I remember being a kid watching playthroughs of the alpha version of A Hat in Time. Must've been about ten years ago now - almost half my life. It made me excited. It was a love letter to all of the games I'd grown up with, and it made really happy to know that there were people out there who loved these games as much as I did - so much so as to put their hearts and souls into a passion project like this.
But what always stuck with me about those countless Let's Plays I watched was the ending scene, featuring a grown-up Hat Kid leaving a bookstore. It was such a tonal shift, to an eerie degree. At a time when I could be enamored by every internet video game conspiracy under the sun, that scene left a profound imprint on my tiny, adolescent brain.
That scene made one thing clear to me, even then - that at some point in this very happy-go-lucky, cartoonish game, there would come a time when there was some maturity in its story, perhaps even a hint of darkness.
And that made sense. Many of the games which A Hat in Time is a love letter to manage to weave some maturity into their stories, despite largely maintaining a similar tone as what the majority of this game was going for.
Wind Waker, for instance, while at first glance is a cartoony, island-hopping adventure, is in fact a game about two men who can't let go of the past and their long-lost homeland. Super Mario Galaxy, despite featuring our favorite plumber and not being an RPG, tells the story of a little girl grieving her mother and a home she can't return to.
I fell off the development of A Hat in Time. You know, life happens. You can't keep track of every YouTube video you watched years ago on your Grandma's old computer, with its 4:3 monitor. I knew the game eventually released, to critical acclaim, but I never got around to playing it. That scene of the bookstore, however, always remained in the back of my mind. The vibe was immaculate, and I'd spent hours watching and rewatching these playthroughs pondering over what turn the story would take.
When I finally played A Hat in Time, I knew next to nothing about the twists and turns its development had taken in the years I'd stopped paying attention. I didn't know that scene at the bookstore, and Hat Adult, had been scrapped entirely.
It's difficult for me to genuinely criticize A Hat in Time for this. This is very much a case of me having a very specific set of expectations that the game had zero obligation to meet, and being disappointed that they were not met. I played this game waiting and waiting and waiting to see that bookstore that had captured my imagination as a child once more, only for it to never appear. And that... kinda makes me sad. In a way I wish it didn't, and that I can't really explain.
And I hate to say that this ruined my experience, because was A Hat in Time worth waiting half my life to play? Absolutely! This game rules. It's incredibly fun and charming and I had a blast playing through it. The levels are so unique, the platforming is tight, and it really is such a wonderful love letter to all these games I grew up with, just as I had expected.
A Hat in Time takes me back to a time (heh) when life was simpler. Of coming home from school, booting up the Wii, and playing Mario or Zelda for hours in a state of adoration and wonder that I rarely experience now. It's a reminder that even in my old age (21 lmao), with years of trauma and life's hardships taking their toll, I still have some of that fun and whimsy left. A Hat in time manages to bring it out in a very specific way.
But there's just no depth to any of it. I can't know what they originally had in store, of course - but there's no maturity at all to be found in A Hat in Time's story. There's some funny anti-capitalism jokes, but that's it. Nothing its villain does has any weight to it. It's all just... a children's cartoon. She has all this power to alter the timeline, and they hardly do anything with it.
And that's okay. I can't stress enough, that really is okay. If what they set out to make was a happy-go-lucky 3D platformer that takes inspiration from 3D Mario, Wind Waker, and other Wii and GameCube titles, that's what they made, and it works. But what made those games so larger than life to me back then was, even though I wasn't mature enough to fully understand what they were trying to convey, I knew that maturity was there, and it mattered. It felt like these games acknowledged that even though I was a kid, I was growing up. And someday I would get it. I would understand a little more with each playthrough.
I dunno, that's just my very specific experience. It might not make sense to you.
A Hat in Time really is a great game. It's exactly what it says on the tin - it's a damn fun 3D platformer that feels like it would be right at home on the GameCube. And I loved it. And I'd never say it wasn't worth the wait. But I can't help but feel a sense of loss for the game that imprinted so strongly on my little mind back when I was still young enough to constantly be feeling the sense of fun and whimsy that this game manages to instill in me now.
