Mr. Sun’s Hatbox – Review
At PAX West, I first encountered Mr. Sun’s Hatbox. I was curious to learn more about the unannounced game because I am a fan of the independent scene and publisher Raw Fury. Even though the PC build I tried out had some flaws with the controls, I could tell the game had promise. A few months have passed, and I’ve just now had the opportunity to play Mr. Sun’s Hatbox on Switch. There are some nice touches in the end product, but I didn’t think it was a particularly good representative of the genre as a whole.
Let’s jump right into the fun stuff. From the first seconds, the game’s insane sense of humour is readily apparent. Some masked thugs steal Mr. Sun’s delivery. The deliveryman, unlike Liam Neeson in the Taken films, doesn’t throw his hands up when confronted with crooks; instead, he chases them down. After all, you owe it to Mr. Sun to ensure that he receives his shipment by any means necessary, since it was promised to him.
At this point, the game sets the foundation. Mr. Sun’s Hatbox is both a roguelike platformer and a stealth game at heart. Which immediately made me feel conflicted. I think the stealth genre, when executed effectively, can be rewarding and put you in a meditative state of mind. When done incorrectly, though, I find myself wanting to yell and smash things. In Mr. Sun’s Hatbox, the stealth isn’t necessarily bad, but it is pervasive. There are numerous traps and obstacles strategically placed throughout each level. You can, of course, take your time and try to avoid being discovered, but doing so is extremely difficult. That’s due in large part to the game’s other constant: its peculiarities.
The point is that your armed militia of deliverymen, no matter how dedicated they may be, are still only human. In fact, the majority of the game’s protagonists consist entirely of an inflated head and a few stubby appendages. Each member of your squad has their own unique set of flaws, and those quirks help to highlight those flaws all the more. The vast majority of them are negative. Things like having a panic attack when discovered, passing out upon snapping a victim’s neck, being so photogenic that cameras can see you through walls, and having bones so brittle that you’ll fly apart when hit with an object. Absolutely hilarious. Not too useful, actually. The good news is that as long as characters can level up by completing assignments, they can eventually outgrow their eccentricities. Worse yet? The loss of a character is permanent. Death is permanent in Mr. Sun’s Hatbox.
You can and will recruit a large cast of new characters, but that won’t make the situation any more bearable. If you capture your enemies, you can brainwash them at your stronghold. To return them home, you can either use a balloon to carry their groggy bodies or drag them through the door. The Black Market is another option for finding and hiring mercenaries. But no matter what method you use to recruit new friends, there’s always the risk that they’ll be full of annoying quirks. In certain cases, there are so many that moving in any direction at all will cause an explosion. You can outgrow some of your eccentricities as you gain levels, but that doesn’t mean your new ones will be any better. One such peculiarity caused a character to move at a pitiful snail’s pace if the person wasn’t moving backwards.
The bulk of the game is split between going on missions and improving your base (conveniently situated under poor Mr. Sun’s shop). Every day that passes allows you to dedicate more of your pointless units to feature research and development. Keep in mind that these endeavours call for both time and money. Soup pots and boomerangs are only two examples of the odd things used in study.
Scanning the globe map initiates missions, for which you will be presented with a number of choices. You’re welcome to pursue the easier, safer missions if you like, but unlocking the Hat Heist tasks requires finding map pieces. These encounters serve as the game’s equivalent of the boss fights, and they require you to make your way through hordes of crazy people in search of magical hats. While they don’t add any new platforming skills, they do allow access to more content in the game, such as expanding your home base to include a Support and Sales department. As you complete more missions, you gain access to new features that allow you to complete even more.
You’re undoubtedly curious about headwear given the game’s name. Countless examples can be found in Mr. Sun’s hatbox. Many of them serve as a shield against harm. Some, like a head-mounted gun, can be used to directly harm your adversaries. There’s also a wide variety of unusual items, such as bulletproof mirrors, boxing gloves, spiked urchins, and more. I liked that there was a wide range of hats to choose from, but I didn’t think they added much to the experience beyond meeting our base expectations.
Even with my reservations about the stealth emphasis, I suspect it doesn’t sound that horrible right now. However, I had an issue that persisted and made playing Mr. Sun’s Hatbox tedious. Creating a Showroom for my enchanted headwear was one of my first orders of business in the game. So it was strange when I was playing and the game told me I had to construct everything again. Even worse, it would not let me proceed with anything further until I did. Fortunately, I was able to get past this by quitting to the main menu and starting the game over. The worst part is that it happened repeatedly and unexpectedly, and it still does even though the experience has been going on for hours.
And then there was the time I was beating a stage and about to leave when it suddenly froze. Or, on another occasion, I completed a level only to be met by the Showroom bug. When I got back to the game, I found that I had lost all of my progress towards beating that level, along with some particularly potent character level-ups. Furthermore, the Switch’s controls, while improved, are still subpar. I kept pushing what I believed was the jump button, but which really tossed whatever I had equipped aside.
Despite the issues I had, the game was still fun and unusual, with bright colours and goofy graphics. Despite the frequent bloodshed, the characters all appear like they could have hopped off of Fraggle Rock or Sesame Street. The music is likewise competent, if unremarkable. However, the visuals and soundtrack work well together to complement the dark wit.
I was hoping Mr. Sun’s Hatbox would provide yet another spectacular roguelite. However, I found the game to be more of a chore than a delight due to the intense stealth mechanic and the numerous bugs I encountered. Until those persistent problems are fixed, it will be much more difficult to sell the game, even though many people may still enjoy it despite them.
