I absolutely adore A Hat in Time, it’s probably one of my favorite 3D platformers ever. I first played the game probably some time in late 2019, but the version I played of it was the Switch port. I almost played the Switch port again for the replay, but thanks to the winter sale, I was able to buy the PC version. Now that I have the general reference for the Switch and PC versions of A Hat in Time, I’m so glad I didn’t play the Switch version again, genuinely. Playing the PC version of A Hat in Time really felt like I played the true version of the game, and it really rekindled my love for it. I was able to play the game’s DLC as well, which I absolutely loved. I obtained every Time Piece in the game, and at the end I did have 100% completion, and I still absolutely love it. Yet again, A Hat In Time is easily one of the best 3D platformers I’ve ever played.
Now, before I get into the actual contents of the game itself, since I talk about it in the prior paragraph, I should answer the question of “what’s wrong with the Switch port?”. And the best way I have of describing it is that there’s a lot of small issues that when combined, just ultimately feels like a lesser version of what the game is meant to be. The most obvious issue of the Switch port is the loading times. When entering a level of the PC version, it takes about 10-ish seconds for it to load. On the Switch port however, it takes easily over a minute, sometimes I worry that the game crashed while loading, that’s how long it takes. And while that in isolation is fine, there’s more issues as well. The Switch version of the game has lowered graphical quality, and the framerate can get noticeably low at times. All these issues combined make the Switch port just a lesser version of an amazing game. Playing the PC version of A Hat in Time makes me really appreciate what this game is and what it’s able to do.
I think what makes A Hat in Time so fun is the game’s movement. Hat Kid, even without the abilities the Hats give, has excellent movement options. I’m a sucker for double jumps in videogames, something about them feel really to pull off. And of course there’s more to Hat Kid’s movement as well. Hat Kid can dive both mid-air and on the ground which is amazing for horizontal movement. I could never perfect it, but I love how if you time it right, when Hat Kid lands on the ground during a dive, pressing jump or diving again boosts her forward even more. And there’s even more too, particularly wall running and wall jumping. If Hat Kid lands on a wall, she’ll run up it slightly, and if you’re close enough, she’ll climb up to the top of the wall. Wall jumping as the name implies is exactly what it does, Hat Kid can jump off walls, simple enough. But all of this comes together amazingly well, giving Hat Kid amazing movement with this alone. I love whenever I have to chain all these movement options together, they just feel so good to pull off.
And as the name of the game implies, another important aspect of A Hat in Time are well, the Hats. Each Hat that Hat Kid can equip grants her a unique ability. There’s 6 hat types in total and the abilities you get from them are all unique. The hat you start out with just points you to where you should go. But hats you unlock throughout the game have some really fun mechanics to them. There’s some simple ones like the Sprint Hat and the Brewing Hat, which allow you to dash and throw projectiles respectively. There’s also some more unique ones like the Ice Hat or the Dweller Mask which turn you into an ice statue, or allowing you to see hidden things respectively. While those later ones seem situational at best, the game does well to make you use all of the different hat types, and they often are in some of the best platforming sections. Another aspect of Hats that I really adore is how much customization the hats have, there’s so many different styles for each hat type, and it really allows you to have ones that you like the most. It’s just really nice.
The last major section of Hat Kid’s arsenal are badges that you can equip. At first you can only equip one badge, but as the game progresses you can buy upgrades that can bring the total up to three. Badges can alter gameplay in some form, though often in small ways. One of the ones that I found extremely useful was the No Bonk Badge, as instead of recoiling when diving into a wall, when the badge is equipped, Hat Kid immediately starts wallrunning. There’s also the likes of the Hover Badge, which removes fall damage, or the Compass Badge, which directs you towards treasure. One fun aspect that I really love about the badges is that not all of them are good. There’s some that are jokes, like putting visual filters on the game, making all the audio muffled, but there’s also ones that change the game’s difficulty, mirroring the whole game, or making you die in a single hit. The fact that the game actively gives you bad badges is really funny to me, and I really like it. Though I’ll say as well, there’s one badge that you basically have to have equipped for most of the game, though it’s also easily one of the best. The Hookshot Badge, which gives you a grappling hook, is necessary for Chapter 4, 5, and 7, which means that it’s easier to have it equipped just generally. While that innately isn’t bad, it is an amazing badge after all, I feel like it would be better if it was just a permanent upgrade, instead of a badge upgrade. That’s my opinion though, and it’s an extremely small critique if anything.
