‘Hamster Kombat’ Returns—Ought to You Faucet Again in for the ‘HamsterVerse’? – Decrypt

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

After which it simply kind 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, ultimately 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 recreation. In any case these months, following the underwhelming airdrop and subsequent 77% worth plunge, must you faucet again in for an additional spin across the Hamster wheel?

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

And it’s bizarre. Creating video games seems like window dressing right here, even thinner than the unique “hamster-run crypto trade” premise. And the workers 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 development of aggressive monetization, pushing premium gameplay upgrades that seem to solely be accessible to gamers who spend actual cash to purchase Telegram Stars. It’s a nasty search for a recreation that ought to be making an attempt to win again its former fan base.

In any other case, it feels quite a bit just like the previous Hamster Kombat. Spending cash on upgrades continues to be extra precious than tapping, the acquainted day by day combo and cipher code are round for a small increase, and… properly, the numbers certain do get larger the extra you play. That’s considerably comforting as an individual who performed a really inane quantity of this recreation throughout a lot of 2024.

However taking part in a boring, repetitive recreation 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 improvement, Hamster Kombat: GameDev Heroes principally seems 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 accessible recreation—a easy preventing recreation known as Hamster Battle Membership—is even much less compelling than final yr’s monotonous PixelTap. That leaves little optimism for the Hamster Increase and Hamster King video games which can be in beta testing, given the standard of what’s right here thus far.

So must you drop into the HamsterVerse for those who’ve been tuned out on all issues Hamster Kombat for the previous couple of months? Whereas it’s potential that GameDev Heroes will probably be fleshed out and/or different video games will probably be extra engaging, at the least for now, it’s arduous to consider that the slog will probably be price no matter reward could be doled out.