King Of The Hat Preview
2018 has been an impressive year on the indie gaming front, from the challenging platformer Celeste, to the virtual reality quest Moss, but as we approach the last few months the top spot is under threat. One game pegged to dominate the charts is that of King Of The Hat, a quirky brawler filled with hat-based antics and cat-based jokes – okay, hear us out. This jaunty game features a dozen characters, a stylishly entertaining style of play and a nostalgic theme tune, all based around a hilariously unbelievable, but laughter-inducing storyline, that will keep you coming back for hours.
Image Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1566864251/king-of-the-hat
So, how did this innovative indie go from a few seeds of thought, to gain the hype it has to this day? Here, we’re exploring precisely that and giving you an insight into just what you can expect.
The Kickstarter
The use of Kickstarter is no foreign concept for a lot of indie game companies, but not every project is as successful as King of the Hat quickly become. After debuting on Kickstarter on September 8th 2017, developers Hyroglyphik Games went on to smash through their $CDN 10,000 goal and continued raising the funds for even more characters and game modes as the months passed. The Kickstarter did come to an end in November of that year, but that wasn’t the end for the game.
In fact, a demo was released on chat system Discord and, as of the time of writing, is set for release on Steam and Nintendo Switch in early 2019.
Image Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1566864251/king-of-the-hat
The Storyline
The storyline is the true lifeblood of this charming, yet slightly disturbing game; the story begins in Hatlandia, a fairytale-esque setting with a towering castle and a lot of hats. In fact, residents were born with these hats and they even formed their very life force itself. Without the hat, the wearer would die. Enter the Fatcats – these literal cats were the owners of Business Corp, and after discovering the beauty and the unusual nature of Hatlandia, they decided they wanted it themselves and killed the king.
Morbid, right?
As dark as it may seem, this back story forms the entire purpose of the game itself. ‘King of the Hat’ is the Fatcat’s form of entertainment, a battle show designed to provide something to watch to a live studio audience and that’s precisely what this game is. Let’s meet the characters.
The Characters
Cute, quirky and ultimately memorable characters are nothing new in gaming but have been increasing in popularity over the years. We’re seeing more and more online games across the board being inspired by this trend, showcasing a lot of incredible imaginative characters, drawing on the same design, loaded with colour, and King of the Hat is no exception.
From Birthday, a lucky fellow who happens to have a birthday every day, Kiara who was once the princess of the kingdom before the cats took over and Cole who is literally a giant yeti, to Captain Hat who is definitely overcompensating for baldness, Snapback, a martial arts genius and, of course, FatCat himself, there are all of the above and a few more that you can choose from, all with their own unique storylines.
The Gameplay
When it comes to gameplay, King Of The Hat keeps it impressively simple. In fact, the sole goal of this four-player brawler is to essentially step on your opponents hat. That’s it. Of course, there’s a little more to it than that, but the charming simplicity of the gameplay offers gamers the chance to indulge in this perfect party game for a touch of competitive spirit. When you start up the game, you’ll be greeted with the character loading screen, through which you can choose one of 10 characters to play with.
From here, you can pick a background and the game begins. The whole point of the battle is to crush your opponent’s hats – after all, hats are much more than just charming accessories in Hatlandia. You can use your own hat as a weapon, but doing so puts it at risk as it won’t fly back to you automatically. It’s all about the risk, and it’s this fast-paced, risky, adrenaline-pumping act that is set to keep gamers coming back for more.
Image Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=875138460
The Music
No game would ever be complete without its soundtrack, or lack thereof in the case of some of our favourite tense psychological thrillers. For King of the Hat, however, music is certainly a key selling point and we adore every merry second. Despite the initial Kickstarter suggesting that the soundtrack would be a ‘jazz, big-band mood’, what appears to be the final choice holds more of a retro, almost Mario-esque tune. While there is still a clearly paid homage to the original tunes, we’re eager to see just what was chosen for the full version when it’s finally released in the coming months.
King of the Hat has already proven to be a popular gaming experience and it hasn’t even graced our screens in full just yet. Whether you’re looking to wait for the Switch version, or you’d prefer the PC release, it’s only a matter of time before we’re all taking our hats off to Hyroglyphik Games’ incredible production.