March 22, 2010March 22, 2010

Coming to PSN this Week: Hamsterball

Hi PlayStation world! This is Howard Lehr from TikGames, here to reveal our little secret. (Eep!) We’ve been in stealth mode on this one, having a great time playing against our co-workers, friends, family, the guy we saw out the window waiting for the bus who was wearing a RUSH T-shirt (we lured him into our office on the premise that we had a fresh supply of donuts). Hamsterball is a blast and it’s time now to share it with the world. We hope you will love it as much as we do!

What is Hamsterball? Well, imagine if both Marble Madness and Super Monkey Ball were to meet a cute and unsuspecting hamster who’s out for a leisurely roll in his ball. This is the most frenzied race to the finish line he’ll ever run, guaranteed!

Hamsterball offers a ton of great game modes, including 2 player split screen, 7 player sumo and a whole bunch of single player levels. Oh yeah….we’ve got many unlockables, and Trophies too! (We just looooove Trophies.)

No more worries about cleaning the cage or middle-of-the-night escapes, only to find your hamster hiding under your laundry pile. Hamsterball offers all the fun of hamster racing, without the bummer of hearing your mom (GF, SO, BF, wife, roommate, etc.) bark at you to tidy up Mr. Stinky’s cage!

Hamsterball will be available for $9.99 on the PlayStation Store on March 25.

Everyone at TikGames really appreciates your support. Please do let us know what you think of the game after you’ve played it.

Comments are closed.

73 Comments

26 Author Replies

ihatereading369
March 22, 2010 at 1:50 pm PDT

Any chance of Sixaxis motion control support?? This would be the type of title that could really benefit from it.
jqtaxpayer
March 22, 2010 at 2:07 pm PDT

This looks like Super Monkey Ball without monkeys… which is like a PB&J sandwich without peanut butter… or jelly… or bread. I’ll pass, thanks.
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:42 am PDT
  
  You’re missing out… this is a LOT cooler than SMB. Don’t take my word for it, check out the video and compare what you see. The controls are 50X better, the graphics are 50X better, everything is better.
KIT-_-KAT
March 22, 2010 at 2:11 pm PDT

oh there is 7 player game mode!! hmmm might have to look at this!!! release a demo, por favor!
AceBeeDee
March 22, 2010 at 2:23 pm PDT

if its ball rolling, i just might be interested. me likes ball rolling games!
JaguarCRO
March 22, 2010 at 2:33 pm PDT

You guys really need to add some DLC with a mode similar to the target mode on Super Monkey Ball 2 on the GameCube. That was by far the best of the “Mini-games” and it really could be improved with more variety, more obstacles. I would easily pay 9.99 for a mode that included 6-10 different levels. Here is an example video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmvdbliIMqA

This game looks very cool and as long as you support the local multiplayer mode it will be a purchase for me and my best friend.
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:46 am PDT
  
  Thanks for the suggestion on target mode. We have a DLC plan in the works now. I will discuss it with the team.
  Yep, local multiplayer is supported; SUMO up to 7 players, and 2-playr split-screen racing.
ILOVEPLASTATION3
March 22, 2010 at 4:00 pm PDT

OMG this looks amazing. I really loved Super Monkey Ball so I can’t wait for this! Just curious though, are there real puzzle like levels? (like Super Monkey Ball’s start and stop button level)

Oh and any chance of Sixaxis capability?

Either way I am DEF getting this game!
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:50 am PDT
  
  There are puzzle mode bonus levels that unlock after you finish Hustle mode. There are also unlockables in the Stunt levels that give your seek-and-find brain a workout.
VoON
March 22, 2010 at 4:46 pm PDT

Loving the look of this game! Will it also be on the Europe store?
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:51 am PDT
  
  Yes, it will appear in the European store. Code was submitted to SONY in Europe 1 week after SONY US.
Musoka_Eimin
March 22, 2010 at 5:07 pm PDT

This sounds like fun, can’t wait! Lets get some online modes going! Ima buy and have some hammy fun :)
nixdox
March 22, 2010 at 7:47 pm PDT

Want!
feralthing
March 22, 2010 at 9:40 pm PDT

does this game support custom soundtracks?
Shrewder
March 23, 2010 at 5:14 am PDT

Does the title offer multiple camera view options? I watched the video and the camera was too close to the ball, for my tastes. Movement through the environment was a bit confusing. The camera seemed to be pulled back a bit during the multi-player portion of the video.

