Review - Big Hops
When people think of the 3D platformer, images of Nintendo's mainstay plumber come to mind instantly, or as of late, Team Asobi's fantastic mechanical mascot, Astro Bot, or a personal favourite, Double Fine's exemplary sequel, Psychonauts 2.
In modern times, the platformer hasn't been a genre inundated with quality games, except for a handful of well-known names. But every now and then, one comes along from a smaller studio that continues that trend.
Originally a game I'd seen on Kickstarter, Big Hops arrives from developer Luckshot Games, a pure 3D platformer that trades combat encounters for environmental obstacles and navigational puzzles, that trusts a player's ingenuity to figure out their own path through a level. Initially, I thought this would impact the game, but it's actually Big Hop's secret ingredient; a reliance on emergent gameplay that isn't a facsimile of its inspirations, but rather, the fulcrum that sets it apart from its peers.
In Big Hops, you play as Hop, a young frog that is stuck in a rut. Whilst camping near his mother's house with his little sister, Lily, Hop laments how he craves adventure and wants to see what the world has to offer. But deep down, he is anchored to the forest where he lives by his innate responsibility to help care for his family; torn between his dreams and what he feels are obligations.
However, Hop wanders away from the forest path and stumbles on an ethereal voice that wants his help, in return, he'll make all of Hop's dreams of adventure come true. He reluctantly helps the voice and is kidnapped and forced on a long journey to help a manipulative spirit called Diss, to collect purple orbs called Dark Drips. Only Diss refuses to say why he wants them, and only after Hop has collected them, will he send him home.
Image: Big Hops - Swing - Luckshot Games
It's a classic setup befitting many a video game or coming of age story about self-discovery, identity and the push and pull between following your dreams and the responsibility to your loved ones. The focal question, how do we balance aspirations and responsibilities? Is at the heart of every level. Hop meets a cast of characters going through similar struggles and fights, whilst going about it in different ways - each a lesson Hop can learn from to reflect on his own quandary.
What stood out from the get go was the sheer number of characters in the world. All fully voiced by SAG level talents such as Steve Blum who's famous for voicing Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop; each actor gives their characters their own personality. This is especially true of the core cast Hop meets during the main story: a mysterious crime-stopping rabbit, a jaded otter and a crew of wiley pirates. Then, there's Hop at the heart of the story; a soft spoken and compassionate, if a little naive,.young frog, that reminds me of Aang's naivety and driven spirit from Avatar the Last Airbender, Steven Universe's empathetic and introspective nature from Steven Universe and Sora's reliance on forming bonds in Kingdom Hearts. The kind of narrative heart that allows for opportunities for personal growth, whether through Hop being manipulated and decieved due to his inexperience, or seeing how toxic decisions can be - the perfect mirrors for an introspective story.
Luckshot Games deepens Hop's character further by the inclusion of dialogue choices. They don't alter the story, but the conversation options add flavour to let players mould their own version of Hop. Allowing you to react to each of the different perspectives from the three episodic-like main stories built within the overarching plot, from being entangled in organised crime, to stories about environmental disasters.
Image: Big Hops - Forest - Luckshot Games
Both the narrative design and writing set the tone through humourous and well-written dialogue and written documents, which perfectly creates a tonal fusion somewhere between Psychonauts 2's strong and unique characterisation and Avatar the Last Airbenders' charm and humour.
The majority of Big Hops is split into three colourful, expansive levels: Red Desert, Open Ocean and Shattered Mountain. Each containing a separate story that Hop gets involved in as he searches for airship parts to build a way to return home. However, Diss continues to insist that the only way Hop will ever return home is by collecting all the Dark Drips.
But first, in the opening tutorial, you're introduced to the basic controls and gameplay mechanics. An accessible form of onboarding to learn Hop's parkour moveset, even if it may take some time for younger players to master. You learn quickly that there's more to Hop's movement than meets the eye. He can run, jump, squat then jump for extra height, dive, climb walls until his stamina gauge runs out, slide, aim to throw items in slow motion, wall run, swim, crawl through vents and more. And that's without even mentioning Hop's tongue based abilities.
Image: Big Hops - Desert - Luckshot Games
Although, I would recommend taking the time to get accustomed to the flow of the parkour movement. To learn how to gain momentum by jumping, then diving into a slide and jumping again to repeat the cycle. Mastering this simple pattern is transformative to the platforming experience. The biggest mistake I made early on was diving on an approach to a wall run, which prevented the run from initiating on contact, when you should always jump at it instead. But by the time you reach the first town hub, all of these things are muscle memory and feel really tight and responsive.
