Let's Play Hatris
161When people think of Alexey Pajitnov the first thing that typically comes to mine is Tetris, the video game that took the world by storm and is still a part of gaming today. A runaway success that has been ported to nearly every console in its time, Tetris is a puzzle game that seems simple but has huge levels of complexity while being great fun to play. But this video isn't about Tetris - I've already done a video where I played Tetris - for Alexey Pajitnov designed other games besides Tetris.
One of them is Hatris, a game that's far more than a play on the name of the game he's most famous for. Not surprisingly considering its name, Hatris is a puzzle game about hats. Your goal is to stack various hats in matching piles of five whereupon they vanish, working words a set amount of matching sets so you can progress to the next level. The further you get into the game, the more different hats are added, with the piles of assorted hats you've accumulated carrying over from level to level. Hats drop in pairs that you can swap the position of but once one of them has landed on a pile of hats you can control the remaining hat independently. In the Game Boy version your sole power-up is the ability to turn one hat into a ball of flame - something I would not recommend trying on as a hat - which will burn through a pile of matching hats till it reaches a different one, allowing you to clear unwanted hats. Every hat stacks differently on top of one another and that's something you'll need to remember for when you inevitably stack things incorrectly. Much like Tetris, the game is over if a stack of hats get too high.
You may have read that and concluded that the game is relatively straightforward but much like Tetris, Hatris has a deep layer of complexity and strategy that makes it great fun to play. Just like Tetris, this game is about delaying inevitable defeat through clever placement of the resources given to you, earning as many points as you can along the way. It's inevitable that you'll assemble piles of assorted hats and you often you have no perfect place to let your hats fall, so instead you need to try and find places you can let them fall where you can better work on sorting out the mess of hats you've created once you have the right resources. The new hats added at various intervals make this even harder and if you're not careful, you'll be fighting a losing battle as more hats compound the mess of hats you're trying to manage. The feeling of achievement when your piles of hats line up perfectly however makes the challenge of hat-stacking all worth it, topped off by catchy music and easy-to-use controls whose only flaw is that the down button instantly makes the hats drop to where at least one hat hits a pile of hats or the bottom of the playing area.
You may have noticed that I'm saying the word hats a lot and to be honest, I'm surprised I haven't written it more in his description.
All in all, Hatris is an exceptionally fun game that has the same 'pick up and play' feeling of Tetris but is different enough to be it's own thing. That there aren't many versions of the game is a shame, or I believe this game deserves more attention. It's a game I play more often then Tetris and one that I recommend to anyone who likes a good puzzle game that they can play on the go.
Alexey Pajitnov, I'd take my hat off to you for Hatris if I had one. I don't however but I have Hatris which is almost as good. I say almost because Hatris won't keep my head warm or stop it getting wet when it rains, but it's far more fun than an actual hat.
See you next let's play!
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