Big Hops

While established AAA platformers are rarer and often the domain of Nintendo these days, there is no shortage of indie options. Joining the growing list in this area we now find the work of the small studio Luckshot Games, who in an effort to lighten up the often dreary January, has launched the delightful 3D platformer known as Big Hops.

This is, as the name suggests, a 3D platformer that revolves around a small and charming frog hero called Hop. The premise of the adventure is quite simple in that you are tasked with travelling through uniquely stylised biomes and realms in an effort of making it back to your quaint woodland home, all after being effectively kidnapped by a multi-dimensional being known as Diss. The point is that Big Hops isn't looking to upset the established order of the platforming world, it doesn't look to redefine what we know and expect from this genre, it simply provides another sweet and easy to pick-up option that should entertain fans of varied ages and demographics.

To this end, Big Hops practically does exactly what you would hope for from a 3D platformer. It offers a simplistic premise and idea, supports it with a lovely and visually-pleasing art style, and then bolsters this further with a selection of quick-to-learn and hard-to-master gameplay mechanics and controls. It's 3D platforming 101 but there's also a reason why this formula is so familiar and frequently used and it's because it's simply effective. Big Hops is the latest example of this, as this indie gem is effortlessly entertaining, even if it perhaps doesn't take enough creative risks.

Hop serves his purpose as a fitting protagonist with a moveset that enables him to leap and climb, swing and grapple with his tongue, carry, store and throw objects, and otherwise interact with the environment in a multitude of ways. The abilities available never overwhelm the player, but in a similar vein to Astro Bot recently or Super Mario and even Bubsy throughout the years, they can be put together and chained into snappy and fast combos that enable you to zoom around each level with ease when desired. It's a challenging balance to offer a mechanical suite like this, but Luckshot has managed to do so and well at that, creating a game that is perfect for all kinds of platforming fans.

But just because the mechanics allow novices to enjoy themselves and veterans to abuse the gameplay doesn't mean the rest of the experience is designed as such. Big Hops is otherwise quite a basic video game, with a level design that doesn't ask many questions whatsoever and a story that plays it safe. What I mean is that the levels won't frustrate you with intricate and challenging sections nor will you be confused with the direction you're supposed to take. It's all rather clearly defined and that applies to the main questlines but also the side activities that revolve around typical genre elements, be it collectibles like bugs and Dark Drips and Bits, and so forth, to unlock cosmetics and other upgrades. Again, it's fine, but if you are growing tired of the familiar genre trend of spending hours collecting items spread over the different levels, then you will ultimately find yourself growing a bit fatigued with much of what Big Hops presents off the beaten path.

However, one of the areas that this game does excel and thrive is without question how vegetables fit into the equation. It may sound strange, but Hop can pick up and use Veggies to his advantage, throwing these items around the world to create new ways to get about. Need to reach new heights? Throw a mushroom to create a bounce pad. Trying to cross a large gap? Throw an apple to create a grapple point or use cacti to make a traversable tightrope. The point is, these mechanics matched up with the storable backpack system, mean you can put your own spin on the level quite easily, which is ultimately an admirable design idea when bringing Hop's own abilities and kit into play.

Luckshot should be commended for creating a stylistically-simple but mechanically creative title, but they should also be celebrated for managing to give such a small indie title features that some major AAA franchises simply cannot comprehend for some obscure reason. Much of the dialogue in Big Hops is voiced, which goes an immensely long way for making this world feel more lively and in making the story more engaging. The performances are charming and they make the characters and the worlds they exist in stand out, giving them added dimension. It may seem like a basic thing to feature, but this alone goes such a long way in making a game feel more immersive and less lonely.

So Big Hops has plenty to celebrate and reasons to check it out, but it is also worth remembering that it's quite the traditional and familiar 3D platformer in many respects. If you play enough of these types of games, you'll know the direction that Big Hops is taking after just a few minutes, and that's not a negative, just something to know. But at the same time, for a game that has been crafted by a small team, a game that is very reasonably priced at $20, you won't go too far wrong with this lovely, colourful, and charming project.