he legacy of Super Mario Sunshine is such a polarizing 3D Mario game to look back it, and it isn’t an entry that’s often romanticized for its jumping physics either. At its core, Sunshine does have an admittedly solid foundation behind its snappier controls, which give the title a distinctive ebb and flow to its respective platforming mechanics, setting it apart from the other entries in the series. However, when that same series has some heavy hitters like Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario 3D World, it starts to make sense why Super Mario Sunshine is widely considered to be at the bottom of that class too.
And yet—the entry still has its fans—one of whom felt inspired to recreate many of those quirky fundamentals from the Gamecube exclusive into a new 3D platforming adventure that would take influences from other contemporary titles, and blend them together with modern sensibilities to their design to create something that’s new yet familiar.
This game is Big Hops, and it comes from the mind of Chris Wade and his studio, Luckshot Games. After breaking onto the scene with their debut, Gang Beasts-inspired party game in 2018, Wade and his team hustled onto their next project and spent six years working on their sophomore release, Big Hops.
The end result is a charming, yet flawed, outing into an expansive open-world adventure that presents an interesting take on the theme of questioning what exactly makes an adventure so magical to experience—the destination or the journey. The message is poignant in its delivery and makes for a fun time, even if it occasionally stands at odds with the gameplay from time to time, as the game is more of a jaunt than a crusade.
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