Review: Mr. Sun’s Hatbox mashes up Metal Gear Solid 5 and Spelunky

if you know even a little bit metal gear solid 5: Phantom pain, you probably remember that Fulton recovery system. These things are attached to balloons and taken out of the open world to supply the base-building elements of the game with personnel and equipment. The balloon sails off-screen and is useful for returning to the headquarters of a rogue paramilitary operation.

In fact, it’s so silly that Sun’s hatbox, as if it always belonged there. Developed by Kenny Sun, this roguelike his platformer also lets you lead rogue paramilitary operations beyond government and law (after all, you’re a delivery man for a company called “Amazin”). is). The difference is that you’ll operate from the client’s basement to retrieve the stolen package and embark on missions similar to his levels of dangerous 2D platforming. SpelunkyUpon completing these missions, both weapons and armies become available through mission rewards, black market purchases, and useful items and character-attached balloons you may encounter along the way. It helps fund operations.

totally different metal Gear, you don’t play as a single character. Instead, you individually control the randomly generated blob person you choose for your mission. In that case, you may die permanently. Characters are distinguished (in addition to various ironic nicknames) primarily by a set of traits and quirks that completely change the way you approach the game depending on their individual attributes, mission by mission and agent by agent. These variables are further complicated by the wide range of equipment available, including ping-pong rackets, shark hats, and springy flan plates, in addition to the typical selection of firearms, explosives, and sharp objects.

Many of the character traits are undesirable, especially early in the game, so you’re basically forced to avoid the few you have. may have a distinct “taser” characteristic. However, it is also possible to have “dry eye” where the screen goes black every few seconds because you have to blink so many times.

Much of the game involves strategizing around these quirks when possible. For example, breaking a security guard’s neck causes the character to go into an uncontrollable panic due to the “guilty conscience” trait, and for a few seconds, a very important possibility, during which they may run into a trap or another guard’s line of sight. There is a nature. To avoid this, be careful to kill exclusively (and possibly more inhumanely) with weapons, or in a secluded area where it’s safe for assigned agents to shake off post-murder anxiety. You can drag each corpse to a place.

But it’s easy to get carried away or lose sight of these strategies in the mountains of available units and equipment. The resulting chaotic chain reaction Sun’s hatbox very special. For example, I accidentally hit my agent with my boomerang. This activated the “weak gut” property of excreting quickly when attacked. In another mission, we learned the hard way that the “Forgetful” trait removes indicators for a single character that was supposed to stay alive.

Image: Kenny Sun/Law Fury

The result is all fun, especially out of control Spelunky Sessions with additional wrinkles of continuous progress. Crafty base building requires you to not only keep an eye on your equipment store, but also consider your personnel and who among them you can afford to lose. Consistently selecting specific agents for missions will level them up, granting them more health while growing from useless traits to more useful traits. The value increases over time, making it difficult to combine useful traits until it becomes difficult to justify taking risks outside of the most difficult and important missions. Additionally, mechanics like skill trees are based on the level of characters you bench to perform these tasks. A seasoned level 7 operative contributes more to skill tree research than a level 2 newcomer. The game encourages you to keep your best units sticking to their desk jobs while risking more unpredictable agents in the field.

in the process, Sun’s hatbox does an excellent job of answering the age-old question of how to keep players taking risks and engaging with new mechanics instead of just sticking to the ones they’re familiar with. By incentivizing you to seek chaos, the gameplay creates his loop, where many of the most intense and original moments stem from hilarious failures. Rarely is a game where losing is as compelling as winning.

Sun’s hatbox Released April 20th on Nintendo Switch and Windows PC. This game was reviewed on PC using a download code provided by Raw Fury. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.