I have played the Banjo-Kazooie games, I have played Yooka-Laylee, and I have played the assortment of licensed platformers that came out on the PS2. I have never felt more like the authority on a subject than I did when I got the review code for this title. In this Hop n Marty review I’ll be discussing my thoughts on it as a veteran of the 3D paltformer genre.

Hop n Marty Review for PC/Steam Deck

• Title: Hop n Marty
• Developer: Evilkookey Games
• Publisher:Evilkookey Games
• Primary Genre: Platformer, Collectathon

Gameplay

The game is pretty easy to pick up and understand. Go into worlds, collect bananas, free captives, collect items for the occasional quest, and be sure to get enough so you can unlock new levels. It’s a style of play that has worked since the dawn of time and continued to work here.

I enjoyed the mix of collecting bananas with freeing the Pygmies. I find it gives me a constant drive to find the smaller objects (bananas) as a good way to keep me interested between the pygmies scattered around the level. Add in the occasional surprise sub-world and this becomes a perfect gameplay loop.

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If you’ve ever played a 3D platformer, you know what to expect here. The platforming was engaging and forgiving enough that I never felt like the game was punishing me for the occasional missed jump.

Level Design

I’ve seen some 3D platformers that just tried way too hard when it comes to their levels. They make these massive levels with big gaps between points of interest with punishing platforming that sets you back any time you miss a jump.

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I much prefer the Hop n Marty approach where the entire level is basically visible at any one point in time. The trick is they built up and added layers to every section. I always find this to be a much better experience for a collectathon; the game SHOULD be leading me every step of the way, the level SHOULD be laid out in a way that I can plot my approach from collectable 1 to collectable X.

Visuals

I am by no means a graphics fetishist and I tend to push back on the idea that hyperrealism makes for a solid graphical output. But, this title looks a little rough around the edges. The character models especially, weren’t great and some of the sub-areas had an almost PS1 feel with how little detail was on the backgrounds.

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In general, I think Hop n Marty does well to paper over the graphical cracks with the main levels at least looking solid and using lots of colour to make them stand out, but there’s definitely some room for improvement.

Hop n Marty Review – Last Word on Gaming Viewpoint

This is the closest we can get nowadays to the Banjo-Kazooie feeling, the closest we’ll get to the real core idea of what a 3D platformer is. If you enjoy that genre and any of the games I compared it to in my intro then Hop n Marty is a must buy. It has its limitations and I definitely feel they could’ve used a similar moves/skill system to Banjo to freshen up the levels as I went along but this was a very strong effort for an independent developer.

Hop n Marty Review – The Verdict

7/10

*Review Code was provided*