Big Hops Review: A Ribbiting Platformer Gem

Introduction

I was not expecting a game about a frog named Hop to be the thing that got me through January, but here we are. Big Hops dropped in the deadest part of the release calendar and immediately announced itself as 2026's first must-play. Developed by Luckshot Games, this physics-driven 3D platformer nails the thing that matters most in the genre: moving through its world feels fantastic. Within the first hour, I was tongue-swinging between floating platforms, wall-running across canyons, and dive-bombing into hidden caves with the kind of grin that only the best platformers produce. It is not perfect, but the highs here are high enough to forgive the stumbles.

Gameplay & Mechanics

Big Hops gives you a frog with the moveset of a parkour athlete. Hop can run, jump, dive for extra distance, swing between anchor points with his tongue, and wall-run across vertical surfaces. Every movement chains together fluidly, and the game constantly rewards you for experimenting with momentum. Nail a tongue-swing into a wall-run into a dive, and you will cover distances the designers probably did not intend. That is a feature, not a bug. The game wants you to break its spaces.

The real genius is the veggie item system. Scattered throughout each biome are throwable items that transform the environment. Acorns grow instant vines you can climb. Chili peppers start fires that burn obstacles and create updrafts. Mushrooms become bounce pads. Oil balls create grapple points for your tongue. The backpack system lets you carry multiple items simultaneously, which means every puzzle has at least two or three viable solutions. I regularly found myself solving challenges in ways that felt unintended but deeply satisfying, like using a mushroom bounce to skip an entire climbing section, or stacking acorn vines to create a makeshift ladder up a cliff face the game clearly wanted me to wall-run.

The level structure takes clear inspiration from Super Mario Odyssey. Each biome functions as a mini-hub world with a central objective, but the real content is hidden in corners. Challenge levels tucked behind destructible walls, dark bits (the game's primary collectible) stashed in places that require creative item usage, and NPC sidequests with self-contained story arcs that reward exploration. The desert, mountain, and ocean biomes each have distinct gameplay hooks, though the later worlds feel slightly less polished than the opening areas.

Where Big Hops stumbles is in its physics. The momentum system that makes movement so satisfying can also produce unpredictable results during grapple sequences. I lost count of how many times a tongue-swing sent me careening in an unexpected direction because the physics decided my momentum should suddenly spike. The Goo Ball item in particular handles inconsistently, sometimes sticking where you want it and sometimes bouncing off surfaces at bizarre angles. These moments are frustrating but infrequent enough to not derail the experience.

Graphics & Performance

Big Hops is a beautifully crafted game with a vibrant, saturated art style that pops on every platform. Character designs are immediately appealing, with Hop himself being one of the most expressive protagonists in recent memory. His idle animations alone, from stretching his legs to catching flies with his tongue, show the care Luckshot put into their leading amphibian. Each biome has its own distinct color palette and environmental storytelling, from the sun-baked oranges of the desert to the deep blues of the ocean floors.

Performance is the one area where Big Hops launched rough. Stuttering during transitions between areas, occasional floor-clipping that dropped me through geometry, and a couple of hard crashes on PC marked my first week. Patches have addressed most of these issues, but the game still hiccups during particularly busy sequences with lots of physics objects on screen. On Switch 2, the performance holds at a mostly stable 30fps but struggles in the densest areas. PS5 targets 60fps and largely hits it post-patch.

Story & Narrative

The story is simple and effective. Hop gets kidnapped by a mysterious entity named Diss and transported to an alternate dimension. A friendly raccoon offers to build an airship to get Hop home, but only if Hop retrieves parts scattered across the different biomes. It is a collect-a-thon framework that exists to justify the exploration, and it does its job without overstaying its welcome.

What elevates the narrative are the characters. Every significant NPC is fully voiced by SAG talent, and the performances are excellent. Each biome has its own cast of characters with distinct personalities and self-contained arcs. A desert prospector dealing with a water shortage, a mountain climber afraid of heights, an ocean researcher studying bioluminescent creatures. These mini-stories give each world emotional texture that a platformer this colorful rarely achieves. Hop himself does not speak, but his expressive animations convey enough personality to carry every interaction.

Audio & Soundtrack

The soundtrack is a highlight, mixing upbeat orchestral tracks with genre-appropriate flourishes for each biome. Desert levels get twangy guitars, ocean areas lean into ambient synths, and mountain stages bring in soaring strings. Collectible boombox tracks scattered through the game let you swap the background music on the fly, which is a small touch that adds surprising replay value to exploration. Sound design for Hop's movement is satisfying across the board, from the wet splat of landing on lily pads to the rubbery snap of tongue-swings connecting. Voice acting quality is consistent and charming throughout.

Value & Replayability

A focused playthrough runs 10 to 12 hours, which feels generous for a platformer at this price point. Hunting down every dark bit, completing all NPC sidequests, and finding hidden challenge levels can push that to 15-plus hours for completionists. The challenge levels in particular are excellent, offering difficulty spikes that test your mastery of the veggie system and movement mechanics in ways the main path never demands. There is no multiplayer or online component, but the single-player package feels complete and substantial compared to something like Astro Bot, which offered similar quality at a shorter length.

Final Verdict

Big Hops is the kind of platformer that reminds you why the genre still works. Luckshot Games nailed the fundamentals: moving feels great, the worlds are worth exploring, and the item system adds a creative layer that most platformers lack. The physics jank and launch-window bugs are real blemishes, but they do not come close to overshadowing the sheer joy of tongue-swinging through a beautifully crafted world as an extremely charming frog. This is the first great game of 2026, and it deserves the attention. Buy if you love 3D platformers and want something with Mario Odyssey's exploration spirit in a fresh package. Skip if unpredictable physics frustrate you or you strictly prefer linear platformers.

Who Should Play Big Hops Review

Big Hops Review is a solid recommendation for enthusiasts for players of all skill levels who enjoy precise movement and rewarding level design. If frog parkour moveset with tongue-swinging, wall-running, and diving feels outstanding appeals to you, this title will likely deliver exactly what you are looking for across PC, PS5, SWITCH 2.

Players new to the platformer, indie genre will find Luckshot Games's design approachable enough to serve as an entry point, while veterans will appreciate the depth hidden beneath the surface. The game rewards patience and exploration in equal measure, making it a strong fit for those willing to invest time in understanding its systems.

On the other hand, if physics can be unpredictable during grapple sequences causing cheap deaths is a dealbreaker for your play style, temper your expectations accordingly. Casual players looking for a low-commitment experience may find certain sections demanding, though the overall experience justifies the effort. For those on the fence, a trial run or watching early hours of gameplay footage is recommended before committing to the full purchase price.

Technical Performance

The PC version offers the highest ceiling for image quality, with support for DLSS and FSR scaling technologies. Load times are generally stable, and the overall experience is framed by mostly stable performance with occasional dips. Luckshot has clearly invested in optimizing for available hardware, with occasional minor hiccups that rarely disrupt the experience.

Frame pacing holds up well during standard gameplay sequences. More intensive set-pieces – large-scale combat encounters, densely populated environments – occasionally stress the engine, but these moments are brief and do not undermine the broader experience. Players on PC, PS5, SWITCH 2 can expect a polished, well-tested build at launch.

Bug density is low for a release of this scope. The most commonly reported issues at launch involve minor visual glitches and edge-case collision errors that Luckshot is likely to address in post-launch patches. Overall, the technical state reflects a developer that has spent proper time in QA, and the performance score of 7/10 reflects an honest assessment of what players will encounter on day one.