But where Big Hops stands out is in the emergent gameplay elements that continuously encourage creativity. From the first semi-open area in the desert, you're set loose inside the experimental sandbox to explore and find veggies that act as Hop's traversal tools to get around the environment. Early veggies include a mushroom that turns into a trampoline to reach higher platforms, acorns that sprout into thick trunk-wide vines that don't consume your limited stamina, and chillis that Ignite into flames. All of these veggies and many more are necessary tools to reach your goal on your own terms.
To help with this player lead gameplay, Luckshot Games give Hop a backpack that acts as an inventory to store throwable items, gear and whichever veggies you want to keep in reserve just in case you need them to proceed.
Image: Big Hops - Ocean - Luckshot Games
But whilst these normal levels evoke many a platformer from Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Odyssey, it's the intermission levels between the bigger levels set in a place called The Void that are clearly inspired by the great Super Mario Galaxy. In these, you enter Diss' domain as a form of bridge between levels and use purple veggies to throw at glowing orbs that opens up perspective and gravity shifting paths. The moment I leapt across a gap and the gravity pulled me upside down, I remembered fondly my first time on one of Super Mario Galaxy's planets. These are shorter, linear levels, but offer up a nice break between the larger levels.
Even though platforming and veggies gameplay are the main mechanics of getting around in Big Hops, there's still more gameplay elements that get introduced over time to keep the game fresh and interesting. Although there isn't any combat against regular enemies in the traditional sense, there are few boss encounters that require the use of Hop's tongue to dismantle an enemy, which felt like a nice bookend to some levels.
Luckshot Games continues to cleverly evolve and introduce gameplay elements throughout each main level - a great example of good game design. No place is this clearer than when stealth is introduced in the sewer level. Where you need to choose which veggies to use to bypass enemy patrols: memorising routes in order to use vegetable tightropes to circumvent them. Whereas, in the ocean level, Hop is able to explore underwater by using a veggie able to spawn air bubbles. Each new layer freshens up the experience and is enjoyable as the last.
Image: Big Hops - Trinkets - Luckshot Games
And being a frog, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Hop's main tool: his tongue. This allows him to swing in the air from certain objects, press and pull levers, turn switches, and pick locks via a fun mini game where you must guide Hop's tongue through the lock, to sequential numbers before reaching the exit.
Outside of the main quest, Big Hops contains a treasure trove of side activities and collectibles within each town and semi-open environment. You'll find environmental puzzles like in the first desert area where a rabbit is stuck at the top of a tower of tumbleweed and you're tasked to figure out which veggie to use to get them down. Or small side quests such as using Hop's fast movement to beat a rabbit's time trial record. Whenever you complete these challenges, you're rewarded with a larger Dark Drip that fills up Hop's experience meter which is for another of Big Hops' systems: trinkets that act as perks.
Collecting every Dark Drip scattered around the environment increases your experience bar. The Dark Drips are a nice extra for completionists, but they also serve the purpose of unlocking trinkets that are useful perks in the form of scout-like badges that you place on Hop's backpack. Perks improve your abilities and offer bonuses, such as reducing the cost of items in shops, multiplying the amount of veggies that you can store in your backpack and improving the time your stamina lasts when Hop climbs. By the second and third levels, perks have a transformative effect on gameplay and help you create a build for Hop that feels uniquely attuned to your playstyle.
However, my favourite side activities were those that asked you to complete a task. For example: to find a way inside a locked factory and unlock it. The ingenuity of the game is that the developers trust the player to use the gameplay mechanics to solve the problem without guidance. It's reminiscent of Nintendo's more recent approach to games like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and in some ways, Donkey Kong Bananza - good company to be associated with.
Image: Big Hops - Shattered Mountain - Luckshot Games
Yet, Luckshot Games didn't settle for the inclusion of just a few side quests. They added eighteen challenge rooms to find that are hidden throughout the world. These are optional levels that focus on a particular gameplay element from the area and rewards you with a big Dark Drip on completion. I found these to be fun, and for fans of setting record times in the Astro Bot speed-runs, challenge rooms can be replayed from the main menu, allowing you to set times against the world. And I have no doubt people will find inventive ways to use veggies to set impressive times.
