Hopping

Hopping is a somewhat strange game due to its unusual theme and execution. It’s about a young woman who strives to become a great circus trampoline artist and for this to happen, she must practice, practice, practice.

Hopping features a rather gloomy atmosphere. It uses a lot of film-camera grain effect, the audio is inspired by the 1920 circus music but with more rhythm to it, and it’s all in black and white. At first, it all seems like a bit of a bad idea but once you start playing, you understand just how well crafted this game really is.

The fact that your character has to dodge moving obstacles of various shapes and sizes by performing complex high jumps will create a lot of suspense in the game. You also feel a lot of tension just before a jump and as you start your descent to a landing. A lot of the time you’re almost sure that you won’t make the jump.

Hopping takes you through a short tutorial that explains the few controls you have to use. On the large trampoline, you can only jump in the spotlight so sticking a landing is very important.

The first level is simple because you get one type of obstacle and it moves in a basic pattern. After a short warm-up, the real challenge appears. The obstacles that come your way arrive from various directions and in different combinations, so you need to think fast before and after each jump. They can move in simple pairs or they can surround you from everywhere, an event that is quite intimidating.

The concept behind Hopping is simple and very effective. Its design is wonderful and the atmosphere is excellently appropriate for the theme. It really is an interesting and challenging game to play.