No doubt it can be said here that Hoppup! is a game that takes clear inspiration from Nexile's own titular indie game, that being the incredibly difficult and arduous precise platforming game 'Jump King', as this title takes a somewhat different direction in how it goes about achieving a fair but firm challenge and approaches it rather well in my honest opinion!
To get started though, one only has to look at the gameplay itself as this is where Hoppup! takes the most similar approach to Jump King, having a pixelized heroic character that you control to carefully navigate 2D platforms in a vertical manner as you gradually work your way from the bottom depths of a cavern network and make your way up throughout the six areas of the first level as they become progressively more challenging and demanding on the player's capabilities where precise platforming is concerned!
However, unlike Jump King where it only aids you with the gift of certain shortcuts once you have the confidence to try out more risky jumps and the skill to make it consistently happen, Hoppup! aims to make this more of a 'palatable' experience for casual gamers or even those completely new to the whole precise platformer genre as you are very quickly introduced to a pineapple fruit which, in my honest opinion, I thought was one of a good few 'collectables' that could allow you to change your characters skin as you progress higher and higher, however the only fruit that exists is this one, and for good reason considering how it allows you to respawn once when you miscalculate a jump and fall down more than an entire screen, with a small flag that indicates where your next respawn point is whenever you attempt a jump to another platform.
Now some pineapples are put out right in the clear open for you to see, however outside of the first one at the beginning of the game these are often tricky to reach and failing to get to them will often result in a lot of lost progress, however skilled players will be able to take advantage of these for extra second-chances, acting as a 'pseudo-checkpoint' of sorts for those with the skill to pull it off consistently. However, others are well-hidden in areas where there is a background covering it but has an 'opening' with no wall actually covering it on one side, although these are quite hard to notice on a first playthrough but are well-worth finding out as these are much easier to regain when you lose your pineapple power-up from a miscalculated jump by simply going back to the spot with much more ease than the open pineapples accessible only by tricky platforming!
Also to touch upon the exact 'physics' of this game as it were, this does differ from Jump King in that this game does not put as much horizontal momentum for shorter hops whilst bigger jumps get more vertical height movement, as instead Hoppup! will have the exact same projection for each jump, no matter how small or long the jump itself is, meaning one has to focus less on the 'angle' of the jump and more so reaching the distance from one jump to another, noting that hitting the ceilings too works differently as, on this game, you'll just stop all momentum and fall down like a rock which more often than not leads to lost progress.
Getting into the level or, rather the two 'levels' if you count the DLC as it's own level at that, you start off with the basic and fairly forgiving starting area down below the depths of the caverns as you slowly get accustomed to more difficult platforming, then there's the dungeon that introduces both curved platform sides to give the illusion of easier jumps alongside hidden areas, for better with Pineapples or for worse to trick you to fall down and lose progress) alongside the Temple area that cuts down on the size of platforms to get you accustomed to gradually harder platforming and the Outside area introducing clouds that act as 'fragile' platforms that break apart after stepping onto it for a few seconds requiring quick-thinking and reflexes to boot!
Such mechanics help to test the player's skills in precise platforming whilst also adding new challenges to overcome as you gradually become better at the game, helping to further push yourself in overcoming what lays ahead in the next area, no doubt making for quite the satisfying gameplay cycle here!
Although, to touch upon some issues of Hoppup! here, the DLC that the creator put out for free here (very much a plus in my eyes, even if the actual content itself is not quite so great!) is a MUCH harder challenge I truly feel should have had a third level inbetween to help even out the gap of difficulty as the starting area alone is a big step-up in difficulty and it doesn't help that even making ONE mistake will very likely send you all the way down to the very beginning, which is frustrating as this is likely an attempt to make up for it with the worst of Kaizo level design as there is a big shift from the final area of the first level that dabs a little into this but still is not NEARLY as consistent with big falls as the second level is, something that Jump King avoided by having the New Babe+ tower escalate the challenge more naturally via tighter platforming whilst Ghost of the Babe reels it back a little but ensures any falls made have a high chance of making you lose a great deal of progress, though not so bad that you can possibly fall from near the top right down to the bottom!
Other issues include a lack of music in general that gives each of the areas it's own distinct atmosphere, the graphics not being as well-polished as they could have been and also few characters to really have a conversation with to build some sort of lore behind the world of Hoppup! although, to my understanding, Jump King also has this problem but makes up for it by further expanding their dialogue outside of the one or two sentences giving them further personality and character as it were.
Overall though, I would still recommend Hoppup! to those looking to dip their toes into the precise platforming genre but also to hardcore veterans of the likes of Jump King, not so much for the first level but rather the second, although I will say that there isn't much in the ways of additional content outside of the DLC but, considering it is free alongside the general asking price being fairly cheap, it is only fair to view this game as a short but fun experience here, of which I mostly enjoyed for the first-half anyhow!
TLDR Version:
• A casual and more friendly entry to the infamously-difficult precise platforming genre (+)
• Hoppup! takes inspiration from revered Jump King by putting similar focus on one's jumps and how best to aim them as well as the consequences for undershooting/overshooting it (+)
• Gameplay is challenging and easy to lose progress but is also forgiving as Pineapples spread throughout help to give lesser experienced players a 'second chance' by respawning after a failed jump (+)
• Areas naturally become more difficult as wide platforms become increasingly shorter and harder to avoid obstacles whilst introducing new mechanics to further challenge the player (+)
• DLC offered by creator for free that introduces a whole new second, but much more challenging level (+)
• Game is relatively short and will not offer much in the way of content for those hoping to explore a product with more 'meat' to it (-)
• A lack of music hinders the atmosphere of the game as the ambiance of the areas have to do all the heavy work and could have added some much-needed charm (-)
• Graphics are lacking in detail and may not look appealing for long-term gameplay (-)
• The DLC 'The Frozen King' is a massive jump in challenge from the original level and can very easily put-off casuals alongside experienced precise platforming fans not expecting a sharp whiplash in Kaizo difficulty (-)
