Why Big Hops’ Mario-style movement and Zelda-like world design fall just short of greatness

If you've played Super Mario Odyssey, then you'll recall that your first of many transformations is a frog. So it is that 3D platformer Big Hops has you playing as anthropomorphised frog Hop. However, calling it a 3D platformer isn't quite accurate, as there are just as many action-adventure elements, and indie developer Luckshot Games draws as much influence from Nintendo's Zelda series as from Mario. But then neither of these ever had a playable character that gets around and interacts with things with their tongue.

Although you start out extending Hop's tongue to eat food, as you explore his forest home, you quickly discover his appendage can also be used to pick up other nearby objects or reach floating grapple points that you can then swing from, and the possibilities continue growing from there. Given those innate talents, you might see why a trickster spirit called Diss would decide to kidnap the young amphibian, tasking him with a mission of collecting mysterious Dark Drips.

A frog's life

In parallel with this collectathon is something more akin to a classic Zelda adventure, where you're searching for airship parts to repair a supposedly time- and space-travelling airship that will get you home. Naturally, each of these macguffins can be found in three very different locations - Red Desert, Open Ocean, and Shattered Mountain, each with its own species facing its own problems that you and your multi-functional tongue can help resolve.

In contrast to the often abstract and gameplay-first nature of a Nintendo game, a substantial amount of thought has gone into each of these locations, each with its own species and politics. It's perhaps more story than I expected or cared for, rife with themes of family feuds and corporate corruption. But having a large cast of characters to interact with makes each world feel alive, since this isn't a typical platformer or action-adventure where you're routinely bopping enemies.

The story also shows how varied and layered each biome is: you go from the seemingly vast desert to a town with a sinkhole problem, then discover a sewer system below it that you'll have to sneak around in. That said, take your time to explore, and you'll also find secret challenge areas similar to those in a 3D Mario game.

As a 3D platformer, Hop naturally has a very satisfying moveset (his vocalised yips sounding like a mix of both Mario and young Link), as you can combine his jumps with rolls or dives, allowing for inventive ways to gain momentum when traversing, be it for wall-running or even sliding along the ground on your belly. Best of all is when you can also get your tongue involved, like using a catapult to fling yourself in the air. There's even some nice bespoke sections that pay tribute to other classic platformers, from Sonic's rail grinding to Donkey Kong's mine carts.

The freeform moveset can also be a double-edged sword, with physics at times a bit slippery and loose. A simple example is when swinging in the air to cross a chasm, I often found it tricky to course-correct or build momentum, and after a few pitfalls, I sometimes got to where I wanted only with an improvised scramble where I had to free-climb the rest of the way (the Zelda-like stamina wheel when climbing also drains at a stingy rate).

Where's your veg at

Customising your playstyle is inherent in collecting Dark Drips, which also unlock random trinkets that can be equipped to provide different perks, such as ways to earn more gold coins or to highlight certain collectibles on the compass. But one of the coolest things in the game is veggies - no, really. You can eat them to recover hearts, and planting them also provides a unique traversal function, such as mushrooms that bounce you up high, or acorns that grow into tall vines you can climb.

Veggies may grow from a nearby shrub in a specific area where you're encouraged to use them, but you can also keep them in your backpack inventory for when you want to access another area previously out of reach. It's even possible to buy specific veggies or a shrub to plant anywhere you like to tackle an area differently.

Where Big Hops stumbles is that it also suffers from bugs, and I don't just mean the collectible ones. While mostly minor, I found that it sometimes affected progression: it's not clear where I'm supposed to be going when an objective that was displayed suddenly disappears. This is compounded by bare-bones fonts and a UI that could do with a bit of sprucing up or enlarging.

While I had hoped the Switch 1 version would run flawlessly on Switch 2, it's currently experiencing frame drops at certain points. More egregious is when performance issues also cause the game to crash, which happened frequently towards the end. I almost feared I wouldn't be able to finish it. Fingers crossed these issues will have been patched by launch, because even these blemishes shouldn't mark down what's still a very fresh 3D platformer, which succeeds by not being a throwback.