History YMMV / AHatInTime

** The Snatcher gets this treatment from time to time, albeit downplayed. In fanworks, it's common for him to be portrayed as a friend or even father figure to Hat Kid (willingly or not), and a harmless prankster at the very worst. While fans ''do'' acknowledge the fact that he is a soul-stealing demon who kills his victims when their contracts expire ''and'' [[MortonsFork kills them if they don't sign in the first place]], the fact that the only reason he's friends with Hat Kid is because he got tricked on a contract (and Death Wish makes it clear he's not particularly thrilled about it) is usually either glossed over or hand-waved.

* ItsHardSoItSucks: The Death Wish game mode has been criticized even by people who were disappointed by the relatively easy difficulty of the main game, often labeling the game mode as blatantly unfair [[FakeDifficulty for the wrong reasons]]; common complaints are the missions tend to be very strict in regards to time management, the side bonuses are more or less required to unlock more Stamps for progress (to the point of being contradictory, necessitating another playthrough), the [[LuckBasedMission sometimes heavy RNG]] at play, and that a few missions expect the player to be familiar with certain speedrunning tactics [[GuideDangIt without properly disclosing them]].

** Moonjumper, full stop. Despite having been entirely cut from the final game (with his role as Subcon Forest's main antagonist [[spoiler:and backstory as "what became of Vanessa's prince"]] given over to Snatcher), Moonjumper is ADORED by the fandom, to the point where he's been reworked into the game's lore via near universally accepted {{Fanon}}. It isn't uncommon to find fanfiction and/or fan art where he's nonchalantly included with the other characters as though he were still a part of the game, often to the confusion of new fans who are just coming off of playing it.

** Both Snatcher EX and Ultra Snatcher in Death Wish have an attack where they'll conjure up three magic blasts around the arena simultaneously. Unlike the original Snatcher fight, these blasts produce shockwaves that cover the entire arena this time around. The rings intersect with each other, of course, making gaps difficult to find and land in, and as the battle goes on, the Snatcher will begin to spam the attack, creating so many blasts that you'd think it would never stop. Oh, and the blasts that create the rings are columns, meaning you aren't safe in the air and can't jump over the spots where they originate. Even further, the deadliness is exacerbated by the fact that some blasts can track your location, forcing you to constantly move as you try to dodge the incoming shockwaves. It was initially [[UpToEleven even worse]] with Ultra Snatcher because in addition to the shockwaves, the blasts also produced directional sparks (the same ones used by the Mafia Boss), adding more pressure into dodging them and turning the fight into BulletHell. The developers must have come around to think that aspect was too much, and during the tweaks to Death Wish, the sparks were removed from the Ultra Snatcher fight. All the same, a player's best hope of not being killed by a long barrage of tri-blasts is to have a flask on hand to toss and just cancel the attack.

*** "The Great Big Hootenanny" in Death Wish takes The Big Parade UpToEleven by having '''five times''' as much owls follow you, turning the level into one dangerous game of Snake. This becomes especially worse if you're going for the bonus objectives; one of which requires careful movements to avoid hitting the owl band, and the other requiring awareness of your surroundings and time management to make sure none of the DJ Grooves tokens expire. And to top it off, there are no health pons this time.

** Mustache Girl is particularly prone to receiving this treatment and it's common for fanworks to either better justify her actions and/or have her perform a HeelFaceTurn and become friends with Hat Kid again, with some even proclaiming her as the true hero in the game. While she is an WellIntentionedExtremist with a [[FreudianExcuse sympathetic and tragic backstory]] and [[VillainHasAPoint isn't entirely wrong about the world being filled with bad guys (considering everyone Hat Kid meets tends to either be a jerk or downright evil)]], she is still an AxCrazy, hypocritcal, extremist KnightTemplar who downright [[spoiler:steals Hat Kid's time pieces at one point to take over the world as an evil and tyrannical dictator]].

* FanficFuel: Oh so much. Possibly the biggest one is Hat Kid's backstory; her home planet, her other adventures, how she came across the time pieces...

** What is Bow Kid's relation to Hat Kid?

* AwardSnub: Was not even ''nominated'' for Best Indie Game, in spite of getting rave reviews and be considered one of the games responsible for bringing 3D platformers back into the spotlight, along with ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' and the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy''
* {{SugarWiki/Awesome Art}}: The title cards for each chapter have garnered praise thanks to their artwork being the right blend of cartoony, colorful, and appealing.
* [[{{AwesomeBosses/Videogames}} Awesome Bosses]]:

** The game has been called "Hatty Time" as a shortened form of "A Hat In Time" by the playerbase, with the name stemming from [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee Crowshaws]] review of the game (which he constantly used as the full game name was "a bit rubbish").

** Chapter 6 features almost all of the recurring characters from previous worlds in the game (barring Mustache Girl, DJ Grooves, and the Alpine Skyline goats), but there is little to no interaction between characters from different chapters; the Conductor spends most of his time getting drunk at the bar, and the Mafia and Nomads are mostly there for exposition or humorous fluff.

