A Hat In Time Review | The Completionist

20-17 was an absolutely killer year for 3d platformers after what felt like an eon of silence from the genre this long dormant style of a new game is back in full force baby including a humble little crowdfunded title known as a hat in time at first glance a hat in time seems like a simple and yet devoted love letter to the fans of yesterday's platformers everything we remember seems present and accounted for collectibles cartoonish enemies huge worlds to explore this game may be brand new but its heart and soul is straight out of the past it's been a long time since the heyday of these types of games and being able to accurately reproduce what made them so fun and special might be tough for any developer to pull off but regardless I am beyond hype to find out as I complete a hat in time happy new year everyone and welcome back to another brand new episode of the completionist last year in 2017 there was a game I was obsessed with wanting to complete but I never got around to it because I was so freakin busy so today we're gonna complete a hat in time let's begin yes [Music] I've had my eye on a hat and time since it was first kick started way back in 2012 the creators originally conceived the project when they realized that there weren't just many good 3d platformers being made anymore and apparently they weren't the only ones that felt that way their initial Kickstarter goals were almost immediately blown out of the water by hundreds of rabid supporters including myself I gave him a hundred bucks in my good old cash but then my credit card bounced without me realizing it and I'm not in the credits I helped but sometimes all the money in the world can't stop the lace from happening and this game was hit by delays for a while like a long while it was supposed to be released in 2013 but apparently all that extra time spent in the development of in' helps to make a hat in time for the incredibly charming game that it ended up becoming with all the hard work of an international group of developers a handful of great voice actors and a whole bunch of different composers what started as a little in the project turned into a much larger and more exciting game that I'm personally stoked to dive into alright so it's obvious this is a 3d platformer which means that completing this game means running around counting a slew of items and accomplishing a bunch of random tasks and I'm gonna love every minute of it baby sure there are achievements to unlock and who knows what other potentially frustrating stuff this game will end up throwing my way who cares I am ready to relive my childhood with this one even though I've never played it and it's the first in the series it's gonna somehow be a trip down memory lane even though I've never technically been there it's [Music] a hand time really focuses on a cohesive presentation in a simplistic plot all the while maintaining a sense of immense wonder and joy a hat and time puts you in the boots and top hat of a little girl named Hackett who is for some reason or another in a spaceship trying to get home who ever thought it was a good idea to let a little kid pilot a spacecraft is beyond me let alone a spacecraft capable of traveling on time but you got to be incredibly smart and if you're that kid suddenly and I can't believe I'm going to say this a dude from the Mafia slams into her ship demanding a toll to pass by mafia town while doing so he breaks the window of her spaceship causing a bunch of our classes called timepieces to fly out and onto the planet below where mafia town is located upon ascending down to mafia town a kid meets moustache girl a fellow young girl who wants to battle the evil corruption of the mafia themselves but the important takeaway here kids is that hack kid must get back all the time pieces so she can go home now before we dive any further into this game I just want to put it out there that I indeed do know the folks who worked tirelessly on this game for many years grant kirkhope did a couple of tracks for the game I know a few of the voice actors who are in the game with jontron playing the role of the receptionist owl and young town playing the snatcher which by the way the snatcher is my favorite freaking character holy God young town you crushed it even one of the artists who worked on Hatton time actually made some merchandise for me some time ago anyways I just want to voice all this right now cuz while I really do like the overall look and feel of a hat in time I do have a few qualms with it so when I first saw the game I really got the vibe that this was aiming for more of a game that has the Super Mario Sunshine aesthetics with the world building and level designs of a game like Spyro and man those influences are definitely present here but I feel like the graphics look a little bit different than I initially thought they were going to be to me it seemed like this game was going for more of a wind waker cel-shaded look but in the end visually it kind of comes off a little bit more flat now it's in no way by means a bad look I really do love it but it's something I wasn't expecting oh man now I really know how it feels to talk to people about Star Wars the last Jedi on Twitter I think the gist is that it's not my game it's their game and what their game is at times feels a little dated but another moments it shined so bright and at the very least the loading screen title cards make me want to print them out and put them up in my office oh my god I love them but I did feel that the framerate was a bit inconsistent now this is always something that's unfortunate when playing a PC game because low frame rates could not be the problem of the game itself but more or less it could be a problem with my own PC in my