Now, I absolutely love almost every world in A Hat in Time. While some follow similar structures to each other, they all feel really unique in so many ways. Aesthetically, thematically, structurally, yet again I nearly love all of them. I’ll explain why I keep saying nearly when I get to the specific world I don’t particularly love, but I’ll say now that I still like it. Mafia Town is really fun as a starting world, it’s so open and I love exploring and finding new things in it. And each time piece in Mafia Town is really fun to obtain, I love how Mafia Town shifts for each level, crafting itself in a way that’s perfect for the Time Piece you’re looking for. Dead Bird Studio is another amazing world. I love the contrast of the two, Mafia Town is set in the same area for all of the levels, while Dead Bird Studio changes depending on the set. I really love the levels set on the train for Dead Bird Studio especially, they’re really fun. Subcon Forest is a bit like Mafia Town, an open setting that shifts depending on what Time Piece you’re hunting. But a thing that I love a lot about Subcon Forest is how a lot of it is locked off, and you have to explore and find how to unlock those sections of the map. Subcon Forest of course is where you unlock the Hookshot Badge, which is amazing already. And I’d say this world has one of the best levels in the entire game, especially presentation wise. If you were to ask me what my favorite world was back when I first played A Hat in Time, I would’ve answered Alpine Skyline. A completely free roam area, where you can any time piece in any order you want, and actively going through each area and finding each time piece felt amazing. If it wasn’t for the DLC, this would’ve been my favorite world, especially because of how strong the ending sequence of Alpine Skyline is to me. Then there’s the world I’m somewhat conflicted on, Arctic Cruise. Arctic Cruise is a fun world in concept, being on a large cruise ship, but with how short the world is in comparison to every other world, there just wasn’t enough time with it. I could never properly navigate Arctic Cruise, and I think if there were one or two more levels, I’d properly love it like every other world. Though as well it contains probably my least favorite level in the game, that’s because of how hectic that level is. Nyakuza Metro is easily my favorite world in the game. It’s another free roam area like Alpine Skyline, but on a much larger scale. There is so much to explore and look for, so many vendors that sell new cosmetics, and a bunch of time pieces to find. While this is all amazing, it also has my favorite finale level of any world in the game, I love escape sequences like this. And of course, Time’s End, the world that though not the game’s final chapter, is the game’s ending, is a fun and difficult gauntlet that really showcases how far you’ve gotten. It’s a great final level for a game. All of the world in A Hat in Time are amazing, and I absolutely adored finding every single time piece in them.
Of course this only really scratches the surface of the worlds of A Hat in Time. As you find time pieces in specific worlds, Time Rifts appear, which can be located in specific worlds, and lead you to new levels. You can also explore each world, finding Relic Pieces and Rift Tokens, and I nearly found every treasure in the game, only stopping when I got every single reward that I needed. Rift Tokens can be used to gain remixes to specific music tracks, new hat cosmetics, or new color palettes for Hat Kid. And if you have every piece of a relic and put it together, that unlocks new Time Rifts in certain worlds. You can also find Time Rifts in Hat Kid’s ship, which serves as the central hub for the game, which is really fun as well. There’s so much to see and explore throughout the entirety of A Hat in Time and I really adore it.
The boss fights are definitely an interesting case. Most of them aren’t too hard, though I definitely struggled on some. Some worlds don’t even have a boss fight at all. Funnily enough the boss that I’d say actually proved a challenge for me was the boss of Dead Bird Studio, it took a small handful of tries to win that one. But for the cases of every other boss, if I didn’t win on my first try, I won on my second. And while sure, something being a challenge is fun, I more prefer the presentation of the bosses in the game than them being difficult.
And of course I still haven’t talked about the story or the characters of A Hat in Time, and at this point, I’m 1900 words in. The story itself is simple, but it’s super charming which is why I love it so. The simple description of the story is that Hat Kid lost the Time Pieces and is hunting for them so that she can get home. While that’s simple, there’s just so much charm in this game seen through the characters. Having to go to all these different locations, and deal with people and their problems in order to get Time Pieces. That’s one aspect of Dead Bird Studio that I love particularly, in order to get the Time Pieces back, you’re forced into this rivalry between two film directors, and you get to determine who wins. And just hearing the voice actors for these characters, you can hear that they’re having fun with playing these characters, which makes it all the better.
There’s still a lot I haven’t tried out with A Hat in Time. There’s the Vanessa’s Curse DLC, which I don’t own because it didn’t come with the Ultimate Edition. And every single aspect of Online or Co-op is something that I haven’t tried out, as I played this completely in singleplayer. But the biggest part of the game that I didn’t touch was the Death Wishes. 38 remixed levels which unique challenges that make the levels harder, but give you a large number of unique rewards. While I tried one out, I don’t think I’d be able to do all of them, but maybe in the future I’ll give it an attempt.
