Hammy Go Round Review

Looking pretty cute, Hammy Go Round could do with some more depth to be a truly gripping endless runner. As it stands it’s a passing delight, but little more than that.

You play a small, cuddly hamster who’s in love. In a desperate bid to get to his one true love, he has to negotiate various obstacles. Set up in a way that reminds me of a hamster ball (maybe our hero is hallucinating while running around in such a contraption?), levels are curved rather than flat. It’s a very small touch but, oddly, does endear you more to what unfolds.

Controls are simple, with the hamster running by himself, taps dictating how high he jumps, and a dragging down motion causing him to roll under obstacles. Given they’re so simple to remember, it’s mildly irritating that the game likes to give you a quick tutorial every time you start it - something that’s soon unnecessary.

At times you’ll be jumping over rocks and enemies, or simply trying to catch some acorns along the way. Other times you’ll be rolling under logs and lines of similarly nasty bad guys (or insects, usually). Hit an obstacle and it’s not game over, but it does infringe upon the time limit that you’re tasked with. You can extend that time limit by collecting time extension power-ups but they only go so far with helping.

Replayability comes in the form of being able to upgrade such power-ups, as well as eventually unlocking a new character. The latter is going to take a long time to do given it involves using 15,000 acorns and you tend to earn 100 or so on a particularly good run. Unfortunately there’s no way to upgrade your hamster’s abilities, which is something that would have made such a path seem more exciting.

That’s the main issue with Hammy Go Round. It remains fairly shallow if likable, but by being so simplistic it won’t keep you hooked for as long as you’d like. Instead, you’ll soon forget just how cute that hamster really is.