But that's not all, there's enough collectibles to make any lover of collectathons happy. Whilst the backpack can hold veggies, it also stores gear like the binoculars, which highlight every insect in sight. Which brings me to the main collectible outside of the Dark Drips: insects. Throughout his journey, Hop can use his tongue to grab insects and scan them for informative tidbits, and then deliver them to a bug collector in exchange for rewards.
But the bug collector isn't the only shop in the game. Big Hops has it's own economy; a currency of gold coins that can be found from the classic smashing of pots and other means. Every level has a general store where you can buy useful items like wallet upgrades and health upgrades, and a machine that lets you craft stamina potions to temporarily double your stamina gauge.
There are also smaller places that sell food, but the other main establishment is the clothes store. Here, you can buy unique items like hats, full outfits unique to the area, and various dyes to alter the colour of your clothes. But in order to change the colour, you need to collect flower petals found in the world and exchange them at the machine inside the emporium. If you are a player that likes to customise your character, there's a good selection of options and colours.
Image: Big Hops - The Void - Luckshot Games
Away from the stores, Hop has other gadgets to unlock with blueprints, a camera which serves as a photo mode, and secret tapes to find for a music player. For twenty dollars, there's an impressive amount of content, especially if you decide to go for a complete one hundred percent playthrough and all achievements - accomplishments you can carry on pursuing after the credits roll.
But what struck me when I first launched the game was the visual presentation. Don't expect extreme end, ray traced graphics; Big Hops takes the Nintendo approach of a beautiful art style and a development team in synch with a clear creative vision. Thin pixels outline everything in a way that adds a depth of colour that subtly blends into the character models and environments. It gives a unique cartoon look that is more nuanced and fit for purpose for Big Hops, than something like the thick cel-shaded lines of Jet Set Radio or Parappa the Rapper.
This vibrant graphics run at a solid frame rate and crisp resolution on all three platforms that I tried the game on. I played the majority of the game on the PC, but I also spent a few hours of my twelve hour plus playtime on the Steam Deck. The portable performed flawlessly set to 40 or 60 frames per second, and looked visually as close to the desktop version as you can get on a handheld - the perfect device to go back and try to beat those times in the challenge rooms.
I also played the PS5 version for a few hours, which again, performed great and looked vivid on an OLED television. The only version I didn't try was the Nintendo Switch, but the developer says it runs well on the platform, and with how well it performs on the Steam Deck, I can only imagine the Nintendo Switch being another solid option if you're looking for a new platformer to play.
Image: Big Hops - Mineshaft - Luckshot Games
Lastly, the final piece of what makes Big Hops tick is the audio design. Starting with the score, Big Hops is instrumentally varied to give each level a different flavour - each town and location has a distinct sense of place. One of my favourites is the relaxed, steel drum laced track for Junktown in the Ocean level. It seemed to imbue the spirit of how Grant Kirkhope gives levels a clear musical identity and reminded me of a more laid back version of Koji Kondo's Super Mario Sunshine's soundtrack.
But outside of the score and voice work, Luckshot Games have taken care to breathe life into every sound in the world. Everything adds to the experience: from the rustle of garbage being thrown, to jumping into the sea, and Hop's tongue thwacking against things.
Although, it must be said, the creepy crawlies that Hop collects weren't the only bugs I experienced in the game. I did experience a couple of very minor bugs during my playthrough. Nothing game breaking or difficult to fix. And by launch, I fully expect the developers to have updated the game to fix these little things.
Other than that, I had a couple of camera clipping issues and when climbing in tight and inconvenient spaces. But most of the time, the camera felt great. My only other complaint was how I felt the first open area in the desert felt disjointed at first, but this feeling faded as I became accustomed to the flow of the game. Despite this, from the moment I arrived at the desert town, the game felt more curated and kept improving and reinventing gameplay element all the way to the end - a gargantuan task to balance challenge, player discovery and the feeling of progression.
Image: Big Hops - Rig - Luckshot Games
For fans of 3D platformers and freeform emergent gameplay, Big Hops delivers fun gameplay with top quality voice acting that not even many of the bigger studios includes. It's an easy game to recommend to anyone, especially when you consider the reasonable price of twenty dollars.
For a genre that has few quality consistent releases each year outside of the big studios, Luckshot Games has created a worthy platformer inspired by said peers that goes in its own impressive directions and can stand side-by-side with them. Big Hops is an impressive game from a small studio, that I already believe will end up being one of the best platformers of the year.
Image: Big Hops - Luckshot Games - Score - 8.5/10
