Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue Part #12

Part 12: Hams gone wild.

What should we do?

Ookwee.

What is it, Penelope? What? You saw a sign that said something about an aquarium?

An aquarium!

Bijou, do you know what that is?

I heard that there are all kinds of fish swimming, and it’s a really pretty place.

Really?

Why don’t we all go?

I’m all for it!

Ookwee! Ookwee!!

So, since the boys are off on a pointless quest to find indigo seawater, we’re going to be spending some time with just the Ham-Ham ladies today! (Yes, it is indeed pointless. The game may have had shaved ice as an ingredient, but it isn’t quite that silly. Glazius gets points for having more faith in the game than the rest of you.

)

There’s now a minigame on the pier, but we never ended up getting the fishing pole back in Sunny Peak. There’s actually a few things like that which we could go and do in the old areas, but I’m saving that stuff for later.

Even if we did have it, Hamtaro’s the one who plays this game.

We can’t actually examine the sign like Sandy suggested, so let’s just head on in and check the place out.

Hey, I think we found where all the NPCs for the area are. Guess this is a pretty popular place!

What are you doing?

I’m putting my heart and soul into this canvas called a wall!

In other words, you’re painting a picture.

That’s right! It’s almost done, so come back later and see it!

We will!♪

The jellyfish look pretty adorable already, Bob Ross-ham.

This place is so relaxing, right?

Right.

It seems like a pretty chill place so far, but we’ve only just arrived. Hopefully the fish are cool too.

This hamster does toss a ball back and forth, but it takes quite a while for the animation to loop.

Mainly because he’s conducting the lesson by throwing the ball all the way over the top of this gate.

...Did he say indigo?

in this aquarium, right?

That’s right.

I sure did!

The indigo ingredient is in this aquarium!

Ookwee!

Hmm? What is it, Penelo-

...Oh.

Oh, Penelope…

Well then, you’ll need to open the fence.

But how?

There’s a switch on top of the fence. All you’ve got to do is press it.

On top...of the...fence…

Well, that didn’t take too long. We know where a proper ingredient should be, and it’s time for our first minigame!

Fence Climb is basically the same as Boss’ minigame from back in Ticky-Ticky Park, except that Bijou doesn’t have anything to knock balls aside with. Speaking of which, how many of those is Salia throwing?

Still, it’s easily done. Oh, and also there’s this.

That’s great, Bijou!

Now, I’ll open it.

Alright, let’s get back to poking around and seeing where this seashell is.

You must be Salia. A relative of Snoozer’s, perhaps?

The hole just below Salia is the store for Sparkle Coast, which means…

We can add ‘The Girls’ to our collection of colouring-in pictures.

Aside from this five-star sticker we’re going to need Boss to get, the only other thing of interest is that blue pipe in the background.

Penelope must have gone through here… Hopefully she hasn’t gotten far.

Well, we’ve definitely left the part the humans are supposed to visit. Pretty dark in here, too.

What are you doing?

The lights went out, so I came to turn them on. Are you going in?

Penelope may have gone in already.

Is Penelope a friend of yours?

Yes.

I see… Well then, I guess you can go in, too. But can you turn on the lights for me?

The...lights?

Yes. There should be a switch up one of the pipes. I appreciate it!

Flick a switch, got it. Shouldn’t be too hard.

Only two choices, but let’s try the other scientist first.

Ahh! It’s dark, and I can’t see. There should be a pipe over here that I can climb.

How illuminating. (

)

... It won’t budge!

Maybe this switch can only turn the lights off!

Then, I wonder if there’s another light switch.

Why would someone build two light switches, one to turn them off and the other to turn them on?

We must want to be up here by this tank instead.

Be careful! I don’t want you to fall in.

Huh?

Ah?!

I just saw Penelope over there!

Huh? Where?!

See! Over there! It’s so dark, and she’s all alone… She must be so lonely!

I know! Let’s have the jellyfish in the tank help us!

That sounds… unwise.

And yet, that’s exactly what Pashmina is going to do. It’s very similar to Teeter-Beaker back in Clover Elementary, except that the jellyfish sink if you stand on the same one for too long.

...Wow, that switch animation is speedy.

That’s a 0.2 second loop, by the way.

There’s only one way to go still, so let’s head down to the bottom again.

Heading back to the left brings us to a ladder spot we are way too short on Ham-Hams for, and…

Well, nothing aside from this extra little bit of dialogue. We should probably just go to the right.

Thanks! You’ve helped us.

Did Penelope come running this way?

Penelope? You mean the short, little, yellow Ham-Ham? If that’s who you mean, she just ran back there.

Not so much yellow as wearing a yellow blanket, but yes.

Really?!

Let’s go over there! Thank you so much.

Oh, if you’re going back there, take this.

No, it’s an airplane.

Yep. If you run into any problems, all you have to do is show the letter.

Thank you!

Well then, be careful.

...The item descriptions in this game could not be less helpful.

Speaking of things that aren’t helpful… There’s going to be plenty to investigate when I revisit this area for the flyer and such. For now, we’ll just keep heading to the right.

Why?

As you can see, there’s a rather large gap.

Hmm, that is pretty wide. Sandy could probably clear it with some sweet gymnastics, though.

How can we get to the other side?

It’s designed so that when the hamster in charge turns the handle, the path is completed.

What if the hamster in charge isn’t here to turn the handle?

There’s only one other way that I know. See that hole over there?

If you get in the hole, you’ll enter the tank. From there, get in the bubble to move yourself forward!

Sounds like fun!

When you mean bubble, you don’t mean…

Okay, sure. The game says to press A to float up and B to float down, but it’s actually adjusting your speed rather than having to mash a button. Just click A once, or you’re going to rocket up into a seahorse. That means you only have to tap B once to brake, too.

Well, just look how cute you are! I never thought such a cute girl would climb this tank.

I need to get to the other side and connect the pipe.

I see. Well then, you’re not quite there yet.

What do you mean?

Apparently Bijou’s decided to make up for her lack of minigames by having two in a row!

There’s a constant downward momentum to this one since we have to contend with gravity, but Bijou can slow her descent fairly quickly to avoid those steam vents. Still, bet she didn’t expect to go parachuting today.

Once we reach the bottom again, it’s just a matter of walking over to the valve we need to turn.

And it was fun, too!

If you turn that wheel right there, you’ll connect the pipes.

OK! I got it!

Pictured: Something not intended to be done with the arrow keys of a keyboard. It also takes a fair while… Probably about thirty seconds if you were doing it well.

Some time later…

Thanks! Let’s keep going!

East is where we landed after the parachuting, so the only way is south.

I’m glad you’re OK, Penelope. But from now on, don’t go running off by yourself, OK?

Ookwee…

Ookwee!

What is it, Penelope?

Ha ha! For a while there, she was complaining! About what? About wanting to ride in the cups.

These cups take you down below. However, if you go down, you can’t get back up.

If we go down, we can’t get back up?

If you keep going to the right, you’ll go outside. But these cups are only for the hamsters running the aquarium.

That means it’s impossible to get down from here! Huh… How are we going to find the indigo seashell?

Ookwee?!

Yes, but I really can’t let you ride the cups.

Man, you’re a bit of a buzzkill, aren’t you?

That’s more like it, bud.

The cups themselves aren’t too exciting, but I like their colour scheme.

...That’s just rude. Anyway, to the right!

Hey, some non-jelly fish at last! This must be where…

Ookwee?

Ah!

It’s really pretty.

Ah, now this is a much more suitable ingredient. Quite fancy-looking, too.

But...as long as it’s in the water, we can’t get to it.

...Hmm. Pashmina raises a good point. How do we get it out of the tank?

Oh, right. The one hamster that can swim could just fetch it out of the tank by coincidence, sure.

Let’s go ask him if we can have it. And why he and Barette moved their photo studio out of the clubhouse.

Just hop over here, and…

Hmm? He can’t have gone far.

What’s wrong, Penelope?

Did you hear something?

What?

What’s wrong?

My...my leg! It’s cramping BAD! Glug, glug…

Oh, no! What should we do?! We’ve got to help!

Ah!

But how can we get it to him?

Leave it to me!

Great choice of minigame name there.

It is indeed just like the ringtoss game Pashmina played back at the festival, only with someone’s life at stake.

You’re welcome.

I need to repay you. Just name it, and I’ll help!

There is one thing… We’re looking for an indigo seashell.

Ohhh! You mean that seashell? Ah! I just dropped it! Don’t worry. I’ll pick it up for you!

...’Mmmmmph’? Did you cram it in your mouth?

No, I’m the one who should be thanking you.

Let’s take this to Bo right away!♪

OK! Great!

I’d better get going. I’ll be around here. Call me if you need anything.

Take care, Seamore. Say hi to Barette for us!

Alright, the rest of this should be a cakewalk. Just need to head north, and…

How are we supposed to get to the other side?

Suddenly, penguin-hamster out of nowhere! (He leaps up from below.)

I’m Tux. You all want to get to the other side?

Yes. Can we cross here?

Of course! Just watch!

It’s used when giving the fish their food. Get on the glass to go across and reach the other side.

OK! Got it!

If you’re worried, I’ll show you the way. If you follow me, everything will be fine! Just follow me!

So, Tux is going to lead us across the tank bit by bit, the floor constantly fading in and out every few seconds.

He’s being a little bit too hand-holdy if you ask me, but he’s a cool dude. I’ll spare you most of his dialogue though.

Oh, that’s not a very good shot. Let’s take a clearer look at this sticker by showing off the collection page.

Alright, so the collection page allows you see all the stickers you’ve picked up, their rarity and where you found them. The latter bits of information are also shown on stickers you don’t have, which means you know where to find them and how (based on rarity)… but it also will spoil the names of areas we haven’t been to yet!

Oh, and see the ‘Dream World’ and ‘Holiday’ text on these entries? Every sticker has a mat associated with it, which are only sold in stores. Cover a mat with one of each sticker it’s grouped with, and you get a special ‘Complete Medal’ sticker. There are even three mats for all the complete medals to go onto, because 451 is a lot of stickers.

Seriously, there are 33 of these mats. You need to find all the stores and their flyers to get all of them, of course.

Anyway, let’s pick things up after the little maze. And for the curious, falling off the glass walkway just means starting the room over.

Thank you so much.

Let’s play again!

Is again some kind of Linux game?

From here, you can go outside using the pipe-slide.

Slide?

Ookwee?

Yes, if you go...well, let’s just say you’ll know. You’ll find that you get out instantly.

By “you’ll know”, he means “I’ll yell at you if you try to slide down any pipe except this middle one”.