Hi everyone! I often get asked, “What ever happened to Mazin’ Hamsters?” and “Will you ever bring back Mazin’ Hamsters?”
I will try to answer these and some of your other questions about Mazin’ Hamsters below.
For those that don’t remember it, Mazin’ Hamsters was a fully 3D section in Webkinz World introduced in 2010, which was unlocked when you registered a Feature Code that came with a plush hamster.
Mazin’ Hamsters was unique from the rest of Webkinz World because it was running completely different animation software. While Webkinz World runs on 2D Flash, Mazin’ Hamsters ran on an early version of 3D Unity.
Inside ‘Mazin Hamsters, there were lots of mazes that your hamsters could race around or explore. Completing each maze awarded a trophy!
If you wanted more mazes, you could make your own using the maze building tool. You could even share your mazes with the community and have other players run through them.
Later we added a Hamster Hamlet section with different worlds for your hamsters to explore, along with daily activities like the popular Moolah Mountain!
Unfortunately, the uniqueness of ‘Mazin Hamsters was also its biggest problem. Much like the upcoming discontinuation of Flash by web browsers, the original version of Unity 3D was discontinued as a web plug-in. So, in September of 2015, because we could no longer run the game on the web, ‘Mazin Hamsters was closed.
However, Unity as a game engine has continued to thrive and grow. A new WebGL platform was developed to run Unity on the web, but unfortunately it was not backwards-compatible for those using earlier versions like ‘Mazin Hamsters. The Development and Art teams at Ganz that built ‘Mazin Hamsters would eventually take their collective experience and create a whole new massive online game: Amazing World.
Will ‘Mazin Hamsters ever return? While there aren’t currently any plans to bring it back, with Unity now one of the premier gaming technologies, you never know what the future might bring. Unity continues to be a technology that Ganz uses to develop new projects.
What was YOUR favorite part about ‘Mazin Hamsters? And what would you like me to report on next? Let me know in the comments below.
Pretty unfortunate. Someone gave me a Mazin’ Hamster right after it was discontinued. Not sure if that was better than having to quit after just getting started, but…
I loved the challenges at the Hamlet. I still think about them sometimes, how fun they were. And of course Moolah Mountain! I won all 27 trophies available from the mazes… not easy to do since i’d get a dizzy headache from them lol. It would be so cool if something like it was brought back :) Thanks for featuring the Hamsters, such fun memories.
Your “Mazin’ Hamsters” was truly amazing, Steve. I still miss it. It would be wonderful if it could be brought back as part of the desktop app. Those Hamlet challenges were such a pleasure to play. Just enough challenge to keep them interesting and such beautiful graphics! I’d love to be able to visit them again!
We miss every aspect … we had so much fun exploring the land and the castles the water slides, and the special items we could buy. Just one of many changes and goodbyes that we will have to deal with, sadly.
I loved Mazin Hamsters and still do miss playing it, I think about it all the time. It had so many things to do that were fun, it was one of the areas in WW that I played in daily. From the challenge of the mazes, trying to win all the trophies, to the quick daily tasks like key craze and moolah mountain that were fun and had such nice prizes to be won. I also spent so much time playing in the hamlet challenges. The mazin mall had such nice items to save up for as well. The only part I never really did was building my own mazes but I did run on mazes built by other players, which was fun.
i miss all the prizes the little hamsters could save for, and all the different hamster balls they could run around in
there are 11 people in my family ( children, grandchildren, and me) with Webkinz accts and we ALL love Mazin Hamsters and wish to have it back… You are offering some hope for the future so HURRY and BRING IT BACK. Yay Ganz Keep up the good work!
I never got to play Mazin’ Hamsters. I would love a chance at all of those trophies though, so as the development team is out of a job since fantastic Amazing World was closed, perhaps they can be employed revamping Mazing Hsmsters for a new generation.
I have tried to log into Amazing world and I can’t as both my daughter and I just got some Mazin Hamsters. When we try to go to Amazing world all we get is 403 forbidden.
Amazing World shut down last year.
Yeah, that part of the article was really misleading, the way it was set upSorry Steve, you needed to add a very anticlimactic “But also closed down” or something on the Amazing World part.
that’s really too bad I guess I missed both!
I would love for Mazin’ Hamsters to come back! I was so fun to see them running around the mazes, and the music was pretty cool too.
I really miss Moolah Mountain too