I enjoyed Marble Madness, Mercury and Super Monkey Ball. I would like to give this a try, but I’ll have to play a demo before a purchase.
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:53 am PDT
  
  There are different camera modes for different modes. Hustle mode is a 3rd-person camera with essentially 1st-person shooter controls. The RAS allows you to adjust the view more to your liking. SUMO, STUNT and TRIAL modes use a removed camera at varying distaces.
TommyGonzalez
March 23, 2010 at 5:34 am PDT

Cool! I have it on the PC and it’s Awesome Can’t wait for it.
TommyGonzalez
March 23, 2010 at 5:36 am PDT

does it support PS Move ?
BeechV35Pilot
March 23, 2010 at 11:26 am PDT

Can you shoot and kill and blow things up and bomb things and … and …. and….. Whoops, sorry. Had my FPS role enabled.

I was a big fan of Marble Madness back in the day. Looks like it might be a day 1 purchase. Now, if I could only convince my FPS-only boys to play along.
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:54 am PDT
  
  The FPS guys will be comfortable with Hustle Mode’s controls. My guess is they will love that mode and get mad when you PWN them. :)
Satnamji
March 23, 2010 at 12:13 pm PDT

This looks like the perfect game for my hamster-owning Gf and her daughter.

Has the trophy list been published yet. I couldn’t find it in a google search.
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:57 am PDT
  
  http://www.ps3trophies.org/game/hamster-ball/trophies/
  
  Your GF will love it but be warned, you may become addicted too. We didn’t make this one for kids and casual gamers. It’s for CORE players and if the casuals like it too, more the better but don’t expect them to finish the game. ;)
UnholierThanThou
March 23, 2010 at 4:22 pm PDT

Something tells me that the character voices for this won’t be anywhere NEAR as gratingly irritating as SMB. Definitely considering a purchase…
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 11:58 am PDT
  
  No, our hamster’s voices are funny, but they won’t drive you crazy. My favorite sound is the “EEEP!” they make when they crash.
JasonSuave
March 26, 2010 at 7:25 am PDT

Just downloaded this game and I’m a huge marble madness fan.

Controls are excellent!

However, I’m very disappointed at the lack of coop/multiplayer for the original levels. I remember doing some type of coop for the original levels with my friend back in the day so this feature was clearly removed for the psn version.

Would also be nice to get some 4 player action for the race modes. 2 players is nice but 4 player is great as well. Motostorm (Pacific Rift) has 4 player splitscreen races and that’s always a huge crowd pleaser.

The other thing (and this isn’t a bad thing) but some levels are blatant rip offs of marble madness levels. Being a huge fan of marble madness, this is actually awesome and it’s great to see a marble madness-inspired game!

Anyway – great game. Really wish there was 2 player on the original levels, but still well worth the $10. To the cool dev who’s posting in this message board, please keep up the good work and please keep churning out the levels!

-Jason
dcpw21
March 26, 2010 at 12:50 pm PDT

i just bought the game, but i noticed theres no online play, do you plan on adding it to the game? if so any specific date? i hope i dont have to pay for it if it comes out :).
Musoka_Eimin
March 26, 2010 at 10:22 pm PDT

Wow guys, this is…. COMPLETELY AWESOME lol. Been playing it for hours now, this is a lot of fun, and I’m hoping for online too :) Thanks for a terrific game to have fun with.
Musoka_Eimin
March 27, 2010 at 3:42 am PDT

@60 and others who are wondering yes it has custom soundtracks from the XMB. Its a really fun game actually, I’ve been playing all night. I have some great ideas of how to expand the game, but it is awesome as is. Thanks again guys, really looking forward to updates and expansion packs for this. Level editors and sharing would be brilliant!
- Howard Lehr
  March 29, 2010 at 12:10 pm PDT
  
  Please, post any ideas you have. We’d love to hear them and see if we can include them.
ElementOfInertia
March 28, 2010 at 11:44 pm PDT

I like this game alot. Excellent value for 9.99. I’m trying to take it slow, as I don’t want to finish.. the later levels are getting crazy though! :) Good work.
JasonSuave
April 5, 2010 at 8:51 am PDT

Now that I’ve completed this game, I have some more comments:

1. Very disappointed at the removal of some of the Trial Stages (form the PC version). In the PSN version, there were only 8 trial levels, but there were around 12-15 for the PC version. Why not include them all?

2. Hustle mode starts off really slow. Once you get to the last 10 levels, the fun factor picks up greatly, but then leaves you wanting more. The levels just don’t feel that challenging until you get to the last few and then you’re left hanging.

3. Extremely disappointed that the variou multiplayer modes were gimped out. You cannot do multiplayer with the original trial versions, although you could in the PC version. You also can’t play all 33 Hustle levels in multiplayer. For some reason, there are only about 10 Hustle levels available for multiplayer. Seems pretty shameless to do this, when you’re just copying the levels over to a different game mode. Why not include all of them??

4. Sumo mode is useless. Fun for less than 3 minutes, but that’s about it. When you have games like Mario Kart (battle mode), you don’t really need something like Sumo mode, which is a de-evolved version of similar games (Mario Kart, Mario Party, etc.).
Super_Richie
April 17, 2010 at 2:48 pm PDT

When it release in UK?