Big Hops praised for clever tongue mechanic and open-ended platforming

Kotaku says Big Hops, developed by Luckshot Games and available on PS5, PC, and Switch, is an indie 3D platformer that gets core movement — running, jumping, climbing, diving — consistently right.

The game stars Hop, a young frog whose long tongue is used for grappling, swinging, opening chests, flipping levers and even a strange lock‑picking mini‑game. Players can also find fruits with varied effects (creating rope bridges, setting fires, making permanent grapple points) and store them in an expandable backpack, enabling creative experimentation, sequence skips and hidden collectibles. Visually the levels are cel‑shaded-like and colorful, the Void areas are stylistically twisted, the music evokes PS1/N64 platformers, and on PS5 the game generally runs at a mostly locked 60FPS.

Big Hops is mostly combat‑free, with a few boss fights and some chasing bugs, but the review noted some performance issues and glitches. The reviewer completed the main story and some side content in about eight hours, the game’s release date is January 12, 2026, and the review suggested Nintendo designers could learn from Big Hops’ design choices.

Key Topics

Culture, Big Hops, Luckshot Games, Hop, Tongue Mechanic