Finished cause im a bloody gluton and had the weekend off, thought I would give some quick impressions. Yeah I really liked the game much more then Yooka Laylee it was more of what I was looking for out of a modernised collectathon/3d platformer.
A Hat In Time has charm it has personality the levels feel like actual worlds with characters that feel like they organically live in them rather then just being ! marks to activate, there are alot of small details and often im just wondering around looking at every inch of the levels not necessarily because im looking for collectibles but because there might be a funny little interaction/dialogue or easter egg to find. It also has a *Hat Badge* seller that is essentially a combination of the Mask Seller from Zelda and No Face from Spirited Away.
Each Hourglass is essentially like Jiggys from Banjo, it gives you a world to free roam and collect other collectibles like the games Currency for the badge seller or Yarn Balls you use to create different hats to give you different powers, but each Hourglass can be only be collected one at a time accepting it like a mission at the start. And this can be off putting for some rather then just letting you collect any in whatever order you want until you get struck because you don't have a power it does pigeon hole you into collecting that specific Hourglass. However because of this they often make each one different and feel more rewarding to collect, not all of its concepts work perfectly but I appreciate the effect to make every Hourglass different changing the levels ever so slightlylike flooding a town with lava switching up the environment and how you traverse it, or giving you a *murder mystery* with you trying to collect evidence, or a hide and seek section from some ghost in a spooky mansion.
Movement has weight behind it the move set is great the only Cons I would give the game is the voice acting can be hit and miss at times and the game is missing a level of polish that might have been great to leave it in the oven for a few more months, and would have liked more characters that weren't just a copy and past. Keep your expectations in check its still a indie its still the Company's first game funded through Kickstarter its not exactly what your looking if you want something exactly like Banjo Kazooie (hell Mario Odessey looks more like a Banjo Kazooie sequel every day) but its still the best attempt at this type of genre so far and im excited to see them do a sequel or see the genre evolve and get better. If your not sure wait for a Humble Bundle or a Sale either way its a must play if your at all wanting to capture a bit of that nostalgia again.
