Review: Keeping Pets in a Hamster’s Playground Gets Tough

When you have a free-to-play game, you also have to consider that there are systems in place to keep you playing and possibly spending real money on it. That’s bound to happen. Playground for Hamstersa game about raising and caring for hamsters, but the bonus here is that you really only have to spend about $12 to get the most out of the game.

Like most animal or pet raising games, Playground for Hamsters You start by adopting a guinea pig. You can only have one at the start, but leveling up by completing quests will allow you to bring more home. Speaking of which, the house is a dilapidated mess at the start. You also start with no additional mini-game modes and no clothes for them. So your goal is to eventually get them to their workspace or complete quests to earn money, complete quests that can be linked to quests or purchases to upgrade and improve the house, and play through mini-games (if you buy them). As the guinea pigs get stronger in certain areas, they get better at certain mini-game tasks. You also get enough pocket money for costumes (though some costumes you need to buy with real money before you can buy with in-game money) and other customization options.

About Playground for Hamsters For the most part, it’s a wait and see game. You’ll need things like screws to fix the resource centers that your guinea pig needs over time. For example, these are the bed, shower, toilet, trampoline, water cooler, and food cooler. For the environment, you’ll use things like green stars. Coins can be used to buy clothes. Additionally, you’ll need sunflower seeds to boost things like dexterity and intelligence. This means that you’ll probably send your guinea pig to a work location to have your pet “work” to earn them, while leaving the game open until the creature needs to eat, drink, bathe, use the potty, play, or sleep. At that point, you can send them back again.

That means if you don’t pay around $12, Playground for Hamsters can feel like a repetitive process. You’ll go through the same routine to buy the items you want or need. When you’re not shopping or decorating, you’ll be taking care of the basic needs of the hamsters in the game or making them do things so you can do those things. The animations are fun and lean into the absurdity of the situation, rather than being more serious or realistic. Likewise, the hamsters themselves have more human-like expressions. (I actually don’t like that. I think they look a little creepy!) The detail that went into it is great, and it looks and runs well on the Switch.

If you pay about $12 extra for Playground for Hamstersthen you get more “games” for the pet simulation game. This is because the Beward the Cat, Eating Contest, Skateboard, and Vehicle Pull mini-games that you can play alone against the CPU or with other players are locked behind DLC. The only mini-game in the free version is Maze. This involves going through timed QTEs at certain points to help the hamster get through them faster, with sunflower seed-based training sections that improve stats for those games. The other mini-games, although with different elements like racing down a track on a skateboard, eating food, pulling a toy car, or playing red light-green light with Ink Game Like the cat toy, there are also the same types of QTEs to continue. None of the QTEs last longer than a minute or two.

These are ways to earn money and interact more with the guinea pigs. They’re fine for what they are, but I don’t feel like you really need to spend $12 on each $2.99 ​​mini-game unless you really want all the game elements. The Maze itself is fine, and I feel like Beware the Cat and Eating Contest are the only two that feel distinct or special enough to have an additional purpose. Although I think the Skateboard mini-game comes in third. Unless you really like dressing up your guinea pigs and want to pay for other cosmetics, those are really the only paid purchases I feel like you should make.

Playground for Hamsters is a pet game where you can feel like you’re there to complete missions and earn enough money to buy the cosmetics you want. It looks good and has a little bit of silliness to it which I appreciate. I also like that the only essential purchases involved include some affordable mini-games and you can even just buy one or two of the ones you like instead of all four. It’s fun enough, although I can see it getting boring when you’re trying to complete the individual or mandatory game objectives. However, considering the base game is free, the build quality is higher than I expected and it’s a fun diversion.

Playground for Hamsters available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and PC.

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