REVIEW: ‘Big Hops’ Leaps And Bounds Of Fun, Even As It Stumbles

Big Hops, the new 3D action-platformer from Luckshot Games, feels like a throwback to a classic era of platformers in the best way. The characters are silly and memorable, the world sports smart design that lets you play within it, and the sense of motion feels fantastic once you adjust to it. Even if there are a few technical issues and it can be a bit formulaic, Big Hops is a joyful hopping start to the new year.

Big Hops stars the titular froggy, Hop, as he’s whisked away from his home by some spirit… demon… guy named Diss. Diss feeds on Hop’s wish for faraway lands and frognaps him, trying to make him collect Dark Drips for reasons he won’t divulge. Hop decides to find his own way home, instead, seeking out three airship parts to try and fly his way home. Each one of them is hidden away in a different area with its own story. 

Level design is the star of the show in Big Hops.

The narrative feels like a throwback to early 3D platformers, with a zany core narrative and a colorful cast of characters. From a gang of rabbits strongarming a town with a growing sinkhole in it, to otters going up against a big oil company, each new area contains a scenario that feels ripped from a Cartoon Network show. It’s like Gex meets Codename: Kids Next Door. Hop is lovable and earnest, even as he starts to get tired of Diss and his nagging.

The star of the show, though, is the level design and platforming. Each level has plenty to explore, going from sandy dunes to the blue depths of the sea. Hop can jump, slide, dive, and use momentum to propel himself even farther. It feels a bit limiting at first, but as you get familiar with the ins and outs of the movement kit, you start to move quickly, realizing how to best combine Hop’s movement to get to where you want to go. It’s so satisfying to jump, switch into a dive to gain speed, then jump again to shoot forward using your newly gained momentum. 

While there’s a main path to follow, you can get to the end in any manner of ways. There is a host of vegetables, each packing a new power-up. While one vegetable can stick to the wall, giving Hop a new point to latch on to with his grappling hook-like tongue, another shoots off projectiles that bounce around the level. Catching those with Hop’s tongue shoots him in the direction he was facing. You can even take these veggies and store them in your backpack, using them in unexpected ways in places where you wouldn’t normally find them. 

You can break free from the intended paths in fun, creative ways.

You can really break the intended golden path apart. It’s so much fun seeing how you can get to the end in different ways. Big Hops doesn’t limit you with invisible walls or by taking away veggies stored in your backpack, instead letting the player engage with its world and items on their own terms. I took the funky way through on more than one occasion, where I had more fun trying out different options than going in the direction I was supposed to. 

The level design supports the design ethos here as well. None of the levels is too big so that you get lost in them easily. Most levels that limit your movement instead play with direction, turning, and warping like the planets in Super Mario Galaxy.

Not every area lives up to the same pedigree, though. The third area focused on the mines lacking the same level of creative open spaces as what came before. It’s still fun, but doesn’t hit the same highs as earlier levels. There’s a lot to love and master in Big Hops, even if technically, it still needs some work. 

Minor technical issues hold the game back from being great.

There are frame rate issues, at least playing on Steam Deck. They’re not so significant that they ever hampered the gameplay experience, but they were noticeable here and there. The bigger issue was getting stuck in the level’s geometry on more than one occasion, along with certain objectives not loading through and stopping progression. I spent almost twenty minutes running in circles in a level trying to figure out where to go, before giving up and looking online, only to find that the game just didn’t load the thing I was supposed to interact with. 

These moments are made all the more frustrating by an inconsistent checkpointing system. After having to reload the game, I lost a good chunk of progress due to glitches, making an annoying problem even more frustrating. This happens even without technical issues. For example, I had spent a bunch of time unlocking shortcuts in one level.

I made it decently high up when I fell straight into a hole that linked to the previous part of the level. Jumping back up into the next area, with a loading screen in between, brought me back to the space I was literally just in seconds before, with none of the shortcuts open anymore. 

These moments didn’t happen too frequently, but the few times they did stood out. They weren’t enough to take away from how much fun the entire experience is, but they did make for frustrating moments, redoing things I had just done rather than progressing forward. 

Overall, Big Hops is an enjoyable platformer that nails level design, creativity, and a sense of momentum. Hop is an adorable main character with a wacky cast of characters around him, with each new area bringing something unlike what came before. Even if technical issues hamper the experience, they’re not enough to sour the ride. Big Hops is a fun and great way to start the new year off with a hop, jump, and a ribbit. 

Big Hops is out now on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, PS5, and PC.