The adorable throwback to '90s-era 3D platformers like Banjo Kazooie, arrived on PC, PS4, and Xbox One back in 2017. We gave it a. A Nintendo Switch version was announced in 2018, and now we can finally reveal that A Hat in Time will arrive on Nintendo's latest console on October 18th, 2019. By the time you read this.Developer Gears for Breakfast conceived A Hat in Time as an homage to Nintendo 64 and PlayStation-era platformers that involved a lot of item collecting. An extremely successful Kickstarter campaign indicated there is still a demand for these types of adventures. It was revealed late last year that A Hat in Time had sold over a million copies.
New Hat in Time Features on Nintendo Switch Purchasers of the physical Nintendo Switch version will also get the Seal the Deal downloadable content, although it will need to be downloaded separately from the eShop. Seal the Deal was previously exclusive to the PC version. PlayStation 4 and Xbox players are still waiting for that content. Seal the Deal adds a whole new chapter to play through, a challenge mode, bonus levels, cosmetic items, and photo filters.
The base Nintendo Switch version also adds local fullscreen cooperative play. This marks the first time co-op play has come to consoles. Check out the screenshots of the Nintendo Switch version below, and, if you missed it, the Switch announcement trailer at the very top of the page.
A Hat in Time is a 2017 3D platformer inspired by such classics as Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. These Nintendo 64 must-plays are remembered fondly by many, and you can't help but respect the milestones they achieved in gaming. When it comes to modern 3D platformers on Switch, though, only one game comes to mind— Super Mario Odyssey. I personally loved Odyssey, and I'm not even a huge fan of 3D platformers.
A Hat in Time is a cute-as-heck 3D platformer featuring a little girl who stitches hats for wicked powers. A little girl and her spaceship In A Hat in Time you play as a tiny space-travelling girl with a big tophat. Her adventure is halted when all her fuel, the Time Pieces, is lost and scattered across a nearby planet. Hat Kid must now jump, fight and stitch new hats to make her way into. A Hat in Time is a cute-as-heck 3D platformer featuring a little girl who stitches hats for wicked powers. Available Now A Hat in Time Nintendo Switch. $29.99 Eligible for up to.
So how does A Hat in Time stand up?A Hat in Time begins with the protagonist, Hat Kid, losing all of her time pieces. These magical objects power her ship, making it impossible for her to return home.
The obvious solution is to go out and find them, but it's not an easy task. Along the way, you meet many adversaries, such as the Mafia, the Snatcher, and Moustache Girl. Each character is unique and lifelike, giving the game a wonderful atmosphere that 3D Mario titles dare not tread.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't capture me like the characters do. That's not too bad, though, right? I mean, just look at the bare bones nature of other 3D platformers. The problem with A Hat in Time is that the characters just beg to be explored more.
GameplayFirst, I think it's appropriate to compare A Hat in Time to 3D Mario platformers. The basic premise is the same; you travel through different worlds, collecting mystical objects.
You generally select a mission, and the world is changed depending on which you choose. Instead of the Power Stars from Mario games, you instead collect 'Time Pieces', which are used to power your ship. After collecting a specific number of these, you unlock new areas and missions, each one providing a fun and unique spin on the world you're playing in. The actual gameplay and movement itself also seems derivative of Mario titles, nailing it with fluent and tight controls, interesting movement options, and ample upgrades. Each world feels perfectly designed to accommodate Hat Kid's abilities, with every jump feeling perfectly crafted.
The basic moveset is instantly familiar, even to new players, with a double jump to land more precisely, and a dive to get you that bit further.The game's title comes from the main gimmick—switching hats. Throughout the game, you gain new hats, which in turn unlock new abilities. These abilities can range from something as simple as sprinting, to more complicated things like stopping time.
Using them is as simple as pressing the ZR, and all of them have a place. You can easily switch between them using the R button, something that can be tedious at first, but you soon find yourself accommodated towards. Unlocking new hats is done by collecting yarn scattered throughout each area you visit. Once you get enough wool, you can craft a new hat, assuming you have the correct type of yarn.
This offers a well-paced upgrade system, and can allow you to choose which new hats you get first. You can even customise the style and colour of your hats, allowing you to create a cute outfit.To give Hat Kid even more abilities, you may equip a range of badges you can buy from the Badge Seller. These can unlock new abilities, or just change the general vibe of the game. There's even badges that give you a disadvantage, something hardcore players will enjoy. It's a cool, but inherently flawed concept.
You can only unlock a measly three badge slots throughout the game. Think about the old Legend of Zelda games. You had to constantly stop, pause, switch items, and continue playing. It should be a relic of its time, but it's alive and well here.
There's enough buttons on the controller to do so much more, so why bother with this archaic system? To make matters worse, there are neat aesthetic badges which force you to give up an ability for the sake of a minor visual change. Graphics & 'Quirks'Something that's sure to appeal to Nintendo fans is the wonderful art style. One look at A Hat in Time screams Wind Waker, a style that I personally adore. The world designs are colourful and packed with detail. Everything fits together perfectly, from the goofy and expressive characters, to the music and cartoony sound effects. Unlike Odyssey, a game that experiments wildly with its ambiance, A Hat in Time manages to pull off a more coherent atmosphere.
