A Hat in Time

A Hat in Time
No one's here to help.
Protagonist(s): Hat Kid Genre(s): Action-adventure Platform Platform(s): macOS Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One Nintendo Switch Release: macOS, Microsoft Windows WW: October 5, 2017 PlayStation 4 NA: December 5, 2017 EU: December 6, 2017 Xbox One WW: December 7, 2017 Nintendo Switch WW: October 18, 2019 Engine: Unreal Engine 3 Developer(s): Gears for Breakfast Publisher(s): Humble Bundle Gears for Breakfast (PC) Country: Denmark

"This game proved that Kickstarter projects can be successful. They're not always gonna end up like...Mighty No. 9."

— Nathaniel Bandy

A Hat in Time is a platform action-adventure video game developed by Gears for Breakfast for macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The is inspired by earlier 3D platform games in the late 1990s and early 2000s such as Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Psychonauts, and Super Mario Sunshine.

Why It's Cute-As-Heck

1. Very tight controls.
2. The characters in the game are very charming and lovable.
3. The graphics in the game are colorful and give the feel of its cell-shading art style of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
4. Hat Kid is very "heckin' cute". Especially when she uses the Hookshot and says "Clink!"
5. A fantastic soundtrack, with additional guest composers like the underrated Qumu and Grant Kirkhope
6. The worlds in the game are great to explore.
7. The voice acting in the game is great (featuring YouTubers such as Yungtown and JonTron).
8. Murder on The Owl Express in World 2 gives major vibes to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
9. The C.A.W Agents in the game are based around the G-Men from Psychonauts.
10. Queen Vanessa's Manor in World 3 goes from a platform game to a horror game.
11. The Conductor in the game is voiced by none other than Xander Mobus (known as the announcer, Master Hand and Crazy Hand from SSB4 and SSBU, and The Protagonist (Joker) from Persona 5.
12. Mod support.
13. Very well-written dialogue.
14. A Hat in Time received its first free DLC on September 13 titled "Seal the Deal" and added co-op.
15. The "Seal the Deal" DLC comes free with the physical version of the Nintendo Switch game.
16. In Death Wishes, there are Time shifts made by the community.
17. There's a secret boss in Nyakuza Metro inspired by a character from Sega's Yakuza series.

Bad Qualities

1. The ending for the game where you give or not give Mustache Girl the Time Piece, is the same ending, which is a huge letdown.
2. Some Death Wish challenges are very hard to do unless you are very good at the game. Specifically Cruisin' for a Brusin', an endless version of Chapter 6's "Ship Shape" with over 40 tasks to complete on the ship, and even worse, there's a bonus where you have to do it without upsetting the Captain even once. All the pain from this mission gives you a hat.
3. The loading screens take quite a while.
4. While the graphics are colorful, it feels dated.
5. Queen Vanessa's Manor can be very unsettling for some people.
6. The new DLC "Vanessa's Curse" is poorly received due to having a lot of bugs and a broken timeout room.
7. When "Vanessa's Curse" came out, mod usage refused to work, and there isn't a way to use them in the normal game unless you play the game in the experimental state, the drawback is that you will lose the ability to play the DLC, so you lose either way.

Reception

Upon its release, the game received positive reviews from critics and players. The game was praised mainly for how well it represents old-school collect-a-thon platformers while still being an original game with its own identity rather than being a "spiritual successor". Fan demands for a Nintendo Switch port were massive upon the game's launch, but the developers stated that the game couldn't be ported to Switch due to it not supporting the engine that the game was developed with. However, in August 2018 a Switch port was finally announced, while the actual port was released in 2019.

The game has sold over 250,000 copies since March of 2018.

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