Buster's Quest Trials of Hamsterdam PS4 Review

Buster’s Quest Trials of Hamsterdam arrived in my inbox without any fanfare. It was so low-key that I found details of the game in my spam folder three weeks after it was sent. Now I’ve installed it, here are some thoughts.

You may have seen the trailer for Buster’s Quest Trials of Hamsterdam as it was released on the official PlayStation YouTube channel. You may be judgemental, as so many of the commenters have about it being next-gen, etc., but give it a chance.

Yes, it’s not the prettiest of games, and depending on what your thoughts are of chiptune-like music that sounds like it was from the original Game Boy, it might be quite fun, right? Right?

Buster’s Quest Trials of Hamsterdam PS4 Review

Among the handful of PS4/PS5 titles I’m playing through at the moment, Buster’s Quest Trials of Hamsterdam couldn’t be any different. This game looks like a Public Domain title included on a cover disc magazine, but they were often some of the most addictive.

In this game, you play either Buster or Busterina and before you begin, you can customise them. Give Buster a helmet or Busterina a bow – maybe even two! Once the game starts, you need to locate a key that opens a hole for you to go to the next level.

Once your eyes adjust to the colours, you’re bombarded with tooltips, all the while your speedrun counter in the top right runs down – it doesn’t pause. Yes, there’s a dedicated speedrun challenge too.

Your characters have to collect bubbles to fire at the stationary creatures. Are these your enemies? They’ll appear in a bubble; you move the bubble, and it may or may not pop. A few moments later, they respawn again.

Time For A Restart

These don’t do any damage to you, so you can walk right into them, and you’ll hear an error tone that sounds like a ship foghorn. Here’s the best part: a tooltip will confirm that you’ll get trapped on occasion and have to restart the level by pressing the options button.

• If you run out of bubbles, you have to restart the level.
• If you can’t get past an object/enemy, you have to restart the level.

You know what? With the repeated soundtrack, a poor level design where you have to restart each time manually, and the seemingly pointless gameplay, I’m afraid that’s where we’ll stop the review.

Buster’s Quest Trials of Hamsterdam isn’t for me. My three-year-old could bear it more as it’s an exercise to learn some motor skills without fear of any challenge, etc. I hate to say it, but this game feels like a social study into trolling reviewers. 

I don’t doubt for one second, this will get some exposure from streamers playing it as ‘an excellent game’. By all means, get it.

I won’t be giving it a score out of respect. I don’t want to deter the developers – it’s just my opinion. But in a rare move, I’ll be deleting Buster’s Quest Trials of Hamsterdam from my system.