4/5 ★ – Pops's review of A Hat in Time.

Pros: This game is NOT Yooka-Laylee. Boom, roasted. No, seriously? Before coming into it, I had no idea whether A Hat in Time would be my next favorite game or another disappointment like fellow Kickstarter, Yooka-Laylee. Luckily, this game walks a different road. On the surface, A Hat in Time looked like it might suffer from similar problems: claustrophobic level design, visual overload and the occasionally questionable shaders. However, the game FEELS good to play. I daresay it approaches Mario in how smooth jumping, climbing, and diving is. Did I mention the climbing? That little detail is exactly what separates this game from Yooka-Laylee; every building, wall, birdhouse, and train feels scalable from the get-go and not just an obstacle that acts as a figurative paywall. The cast of characters here are undeniably unforgettable. You have Mustache Girl, your blonde female counterpart donning a red cape and mustache (yeah, you read that right), Mafia Goons, the meat-headed mafia members who have decided on blue pinstripe suits & red ties as their uniform of choice, Snatcher, the mysterious phantasm who is hell-bent on making you sign your soul over to him, and a whole band of others I wish I had time to describe in remarkable detail. "Borderline iconic" comes to mind when I think of the characters in A Hat in Time. The levels are extremely generous in size. The only gripe I have is that there are so few acts (chapters) per level. However, collectibles in the form of pons, yarn, and tokens, as well as various Time Rifts (think bonus stage) keep the player exploring because they want to, not because they have to. Not to mention there are some gorgeously themed stages with Subcon Forest and Nyakuza Metro (DLC). While I'm not sure whether it was Gears for Breakfast or Nintendo who beat the other to the hat motif, I was pleased to see the different kinds of scenarios each hat promised to remedy. My favorite probably being the Dweller's Mask (not really a hat is it?) which acts as an on/off switch of sorts to materialize/dematerialize specific platforms, forcing you to approach various situations carefully. It made me want to unlock the next hat just to see what it did! Last but certainly not least is the music. I remember during the Kickstarter days it featured this mysterious and alluring tune that, to this day, I have not forgotten. Unfortunately that song didn't make its way into the final game, BUT there are a number of songs that I won't soon forget. "Clocktowers Beneath the Sea" invites the player to a tranquil wonderland reminiscent of underwater/snowy classics from David Wise. Grant Kirkhope also offers, "Her Spaceship," the music for the hub world; instantly recognizable by his use of woodwinds and strings, you can't help but hum along as you explore Hat Kid's alien abode. These are just two of plenty in a soundtrack that can calm you down in the challenging spurts, or fuel your hype during epic bass tangos. Cons: Of course, I had prior knowledge of what this game COULD have been going into it and I'm disappointed that some features, storyline elements, and music didn't make its way into the final game. Gameplay-wise, I can only nitpick at specific acts that hinder the player's ability to perform certain actions. In itself it's not an inherently bad idea, but at times I was overly frustrated by challenges that felt like a developer afterthought while being forced to jury-rig some solution in order to complete. Overall, I experienced only a number of bugs that, at their best, weren't terribly game-breaking but, at their worst, still required me to restart a level every now and again. The camera was occasionally tricky in tighter spaces but the alternative would've been a Super Mario Sunshine silhouette-type solution. Gotta pick your battles, I guess. The stage acts are few in number and leave you wanting more backstory for these worlds and characters, and were ultimately delegated in the form of storybook pages which gives the player vague photographs hinting at their history. Not to mention original story elements being cut meant that certain worlds and characters were forced to play nice together, like with Battle of the Birds (my least favorite of the stages) which does its best to mash up a desert train car level and a bustling, New Orleans-style square caught in a musical affair. In fact, I managed to complete the game in about 15 hours! Not including DLC stages and post-game content, mind you. I was having fun right up until reality sank in and I realized my journey was coming to an abrupt end. You'll have to pick up the DLC and attempt Death Wish mode in order to get your fill. Lastly, while the music was king in this game, my opinions about the voice acting is... mixed. Again, I had followed A Hat in Time since early alpha builds when VAs were not yet featured in the game. So I grew used to stoic faces and dialogue bubbles that let my imagination do the talking. That is... until I heard the voice acting and promptly turned them off after completion of Mafia Town, the game's first area. While Hat Girl follows Link's footsteps and never utters a peep, her would-be counterpart, Mustache Girl, sports an obnoxious British accent fit for an only child. On the upside, at least I had the OPTION of turning off dialogue. Conclusion: A Hat in Time reaches my expectations but comes shy of exceeding them. To no fault of the developers, Kickstarter audiences expect timely updates on their investment. Fortunately for us, even with time constraints, we were presented with a perfectly adequate game that any newcomer could feel nostalgic about years down the road. There's plenty to love here and I absolutely recommend this game to fans of the platforming genre. Here's hoping one day I get a fully realized version of what could have been...