Mr. Sun’s Hatbox Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published April 28, 2023 · Updated April 27, 2023

For our Mr. Sun’s Hatbox Review, we play a slapstick, rogue-lite platformer about getting the job done at all costs. Upgrade your HQ, your team, and your tools so you can take on increasingly dangerous (and ridiculous) missions, wearing hats with amazing (or questionable) potential.

Mr. Sun’s Hatbox Review Pros:

Chunky pixel art graphics.
Download size.
Steam achievements.
Steam trading cards.
Full controller support.
Graphics settings – resolution, v-sync, target frame rate, fullscreen, and post-processing.
Co-op settings – friendly neck slapping, capturing, and bopping.
Game settings – screen shake, vibration, fps counter, build version showed, left stick aims, and font type. (pixel and hi-res)
3 save slots.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play the opening set of stages.
Platformer gameplay.
In-game cutscenes.
Great soundtrack.
Can skip cutscenes.
Jump down onto enemies to stun them or knock their hats off.
Break enemies’ necks or airlift/capture them.
Nods to other game series.
Has a twin-stick shooter control scheme when using weapons.
Apart from shooting, Weapons can also be thrown to knock out enemies or captured.
Each day (in-game) you get a choice of three random missions.
Mission details will show your objective, enemy threat level, how many floors, and rewards.
HQ is a series of rooms, you build the rooms and place them how you want.
The HQ part is very reminiscent of X Com.
Iron Man rules – anyone who dies on a mission is lost forever.
Pre-mission setup lets you choose your team member to play as, hat to wear, and weapons.
Every character in the game has quirks that are both good, bad, and whacky.
No mission is ever the same.
Every mission takes place across floors and depending on the mission depends on how many floors you visit.
You can rename and dismiss team members.
The character quirks can be likened to that lineage gimmick in Rogue Legacy.
Slow-motion kills.
Alert levels can be triggered causing a rush of enemies coming after you.
Stealth is in the game and is highly encouraged.
The Brig allows you to brainwash captured enemies and have them join you.
Practice missions are available so you don’t lose good men and women.
Yellow exclamation marks show on missions that will advance the story.
Loot boxes and items can be found within levels.
Difficult.
After death, all collected/captured loot is retained.
Map pieces can be found on missions and once you fill the bar up you unlock a hat Heist.
Many hat types from turrets to high jump to springs and poo.
Earn EXP with a team member and level up to get a random new quirk perk or upgrade an existing one.
Very addictive.
Research can be unlocked and here you can get new features and abilities.
All positions in the base need to be staffed and you can manually or automatically place members in roles.
The black market allows you to buy new team members and items like hats and weapons.
Daily contracts for bonus rewards.
So satisfying when you finish a level.
Emergency missions can pop up.
Mission tasks are varied from killing everyone to kidnapping someone or rescuing a person or item etc.
Online leaderboards with friends filter.
Stats screen.
Encyclopedia which fills in as you play.
Each character has a health bar of hearts, you can regain them by finding medical packs.

Mr. Sun’s Hatbox Review Cons:

Takes some getting used to the controls and the way the game plays.
Cannot rebind controls.
Slow starter.
Despite their best efforts, it is really hard to pick out someone or something in particular to capture, even more so when in a rush.
The line of sight arc on security cameras is not that visible.
Doesn’t seem to be a way to just skip game time ahead so members can heal and research be completed.
The floors are tight so it’s very claustrophobic.
A lot of the time you are always hovering over the many quirk perks to see what they are!

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