A Hat in time is a good time
Often considered one of the best indies, the hype for this title is more than justified. It's an amazing 3D platformer, incredibly polished and able to offer a really nice experience from start to finish.

Hat Kid is one of the best controlling platforming heroes: the ability to keep going, jumping dashing around and maintaining a constant bubbly momentum makes the simple ability to run around so fluind and fun that it alone will sell you on the game.

But a Hat in Time doesn't stop there: the game presents such creative maps, so charming, wide and full of secrets that are able to compete with the Kingdoms of Mario Odyssey in terms of creativity and replayability. There is not a huge amount of world to explore, but what is there it's totally worth the hype: all immensely creative and able to always offer new gimmicks and challenges, that go toe to toe with the really funny and adorable tone of the game (except for a certain manor that.... if you know you know).

Not my favorite indie game or my favorite 3D platformer, but for sure a title that will stand the test of time both on the pantheon of indie titles, and in the great general gaming catalogue.

This game is the one that reignited my love for platformers, but especially 3D platformers. I (like many others) grew up as a Nintendo kid playing Mario, and some of those games are some of the most defining aspects of my childhood, like the day I got a Wii and played Mario Galaxy for the first time.

This game captures that same feeling, a heartfelt tale about a girl just wanting to go home, experiencing a slew of quirky characters along the way, making friends and saving the world. It also has that indie game charm to it too that just wouldn't make it as good if it was made by a studio on the scale of those its inspired by.

Easily one of my favorite games ever and one that I hope to keep coming back to for years to come, both to replay the base game and to see what levels, hats, etc. that the incredible modding community has come up with

Short, Cute, Fun, 10/10 i had a very fun time with this game as a person who doesn't play many platformers. First off, I have to say, hat kid is absolutely adorable! Definitely one of my favorite main characters because she is so her. I loved all the worlds in the game (and thinking of getting dlc) especially the movie one because of the rivalry. Most of the side characters and villains were also nice (except mustache girl she can catch my fade anytime any day.) The gameplay was nice, i loved exploring around the worlds plus the movement felt so fluid and nice. The boss battles were definitely my favorite because they were just SO fun. The whole hat mechanic was also great, kind of reminiscent to Mario odyssey's hats mechanic and i wished it could of been a longer game (or a sequel) because i would of loved to see more hats in the game (also more costumes they rock!) and lastly the music, absolutely loved it, it fit with every world and it never failed to deliver (personally my favorite was the ice looking levels track). Overall just a FUN game, that's really all you need.

Considering the reputation this game has, I was shocked by how janky the whole thing feels, which really put a dampener on my experience.
Loads of wee collision bugs, a few progression bugs, a floaty character, a camera that can’t decide what it’s doing… it’s just really rough and I didn’t find it very fun to play.
None of the levels really inspired me. The incredibly vertical first level was a nightmare until I worked out you could change the camera behaviour in the settings (an option which apparently doesn’t exist on console!) so I could look down.

The boss fights all outstay their welcome a surprising amount.
I could go on about the character controller, but I just wasn’t feeling it.
The 3D art style didn’t hit for me at all, and didn’t manage to capture the very charming 2D work.
It also has one of the worst Scottish accents I’ve come across and had me sliding that voice volume right to zero.

It’s a real shame for me, because there’s obviously a huge amount of passion here, and I would definitely play the team’s next efforts. You can see, as you go through the game, that they got better as they made it.

Sorry this is a downer! I wish I liked it more!

To put it simply A Hat in Time is one of my favourite 3D platformers of all time. From the beginning to the end it knows what style it's going for and never strays from it. The level design never becomes dull due to the fact (especially in the later parts of the game) as it designed around the multiple hats and wants you to mix and match the on the fly. This game has never left me bored in the multiple times I have 100%ed this game and is the one game I would recommend to every fan of the 3D platformer genre.

my favorite parts about this game were fighting a toilet boss, making a murder-mystery/heist movie for owls, and discovering a book titled “Proof of Ethical Consumption under Capitalism” that had the pages blank.

remember that crazed moment in the late 2010s when people was losing their minds over getting the banjo-kazooie era 3d platformers back? and it couldn't have just been a new 3d platformer - it HAD to be like the n64 days. then yuka laylee came out and flopped.

I loved how this game seems to take inspiration from games passed and then adds its own identity to the mix. even if this game could be boiled down to cute mario sunshine x mario odyssey (down to how you take fire damage) it felt like a very charming & light-hearted experience that, by the end, had me feeling like I'd played something both new and familar at the same time.

pros: level design, characters, writing, art direction, progression, rewards/unlockables, sound design & ost

cons: inability to invert vertical camera controls, depth perception infrequently being janky due to lighting

i'm a decent fan of 3D platformers, but i really don't know about this one. other than its decent sense of humor, there isn't anything it does particularly well. movement feels fine but precise jumps feel like shit, switching hats/badges feel like a half baked and weirdly implemented idea, and only half of the worlds feel like they were made with 3d platforming in mind.

there are definitely parts i liked, though - going through the different levels in alpine skyline were fun, until i had to backtrack a billion times and to them all again. and in the sea of boring ass levels in dead bird studios, the train bomb mission was fine.

i think this one would have benefited more with more free-roaming levels, or at least something more in line with the platformers it's inspired by (ie less stupid ass linear stealth levels). i dunno! this one's weird! it's got silly jokes and good voice acting but i don't feel real strongly about it. maybe they learned their lession in the dlc but it didn't grab me enough for me to want more.