** The Captain decides, in the final act of Arctic Cruise, [[spoiler:to go down with his ship, seemingly with the intent of dying. Does he want to go down with his ship out of obligation, or does [[DeathSeeker he want to die]] and see his mentor again?]]

** Mustache Girl being TheAtoner and attempting to repair her friendship with Hat Kid is a common plot thread in fanfics.

** As for Hat Kid, you'll most often see her paired with Mustache Girl, likely because their brief time as friends near the beginning of the game shows that they probably could've gotten along rather well if Mustache Girl hadn't gone mad with her lust for revenge.

* ToyShip: It's not too uncommon to see the kids get shipped with each other, most notably, [[FoeYayShipping Hat Kid/Mustache Girl]] and Hat Kid/Bow Kid. That said, shipping the kids in general is largely frowned upon and is not recommended unless you wanna face the wrath of the larger fandom, largely due to how protective the fandom can be [[UnacceptableTargets towards them]] (though its more tolerated if they're aged up). As such, shippers of the kids tend to be in a minority.

* ToyShip: It's not too uncommon to see the kids get shipped with each other, most notably, [[FoeYayShipping Hat Kid/Mustache Girl]].

* SacredCow: It's generally agreed to be the true revival of the 3D platformer collect-a-thon as well as 3D platforming as a whole, along with ''Super Mario Odyssey''. It's especially obvious if you compare the reception this game received to ''Yooka-Laylee'', the SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', which at best managed fairly mixed reception.

* ItWasHisSled: One for each of the first three worlds.
** Mafia Town: Mustache Girl betrays Hat Kid. This was obvious from the start, mostly due to her having been advertised as the BigBad.
** Battle of the Birds: [[spoiler:Whoever wins the film competition becomes the boss, and you have to fight them for one more time piece.]]
** Subcon Forest: [[spoiler:Snatcher is, or was, the prince who was with Queen Vanessa.]] The trailer for ''Vanessa's Curse'' doesn't even try to hide this fact.

** The Captain decides, in the final act of Arctic Cruise, [[spoiler:to go down with his ship, seemingly with the intent of dying. Does he want to go down with his ship out of obligation, or does [[DeathSeeker he want to die]] and see his mentor again? Even when taking into account he can't actually drown, the fact he brings up the possibility of dying leads to even more of the latter.]]

** Subcon Forest: [[spoiler:Snatcher is, or was, the prince who was with Queen Vanessa.]] The trailer for Vanessa's Curse doesn't even try to hide this fact.

** Subcon Forest: [[spoiler:Snatcher is, or was, the prince who was with Queen Vanessa.]] the trailer for Vanessa's Curse doesn't even try to hide this fact.

** Subcon Forest: [[spoiler:Snatcher is, or was, the prince who was with Queen Vanessa.]]

* AntiClimaxBoss:
** The finale of Alpine Skyline doesn't even have a proper boss fight like the other chapters, but rather, a LevelInBossClothing where you have to go around the level and kill the purple flowers instead. Each of the flowers goes down in just four hits without much effort, and the only real challenge is getting to the flowers through some new obstacles. Despite the {{Foreshadowing}} building up to the finale as you collect the Time Pieces, the origin of the flowers is never explained beyond that, and the [=NPCs=] are just simply relieved that they're gone at the end.
** The finale of Nyakuza Metro has received a ton of criticism for a lack of payoff, as despite building up the Enpress to be a credible threat, culminating in her [[spoiler:sending the ''entire'' Nyakuza after Hat Kid]], the chapter simply ends on her [[spoiler:running away from Hat Kid to avoid the police]], with no boss fight. Even those who were alright with Alpine Skyline and Arctic Cruise not getting boss fights, felt Nyakuza Metro should have had a fight against the Empress.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The finale of Alpine Skyline doesn't even have a proper boss fight like the other chapters, but rather, a LevelInBossClothing where you have to go around the level and kill the purple flowers instead. Each of the flowers goes down in just four hits without much effort, and the only real challenge is getting to the flowers through some new obstacles. Despite the {{Foreshadowing}} building up to the finale as you collect the Time Pieces, the origin of the flowers is never explained beyond that, and the [=NPCs=] are just simply relieved that they're gone at the end.

** A common theory as to why Hat Kid is so protective of the Time Pieces, besides desiring to get back home, is to protect the space-time continuum from being interfered with and prevent them from being abused by others. While this does make a lot of sense, especially given what [[spoiler:Mustache Girl [[TakeOverTheWorld does with them]] upon stealing them]], canonically, the reason is simply that Hat Kid needs them to get home. Her wanting to prevent them from being abused or protect the time and space continuum is never implied at any point (and is proven wrong given [[spoiler:Hat Kid can give Mu a time piece at the end]]).