One of the crucial vital facets for a 3D platformer to nail is ensuring it feels superb. Operating round, leaping, climbing, diving, all of it ought to be a pleasure. It is best to be capable of run and leap in a principally empty room with no textures or music and nonetheless have a superb time. And Large Hops, out now on PS5, PC, and Swap, is a brand new 3D indie platformer that succeeds completely at offering a platformer that’s unimaginable to play whereas additionally providing up loads of methods to experiment and discover.
In Large Hops, you play because the younger, treasured, and really agile Hop, a speaking frog with goals of leaving his forest to see extra of the world. Whereas out along with his youthful sister on a hike via the woods, which serves as the sport’s brief and not-annoying tutorial, Hop is summoned by a mysterious voice into an odd dimension. From there, he goes on an epic journey throughout three totally different worlds to search out the items wanted to get again residence. The eight hours that adopted had been among the greatest 3D platforming I’ve performed in a protracted, very long time.
Tongue Tied
Like most important characters from platforming video games, Hop can, nicely…hop, roll, dive, climb, and ultimately swim. However Hop has one thing particular that Mario, Ratchet, and beloved icon Bubsy lack: A useful, dandy, and really lengthy tongue. And it’s Hop’s tongue that elevates Large Hops from an important platformer to an all-time basic.
Along with his trusty tongue, Hop can grapple and swing to new areas like Spider-Man. He may also use his tongue to open chests, flip levers, accumulate objects, and even unlock doorways through one of many strangest lock-picking mini-games I’ve ever seen. The tongue in Large Hops is carried out so nicely that utilizing it simply grew to become second nature to me, as pure as leaping or operating in another sport.
That’s to not say the tongue in Large Hops isn’t very cool and superior, as a result of it’s, and the builders designed quite a lot of intelligent puzzles and platforming segments that benefit from it. However it by no means feels like a foolish slapped-on gimmick or a nugatory skill that it’s a must to be reminded of through fixed display screen prompts.
And but, as cool a characteristic as it’s, the devs don’t rely solely on Hop’s tongue so as to add selection to every of the large semi-open worlds you discover over the course of Large Hops’ runtime.
Experimenting With Freaky Fruits
As you meet the locals in these locations, which embody pirate otters and punk rock bats, you’ll discover numerous fruits which have all kinds of results. One fruit, for instance, when thrown in opposition to a wall, generates a rope bridge. One other fruit units issues on hearth.
My favourite particular fruit is a inexperienced apple that sticks to almost any floor and can be utilized to create everlasting grapple factors. All of those fruits supply quite a lot of creativity and let me pull off maneuvers that felt like dishonest. Wildly, Large Hops permits you to maintain a number of of those fruits in your expandable backpack, that means you may take them to areas the place perhaps the developer didn’t plan on you having a fireplace fruit or trampoline fruit. It feels dangerous as heck to supply the participant a lot freedom, but I’m not complaining.
Mixed, the fruits and tongue let me pull off some wild shit on this colourful 3D platformer. I used to be capable of skip some sections of a stage right here or keep away from a puzzle there utilizing a mix of Large Hops’ tongue swinging and fruit storing. And it’s this deal with rewarding and inspiring experimentation and exploration that basically stood out to me. There have been numerous instances in my journey to get Hop again residence after I used my tongue and a fruit to get someplace that I believed was out of bounds, however hiding up in a nook had been a number of cash or different small collectibles, a little bit hat tip from the makers of the sport for making an attempt one thing bizarre and pulling it off.
Again-of-the-box quote:
“Hop does what Mario gained’t: Licking every part helpful he sees.”
Developer
Luckshot Video games
Sort of sport:
Third-person 3D platformer
Appreciated:
Fantastic visuals, superior controls, distinctive tongue options, music
Disliked:
Some efficiency points, a number of glitches
Platforms:
Swap, Swap 2, PC, PS5 (Performed on PS5 Professional)
Performed:
Accomplished the principle story and a few facet content material in about 8 hours
Launch Date
January 12, 2026
Exploring and poking round ranges is a pleasure in Large Hops, not solely as a result of the devs clearly need you to do this, however as a result of every space and stage is beautiful, that includes cel-shaded-like visuals and crisp colours. On PS5, the sport appears to be like beautiful and runs at a principally locked 60FPS that helps the platforming really feel snappy, quick, and fluid.
The creepy, purple-tinted Void sections of the sport are a standout, that includes fashionable environments that twist and fold round in not possible methods. Oh, and the music is fantastic, too, evoking the identical vibes as you’d anticipate from a basic platformer from the PS1 or N64 period.
No Combating, Simply Leaping
In the event you’re questioning what fight looks like or what sort of enemies Hop has to cope with, nicely, there’s none of that in Large Hops. Technically, there are a number of bugs that may chase Hop (and lots of extra that he can eat for a stamina increase) in addition to a handful of pretty simple boss fights. However exterior of that, 90 % of Large Hops is combat-free and centered completely on platforming, exploring, and puzzle-solving.
Don’t anticipate a calming or fully cozy journey, although, as Large Hops has some tense and fast-paced platforming challenges, particularly within the second half of the sport. You simply gained’t must squash 300 random enemies alongside the best way.
Large Hops is strictly what I need out of a contemporary 3D platformer. It takes benefit of what fashionable video games can do, with large ranges, detailed graphics, and many well-performed voice appearing, whereas additionally remembering that the principle cause folks play these sorts of video games is to have enjoyable hopping between platforms and obstacles, to really feel the satisfaction of getting higher with every stage and conquering new, trickier leaping challenges.
Large Hops delivers that have and extra through a visually assorted journey that rewards you for poking on the edges of every stage whereas utilizing the sport’s good tongue mechanic to search out other ways to succeed. Nintendo designers ought to play Large Hops and study some precious classes from this very particular sport.
