As much as the range of what games now look like and play like grows wildly year after year, there are a few genres that, to me, mark steps in the medium’s history that will always remain at the core of what enamoured entire generations of gamers at once. As an elementary school-aged kid, that meant the jump into 3D graphics and how adding another dimension dramatically shook up leaping from stage to stage in platformers.
Most recently, AAA games returned to the classic 3D platformer genre with AstroBot, a game laden with nostalgia that hosted an awe-inspiring familiarity coupled with cutting-edge smoothness in its gameplay. It was a tremendous history book, looking backward and inward at what has made gaming as a medium so enjoyable.
Big Hops looks forward and outward.
While it likely will not get the same number of minutes in playtime as AstroBot, Big Hops represents some of the absolute best that indie developers have designed in the genre. Big Hops isn’t a saviour to come and rescue 3D platforming, but rather a testament to what the independent scene has been brewing for quite some time now.
Games like Yooka-Laylee and A Hat in Time were both released in 2017, and the excellent track record that developer Fabraz has with Demon Turf and the upcoming Demon Tides marks a nearly ten-year span of indies that cut their teeth in 3D platforming. But as I made my way through Big Hops’ three worlds, I better recognised and was grateful for the heart and soul of what the genre has become.
The game starts humbly, as you’d expect with its cutesy demeanour. You, Hop, are out having a picnic with your sister. As you venture further into the woods, the narrative begins innocently enough, with some formless voice calling out to you, inviting you to adventure. Set in the well-trod scene of a charming forest, Big Hops seems like it’ll be your basic collectathon. However, once you find the end of the trail calling you to start a new journey, that is when Big Hops reveals it is more than it seems.
You meet Diss, the appropriately named manipulative quest-giver who tricks you into travelling through a portal to a void tunnel with shards of purple landscape scattered about. Drawing from the gravity-bending puzzling from Super Mario Galaxy, Big Hops presents a homage to platforming history while giving a proper introduction to its own story and personality.
The game is divided into three main sections. Each hub is a linear chain of bubble-shaped levels. You can spend plenty of time in each little bubble, nabbing dark drips, your currency for passive abilities, coins to buy outfits, and discovering bug species. Your standard collection lists are very much alive here, although I found finding insects, identifying them, and then eating them to regain health the most fun. Dark drips provided the most utility. With them, you can find Diss in a level and exchange for trinkets to personalise your backpack and play style with an extra heart of health, an odometer, or other fun adjustments.
Each little part of Big Hops contributes to a narrative that defines each world. The pull gets stronger in how it uses Hops’ outsider perspective to shed light on political differences between different groups in each realm. Things are light-hearted but not shallow. Rather, the bright-coloured veneer helps make the problems at hand digestible. Big Hops features small-town struggles, often with an environmental flavour that you work through with a vibrant cast of voice-acted NPCs.
What surprised me is just how much potential influence you have as a player. I couldn’t tell you for certain, because I only managed one playthrough in my 10 or so hours, but several times I strayed from a main quest only for it to change my trajectory, with old objectives traded out for new ones. After launch, I plan on exploring more thoroughly to see what surprises I missed the first time around. If gamers are looking to soak in a world, there’s the chance to do that here, but you’ll have to do it then and there, since there isn’t much in the way of backtracking. Thankfully, you’re warned when the story and game will progress.
Big Hops’ malleability had me question where I would look for the route forward. Level design compensated for this directive wonderfully. Hubs functioned like little sandbox rooms where there was no single way forward. Instead, you’d discover various contraptions or fruits that provide a specific mechanic for an area. For example, early on you can pluck something that looks like breadfruit and chuck it at any wall. Once stuck, it’ll project a rope directly backward from where it landed, springing a tightrope across the way.
That’s just one of many. You’ll discover well over a dozen different fruits like this with a healthy variety of mechanics. Big Hops hits the gas and never relents. You’ll utilise your basic movements and amplify their reach and momentum for each level’s own, bespoke obstacle course.
From the get-go, the rolls, leaps, bounds, and dives are performed precisely. The controls are intuitive and seamless. At first, you will rely on your tongue for platforming, but soon into the game, Big Hops varies its gameplay with engaging mini-games. My favourite was the lock picking. Learning from a lovable Zorro-like character in the first area, Hop can insert his tongue into a lock to crack it and open doors. It’s a mini-game that works like the classic game Snake, but with the addition of having to bypass certain areas inside the lock in the right order before unlocking it.
The variety on display is staggering. For some players, it may seem like too much was crammed into Big Hops. For me, the game’s pacing steadily moves you forward, and the linear structure was a boon to my enthusiasm. The game is anything but slow, and I am looking forward to what the speedrunning community will do with this game.
Big Hops illustrates a few details that highlight what the indie scene has added to the 3D platformer. With heart that shows itself in expanded characters and plot events, it’s easier to see 3D platformers beyond their mascots and their worlds as playgrounds with all-too-familiar slides and swings. The game plays out as a fable, in which decision-making and slick movement rather than combat evoke more meaningful engagement with the story. The openness of each level widens with the clever design in which the puzzles that the player solves through movement rely more on guided intuition, and it becomes obvious where inspiration from games like Breath of the Wild boosts player agency in its levels.
While the initial look will remind players of games of the past, the witty writing, grounded plot development, and slick movement point to a refined future. Big Hops leads this forward moment with a giant leap toward more expansive and expressive 3D platformers.
