Big Hops

I jumped into Big Hops expecting a cute indie riff on Mario and Zelda—and I left grinning with a sticky tongue full of tricks. Luckshot Games has built a 3D action-adventure that wears its inspirations proudly (Odyssey, BOTW, A Hat in Time) but adds clever systems that let you create your own solutions. Movement is the star here: every roll, wall-run and tongue lash feels meaningful. The world and writing are charming, the cast is goofy in a delightful way, and the veggie toolbox keeps surprises coming.

Sprinting, Sliding and Tongue-Slinging Through Tunnels of Fun

Movement is the heartbeat of Big Hops. From the first minute I felt the game rewarding momentum: rolls flow into dives, dives into wall-runs, and wall-runs into mad tongue-swinging at ridiculous speeds. Hops controls with a responsiveness that made me attempt silly routes just to see if the engine would let me stick the landing. Typical player actions are traversal, scouting for Veggies, using the tongue to grab or hook, and chaining gadgets or backpack items to build temporary solutions. Levels are a mix of open sandbox hubs and tighter challenge rooms, which means sometimes you’re cruising for collectibles and other times you’re precision-platforming under pressure. The variety of movement—grinding rails, riding minecarts, tightropes, pole swings—keeps things fresh and often hilarious when you fail and faceplant in a puddle.

The Weird, Wonderful Power of Veggies

Where Big Hops gets creative is the Veggie system. Mushrooms become bounce pads, acorns sprout climbable vines, balloons form temporary platforms, and apples set hook-swing anchors wherever you toss them. Because you can carry only so much, the Backpack becomes a small inventory puzzle of its own: which items do you hold onto, which do you throw down to improvise, and what do you save for a later headache? The game encourages emergent solutions—often the “wrong” way is the most fun. I loved inventing shortcuts by stacking balloons or using oil balls to keep speed while hitting hook points. Veggies respawn and you unlock more types and more backpack slots as you progress, so experimentation is rewarded instead of punished.

A Stage for Characters, Sound and Occasional Bugs

Visually Big Hops leans into a cheerful, slightly cartoony palette and strong character designs (credit to Steven Sugar). The soundtrack is jaunty and the sound design makes every tongue-lash feel sculpted. NPCs are full of personality and the dialog landed more laughs than I expected. On the flip side, the game isn’t flawless: users report soft-locks, clipping, and some finicky button mappings—things I ran into rarely but enough to mention. Performance is generally solid, and many players praise Steam Deck support. Accessibility is decent (voice acting can be toggled), but keyboard menus and some UI flows could use polish. Still, the overall presentation is warm and inviting; it feels like a modern love-letter to classic 3D platformers with a fresh stew of systems.

Big Hops is a joyous, sometimes messy modern platformer: brilliant movement and a genuinely inventive veggie system make it a must-try for fans of the genre. Bugs and UI rough edges hold it back from perfection, but the core play is so fun I kept coming back. Buy it if you love experimentation, momentum-based traversal, and a lot of charm—skip or wait if you need a completely polished, bug-free experience right now.