And through it all I absolutely love A Hat in Time. It bears repeating that of the ones I’ve played, this is one of my favorite 3D platformers. There’s so much that I adore about it. Excellent movement, a ridiculous amount of cosmetics, great worlds and levels designed perfectly to fit player movement, and an enormous amount of charm and love put into this game. Not many 3D platformers make me want to complete every level, but this game surely does. And I’ll probably replay this game again in the future, since beating the game for the first time unlocks Bow Kid as a playable character, it’d be fun to do a playthrough as her. But that aside this probably will be the last game I beat this year, and what an amazing game to end the year off on. If you’re even reading this far down at this point, see you next year!
Now, before I get into the actual contents of the game itself, since I talk about it in the prior paragraph, I should answer the question of “what’s wrong with the Switch port?”. And the best way I have of describing it is that there’s a lot of small issues that when combined, just ultimately feels like a lesser version of what the game is meant to be. The most obvious issue of the Switch port is the loading times. When entering a level of the PC version, it takes about 10-ish seconds for it to load. On the Switch port however, it takes easily over a minute, sometimes I worry that the game crashed while loading, that’s how long it takes. And while that in isolation is fine, there’s more issues as well. The Switch version of the game has lowered graphical quality, and the framerate can get noticeably low at times. All these issues combined make the Switch port just a lesser version of an amazing game. Playing the PC version of A Hat in Time makes me really appreciate what this game is and what it’s able to do.
I think what makes A Hat in Time so fun is the game’s movement. Hat Kid, even without the abilities the Hats give, has excellent movement options. I’m a sucker for double jumps in videogames, something about them feel really to pull off. And of course there’s more to Hat Kid’s movement as well. Hat Kid can dive both mid-air and on the ground which is amazing for horizontal movement. I could never perfect it, but I love how if you time it right, when Hat Kid lands on the ground during a dive, pressing jump or diving again boosts her forward even more. And there’s even more too, particularly wall running and wall jumping. If Hat Kid lands on a wall, she’ll run up it slightly, and if you’re close enough, she’ll climb up to the top of the wall. Wall jumping as the name implies is exactly what it does, Hat Kid can jump off walls, simple enough. But all of this comes together amazingly well, giving Hat Kid amazing movement with this alone. I love whenever I have to chain all these movement options together, they just feel so good to pull off.
And as the name of the game implies, another important aspect of A Hat in Time are well, the Hats. Each Hat that Hat Kid can equip grants her a unique ability. There’s 6 hat types in total and the abilities you get from them are all unique. The hat you start out with just points you to where you should go. But hats you unlock throughout the game have some really fun mechanics to them. There’s some simple ones like the Sprint Hat and the Brewing Hat, which allow you to dash and throw projectiles respectively. There’s also some more unique ones like the Ice Hat or the Dweller Mask which turn you into an ice statue, or allowing you to see hidden things respectively. While those later ones seem situational at best, the game does well to make you use all of the different hat types, and they often are in some of the best platforming sections. Another aspect of Hats that I really adore is how much customization the hats have, there’s so many different styles for each hat type, and it really allows you to have ones that you like the most. It’s just really nice.
The last major section of Hat Kid’s arsenal are badges that you can equip. At first you can only equip one badge, but as the game progresses you can buy upgrades that can bring the total up to three. Badges can alter gameplay in some form, though often in small ways. One of the ones that I found extremely useful was the No Bonk Badge, as instead of recoiling when diving into a wall, when the badge is equipped, Hat Kid immediately starts wallrunning. There’s also the likes of the Hover Badge, which removes fall damage, or the Compass Badge, which directs you towards treasure. One fun aspect that I really love about the badges is that not all of them are good. There’s some that are jokes, like putting visual filters on the game, making all the audio muffled, but there’s also ones that change the game’s difficulty, mirroring the whole game, or making you die in a single hit. The fact that the game actively gives you bad badges is really funny to me, and I really like it. Though I’ll say as well, there’s one badge that you basically have to have equipped for most of the game, though it’s also easily one of the best. The Hookshot Badge, which gives you a grappling hook, is necessary for Chapter 4, 5, and 7, which means that it’s easier to have it equipped just generally. While that innately isn’t bad, it is an amazing badge after all, I feel like it would be better if it was just a permanent upgrade, instead of a badge upgrade. That’s my opinion though, and it’s an extremely small critique if anything.
