A 3D collect-a-thon platformer about a frog?? I was sold on that alone. Big Hops is one of the best 3D platformers that’s been released in recent years, offering a colourful, lengthy adventure that ticks off most of the boxes that I require of the genre (which is one of my favourites.) It has a few quirks that I’m not crazy about, and I really don’t like how the collect-a-thon aspects aren’t actually tied to progression, but the movement and level design in this game are terrific across the board, making for a title that is well worth it for any genre fans.
Unlike pretty much every similar game that I can think of, the story in Big Hops is fully voiced. Hop is a frog that lives in the forest with his mother and younger sister (his father must have croaked or something.) When the game begins, he’s whisked away on an adventure by a weird, demon-like being called Diss, who makes a deal with him: collect purple balls of goo called Dark Drips, and he’ll let Hop go home. The dialogue is quite good, to be certain, but the voice acting doesn’t mesh incredibly well. It’s of high quality, but the voice actors all mostly just use their normal voices instead of doing cartoonier ones, which is odd to me, considering the animal people they’re voicing.
Big Hops is set across five biomes. The first of these is mostly just a tutorial area, but there are three main ones, and also some levels set in the Void. All of them have Dark Drips to collect, as well as smaller versions that can be combined to form a Dark Drip (which is how you’ll get the majority of them,) along with ones you’ll find in 18 challenge levels scattered across the game’s world. It’s fun to collect this stuff, but the vast majority of them are purely optional. The game’s story proceeds normally regardless of how many you’ve collected, which can make collecting them feel less engaging.
Completionists will be more interested in grabbing them all, but Big Hops weirdly doesn’t want to incentivise this, as there’s nothing in the game currently that shows you your totals. Each section has a set number of big and small Drips to find, but you have to actually be in that section and have a specific trinket (which are unlocked by getting a new Dark Drip from collecting the smaller ones) equipped to see them. The biomes are mostly divided into a bunch of smaller sections, so completionists are going to really have their work cut out for them. These issues don’t massively diminish the game’s appeal, but they’re odd considering that similar games had already solved them decades ago.
The #1 thing Big Hops absolutely nails, though, is the movement. Hop has almost all of his abilities from the very start (save for the ability to dive while swimming, despite literally being a frog,) and his moveset is mostly pretty simple. He can jump (plus high jumps and long jumps,) he can climb briefly, he can latch onto certain things with his tongue, he can throw things, he can roll, and he can dive. Instead of running with the press of a button, you’re meant to traverse by rolling, doing a long jump out of the roll, and then diving into another roll before repeating this. Upon getting your momentum up enough, Hop will run for a couple of seconds, but chaining rolls, dives, and jumps is how you’re meant to be moving.
Simply put, this feels fantastic. The controls are highly responsive, Hop’s movement is tight and feels accurate, and it’s easy to gauge how he’ll move and where. The movement is simply a joy, although I do wish there was a way to upgrade Hop’s climbing stamina beyond just temporarily increasing it by eating bugs or drinking a stamina potion. There’s a reason for this, however. In lieu of consistently gaining new abilities, you’ll find new crops growing on trees as you play, all of which have unique properties. For instance, mushrooms turn into bouncy pads, apples can be climbed on, plus many, many more.
Most items can be stored in Hop’s backpack, so you can save up or purchase crops to use them when you want. Big Hops doesn’t make this mandatory much, but the option is there for anyone who wants to make use of it. You can even skip some progression aspects here and there if you bring enough with you. The main way you’ll increase Hop’s effectiveness is by equipping trinkets, though. You can have up to eight slots, and trinkets have a lot of positives, including letting you know how many Dark Drips are in the area, putting them on your compass, and increasing how much stamina climbing uses up.
You’ll also find coins scattered around, which can be used to buy new outfits and occasional upgrades, such as extra hearts or more backpack slots. These coins are also what you’ll use to buy more crops from certain machines. There aren’t many outfits to buy, and the wardrobes necessary to change them are few and far between, so I often felt like I had too much money and nothing to spend it on. Due to all of this, much of the non-movement or trinket-related aspects of Big Hops don’t feel as fleshed out as they could. But at least the core of the experience is so rock solid.
Despite being a 3D platformer, it’s better to think of Big Hops as more of a parkour game. Environments here are more believable and don’t really deal with floating platforms or incredibly videogamey liminal spaces (outside of the Void, at least.) One of the exceptions to this rule is objects you’ll find floating in mid-air that Hop is meant to swing from. These represent the worst part of the gameplay. Hop needs to have high momentum and solid timing to use these properly. On most of the occasions that I fell, it was simply due to slightly mistiming something, as these are far too picky for me. I also found the game’s very first challenge level to be the toughest simply because of these.
You’ll also find objects that launch Hop forward, akin to the barrels in Donkey Kong games. The areas can often have little quests too, which are fun and detailed. There are occasional minigames as well, such as a really enjoyable lockpicking minigame where Hop uses his tongue to bypass locks, or a more tedious one later in the game that sees you tag spots with graffiti. There’s a good amount of variety here in terms of gameplay and level design that really shines. It’s worth mentioning that there really aren’t any enemies or combat outside of two boss battles (unless you count the wasps, which are the only insects that I recall attacking you.) I really liked that there was no combat shoehorned in to dilute the experience.
Weirdly, Big Hops ends with you returning to a few areas to grab another collectible while black orbs are fired at you. I thought it was strange that it did this and didn’t have a third boss battle, but I did find it preferable, especially considering a very fun new gameplay mechanic was added too. I found and completed 15 of the 18 challenge levels and acquired 84 of the Dark Drips (I’m assuming there are 99 based on a fountain in the Void) across my 15-ish hours with the game, a great length for a game like this. You can also return to most areas upon beating the game (although I’m not positive on all of the Void areas, so don’t quote me!!)
I wish it were easier to track down what you’re missing, and I also wish that there was an actual reason to collect a certain number of Dark Drips, as the lack of this does significant amounts of damage to the collect-a-thon experience. Plus, there’s this overpowering vignette effect in the Void that makes it harder than it needs to be to see. But the game is so fun and filled with so much excellent design that it doesn’t change the fact that it’s one of the best 3D platformers around, with lots to see and do.
Big Hops: Big Hops has movement and level design that rivals the greats, even if the collect-a-thon aspects are somewhat lacking. – Andrew Farrell
Consider checking out our previous review:
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