A Hat in Time has been often described as a Mario game, usually linked to one of the major Mario games, usually 64 and Sunshine, and I see the reason for it, however I disagree. Though I did see one of the artists Jenna Brown posted this adorable piece of art how she grew up with Spyro and is now releasing her own game. It’s a touching piece of art, but as I played the game, I thought about it, and realized A Hat in Time, isn’t “Mario.” It’s one of the big platformer mascots on Playstation which are Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Sly or even Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank. This game fits in with that pedigree.
A hat in time is a 3D platformer where the player is tasked to get “Hourglasses”, the macguffin of the game, the same as the power stars, or gems, or whatever object the game requires you to get with little use. A Hat in Time spends a little more time giving it a purpose, but ultimately there’s none, you get X items and it unlocks a new level where you get more. A simple idea, and there’s nothing wrong with. Mario is currently chasing moons, I can’t fault A Hat in Time at all for a similar system, because it works.
In fact I love how A Hat in Time does it, while it only has four worlds, each world is different and each world has a different progression system, in fact I love that each world is different because it uses a different storytelling idea along with everything. Even when it goes with tropes like the first world which is a Mafia world, it’s not bogged down by the trope it choses, and in fact is quite entertaining. I loved exploring the world and seeing how the story progressed, and the fact is the Mafia trope barely bogs down anything, the same is true with the other three worlds, they all feel fresh.
Though I will say this, without spoiling it, I feel the last world was the weakest, but yet the most experimental and I still like it. The idea that each world is different is odd, but the fact that each world is keeps trying something new kept me more entertained than Yooka Layla did with similar worlds. I loved the Casino world in Yooka, but that was it. In A Hat in Time, I constantly wanted to see what was next and had no problems when the world wasn’t as good as I thought it could be because it was something new and unique.
The one thing that did hurt was the game kept changing how progression worked. In the first world I saw a really unique and special way the game was affecting the hub and elsewhere. It was brilliant, the down side was this was the only world that really did this. I wanted more. I wanted to see how it built on that idea, and it didn't. Like I said, the progression of other worlds was interesting but to see it change how the hub world was growing (and in fact pretty much stop it’s growth) saddened me because it excited me but I was force to temper the expectation.
In fact I’ll say this too, this is a bit of a rough game, and that’s why the Mario comparison falls short. There are camera issues, and control issue, the jump homing attack worked about a half to a third of the time I tried it. The fourth world is just a frame rate dumpster that took my framerate down so I had to drop the quality of graphics, There was a windmill that apparently broke because the frame rate was bad enough. There’s a LOT of issues is my point, and that’s a shame because while this game has moments of brilliance, it’s also just frustrating enough due to bugs and issues that I have to mention it. No crashes, and outside of the windmill (hit left bumper to pull up the hat menu and it somehow moves) no really gamebreaking bugs, but enough bugs that I can’t call this a really polished game.
But that’s another piece, I REALLY like this game that I pushed through minor annoyances. Some attack didn’t work 100 percent of the time, I figured out how to make it work. Some enemy was a little annoying I had to figure out how to deal with it, but I wanted to see everything and I 100 percent beat the achievements and game, because the thing is, with all those bugs, the game is still great. I love the character, I wanted to see more of her interacting with the world. I love the worlds, I wish there was more (But this is a 30 dollar game, I’ll accept four great worlds). People talk about the charm of the game and the facts is… It is damn charming. I get that comparison to Mario just in that way, because the one thing all those playstation mascots that I mentioned didn’t have in the first game, is the warm happy memorable feeling the story in this game does exude.
But there’s a reason I use those playstation mascots. The simple fact is all those games have a very important similarity. Spyro, Sly, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and even Crash are all good games, but they all have some minor to major flaws in their first games. Going back and playing them today is a little rough where the sequels fixed many of those flaws. I want A Hat in Time to join them, because the same brilliance of gameplay is here, and if A Hat in Time 2 comes out, I’ll be there ready to play, because I can see a rough game, but underneath there’s signs of some brilliance, and when A Hat in Time 2 comes out I hope we get the fully polished game that we deserve, that will put that game on par with Mario.
With the mention of Mario there’s of course one last thought to bring up. As much as I like this game, I don’t have a switch right now, and as such I am unable to compare this with Mario but by all accounts I’ve heard, if you have a switch, Super Mario Odyssey is the way to go. That’s not to say A Hat in Time is bad, it’s easily the best 3d platformer I’ve played on PC that I can think of. It’s the best 3d Platformer I played that came out in 2017, and it’s well done, but having it release a month before Super Mario Odyssey may have been a mistake.
Yet if you don’t have a switch, or still want more good platformers after Odyssey, A Hat in Time is well worth your money. It took me about 20 hours to beat the game, and I enjoyed almost all of it (There was a few really annoying achievements). It’s has all the makings of being the next big thing.
So I give this game a strong recommendation. Even with the minor bugs and issues I ran into I still recommend it because I love the game, the character, the story, the worlds, and everything. I wanted in a 3D Platformer, and A Hat in Time is a fine example for this, and like I said, I can’t wait for A Hat in Time 2 or whatever comes next from this team.
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4.5