experience with the game this would happen at least once or twice a mission and mostly in the first world after playing the console versions of the game I did notice that it would dip as well it's not really game breaking per se but it's something I definitely noticed a hand time has four worlds to explore in each one offering drastically different atmospheres I'd argue that even though there's only four the ones that are here are pretty freakin unique all four worlds are packed tight with stuff to look at hilarious interactions to play with and a ton of totally goofy characters to mess around with and beat up from the Boardwalk Empire of mafia town to the spooky scary world of subcon forests to the hollywood area but with avian creatures that have a battle of the birth type situation to the above the clouds alpine skyline every level in a Hatton time begs for you to climb around in it exploring every nook and cranny that you can every character every line written every world is put together in a way that's just meant to be as joyous and as silly as possible running and leaping from point A to point B has that feeling of exploratory pleasure that the classic character platformers from yesteryears were filled to the brim with and all of the character work is so good I just wanted to keep talking to people there's also a lot of useless things to do in a hat in time and that's awesome sitting in chairs is something you can do all the time in the game and for some weird-ass reason and never got old for me it might be because that camera angle is so awkward but every single time I just laugh to myself it doesn't hurt that the music is spot-on either just take a listen to the music that plays while hack is hanging out on her spaceship you feel that that's the sound of childhood within you that's the sound of hot chocolate and grilled cheese in your parents basement that's the feeling of the controller in your hand for the first time begging you to go on an adventure a hand time hit me right in my nostalgia nerve it time-traveled me to a simpler era one where plumbers Bears bandicoot's and Dragons were the biggest stars in gaming I want to spend time in its world which is great because collecting everything could take forever it's kind of crazy to think about how I feel nostalgic about a new game that has no roots new soulja is real I'm making it a thing it's it's it's I'm doing it right here right now you're watching history you're watching The History Channel [Music] so with the hatton time coming out I knew I'd love it at least in concept the question is what I loved it when I got my hands on it I purposely avoided all kinds of Vedas and Alpha's to make sure that the final experience I got was true to that I'm happy to report that if you are the kind of guy that has been really enjoying the return to form of platformers with things like Super Mario Odyssey then a hat and time is for you the most important thing to me from a platformer perspective are the controls and hack it controls real well this game is all about mobility and performing crazy platforming spectacles to get to new areas it feels like I'm playing a platformer in which the main character comprises of the best elements from other games hat kick and double jump dive run and jump off walls and combo all these things together and we haven't even discussed the Hat after running around and collecting enough of these yarn balls you can unlock a new hat each and every hat has its own power some even have their own movement options that are great for speed running sequence braking and even just creative having for yourself as you play through the game at some point you get a hat that lets you literally stop time and run having all of the hats give you different powers is a super cool way to make you try different things with your play style on the topic of collectibles there are little gems that act as your currency for purchasing things like badges for your hats these badges will either boost your capabilities or reduce them significantly there's one badge that reduces your hip points to exactly one making it pretty dang rough if you want that self-inflicted challenge and the salesman is quite creepy and weird but make sure you visit him on every stage as he offered you different badges until you've bought them all there's also these ancient things called relics that literally are just household things you've come to know a train set a hamburger things like that however to hack kid they're foreign objects she's never seen before really cute when you think about it so within each of these worlds or levels or whatever you want to call them there are a set number of time pieces that you need to get in order to progress further into the story these objectives are somewhat linear but they're very exciting nonetheless the first three worlds have all of these awesome plot lines that will make you stay engaged from start to finish especially in the sub conferring with the snatcher is really a fun time it's creepy and uncomfortable but also very humorous and the Penguins versus owls plotline of the Hollywood area just gets more and more entertaining the further you get involved yet when you finally get to the last world the time peace missions there go a little bit longer than I'd like you can easily end up spending 20 to 40 minutes trying to get each of these timepieces it's unfortunate to say the least but in my opinion if I had to give this game a rating I'd say that 90% of this game is damn near perfect you'll notice that after you unlock a fair amount of timepieces you'll discover these time rifts time rifts are essentially bonus timepieces that are subjugated to one of two different scenarios that are accessed based on finding the physical location of that time rift the first