It genuinely makes me frustrated at myself that I feel so disappointed over a game as cute and fun as this.
But what always stuck with me about those countless Let's Plays I watched was the ending scene, featuring a grown-up Hat Kid leaving a bookstore. It was such a tonal shift, to an eerie degree. At a time when I could be enamored by every internet video game conspiracy under the sun, that scene left a profound imprint on my tiny, adolescent brain.
That scene made one thing clear to me, even then - that at some point in this very happy-go-lucky, cartoonish game, there would come a time when there was some maturity in its story, perhaps even a hint of darkness.
And that made sense. Many of the games which A Hat in Time is a love letter to manage to weave some maturity into their stories, despite largely maintaining a similar tone as what the majority of this game was going for.
Wind Waker, for instance, while at first glance is a cartoony, island-hopping adventure, is in fact a game about two men who can't let go of the past and their long-lost homeland. Super Mario Galaxy, despite featuring our favorite plumber and not being an RPG, tells the story of a little girl grieving her mother and a home she can't return to.
I fell off the development of A Hat in Time. You know, life happens. You can't keep track of every YouTube video you watched years ago on your Grandma's old computer, with its 4:3 monitor. I knew the game eventually released, to critical acclaim, but I never got around to playing it. That scene of the bookstore, however, always remained in the back of my mind. The vibe was immaculate, and I'd spent hours watching and rewatching these playthroughs pondering over what turn the story would take.
When I finally played A Hat in Time, I knew next to nothing about the twists and turns its development had taken in the years I'd stopped paying attention. I didn't know that scene at the bookstore, and Hat Adult, had been scrapped entirely.
It's difficult for me to genuinely criticize A Hat in Time for this. This is very much a case of me having a very specific set of expectations that the game had zero obligation to meet, and being disappointed that they were not met. I played this game waiting and waiting and waiting to see that bookstore that had captured my imagination as a child once more, only for it to never appear. And that... kinda makes me sad. In a way I wish it didn't, and that I can't really explain.
And I hate to say that this ruined my experience, because was A Hat in Time worth waiting half my life to play? Absolutely! This game rules. It's incredibly fun and charming and I had a blast playing through it. The levels are so unique, the platforming is tight, and it really is such a wonderful love letter to all these games I grew up with, just as I had expected.
A Hat in Time takes me back to a time (heh) when life was simpler. Of coming home from school, booting up the Wii, and playing Mario or Zelda for hours in a state of adoration and wonder that I rarely experience now. It's a reminder that even in my old age (21 lmao), with years of trauma and life's hardships taking their toll, I still have some of that fun and whimsy left. A Hat in time manages to bring it out in a very specific way.
But there's just no depth to any of it. I can't know what they originally had in store, of course - but there's no maturity at all to be found in A Hat in Time's story. There's some funny anti-capitalism jokes, but that's it. Nothing its villain does has any weight to it. It's all just... a children's cartoon. She has all this power to alter the timeline, and they hardly do anything with it.
And that's okay. I can't stress enough, that really is okay. If what they set out to make was a happy-go-lucky 3D platformer that takes inspiration from 3D Mario, Wind Waker, and other Wii and GameCube titles, that's what they made, and it works. But what made those games so larger than life to me back then was, even though I wasn't mature enough to fully understand what they were trying to convey, I knew that maturity was there, and it mattered. It felt like these games acknowledged that even though I was a kid, I was growing up. And someday I would get it. I would understand a little more with each playthrough.
I dunno, that's just my very specific experience. It might not make sense to you.
A Hat in Time really is a great game. It's exactly what it says on the tin - it's a damn fun 3D platformer that feels like it would be right at home on the GameCube. And I loved it. And I'd never say it wasn't worth the wait. But I can't help but feel a sense of loss for the game that imprinted so strongly on my little mind back when I was still young enough to constantly be feeling the sense of fun and whimsy that this game manages to instill in me now.
It genuinely makes me frustrated at myself that I feel so disappointed over a game as cute and fun as this.