Game Review: Big Adventure Awaits You in ‘Big Hops’
I’ve always been a fan of new and creative ways that developers come up with when presenting 3D platformers. I sometimes worry that when starting a new platforming game, I’ll come across something either too difficult or too long, and thankfully Big Hops fits somewhere in the middle.
Big Hops is a new action platformer developed and published by Luckshot Games. I had the pleasure of discovering this game through its Kickstarter campaign back in June 2025, and I can say that I am glad to have been a backer on the crowdfunding project.
In Big Hops, you’ll be taking on the role of our little froggy hero named Hop as he makes his way through five different regions. Three of the regions will take Hop through meeting many colorful animal characters, collecting bugs, and solving puzzles along the way.
While I did play Big Hops on Steam, the game is also available for Nintendo Switch and Playstation 5. On this journey, you’ll not only be hopping around, but you’ll have to use your entire moveset to get everywhere you need to go. This includes gaining momentum on both land and air, using parkour moves to run across walls, jumping, and flipping everywhere in between.
There is so much that this game has to offer, and while this review will cover nearly everything I experienced, I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum.
Adventure is out there in Big Hops
When the game starts, you’ll find Hop playing in the forest region, and before you know it, he gets separated from his sister as they try to make their way home. After you’re done with the forest, you’ll be whisked away to a mysterious purple world known as The Void.
Unfortunately for Hop, when you arrive in The Void, you’ll be introduced to a guide with ulterior motives named Diss. Diss may seem one-dimensional at first, but as you dive further into the story, more of his character is revealed to Hop as to what his true intentions are. After your first visit to The Void, you’ll wake up in the vast region called the Red Desert.
As you traverse the Red Desert, you’ll notice a theme with these massive regions with few limits as to where you can and cannot explore. When you first enter the Red Desert, you must make your way to a workshop where you’ll meet a friendly raccoon named Copper. Copper will give you your main quest of the game: locate and collect three important parts to restore an airship.
Hop really believes that fixing the airship will result in getting back home and seeing his family once again. After that, Diss will show his face again and instruct Hop to find collectables known as Dark Drips. Most of the Dark Drips you acquire will be done by locating little purple collectables known as Dark Bits.
As you explore the Red Desert, Hop meets new friends and enemies, all of them fully voice-acted, where you’ll need to resolve the issue of a giant sinkhole in the middle of the town known as Duster Bluffs. The issue with the sinkhole is the main quest in this region, and as you explore and talk to all the citizens of this town, you’ll slowly expose a conspiracy by the local ruffians.
At the end of revealing the truth against the town, you’ll have a boss battle and retrieve the coveted airship part. This pattern of events will repeat in the two remaining regions of the Open Ocean and Shattered Mountain, always with a problem and fixing the local conflicts. Of course, while you do these main objectives, you’ll stumble across various side quests given to you by more quirky individuals and usually get rewarded with a Dark Drip.
Keeping up the gameplay momentum
Big Hops has a fantastic system when it comes to movement. Traversal in this game is extremely satisfying where you get to use your tongue for grappling that allows you to travel high off the ground, usually across dangerous holes and deadly traps.
You’ll start off with a very basic moveset. As you explore the different sections of the world, you will be given upgrades, unlocks, and other tools that will help you reach all sorts of places, high and low.
For example, there are large sections of the game that will require aerial traversal, and usually you’ll see floating plants that will give Hop something to grab onto with his tongue and fling to another plant. There are also cannons that can shoot you from points A to B, very similar to how the ones would work in the Donkey Kong Country games. You’ll be able to do a combination move of rolling and jumping that allows you to go up to high speeds the more you do this, and I am excited to see speedrunners utilizing this technique.
One of my favorite things in Big Hops are the various veggies you’ll be able to pick up and use to give you an advantage in climbing, moving across gaps on the ground, and using to solve many of the platforming puzzles. Some of the plants include acorns to grow vines, bubble fruit that can help you breathe underwater, chilies to set some obstacles on fire, and so much more.
Once you unlock a veggie, there are vending machines that you can use that will let you buy any veggie you have already discovered. Buying a vegetable means you can use them to essentially make some of the challenges easier, and I found the option to use vegetables almost anywhere you want to be innovative and fun.
Another great thing about the game is that there is a lot of customization that can be done through the various trinkets you can unlock. The trinkets allow you to put up to eight of them on your backpack that can do things like radars to find Dark Drips, flowers, cassette tapes, and even ones that can help you earn more money.
There are so many different trinkets that can be unlocked by collecting enough Dark Bits to make Dark Drips, in which you’ll need to head over to a location where Diss is and pick one of the two options he gives you. Don’t worry though; you will be able to get every trinket and upgrade if you’re really determined to find as many Dark Bits as possible.
Style and game design
Big Hops is a gorgeous game. I played through every level and area, and I could tell that the artists put a lot of effort and passion into how the world is designed. I also appreciate the care that was put into the puzzle design because, while some puzzles make you think, there were no obtuse solutions on how to solve them, even if they feel daunting at first.
The character designs in Big Hops have a storybook feel to them, and these fun designs were creatively designed by Steven Sugar, who previously worked on animated shows such as Steven Universe and The Owl House. Sugar’s designs stand out to me because they’re full of charm and wonder.
Each character I spoke to had their own design quirks. Speaking to the characters is a delight, as everyone is fully voiced and they feel intentionally unique in personality and presence. I truly appreciate the dedication that was put into how alive the entire world feels, so much that I probably spent over 90 minutes of my playtime exploring everything that this game has to offer.
I really like the various shops that you can encounter in Big Hops. There are some shops that allow you to buy various upgrades that can increase your maximum hearts and even hold my money in your wallet. If you want to change the way you look, there are also shops to change your style, allowing you to buy different clothing for Hop. Plus, they have cute hats to put on his little head.
Final thoughts on Big Hops from Luckshot Games
Big Hops is an exceptionally fun game, and it’s accessible for fans of all ages, even if you’ve never played a game like this before. Every time I reached the end of a particular chapter, I didn’t want to leave that region because of how much fun I just had.
Don’t get me wrong, the game isn’t perfect. I did run into a handful of glitches and bugs that forced me to close the game, preventing me from being able to save and quit properly. Thankfully, this game does have a generous auto-save system. Even when my game ran into a bug that prevented me from exiting the game normally, I was able to recover almost immediately.
There is so much more I want to talk about; for example, there are challenge rooms that will test your skills to reach the goal and being rewarded with an elusive Dark Drip. I also loved collecting all the various bugs scattered in each region because Hop will elaborate on the new discoveries, and the more bugs you collect, the better rewards you will have access to at the bug collector’s shop.
My rating for this game is: 4/5
All in all, I loved my time with Big Hops because it took me to a world full of wonder and adventure. Aside from some of the bugs (ha!) that I ran into, the experience is something I will cherish forever.
The game is available on PC through Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4 . I recommend Big Hops because it is more than worth the asking price. I spent over 13 hours playing this game and I still didn’t get every Dark Bit, Dark Drip, cassette and vegetable. I’ll probably hammer at this game a little bit more and try to get every achievement if possible.
Thank you to Luckshot Games for making a memorable adventure game. I’m going to recommend this game to anyone who has even a slight interest in this genre of games and hopefully they end up loving it as much as I do.
Also check out Game Review: Hopping Through the Frontier with Kero Kero Cowboy