Now, I absolutely love almost every world in A Hat in Time. While some follow similar structures to each other, they all feel really unique in so many ways. Aesthetically, thematically, structurally, yet again I nearly love all of them. I’ll explain why I keep saying nearly when I get to the specific world I don’t particularly love, but I’ll say now that I still like it. Mafia Town is really fun as a starting world, it’s so open and I love exploring and finding new things in it. And each time piece in Mafia Town is really fun to obtain, I love how Mafia Town shifts for each level, crafting itself in a way that’s perfect for the Time Piece you’re looking for. Dead Bird Studio is another amazing world. I love the contrast of the two, Mafia Town is set in the same area for all of the levels, while Dead Bird Studio changes depending on the set. I really love the levels set on the train for Dead Bird Studio especially, they’re really fun. Subcon Forest is a bit like Mafia Town, an open setting that shifts depending on what Time Piece you’re hunting. But a thing that I love a lot about Subcon Forest is how a lot of it is locked off, and you have to explore and find how to unlock those sections of the map. Subcon Forest of course is where you unlock the Hookshot Badge, which is amazing already. And I’d say this world has one of the best levels in the entire game, especially presentation wise. If you were to ask me what my favorite world was back when I first played A Hat in Time, I would’ve answered Alpine Skyline. A completely free roam area, where you can any time piece in any order you want, and actively going through each area and finding each time piece felt amazing. If it wasn’t for the DLC, this would’ve been my favorite world, especially because of how strong the ending sequence of Alpine Skyline is to me. Then there’s the world I’m somewhat conflicted on, Arctic Cruise. Arctic Cruise is a fun world in concept, being on a large cruise ship, but with how short the world is in comparison to every other world, there just wasn’t enough time with it. I could never properly navigate Arctic Cruise, and I think if there were one or two more levels, I’d properly love it like every other world. Though as well it contains probably my least favorite level in the game, that’s because of how hectic that level is. Nyakuza Metro is easily my favorite world in the game. It’s another free roam area like Alpine Skyline, but on a much larger scale. There is so much to explore and look for, so many vendors that sell new cosmetics, and a bunch of time pieces to find. While this is all amazing, it also has my favorite finale level of any world in the game, I love escape sequences like this. And of course, Time’s End, the world that though not the game’s final chapter, is the game’s ending, is a fun and difficult gauntlet that really showcases how far you’ve gotten. It’s a great final level for a game. All of the world in A Hat in Time are amazing, and I absolutely adored finding every single time piece in them.
Of course this only really scratches the surface of the worlds of A Hat in Time. As you find time pieces in specific worlds, Time Rifts appear, which can be located in specific worlds, and lead you to new levels. You can also explore each world, finding Relic Pieces and Rift Tokens, and I nearly found every treasure in the game, only stopping when I got every single reward that I needed. Rift Tokens can be used to gain remixes to specific music tracks, new hat cosmetics, or new color palettes for Hat Kid. And if you have every piece of a relic and put it together, that unlocks new Time Rifts in certain worlds. You can also find Time Rifts in Hat Kid’s ship, which serves as the central hub for the game, which is really fun as well. There’s so much to see and explore throughout the entirety of A Hat in Time and I really adore it.
The boss fights are definitely an interesting case. Most of them aren’t too hard, though I definitely struggled on some. Some worlds don’t even have a boss fight at all. Funnily enough the boss that I’d say actually proved a challenge for me was the boss of Dead Bird Studio, it took a small handful of tries to win that one. But for the cases of every other boss, if I didn’t win on my first try, I won on my second. And while sure, something being a challenge is fun, I more prefer the presentation of the bosses in the game than them being difficult.
And of course I still haven’t talked about the story or the characters of A Hat in Time, and at this point, I’m 1900 words in. The story itself is simple, but it’s super charming which is why I love it so. The simple description of the story is that Hat Kid lost the Time Pieces and is hunting for them so that she can get home. While that’s simple, there’s just so much charm in this game seen through the characters. Having to go to all these different locations, and deal with people and their problems in order to get Time Pieces. That’s one aspect of Dead Bird Studio that I love particularly, in order to get the Time Pieces back, you’re forced into this rivalry between two film directors, and you get to determine who wins. And just hearing the voice actors for these characters, you can hear that they’re having fun with playing these characters, which makes it all the better.
There’s still a lot I haven’t tried out with A Hat in Time. There’s the Vanessa’s Curse DLC, which I don’t own because it didn’t come with the Ultimate Edition. And every single aspect of Online or Co-op is something that I haven’t tried out, as I played this completely in singleplayer. But the biggest part of the game that I didn’t touch was the Death Wishes. 38 remixed levels which unique challenges that make the levels harder, but give you a large number of unique rewards. While I tried one out, I don’t think I’d be able to do all of them, but maybe in the future I’ll give it an attempt.
And through it all I absolutely love A Hat in Time. It bears repeating that of the ones I’ve played, this is one of my favorite 3D platformers. There’s so much that I adore about it. Excellent movement, a ridiculous amount of cosmetics, great worlds and levels designed perfectly to fit player movement, and an enormous amount of charm and love put into this game. Not many 3D platformers make me want to complete every level, but this game surely does. And I’ll probably replay this game again in the future, since beating the game for the first time unlocks Bow Kid as a playable character, it’d be fun to do a playthrough as her. But that aside this probably will be the last game I beat this year, and what an amazing game to end the year off on. If you’re even reading this far down at this point, see you next year!