Big Hops was provided by Luckshot Games for review. Thank you!
I am not usually a big fan of platformer games, largely because of my considerable lack of skill with them. 3D platformers have a habit of making me plunge to my death, or at least the furry avatar that represents me in the game I’m playing. It is certainly a skill issue on my part! However, it has been a while since I played a platformer with as much heart as Big Hops. The last one I played I was a huge fan of was A Hat in Time, so it took just over eight years to bring me another game in the genre worth playing. It was a long time coming, and although Big Hops has a couple of small issues, it's a great start to the year for video games.
Big Hops makes a big leap forward from the get-go, and the game is easy on the eyes and fairly simple to understand. A family of cute frogs is doing typical family business when the siblings get lost. While the little sister manages okay, you (Hops) end up on a grand adventure across the world. Narratives in platformers are rarely a standout in gaming, but while it isn’t winning any Oscars for story, I liked the characters enough to stay engaged, and the dialogue and voice acting were both charming and entertaining.
Then, things take a drastic turn into the supernatural, completely taking me off guard. Hops gets sucked into a portal by a weird spirit thing called Diss that traps him until we help him acquire these ‘Dark Balls’. It completely drew me in, and the world really opened up as we helped gather supplies for an eccentric mechanic to build an airship to get home while navigating this strange new world.
The classic platforming mechanics are all here, although Big Hops has some unique mechanics, given that the main character is a frog. You navigate all sorts of puzzles and treacherous drops by using your long tongue, and the creativity this game shows with this single mechanic is impressive. You use the tongue to grab onto objects, collect critters for the completionist records, and eat things to gain health back. I must give developer Luckshot Games a bunch of credit for how realistic everything feels, and I was pretty immersed in the world.
Big Hops rewards exploration above everything else, and the gameplay leans heavily on that. That isn’t to say the game is easy, and some puzzles will frustrate players who don’t play these games often. Despite copious swearing on my part while trying to complete some challenges, the game does not punish mistakes much. Failing a jump and falling into oblivion only takes a sliver of health, and getting health back is easy with so many consumables around the world.
Growing mushrooms and trees to navigate platforming can also be eaten to get health back, and those respawn infinitely from what I’ve tested. This might sound like the game is deliberately making things easy, but the varied puzzles make a perfect balance. I occasionally got frustrated with puzzles, but the game gives you all the tools you need. As you progress through the game, you get access to shops that offer items to improve the incredibly low stamina bar and backpack space, as well as choose perks to add to your repertoire.
The best way I can describe the game’s presentation is that I treated it like an interactive cartoon. The graphics look great, with colorful biomes, and the music has a peppy theme that makes playing the game a joy.
I haven’t come across many bugs (the annoying video game kind, not the little ones you find in the world) apart from Hop occasionally getting caught up on a rock and the camera zooming up his bottom, but Big Hops has one major annoyance for me, and that’s the save system. The game relies on an autosave that doesn’t tell the player anything. There are obvious breather sections that look like checkpoints in other games, but I wish the game had a more reliable way to save. While I would prefer a manual saving system, I know platformers don’t usually use those.
Overall, however, Big Hops carries a lot of weight on its little green shoulders. The developer's clear joy in the game is evident, and the mechanics and exploration are very attractive to platformer fans.
Big Hops has received a Verified Badge by Valve just before the launch, which is good. Hopeful fans can hop to it, because Big Hops has been a great experience on the Steam Deck overall.
There aren’t many options we can play with in the game, unfortunately. With no adjustable controls or graphic options beyond screen resolution, this is one of those games where it is one size fits all for gameplay. Fortunately, Big Hops comes with full controller support, and the game runs great overall.
With our options limited, there is only one preset we can really use. With a native resolution, 60hz refresh rate, and default TDP, Big Hops holds a steady 60FPS even in the open areas. The controls are fluid despite there being no way to adjust them. I won’t be surprised to see Big Hops get the Verified badge on the Steam Deck.
With the full TDP running, I found Big Hops draws quite a lot of power. You will see an average power draw of around 13 watts, with spikes up to 16 watts during scenes with heavy on-screen action. This got me a little under 4 hours of battery life on the Steam Deck OLED. I tried tinkering with the TDP to improve battery life, and a 5-watt TDP kept the framerate around 30 FPS with a 9-watt average power draw. While this was an improvement, I recommend keeping things at their defaults for the smoothest gameplay. As Big Hops is a platformer, you need all the reaction time you can get.
Big Hops is available in English, Spanish (Spain), Russian, Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese, although only English has full audio.
This is a strange case where Big Hops has some good accessibility settings but is woefully lacking in others. Font scaling, Vsync, and controller sensitivity are nice to have, especially with the former on a smaller screen like the Steam Deck. However, there are no colorblind options, no way to change keybinds or button prompts, and no graphical settings that can be adjusted right now.
Big Hops did something interesting today: it charmed a player who is terrible at platformers into liking it. The gameplay offers plenty of variety with its different mechanics, and I’ve found the story and characters charming. It isn’t perfect, of course, with some irritating camera bugs, a general lack of customization for game settings, and some very frustrating moments at times. None of these are dealbreakers, however, and I can heartily recommend Big Hops as a solid game in its genre.
If you fancy a new platformer game with both charm and depth, and one that is a great addition to your Steam Deck library, this is a great way to kick off 2026!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Big Hops is a delightful, creative, and challenging platformer with great gameplay and characters, and runs well on the Steam Deck.
