comes up!



Don’t worry, Cappy! This won’t take long.





I was worried about you, so I came to help.

We’ll be cheering you on from here! Good luck!

Maxwell! Everyone!

Uh-huh! I’ll try my best. Everyone, be sure to watch us!

Ohhh, my little sis! Isn’t the power of love just great?

Took the words right out of my mouth, Stan.



You bet! Come on, Stan and Sandy!



Uh-huh! Let’s do our best, Big Brother!





Of course, Shadow Dancing is the obligatory game of Simon, starting at one input and going all the way up to eight. Making a mistake means losing a chance to gain popularity, which means less points at the end. It’s only the difference between thirty and forty points though, so don’t stress about it.



We won because of all of your support! It’s great to have truly great friends!

Thank you, everyone! We won, thanks to you all!



And with that, we have just one final thing to do before winning the stamp rally!



I’m sorry, Cappy, but you really helped me.

OK! Let’s open for business! This time I’ll really open!

Took you long enough, bud.



Since we’ve had our game of Simon, let’s also have a card-matching memory game! Three strikes, and you’re out.



I’d say that the Ham Games here were easy because they were mandatory, but Nail the Rhythm was a thing, so…



Here! Your stamp for the rally! Come again!



At long last! Let’s go claim our red ingredient!



Mm...mmmmm.



Why are you in such a panic, Bo?



What?!



It’s true! It’s all gone!



Can you believe this?

Hey! I want a refund!

Mom! I want to eat some shaved ice!

Don’t underestimate us!

My… My hips.

Well, it looks like the crowd’s in an uproar! Aside from the old ham, anyway.







Here’s your prize… One year’s worth of shaved ice!

Isn’t that great, Hamtaro?

If everyone’s happy, it was worth the effort!

Anyway, when you eat ice-cream bars, you get brain freeze!

Here, Hamtaro! Say… “aaahhhhhhh!”

My brain! It’s frozen!

I’m not sure that’s the ice’s fault…





At long last! This has been a pretty lengthy endeavour, so let’s leave the usual song and dance until next time… Until then, I hope you all enjoyed the Ham-Ham festival!