A Hat in Time review

Skip

by liamfltaylor

I expected a good game of 3D platforms that could remember the good old days N64 then GameCube with Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, its suite Tooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Super Mario sunshine. I just finished this A Hat in time at the moment and the least I can say is that it has filled me beyond my expectations. Not content to be inspired for the good cause of the aforementioned games, he develops his own universe with rich, varied, sought-after worlds that possess such a Visual and sometimes scriptical identity that one can only bow to the work shot. I was a little skeptical about the Chara design of the hero at the beginning, but over the outfits and powers recoverable during the adventure, this little girl straight out of Zelda: the Wind Waker (I imagined directing Arielle, sister of link to some times) imposes its character and one surprises itself to be attached to it. So we find ourselves as a central hub on a ship with a lack of energy, in orbit around a planet. We will have to count on the acquisition of time hourglass (the equivalent of the stars for Mario) to hope to return to travel through space. This playground seemed a little too narrow and quite some in style. It is a pretext to navigate between the different levels, but I confess that I would have preferred a little more stamp at this level. Nothing dramatic. The worlds are the charm of the game. There is not one that disappointed me. Each of them is cut into episodes in which you will get a time hourglass, like the Super Mario sunshine carving. I have a small preference for a progression to the banjo, with an open world in which it is possible to recover everything from a milking. This is not the case here, so, but A Hat in time takes advantage of this chopped system to deliver a constant renewal of its situations. Each level is thus seen from different angles according to the chosen episode, which gives all the density to the adventure. For example, the first level can be traversed under various climatic effects depending on the selected Act. Afterwards, the game plays with these classic codes and dares absolutely enjoyable sequences that I had never seen in a 3D plateformer. Special mention in the 2nd and 4th worlds that offer original and surprising frames. I happened to be terrified or moved on some passages, that is to say. The maneuverability is not left with a certain float during the jumps which, combined with the wide range of movements, offers a true feeling of gladness and fluidity. We chain the pirouettes naturally without any difficulty and I found the game frustrating only on very rare occasions (clue: cats!). The frustration is unfortunately fed by the camera, often faulty in this kind of titles. Here, it tends to hang or approach the character without warning, so that I often had to jump blindly during tense sequences-I precise that I opted for the manual mode of the camera. It is in my eyes the only major flaw. The exploration of the few proposed worlds occupied me about 15h, which remains very honest for the genre, especially since the content is of a rather exceptional density, like Banjo-Kazooie and unlike Yooka-Laylee, more complete but too Conservative. I will not acquire the DLC to see what is the bonus world, but I do not find that the game is too short in the State, it is perfectly balanced. The overall immersion is reinforced by English doublings of excellent invoices and I was surprised to have texts in French, very successful also. I end up on the soundtrack, composed notably by grant Kirkhope who has, among other things, directed the music of Banjo-Kazooie and GoldenEye 007: the themes are salient, dynamic and illustrate perfectly the feelings that we feel while browsing the worlds. Some tracks gain intensity at the rhythm of your progress or subtly modulate according to your position. I will keep in mind the main theme of the game and several boss clashes whose grandiose staging surpasses the epic stage. First stroke of heart of the year 2019 for me, hoping that there are others, I can only recommend this title to lovers of the 3D platform. It offers a refreshing breath to a genre in perdition and proves if need be that it is still possible to produce a game of the genre nowadays without blushing in the face of large commercial productions. A Hat in time deserves our attention and I really want a sequel to emerge. In the meantime, I still have the DLC to discover. Good game to all and all!