Platformers, every gamer has played at least one platformer in their life or at least I hope they have. If not then great shame. Great shame indeed. The genre started with a simple sidescroller you all know as Super Mario Bros, where the player would have to navigate their way from Point A to Point B while avoiding a multitude of obstacles and enemies heading their way. It was a simple concept with simple mechanics and ideas. Hardware limitations prevented too much experimentation, but Nintendo made use of the elements they made and provided an enjoyable adventure that kept players hooked. Not only was this game considered one of the most revolutionary games ever made, practically saving the video game industry after the massive economic crash that ET created, but it also set up the foundation for other titles to build upon. Almost half the games in the NES library were platformers or sidescrollers attempting to surpass the level of popularity and innovation Super Mario Bros had. However, the developers never quite seemed to understand what made a fun platformer. It wasn’t just being able to jump or reach the flag at the end. It was the obstacles, the variety in level design, the way the player maneuvers around , and how fair these challenges were.
Flash forward a few years later and we have the revolutionary Nintendo 64 and Playstation, the era when games started to jump from 2D to 3D. No longer were characters moving from left to right. Now they had a multitude of directions to move towards. A full axis of three hundred and sixty degrees. Thanks to new technology, developers were able to expand upon their original ideas. Action games would introduce complex combat systems that would truly challenge the player’s skills. First person shooters were really beginning to shape the market with games like Doom and Goldeneye 007. Voice recordings and scripting would help developers give personality to their characters and incorporate cinematic storytelling into their games. During this huge era of 3D gaming, some of the most legendary games were actually 3D platformers. They were colorful, fun to play, and were open to a wide audience. From younglings to full grown adults. There was Super Mario 64, the first Banjo-Kazooie games, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro The Dragon, these are the games that people look back to today and still remember fondly of how fun they were.
However times have changed, as gamer’s interests change the video game market changes as well. Companies are constantly trying to figure out what gamers truly want, but this leads to them forgetting what a video game is supposed to be. Fun. This leads us towards independent developers, entrepreneurs who set out to establish their own studios and games without the limitations of the video game industry. In recent years it seems like indie games have received much better praise than a majority of Triple A titles. Not saying big budget games are bad, but indie developers understand what their audiences want. Remember, that factor of fun. Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight, Owlboy, I can list to you all the indie games I love, but that would make this review much longer. These games do terrific jobs at easing the player in quickly with good game design, and giving a sense of nostalgia and charm for the classics. Luckily, today’s game gives us a feeling of nostalgia for the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation era. Not many developers want to create 3D platformers these days. The only ones I know who still give a damn for the genre is Nintendo, but that’s kind of expected of them since Mario’s milk udders can be yanked for an infinite amount of time and never run dry.
The point being is that competition is practically extinct in the genre and only one person dominates it. Luckily some indie developers have tried to make 3D platformers, and one of these developers is a small indie team named Gears For Breakfast. With a Kickstarter campaign dating back to the early 2010s, Gears For Breakfast was quite determined to make a game reflecting the era long forgotten. This little project was known as A Hat In Time, and within the first few days of fundraising it raised double the amount of funding needed for full production. However, development for the game would take some time due to the scale of the project, and it wasn’t until 2017 that the full version finally came out. A Hat In Time was a promising experience that delivered on every goal the Kickstarter campaign set up, and it showed developers that the 3D platformer genre was still relevant today. Unfortunately the release date for the game was poorly planned, as another 3D platformer that was incredibly hyped came out a few weeks later, Super Mario Odyssey. This left A Hat In Time to be trampled in the dust by all the fanboys who showered Super Mario Odyssey in countless 10/10 scores, but for those who played A Hat In Time they still had a great time.
I recently just played through the game myself and I can say it’s quite good. It’s not the most polished indie game I played, but the amount of effort and personality put into this game is just jaw dropping. It’s enough to make me fall in love with the charming world and characters. Today we’ll be talking about why I love A Hat In Time and why I think it deserves your attention. So wake up for another exciting space filled adventure and prepare to collect the time pieces you need to get back home.
