Awesome / A Hat in Time

"Time you saw what I'm really capable of, kid."

• Awesome Art: Every single mission title card. The right blend of cartoony, colorful, and appealing. A gallery of them all has been compiled here (spoiler warning!).
• Awesome Bosses: This game has some great boss battles. But we know you want to hear about each in more detail, so....
  • The chapter "Battle of the Birds" has a rather interesting boss. Depending on who wins the rivalry, you could end up fighting The Conductor or DJ Grooves. Both fights play out the same, but man, do they escalate. It starts out with the boss stage-diving at you. Soon they start causing shockwaves with a giant disco ball (and photos of the disco ball), run at you with a knife, and again with photocopies, cars, lights falling, saw blades...Halfway through the fight, out of nowhere, you sit down and chat with the boss in a nice quiet moment. Then you get a bomb strapped to your back until the boss's rival can defuse it! Until finally, the boss gets fed up and calls in a line of knife-happy owls to chase you around 'til the end of the fight! And the epic music that plays is like something that belongs in a freakin' bar fight!
  • The boss battle against The Snatcher starts with a bang — whatever you were expecting, it probably wasn't the demon instantly launching into a series of multicolored explosions all around the arena while an AMAZING tune plays. Not only are these explosions massive and take up a large amount of the ring you can run on (the same arena you fought the Toilet in), he'll try to fake you out in pure darkness with a wooden cutout of himself, REFUSES to turn blue of his own accord (you have to use his own flasks against him while he says funny stuff), carousels his Subconite subjects around the arena, and even creates whack-a-mole shockwaves! It's an intense, fun-as-heck battle with an unbelievably heartwarming and fun end to it all.
    • Not to mention, the Snatcher making good on his name and snatching something - your hat! No abusing your hat powers on this fight!
  • Queen Vanessa is more of a Level in Boss Clothing combined with Puzzle Boss, but still qualifies, due to being both completely out of left field and genuinely frightening in a game that's otherwise largely very cutesy and light-hearted.
  • The Final Boss also deserves a mention. Mustache Girl, having abused the power of Time Pieces to dominate the planet, is told to get lost by eall of your favorite enemies from the previous stages, and it's accompanied by one of the best songs in the game, "You Are All Bad Guys." Mustache Girl then sends everyone into the very fabric of time itself while she tries to get rid of Hat Kid. When she starts fighting dirty, your former enemies provide what assistance they can, ending in them performing a Heroic Sacrifice to grant Hat Kid virtually infinite healing pons. Mustache Girl then pulls out all the stops even as her Time Piece powers are weakening to try and take down Hat Kid, resulting in a thrilling frantic final phase. All of this is backed up by an absolutely beautiful track that captures the mood of the final phase perfectly.
  • Before they commit Heroic Sacrifices, Hat Kid's former adversaries (and a goat from Alpine Skyline) combine their attacks and abilities to let Hat Kid break through Mustache Girl's defenses. Hat Kid can't hit Mustache Girl due to Teleport Spam? Well, the Conductor rides a Mafia Ball into battle and tells you to knock the ball into Mustache Girl while she is distracted with her beam attacks. Once Mustache Girl wises up and creates a barrier to block all attacks, The Snatcher has one of the Alpine Skyline goats sign a contract with him, where The Snatcher will create cherry bombs and the goat will toss it into the ring to ignite it so Hat Kid can break Mustache Girl's barrier. For impromptu teamwork, the forces of the planet Hat Kid landed on sure do work well together.
  • The new Death Wish mode amps up the above bosses. Special mention goes to Killing Two Birds, which has you fighting both DJ Grooves and the Conductor at the same time.
• Awesome Levels: The game's level design has been singled out as one of the game's major strengths.
  • Murder on the Owl Express is an Unexpected Gameplay Change into a Stealth-Based Mission and a murder mystery, but it's very well done. Rather than ditch platforming entirely, the level balances the two effortlessly. Add in a time limit to put pressure on the player, and it comes out as a thrilling race against the clock. Having some of the game's best writing definitely doesn't hurt, either. Of course, there is no real time limit, but you likely won't know that the first time you play the level.
  • Train Rush: A fast-paced timed mission wherein the Hat Kid must defuse a bomb at the end of the train. The platforming is solid through and through, and it has some of the best uses of the hookshot.
  • The Big Parade starts off slow and simple; Hat Kid must continually bounce around the level, since a parade is following her and she can't touch them. Easy enough, but as the level progresses it continues to escalate into a veritable clusterfuck as explosions and homing missiles get into the mix.
  • Award Ceremony is an incredible, atmospheric level that takes place at Dead Bird Studio after hours, where Hat Kid has to traverse used movie props and security guards. The level design is very exploration heavy, with many sections where you can wall jump between boxes and find collectibles. Then it’s followed up with the second boss battle...
  • The Subcon Well. It's a relatively short level, but with an amazing atmosphere and music theme. It's also when you get the useful Hookshot Badge.
  • Queen Vanessa's Manor is another Unexpected Gameplay Change… into Amnesia-like gameplay of all things. Apart from the incredible build-up to it (including a rather inspired soundtrack choice), the level stands out for being genuinely terrifying; it's not possible to fight back, only to hide and outrun Vanessa.
  • The Windmill section of Alpine Skyline. It's the longest and biggest of the four major areas of the chapter, and does it show. The level contains some rather complex platforming, tough jumps, and requires some precise timing in places, but the feeling of ascent is tremendous. There's also some really creative use of the level props, and its difficulty just makes it all the more satisfying.
  • Twilight Bell in Alpine Skyline, while smaller than some of the other areas, makes up for it by having one of the best atmospheres after the bell is rung and by using the bells and Dweller Mask to great effect in puzzles.
  • While not truly a boss fight, Nyakuza Metro's final chapter has one hell of a send-off; after Hat Kid gets caught stealing back her Time Pieces, the Empress, enraged, immediately casts her out, places a gradually escalating bounty on her, and, alongside the rest of the Nyakuza, chases after Hat Kid, rocket launcher in tow. She nearly gets Hat Kid too, if not for a pack of police officers entering the elevator she corners Hat Kid in. No other villain came that close to defeating Hat Kid, and for good reason Hat Kid makes it clear she does not like the prospect of fighting the Empress head-on.
    • The aftermath counts too, for different reasons. While Hat Kid doesn't defeat the Empress head-on or even take down her operation, she delivers such a gigantic Humiliation Conga that getting beaten in a fight would have been preferable. It turns out one of the officers that scared her off was actually one of her goons in disguise who somehow missed the bounty announcement, and hands you a Time Piece they would have given the Empress had she simply stayed for a little while longer. On top of that, for the rest of the game, Le Felin is swarming with officers, even though they likely won't affect her in the long run. Hat Kid scammed The Empress out of at least nine time pieces that she got paid to collect, temporarily paralyzed her crime ring and, by the time she is able to exact her revenge, Hat Kid will be long gone and very much out of her reach. You can even go back and talk to her, just to rub it all in.