Marketplace: Steam
Genre: Adventure Game
Studio: Gears for Breakfast
Remember when you played imaginary role-playing games with your friends in the schoolyard when you were 10 years old?
When every day at lunchtime, you and your buddies would head to the schoolyard, pick characters from your favorite books, cartoons, and video games, and then romp around the playground pretended you were fighting monsters and supervillains.
For a blissful afternoon, you were the heroes of your own Saturday morning cartoon. The world around you was whatever you wanted it to be and anything was possible.
One minute you would be Pokemon trainers in a gym battle. The next you were using the talismans from Jackie Chan adventures fighting ninjas in the Shadow Realm. Then you would be fighting Yerk-infested Hork Bajir as Animorphed tigers and elephants. And you would start from there and go from one made-up scenario to the next.
That’s basically A Hat In Time, an adventure game made by Denmark-based studio Gears for Breakfast. It’s schoolyard roleplay: the game.
A Hat In Time takes cues from adventure games from the late ‘90s and early 2000s like Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and Psychonauts.
But for a game with such love for the games it takes inspiration from it’s been a long time since I’ve played anything so not just unique but also varied.
The levels are selected from a hub overworld, but it’s like Conker’s Bad Fur Day in that you’re almost never in the same scenario twice. In one hour you’ll be exploring an island city built on a geyser. The next hour you’ll be helping a disco DJ penguin and an owl train conductor compete for a movie award.
Plot and Story
You play as Hat Kid, a girl dressed in a purple coat and a yellow cape who pilots a spaceship that runs on literal time. Your spaceship becomes boarded by a mafia goon, which busts open the vault holding the timepieces that run your ship, and your goal is to collect them all so you can return home.
This being a 3D platformer, you can do all the usual 3D platformer stuff such as run, jump, wall-jump etc. The main gameplay mechanic is one where you change your hat to gain different powers such as run faster, jump on invisible platforms and throw bombs, etc., similar to what Major’s Mask did with the different masks.
The A Hat in Time webpage cites 3D platformers and adventure games such as Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and Psychonauts and other games from the late ‘90s, early 2000’s N64 era as influences.
Really, it’s not so much “take influence from” as much as it is a “loving tribute to,” because as much as A Hat in Time is filled with original ideas it reminds me a LOT of the games it draws inspiration from.
The Good Stuff in A Hat in Time
I’ll start with the headline: I love A Hat in Time. Kind of a lot.
I love that it reminds me of a lot of the games I loved in my childhood. I love the personality, whimsical imagination, humor and charm that seep from every edge of it. I love that it not only touches my nostalgia buttons in all the right ways, but that it does so in a way that feels fresh, new and stimulating.
I’ve never played Yooka-Laylee before, but from what I know about it I can imagine that A Hat in Time was the kind of thing it was going for, and the latter pulls it off without a hitch.
A Hat in Time features quirky characters, inventive scenarios, wacky situations, and the writing is chock-full of clever wordplay and puns. This game really does make you feel like you’re a kid in a made-up, imaginary world.
Another point: Hat Kid is really satisfying and fun to move around and control. You can feel her bubbly energy in every step and jump she does. That’s really important in collect-o-thon free-roaming games like this.
Difficulty Curve
I have 16 hours of playtime logged on Steam for A Hat In Time and I’m having such a thoroughly good time that I really can’t find much fault with it.
If you put a gun to my head and made me choose something, it’d probably be that if anything A Hat in Time is maybe a bit too easy and could benefit from a little more of a challenge.
The cutesy art style and cartoonish settings do make me think that it was made for a slightly younger audience in mind, but given that this is a game made out of a love of nostalgic 3D platformers something just a little more stimulating would have been welcome.
But again, I’m nitpicking. This is the kind of game I can play after a long day at work to relax and unwind, and to make me flashback to my youth as a return to innocence. For that alone, A Hat in Time is a welcome addition to my life.
The Subtle Touches
For all it’s zany goofiness, A Hat in Time also had some more subtle moments and little details that stood out to me and gave it a little more depth.
Here’s one example. Do you remember how in N64 Rareware games like Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie that if you went long enough without touching your controller you would trigger a fun idle animation? Conker would whistle in time to the music. Kazooie would mess with Banjo by pecking him on the shoulder.
Well, A Hat in Time does that too. If you leave her standing for long enough the Hat Kid will do hat tricks, play with the umbrella she uses as her main weapon and other stuff. I thought that was cute, and I could see what they were trying to do.
And here’s another thing N64 Rareware games did: the music would change instruments and tone when you navigate around the overworld or the levels seamlessly without having to use a load screen.
The Windy theme from Conker’s Bad Fur day is the best example I can think of for this.
A Hat in Time does this too. Again, another loving touch that shows you how much the creators not just admire but respect the games which inspire them.
My Standout Moment in A Hat in Time
My favorite moment in A Hat in Time would probably be Queen Vanessa’s Mansion, one of the Acts in Subcon Forest (the spooky forest level that every collect-o-thon adventure game needs to have by law).
This is the part where you’re sneaking around a spooky mansion haunted by the spirit of a queen tormented by jealousy.
At various points in the mansion, you have to make noises to progress through the level, which will alert the ghost to where you are and leaving you seconds before you have to duck and cover under the nearest object before she grabs you and turns you into ice.
For a game with such a youthful exuberance to it, this stood out as a pretty intense sequence. It had me biting my nails whenever I saw or heard Queen Vanessa walk past me.
Until the point where you have to sneak past her while she’s taking a shower. I have to admit that’s pretty silly, even by the game’s own standards of silliness.
The Ending – SPOILER WARNING PUT A BLINDFOLD ON AND SING LA LA LA IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED THE GAME YET
The game ends when the Mustache Girl you meet at the beginning of the game ganks all of your timepieces and alters reality to make herself the king of the world and judges all the characters you meet who she deems unworthy to live.
When you confront her, all the characters you’ve met on your journey back you up and chant in unison that she needs to get lost. Queue the epic boss battle.
In the ensuing final boss battle, they all sacrifice themselves to give you the power-up you need to defeat Mustache Girl once and for all.
Then particle effects.
Then you beat the game.
Before the credits roll you’re given a choice between giving the Mustache Girl one last time piece to defeat the Mafia at the risk of not being able to make it all the way home, or to keep it for yourself.
I thought about it for a minute and said “nah, screw her. Why would I do that? The mafia aren’t even that bad. They’re actually pretty nice guys once you get to know them.”
Then, the end credits title card reveals that Hat Kid had dreamed the whole thing as she sleeps peacefully in her bed as she’s surrounded by dolls that look like the mafia goons and talking owls we’ve gotten to know.
Super Mario Bros. 2 anyone?
I should be pissed that a game this good is above playing the “turns out it was all a dream” card.
But honestly? The fact that something so imaginative and goofy all took place in the mind of a little kid actually made the ending kind of touching and even poignant.
My Recommendation for A Hat in Time
Omg you guys. A Hat in Time is incredible. Go play it.
And eventually, I’ll get around to playing the DLC and when I do, you can be sure you can read about it here. Why not follow me on Instagram at @taborektravis so you’ll be the first to know when it comes out?
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