A Hat in Time

Genuinely well-crafted, charming 3D platforming

A Hat in Time's core appeal rests on delivering a genuinely faithful, well-executed take on Nintendo 64-era collectathon platforming, and reviewers across this base consistently credit that execution as a real success. "This game is honestly great, and I don't wanna give the impression that I dislike it," reads a 2023 review, one of many that opens with genuine enthusiasm for the platforming and world design before detailing the specific technical complaints documented below. A 2021 review frames the appeal directly: "First of all this game is really fun. Mechanics are really solid and the story is just fun to follow along between each world," praising the boss battles specifically as a highlight. That combination — genuinely solid, varied platforming mechanics paired with charming presentation and writing — is the consistent throughline of praise across nearly this entire review base, and it's a meaningful part of why the game has sustained an unusually large, dedicated community years after its Kickstarter origins.

An extremely consistent, apparently worsening performance complaint

What tempers that praise, with striking and sustained consistency, is a specific complaint about technical performance. "Avoid this if you have AMD hardware. Couldn't play this due to incredible stuttering every time I try to rotate my camera. Which would be understandable if my hardware wasn't [a capable, modern system]," reads a 2020 review. A 2026 review reports the same category of problem persisting years later: "Very poor optimisation for some systems. It runs like crud, despite not looking like it has any reason to." A particularly concerning pattern emerges from reviewers describing changes over time: "I cant recommend it which hurts me since every damn update it gets worse and worse it is really painful," reads a 2021 review. Checking a broad sample of reviews spanning close to a decade, this complaint — severe stuttering and frame drops disproportionately affecting AMD hardware — recurs with enough consistency and specificity to treat as a genuine, persistent technical issue rather than isolated hardware incompatibility.

It's worth being specific about the difficulty complaint some reviewers raise alongside the technical issues, since it's a distinct concern from performance. "Here's the question the game fails at - who is this game for? Because if it's for people who are really into platformers, then it's way too easy 90% of the time. And if it's for casual players, then ridiculous difficulty" spikes in specific optional content undermine that accessibility, reads a 2023 review. This is a genuine, if more subjective, tension several reviewers describe: the main campaign is broadly forgiving and welcoming to newcomers, while certain optional bonus content, particularly the paid "Death Wish" challenge levels, ask for a level of precision and mastery the base game never really trains players toward, creating an unusually sharp difficulty cliff between the two experiences.

A significant update that hasn't fully resolved the problem

This review checked Gears for Breakfast's own update history directly and found a specific, meaningful response to these complaints: "A Hat in Time gets a surprise update with DirectX 12 and Vulkan support," dated June 2025 — a substantial rendering-engine change directly targeted at the kind of performance problems described above. That's genuine, verifiable evidence the developer took the complaints seriously years into the game's life rather than ignoring them. However, this review found reviews posted after that specific update still describing similar symptoms: a 2026 review reports "egregious lag spikes" on "a high end computer from 2022," and a separate 2026 review describes a hotfix having been needed as recently as July 2026. That pattern suggests the DirectX 12/Vulkan update improved performance for some configurations without fully resolving it for others, making this a genuine, currently ongoing risk rather than a fully resolved historical complaint.

Specific Steam Deck compatibility concerns

A related, more specific complaint concerns the game's official Steam Deck Verified status. "This game is shown to be Steamdeck verified, but isn't true. Running vanilla version of the game and it lags hard for 1 sec every 5 seconds non-stop. Game isn't playable," reads a 2026 review. A separate 2026 review reports a different but related failure: "freezes on steam deck in later levels after refund window has passed." This is a specific, directly actionable warning for anyone planning to buy the game specifically for Steam Deck play based on its official certification, given these direct, detailed contradicting reports.

Camera and mixed-input co-op problems

Separate from raw performance, a recurring complaint concerns camera behaviour during precision platforming and combat specifically. "I want to recommend this game. The plot, styling, audio, it's all there. But christ on a stick, the camera angles are so bad that Co-op leaves me more frustrated than I was before picking up my controller," reads a 2021 review. A further, specific complaint concerns mixed input devices in co-op: "the co-op does not work at all. I can't play with my controller while my partner uses a keyboard, and vice versa," reads a 2022 review. These are distinct, specific complaints from the broader performance issue, worth flagging directly for anyone planning cooperative sessions with mismatched input devices.

Final verdict

A Hat in Time delivers genuinely charming, well-crafted 3D collectathon platforming that earns its enthusiastic reception, and this review has no reservations crediting the underlying design and character work. What keeps the score moderate is an extremely consistent, apparently persistent performance complaint — disproportionately affecting AMD hardware and Steam Deck despite official verification — that this review confirmed the developer has genuinely worked to address without fully resolving, compounded by real camera and mixed-input co-op problems. This is a worthwhile, well-designed platformer on compatible hardware; check very recent reviews for how your specific system handles it before buying, especially on AMD GPUs or Steam Deck.