Wacky worlds are great, but there's something special about how well Hat Kid fits into each environment.I originally played A Hat in Time a few years ago. On PC, it's a wonderful experience, with decent performance and wonderful graphics. Since this is a Switch port, we can't expect the graphics to be extraordinary.
For a start, the resolution seems to be drastically lowered, with no anti-aliasing apparent. Decals are disabled, textures are compressed and low-resolution, and, of course, the framerate is an unsteady 30 instead of a smooth 60.
I've also encountered a few graphical bugs. It's still fun to play, but with these graphical compromises, you're missing out on a lot. Loading times also suffer, especially on startup.See if you can see the problem in this screenshot. A Hat in Time is over 16GB on the Switch.
That sounds ridiculous on its own, but when you look at the other versions of the game, it gets worse. A Hat in Time on Switch is over twice as large as the PC version (7GB), and a whopping four times as large as the PlayStation 4 download (4GB). The Switch is a system with 32GB of internal storage; large file sizes are the enemy.
A game that can apparently fit in as small as 4GB should not be 16GB on Switch. It's unacceptable.I'm not really sure why they didn't include the Seal the Deal DLC in the base game. It was free on PC initially, and including it would have been a small incentive to buy the game. The price is reasonable though, with the 'Switch Tax' seemingly absent. They've even confirmed that Nyakuza Metro will come to the Switch in the future, and that was absolutely worth the price of admission on PC. Verdict What We Liked.
Fun gameplay Lively charactersWhat We Didn't Like. Bad badge system Lacklustre story Ridiculous file size Jank framerate6PresentationA Hat in Time looks wonderful on PC, but less so on the Switch. The resolution is lower, there's no antialiasing, and other subtle effects are missing too. The framerate targets 30, but often has some ugly drops.9GameplayA Hat in Time is one of the best 3D platformers I've played. And yes, it even rivals Super Mario Odyssey. The controls are fluid, the worlds are fun to explore, and the fun never seems to slow down.8Lasting AppealThere's a whole lot to do in A Hat in Time.
I have 20 hours on the PC version, and the Seal the Deal DLC adds even more to do in the form of missions.7.5. I'm not sure how these reviews are chosen, but this game has been out for years. Shouldn't there been a review of the game already before now?Also, I wonder what is the appeal of this game. I feel like this is the kind of game people enjoy playing because controlling the character is fun. It's the same with 3D mario games and how using his acrobatics (and whatever extra gimmick he has this time) that making doing things fun. But the goals or task of collecting stuff or doing 'Chores' for NPC or because that's the story, make it feel like working for fun.Sure you have a interesting world to explore and all that. But then it becomes 'Do chores for NPC, collect these things' to progress.
It would be fun to have obstacle courses to uses these unique acrobatics in to just get to the end of the goal. That feels more fun and satisfying than collecting a bunch of things to play more of the game. Not to mention there is more variety in the small thematic stages you can have rather than one huge large one with each corner confined to it's on thing that could feel out of place in the worlds you visit. I'm not sure how these reviews are chosen, but this game has been out for years.
Shouldn't there been a review of the game already before now?Also, I wonder what is the appeal of this game. I feel like this is the kind of game people enjoy playing because controlling the character is fun.
It's the same with 3D mario games and how using his acrobatics (and whatever extra gimmick he has this time) that making doing things fun. But the goals or task of collecting stuff or doing 'Chores' for NPC or because that's the story, make it feel like working for fun.Sure you have a interesting world to explore and all that. But then it becomes 'Do chores for NPC, collect these things' to progress. It would be fun to have obstacle courses to uses these unique acrobatics in to just get to the end of the goal. That feels more fun and satisfying than collecting a bunch of things to play more of the game. Not to mention there is more variety in the small thematic stages you can have rather than one huge large one with each corner confined to it's on thing that could feel out of place in the worlds you visit. This comment made me cringe.
Prove to us that the devs said that. And even if you can prove it, it doesn't change the fact that it was ported to switch.And then you moved the goal post. Your complaint was 'all people do is cry about it and say how much better Odyssey is' and now she can't even compare the two at all, even in AHIT's favor, because the devs (allegedly) didn't want her to.Thanks for your review. I'm going to assume the glorious devs would prefer Daisy's review to this comment.Also, you think they ported it because people complained. As if it was mandatory and wouldn't make them money.
I saw the kickstarter when it first was reported so many years ago, thought it was neat, then checked back in around earlier this year. So my playing came from a completely cold kind of 'what's this' situation. Picked up the PC version and played through most of it. I felt it pretty good for an indie game, but I'm pretty confused by comparisons to things like mario. The worlds feel like they're from different games, but not in a good, coherent kind of way. The characters are full of emotional expression, but I'm having a hard time remembering them or what their 'character' was. I think these are positives for some folks, but ruined the flow for me.
I was mainly thinking about design choices and wondering choices I would have made instead. Which doesn't happen often when I'm playing games on the first play-through.
So I enjoyed the game, but don't understand the comparisons it's getting.Glad they ported it though. I'm guessing a lot of non-pc folks haven't heard of it before.Probably had a lot of issues with the different architecture and whatnot. I suppose the bloat was their way of getting around whatever technical hurdles they found themselves in. Also probably why the DLC wasn't included as well. Sucks about the graphics and other things, though, I know that was one of the major selling points. Wonder if they'll make a sequel or something, now that they have more experience.