Story
You play as a mute little girl aboard a spaceship who we are simply going to name, Hat Kid. She is the only one aboard this ship and she is slowly piloting the ship back to her home planet. We don’t know what the planet is named or whether it is earth or not, but this is a 3D platformer so don’t expect anything realistic or relating to the real world. We’re also just going to assume she is trying to get home, because it is clearly shown that she is trying to get home and anything more complicated than that is too much for the child’s mind. The ship is full on fuel and Hat Kid is about to kick the ship into hyperdrive until someone comes knocking onto the window of her ship.
A resident of Mafia Town has come up into the atmosphere from the planet Hat Kid was simply going to pass by. The Mafia Town member tries to collect some cash from Hat Kid for passing by their planet, but when Hat Kid tries to make him go away he busts through the ship's window and sucks everything in Hat Kids ship into the cold depths of space. Everything comes flying down onto the planet's surface or into the vacuum of space, including the fuel needed to power the ship, TimePieces.
Hat Kid lands into the streets of Mafia Town and soon encounters a mustached girl simply named Mustache Girl. Mustache Girl notices that Hat Kid is trying to recollect the TimePieces she has just lost, so she decides to help Hat Kid out in exchange for having Hat Kid help fight the mafia. When Mustache Girl interacts with one of the TimePieces she figures out that the TimePieces have the ability to reverse time and alter reality, which is a power totally out of her world. She tries to convince Hat Kid to allow her to use the TimePieces to fight back against the Mafia and any forces of evil, but Hat Kid refuses to let Mustache Girl use or even touch the TimePieces thinking if she messes with time then something bad would happen. Mustache Girl is angered by Hat Kid refusing to let her alter time and completely defeat the mafia, and dashes off to collect the TimePieces herself. The two little girls quickly become enemies and the hunt is on. It’s a mad dash to see who gets the TimePieces first and Hat Kid must explore each corner of the planet, make new friends, and get enough fuel for her ship.
Gameplay
A Hat In Time is a pretty simple game and sometimes sticking to simple ideas is what drags your players in faster to the experience. I mean it’s a 3D platformer, so you should know how a majority of these games play out if you have played titles like Banjo-Kazooie or Psychonauts. Better yet, the several 3D Mario games which people refer to most when talking about 3D platformers. You explore each open area collecting items, navigating your way around obstacles, chatting with a couple of characters, occasionally defending yourself off from a variety of baddies, and reaching your goal which are the Time Pieces. Sometimes they’ll be lying in plain sight and require simple linear platforming to get towards. Other times you will have to do a list of mundane tasks and scripted events just so you can get to them.
Hat Kid controls pretty well. She has a nice selection of skills, not too much and not too little, that allow the player to get creative with how they maneuver around the environment. Hat Kid can double jump allowing you to traverse across large gaps or gain some extra transaction while in midair. It’s a really forgiving move and can save you from danger during certain occasions. She can attack enemies up close using her umbrella, but most likely it won’t be the most efficient option since it has a wonky reaction. Instead you may want to home in on enemies using a homing attack. You can perform a dive which gives you extra distance, but you lose control while performing it and it does have the consequence of immediately rocketing you towards the ground.
Throughout the game you may unlock new abilities which open up new ways to traverse the world. Such abilities include the grapple hook which allows you to swing on certain flying rings. These tools help the developers create some unique challenges that get more complex as the game goes on. Remember in my Celeste review that great platformer levels are ones that take simple mechanics and expand on them and A Hat In Time certainly does that. I remember there being a speed run level with explosions and it required the player to make good use of the grappling hook and a power up you unlock later on. Speaking of which we should probably get to that.
There are many items to collect besides the TimePieces, and some of these items are even required to access certain missions. Pons are your basic currency and can be used to purchase items, badges that give Hat Kid special perks, tokens that can be used at slot machines at the end of each level to unlock extra features and cosmetics, and yarn which can be used to craft new hats to use in the field. Hats allow you to use special abilities to interact with your surroundings or get past certain obstacles. For example the Dash Hat allows you to run faster and jump farther thanks to a quicker build up in speed. The Ice Hat allows you to turn into an icey statue and use jump boards designed to launch you across long distances, and the Wizard Hat allows you to concoct explosive potions that can blow up enemies or certain destructible objects.
Be careful when fighting off foes, because Hat Kid has a health bar. If she gets hit too many times she is knocked back to the previous checkpoint which isn't far, but there’s a failsafe so remember that. There are boss fights at the end of each world and they are there to test you from progressing. It will take a couple of attempts to understand their attack pattern, but once you get it down you should be able to slam their faces into the ground. Besides that there is nothing much left to say besides it being your stereotypical 3D platformer. It’s fun, it’s charming, the level variety is great, and it’s enough to make you happy. Hopefully you can make your way back home.
Thoughts
A Hat In Time was a blast to play through from beginning to end. It was just a fun video game and that’s what I look forward to whenever I buy a new intriguing indie game. The controls are mostly tight as Hat Kid maneuvers around at a consistent speed and never feels slippery to control. Graphics are shiny and colorful, even though they look a little rough at times. I really like the cartoonish art style the developers decided to go with. The soundtrack was well composed knowing when to let those calm heart lifting moments or thrilling action sequences have an effect.
Writing was surprisingly decent, having a nice mixture between childish humor and being charming to look at. Personally I think this game has more personality than the highly acclaimed Super Mario Odyssey. It has characters that actually make you care about who they are and how they play along with the story. The game is open to all types of audiences thanks to a few key funny moments meaning it’s fun for both kids and adults. There’s this one part where you have to figure out a (fake) murder aboard an express runned by some owls on a movie set while the director keeps saying the word “peck” rather than the actual F-word. The game is constantly switching between themes and you are always going to be entertained by them.
What I really liked about A Hat In Time was the variety. At first you start out on a basic sunny island similar to Delfino Plaza following simple missions with a linear structure. Then once you get to the next selection of world things start to get interesting. You're on a movie set which I mentioned earlier and you're trying to help two competitive birds direct their own films, and you're switching between hyperactive party films and serious toned mystery films. Then you end up in a dark ominous forest inhabited by a shadowy being known as The Snatcher and the area opens up the more you explore it. You're carrying out tasks for the Snatcher and some of them are just basic chores he doesn’t want to do. Then you end up in the mountains where it’s completely free roam and all of the missions can be tackled in any order. The variety in mission design changes up the pace and helps the game stand out from other 3D platformers. There aren’t that many missions compared to a lot of 3D platformers, but the quality for each one is really good. One of my many complaints with Super Mario Odyssey is that while there was a crap ton of content and hundreds of moons to collect. However, some of these moons weren’t thought out and felt like they were shoved right in to extend the completion rate. Once in a while, less is more can be better if the main content you are given has thought put into it. A Hat In Time may be inconsistent at times, but at least it keeps the flow going and that’s what makes it so special to me.
Now just because it sounds like I’m heavily praising A Hat In Time doesn't mean it falters from any minor problems. Stuff that drags it down from being the best 3D platformer I ever played even though it’s better than a majority of the 3D Mario games. The game is awfully short, only consisting of four worlds with a small number of missions. There is additional DLC though, so at least the developers want the game to be bigger than it is with the base content. Boss fights are where the difficulty usually spikes. I beat the first boss within one go and the second fight was also consistent, but when it came to the Snatcher fight I was dying all over the place due to a few attacks that are hard to telegraph. Depending on what console you play this game on you might experience framerate drops. I played this on the Nintendo Switch so you should expect some framerate drops to happen there. It’s mainly just nitpicks for me, but overall A Hat In Time is a 3D platformer collectathon I can highly recommend to fans of who love these types of games. I give A Hat In Time a 9/10 for excellence at best.
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