GAME REVIEW: A Hat In Time: Adorable by Nature, Enchanting by Design

“A Hat In Time”“ is a 3D platformer developed by “gears for breakfast.”“ It manages to do what very few games have done for me which is make me stop playing, take a step back, and just marvel in how adorable everything in the game is.

“A Hat In Time”“ is a breath of fresh air when it comes to games. Every year you have triple A developers releasing similar games with minor tweaks to how things work. Throughout the entire game, “A Hat In Time”“ felt new and exiting. Each level has a different feel to it, where one may be survival horror, the next may be a murder mystery. Each stage feels unique in its own way which made me just keep wanting to play to see what new adventure awaited me. While the same style of level may be used, it was always implemented in a different way and felt very new.

On top of never knowing what’s around each corner, each world had a new feel to it. Even levels on the same world would feel entirely different. One may be a western, the next a dance stage. Each setting was also beautiful in its own way. The cartoon style made the landscapes beautiful in the same way Wind Waker did for Zelda. No matter how grave the circumstance, it always feels within reach and I believe the art has a lot to do with that.

The only problem I had with “A Hat In Time”“ was that occasionally (not often) I would attempt to hit something and it wouldn’t register the hit. This was only a problem for me one time, but it confused me on what to do as I thought that I just solved the puzzle incorrectly. A very minor complaint, but that was the only thing even remotely negative I could find.

I truly enjoyed the plot of the game, and while feeling silly it was so cute that I couldn’t help but smile every time dialogue started up. The voice acting was some of the best I“ve heard in a game. Each character was truly unique and the voices made them really feel alive.

The thing that really pushes “A Hat In Time”“ over the edge in terms of greatness is the polish. The amount of effort that “gears for breakfast”“ clearly put into making “A Hat In Time”“ as fun and heartwarming as possible. I haven’t felt this genuinely happy playing a game since I would sit and play my old NES with my dad as a kid. “A Hat In Time”“ is truly a great game and deserves a solid 5/5 stars.

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Developer:Â Gears for Breakfast

Engine:Â Unreal Engine

Composer(s):Â Pascal Michael Stiefel

Platforms:Â PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems