Hatch Tales is a kind of video games that’s had what can solely be described as a dumpster fireplace of a improvement cycle, and after years within the oven, it’s lastly arrived. However was it definitely worth the wait? Right here’s our evaluation.
The reply to the large query is, truthfully, no. It was not definitely worth the wait. Hatch Tales is not at all a nasty recreation, however what began life as a joyous little journey a few rooster and his worm buddy has was a soulless mishmash of concepts that completely displays its troubled historical past.
Means again when the eShop first opened on the Nintendo 3DS, I found a stunning little recreation known as Mutant Mudds. It performed like a cross between Digital Boy Wario Land and Gargoyle’s Quest. It wasn’t a masterpiece, by any means, nevertheless it was precisely the suitable recreation at precisely the suitable time on precisely the suitable platform. It was difficult, enjoyable, and most significantly, had simply the correct amount of coronary heart.
It was made by Renegade Child, who finally spun off into Atooi, and I adopted their subsequent releases with nice curiosity. Xeodrifter was a pleasant little Metroid clone, and their then-upcoming Treasurenauts regarded like a good time.
Ultimately, they deliberate to launch a recreation known as Rooster Wiggle proper across the time when the Nintendo Change was on its technique to market. The overall consensus was that the sensible transfer could be to maneuver Rooster Wiggle over to the Change, because the 3DS viewers had all however disappeared in a single day, however the recreation’s artistic drive, Jools Watsham, disagreed. The 3DS was the place Mutant Mudds was successful, so there was no purpose to suppose Rooster Wiggle could be something much less. In any case, it was a brilliant charming, authentic, puzzle platformer with some fun-inspired character designs, an attention-grabbing gameplay hook, some nice music, and that all-important “coronary heart.”
Sadly, no person performed it. The sport flopped. Onerous, a lot to the confusion of Watsham. In fact, this might have been for any variety of causes, however standard knowledge dictated that it failed as a result of it was a 3DS unique in a time when the viewers had largely and all of a sudden left the platform for the Change. (The place have I heard that earlier than?)
After sufficient folks advised him that they’d have purchased the sport if it was on Change, he reluctantly launched a Kickstarter, telling those that in the event that they funded his venture, he would port Rooster Wiggle to the Change. The Kickstarter was successful, the venture was funded, and so long as nothing fully insane occurred, it wouldn’t be lengthy earlier than Rooster Wigle landed on Nintendo’s new {hardware}, able to discover a new, probably modest, however nonetheless grateful viewers.
That was again in 2018. It’s now 2025, and following years of silence, mishandling of funds, baffling concepts, title adjustments, scope adjustments, and different assorted nonsense, Rooster Wiggle has lastly landed on Change on the tail finish of its life within the type of Hatch Tales, a reputation with far much less character, and a transparent signal that Atooi fully misplaced the plot with this one.
Let me reiterate, Hatch Tales is NOT a nasty recreation. It’s fantastic, which if I’m being trustworthy, is at all times what it was going to be. Nevertheless it had such an important character, and a loving spirit behind it again when it was Rooster Wiggle that it elevated itself to be one thing memorable. There’s nothing fallacious with a recreation not being probably the most formidable venture beneath the solar. It’s okay for a recreation to have a comparatively brief runtime as long as what you’re enjoying was created with love. Rooster Wigle was precisely that, whereas Hatch Tales seems like an obligation.
Rather than the lovable duo of Rooster and his worm buddy Wiggle, you play as Hatch, a flightless hawk with a hookshot. The fundamental gameplay revolves round utilizing your hookshot to seize onto surfaces and make your means by varied impediment programs, amassing gems and releasing different birds who had been caged by a witch within the authentic recreation, and have now been caged by a giant, scary snow monster. Alongside the way in which, there are diamonds and particular medallions so that you can acquire. Discovering all of them will unlock hidden levels, of which there are rather a lot. Presumably too many. See, Rooster Wiggle was a pleasant, neat little package deal that didn’t overstay its welcome. Hatch Tales feels downright formidable to play, particularly whenever you notice what you’re going to should do to seek out all the sport’s varied secrets and techniques.
Hatch Tales works on the antiquated NES Metroid methodology of secret-keeping. Certain, there are some secrets and techniques that you could find utilizing visible cues the levels offer you, however I’d say about half of the remaining are pure pixel hunts. It’s a must to sort out each stage hugging each wall, hookshotting each inch of floor, in hopes of discovering fully invisible paths that result in secrets and techniques. There’s nothing intuitive about them, and I discovered myself much more annoyed than achieved when I discovered them. It is a fully antiquated type of recreation design, and Atooi ought to know higher.
When it was a small eShop recreation, certain. I can forgive rather a lot when there’s charming characters and nice music to maintain me firm, however in Atooi’s absurd quest to make Hatch Tales extra edgy, they sacrificed all of that, together with the unique recreation’s beautiful soundtrack, which left the entire expertise feeling lifeless, and like a chore to really play.
Which is a horrible disgrace as a result of there are some genuinely nice concepts on show right here. Enjoyable new energy ups and puzzles that will have felt at residence in a Rooster Wiggle sequel, however as an alternative had been stuffed in right here, feeling half-baked and truthfully, form of unhappy.
The key ranges aren’t simply extra Hatch Tales, although. A few of them are new takes on Mutant Mudds. These are fairly enjoyable to get by, incorporating a double bounce as an alternative of the unique’s hover mechanic, however each time I performed one, I couldn’t assist asking, why are these right here? It’s all a part of the sport’s overarching identification disaster. It’s bought an important gameplay loop already, however they stuffed a literal different recreation in for some purpose? They sacrificed charming characters for a brown fowl with tattoos? They changed a goofy witch with a genuinely terrifying trying snow monster? They changed the enjoyable, stunning music with ambient wind sounds? Certain, the visuals look good in screenshots, however the world has so few frames of animation it seems like some kind of flash recreation from the early 2000s. Significantly, lots of the enemies have at most 4 frames of animation, which can work whenever you’re utilizing pixel artwork, however certain doesn’t lower it whenever you’ve taken these pixels and turned them into absolutely realized sprites.
However probably the most irritating factor about all of that is, that recreation the Kickstarters backed? It’s in there. It’s simply buried beneath a bunch of different stuff. You possibly can nonetheless play an up to date model of Rooster Wiggle, however you must unlock it, sort out it piece by piece, and each time I did, it simply jogged my memory that this was all I wished. That is all this recreation wanted to be, and if that they had simply caught to their authentic imaginative and prescient, delivered what they promised, and brought this vitality they put into this weird re-invention and utilized it to a correct sequel, issues most likely would have turned out a heck of rather a lot higher.
I do like which you could take a number of hits now earlier than dying, as the unique Rooster Wiggle may get fairly robust, particularly with one hit kills, however outdoors of that, this complete expertise seems like a hole, missed alternative.
Ultimately, there simply isn’t sufficient particular about this launch to correctly advocate it over the a whole bunch of different puzzle platformers on the market. In a world full to the brim with Dadishes and Milli & Gregs, this degree of mediocrity simply doesn’t lower it. It breaks my coronary heart to see an organization whose output has introduced me a lot pleasure go down this path, however after the way in which they handled the folks they solicited cash from to make this recreation throughout their crowdfunding marketing campaign, and the product they in the end put out, I personally gained’t be buying one other Atooi product ever once more. However even when I had been to place my private points apart, this recreation is solely unremarkable. You might actually play worse video games, however you possibly can simply play higher as effectively.
For these followers who did stick round, maintain the hope alive. I’m certain they’ll launch Treasurenauts sometime.
Hatch Tales is out there now on Nintendo Change.
