Image credit: sandy powder, Melos Han-Tani, mogumu, gingham games

I think about Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Heartbreak, a GBA game that has never seen a release outside of that platform, probably more than I should. That's primarily because my experience of it is solely relegated to occasionally (very occasionally) playing a friend's copy on the way to school, I never actually owned it. There's just something so vibey and hangoutable about it that I've never really seen captured in another game before, except for maybe the upcoming Danchi Days. Which, thankfully, has a release date at long last!

News overlord Edwin first wrote about Danchi Days in the now distant year of 2024, and almost two years on, the game is now slated for release on October 29th. There's a little demo for our collective perusal to check out now too, which I did, and at the very least that early section is as hangoutable as I'd hoped.

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In it, you play as 12-year-old Hoshino, who recently moved back to her Japanese hometown with her father to live with her grandma, who now has dementia. She, understandably, isn't finding the change in her grandmother so easy, and decides to put on a summer festival like her grandmother once did before her.

With this task ahead of her, your goal is to help make it as lively as possible by getting as many neighbours to RSVP as possible, all while being aided by an amnesiac kappa. You do this through the power of sensing, of essentially attuning yourself to your surroundings, making little sparks appear in various, sometimes quirky, places to kick off a minigame.

These minigames, or sense games, all follow a basic premise: Hoshino's head is on a grid, and within a certain amount of steps, must complete a task. That might mean hitting enough notes emitting from a poop emoji going down a pipe, or by forming large enough water droplets on the side of a cup. They're exactly the kind of repeatable format you'd expect from the likes of a GBA game, and while seemingly quite simple at first, I imagine they'll ramp up a touch, and are quick enough to not elicit boredom.

Mostly, I'm finding a lot of delight in the vibes. A danchi is apparently a type of Japanese mass housing complex, and for a kid this obviously presents a big wide world to explore. This world is filled with all sorts of characters, all with their own idiosyncrasies and wants and needs, and it's up to you to help them so that you can make the summer festival a reality. There's a real communal vibe to the whole thing that I'm keen to clown with. And I would not be surprised if the fact that Hoshino's grandmother has dementia, and that alongside this her mother is dead, the game will pull on some heartstrings too.

Danchi Days is available to wishlist on Steam now.