And while the setup of the narrative is solid, it ultimately felt forgotten in the wake of constantly exploring the planet below. You’ll meet a slew of sketchy detective crows, a dastardly ghost that has an obsession with making deals, a feuding pair of movie director birds, and even a girl with a mustache who serves a bit more relevance to the overall plot. Each one has a very goofy personality that is unique and charming. The characters actually make up more of the experience than the story, but this works well enough. It’s a pretty light tale that serves more as a backdrop for exploration than anything else. Hat Kid now has to retrieve all of her fuel in order to return home, while making all sorts of friends and enemies along the way.

Amidst the chaos, the ship’s fuel source, Time Pieces, are accidentally released and scattered all over the planet. Hat Kid refuses, and the mafia attacks, which leads to her being swept out of her ship, plummeting to the planet down below.

While passing a nearby planet, a burly member of the mafia orders her to pay a toll. You don the hat of the adorable Hat Kid, while she is on her way home in her spaceship. In the roughly 7-hour adventure (15 if you go for everything like I did), I experienced a short journey of familiar fun, with creative twists at every turn. A Hat in Time wear its inspirations proudly, harkening back to 3D platformers from yesteryear, while also maintaining a feeling of modernity. The “Cute-as-Heck” 3D platformer swept me away in its creative worlds, never losing my interest, as each new area presented a drastically different environment, complete with unique design quirks.

It didn’t seem like it was going to happen, but A Hat in Time is now on the Nintendo Switch.

Hat in time time rift