‘Hamster Kombat’ Returns—Should You Tap Back in for the ‘HamsterVerse’?

After amassing some 300 million gamers final 12 months in a tap-to-earn bubble that made surprising waves throughout the mainstream, Telegram sport Hamster Kombat dropped its HMSTR token on The Open Community (TON) final September—to principally unfavourable evaluations from recipients.

After which it simply type of… disappeared. What was deliberate to be a couple-weeks-long “interlude” gameplay season stretched on for months, and stopped being up to date after some time. The nameless devs teased a second full season of gameplay, then went quiet, finally saying it will be a part of a broader “HamsterVerse” of video games.

Now the HamsterVerse is right here, led by Tuesday’s launch of GameDev Heroes, which was deliberate to be the second season of the core sport. In spite of everything these months, following the underwhelming airdrop and subsequent 77% worth plunge, do you have to faucet again in for one more spin across the Hamster wheel?

As teased, Hamster Kombat: GameDev Heroes turns the unique tap-to-earn premise right into a online game growth sim, the place you recruit programmers and artists, churn out video games, and earn extra cash alongside the way in which. It has the acquainted number-go-up vibe that drove hype across the unique sport and plenty of copycats, however with a brand new look.

And it’s bizarre. Growing video games appears like window dressing right here, even thinner than the unique “hamster-run crypto alternate” premise. And the staff have weird names like Yizz Crunchy and Booby Hubble (actually), plus there are typos abound and awkward artwork that appears prefer it was generated by AI.

Frustratingly, GameDev Heroes has embraced the rising Telegram crypto gaming pattern of aggressive monetization, pushing premium gameplay upgrades that seem to solely be out there to gamers who spend actual cash to purchase Telegram Stars. It’s a nasty search for a sport that needs to be making an attempt to win again its former fan base.

In any other case, it feels lots just like the outdated Hamster Kombat. Spending cash on upgrades remains to be extra worthwhile than tapping, the acquainted each day combo and cipher code are round for a small enhance, and… nicely, the numbers certain do get greater the extra you play. That’s considerably comforting as an individual who performed a very inane quantity of this sport throughout a lot of 2024.

However enjoying a boring, repetitive sport for numerous hours solely works when it’s pushed by pleasure and optimism. That’s just about all gone now—each for Hamster Kombat specifically, which flaked out on gamers for months after the token drop, and for the broader Telegram gaming scene, which has but to seek out one other hit after many misfires.

After months of purported growth, Hamster Kombat: GameDev Heroes principally appears like an afterthought. And whereas there’s one other airdrop on the horizon, I’d be shocked if a dangling token reward entices almost as many gamers this time round, given the earlier outcome.

As for the broader HamsterVerse, the opposite out there sport—a easy preventing sport known as Hamster Struggle Membership—is even much less compelling than final 12 months’s monotonous PixelTap. That leaves little optimism for the Hamster Enhance and Hamster King video games which can be in beta testing, given the standard of what’s right here to this point.

So do you have to drop into the HamsterVerse in the event you’ve been tuned out on all issues Hamster Kombat for the previous few months? Whereas it’s potential that GameDev Heroes will likely be fleshed out and/or different video games will likely be extra engaging, not less than for now, it’s exhausting to imagine that the slog will likely be value no matter reward could be doled out.