one could be a collectathon where you'll find yourself in the sandbox type rooms you'll have to find parts of a storybook while collecting these little crowns that unlock the next sandbox entrance conquering these sandbox dungeons will reward you at the time peace and a complete storybook that will show you in detail what happened in the world you are currently involved with the second type of time rift is something you'll instantly recognize these are puzzle platforming areas that are somewhat challenging but if you've played Super Mario Sunshine or galaxy you'll know exactly how to progress and what to do next upon beating these time rifts you'll also get the ability to use a slot machine these slot machines will give you random unlockable such as a skin for a hat a new color scheme for hack kid or even some music all of them have rankings based on importance and rarity unfortunately there's not enough time rifts in the game or coins to redeem to unlock everything so what you see is what you get kind of a bummer to me but apparently the devs did this knowing that there will be a mod community waiting in the wings to run with this kind of cool but I wish I could have mixed and matched the hats and colors accordingly the boss fights for the first time in a long while when I could think of a game and boss fights actually feel like a fight these bosses all put up a pretty gnarly battle but if you died you're gonna start all the way back to the beginning of said fight and almost every boss in this game has several different phases so get good my friends patience is huge and remember the beard mantra type boys take their time my favourite thing about a hat and time comes from the character and the journey a kid goes on nothing has ever said from our silent heroine but she's so adorable it works very nicely hack kid is nimble quick and can jump probably over like a hundred candlesticks no big deal my ultimate gripe with the hat in time there's not enough content in the game you can easily complete this bad boy within a day or so and that's not necessarily a bad thing there are a lot of games out there that people are constantly playing or waiting to play in the wings I loved every minute of playing this game I just wish I had more to enjoy good on you gears for breakfast you made a new platformer that I wish I already had a sequel for I wish I had played this game sooner easily would have placed into my top 10 games of 2017 I just wasn't done with the game yet when I made the video [Music] even though a hatton time is a short experience as a completionist the achievements in the game are not only very doable but you actually get something for completing the entire game for collecting every time piece in the game when you do beat the game you will be awarded with the completionists hat huh look at that I don't know if it's a nod to me or my fellow completionists out there in the world but if so we all thank you from the bottom of our hearts this replaces the Hat that hat kid wears and doesn't do anything than the default hat doesn't already do however it is obvious that the Hat has gotten a design change which is nice kudos gang you completed the game aside from this completion bonus a hand time is a beautiful walk in the park a short walk but one that will make you happy from start to finish and make you want to walk more and more I should just take more walks in my playthrough of a hat and time there were ten and a half hours of total playtime 40 timepieces put back into the ship 12 human relics several different skins for hats music tracks and color schemes gambled for with the slot machine and 36 different times that I smooch someone from the Mafia they're all just so cute a hat and time is a love-letter for those of you who grew up with 3d platformers one that I recommend across the board despite its length I cannot wait for more stuff from gears for breakfast this is the beginning of a bright future for their company and their possible new franchise honestly I would love to see a 2d platformer using hat kid I'd love to see where they take hack kid next a hat and time is a bundle of joy that everyone should experience it's not that expensive of a game and it has a lot of depth built into what would be a pretty short experience honestly that's the only problem is that it's kind of a short experience if you're a marathon gamer like myself but if you're kind of casually playing this game then this may be a great way to start 2018 so with that in mind guys I give this game my completionist rating of complete it completers that's I'll cut me over today guys so please as always let me think about today's episode somewhere on the internet if you're new here and you like what you saw hit that subscribe button if you missed last week's video on our top 10 games of 2017 give it a click or tap right here if they think you too those folks over here on patreon supporters always guys we'll see you next Friday for another brand-new episode of the completionist bye

Channel: The Completionist

Views: 723,405

Keywords: a hat in time review, a hat in time gameplay, review, gameplay, jirard, completionist, normal boots, normalboots, game grumps, kickstarter, a hat in time kickstarter, a hat in time jontron, Video Game (Industry), hat girl, IGN, platformer, game reviews, hat in time, gears for breakfast

Id: MIBKUPohf2I

Length: 17min 18sec (1038 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Rikaith]

So does that mean no super hat bros?

No no that's ok^sniff... I'm just glad you played it and it got the attention it deserves

[u/trainercatlady]

I love that Jirard is wearing the Projared Shirt Shirt.

This episode was nice. I'm a little sad that the game is apparently short. Has Gears for Breakfast said anything about expansions or DLC?