A Hat in Time | 24th Jul, 2020 | 7:25hrs | rating: 3/5
A very obvious Mario Galaxy tribute with some Sunshine thrown in, but without the typical Nintendo-polish.
GAMEPLAY: Generally it feels really good to control, and I wanted more levels that took advantage of the generous air-movement. But there are only 4 levels, and none of them are all that great.
AUDIOVISUALLY: Technically so-so, with low resolution and bad textures. The music is mostly really nice, once again heavily Mario Galaxy-inspired. Could have done without the voice-acting though, as I just don’t think it fits.
STORY/PRESENTATION: Many missions and plot-points confusing and/or bad. The movie studio doesn’t make sense, and I didn’t want to murder spirits. I didn’t want to be on the bad guys’ side at the end. What message and morals are they trying to teach us?
MULTIPLAYER: In the Switch version you can add a second player for same-screen co-op. I really like the thought, but the mission design rarely works for it. Still better than just watching.
At times, it feels just right navigating through platforming challenges (mostly in the Alpine Skyline level), and I’m having a ton of fun. It’s unfortunate that it’s surrounded by so much fluff, and even then it’s a very short game.