I can only imagine how hard it must be to develop your own game when you’re not blessed with a big team or a budget to fully realize your dream. Your vision is there, you want to come up with a love letter to Banjo-Kazooie and the 3D platformers from the Nintendo 64 generation, and that alone is worthy of praise. And this is why I feel torn when talking about Hop ‘n’ Marty, as I can clearly see the great intentions and ideas behind it. At the same time, being a commercially available product being sold on digital storefronts, I need to be objective and fair on my assessment on whether or not this game is worth your money. And sadly, it isn’t.

All of the good ideas are here. There is a neat premise about rescuing slaves from the clutches of an evil space pirate. Your playable characters act just like Banjo and Kazooie, with Marty (the tamarin) being polite and naive, whilst Hop (the frog) is sarcastic and grumpy. The progression system is identical to the one from its main source of inspiration, with each level featuring 200 bananas (they act like music notes) and 10 slaves (they act as both the Jinjos and the Jiggies) to free/collect. Finally, the level design is somewhat creative; even if the first level is your bog-standard grassland, other levels include a ruined street in a horror setting and a giant’s house, which reminded me of playing  the Toy Story 2 game from back in the day.

Sadly, they are ideas, or design decisions. On paper, Hop ‘n’ Marty feels promising, but in practice, this game is rough. It’s not the worst thing in the world, as I was able to extract some fun out of it, but it’s clear that the developers had to work with a shoestring budget, and what I can only assume a tight schedule. Hop ‘n’ Marty is really short, and really freaking unpolished.

My major gripes lie in the graphical department and the gameplay. I know that the game tries to evoque the visual style and limitations imposed by the Nintendo 64’s hardware, but I simply don’t think that it succeeds in that regard. It doesn’t look like a Nintendo 64 game, it just looks like a cheap game with simple assets. Corn Kidz 64 is an example of a game that actually felt like it could had been released in a 12MB cartridge back in 1999 – Hop ‘n’ Marty looks exactly like any other low-budgeted platformer you can find on Steam. That being said, I do appreciate it is not comprised of third party assets, putting it several steps above your run-of-the-mill micro-budgeted indie.

Then there’s the gameplay, which is not as bad as the visuals, but is still rough. Granted, the controls are actually really simple – there are no additional powerups, with both Hop and Marty (yes, you can play as both in separate occasions, which is admittedly neat) starting the game with their complete moveset – but the execution is the biggest issue. The camera refuses to work properly, constantly working against you when you’re moving it around, and working even more against you when you’re trying to aim at a target with your character’s over-the-shoulder projectile attack. Thankfully, there is barely any combat to speak of, and the puzzle solving ain’t hard, so you’re not going to struggle to beat the game. You just need to get used to its massive amounts of jank.

It feels heartbreaking to give Hop ‘n’ Marty such a low score because I actually had a bit of fun with it. There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours on your Switch. But I just cannot ignore how unpolished and janky this commercial product is. It’s definitely not a looker (hell, it’s the opposite of it), and its controls are simply not good enough. Maybe it was its obvious lack of a budget, or a tight deadline – who knows. All I know is that I cannot simply praise it for its good intentions and ignore its blatant flaws. 

Graphics: 3.5 It looks rough. I appreciate the fact all of its assets appear to be unique, and the level design isn’t terrible. But there’s no denying that Hop ‘n’ Marty looks cheap and clunky.	Gameplay: 5.0 Basic 3D platformer controls and gameplay loop, hindered by a really bad camera system.
Sound: 5.5 It’s not the most memorable soundtrack of it all, and the sound effects are also sparse. I do appreciate the inclusion of Banjo-esque voice samples for each NPC, but that’s basically it.	Fun Factor: 6.5 It’s a really janky game that suffers from a clear lack of budget, but there’s still fun to be had, if you set your expectations, as well as if you’re a die-hard fan of N64-era platfomers.
Final Verdict: 5.5

Hop ‘n’ Marty is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Hop ‘n’ Marty was provided by the publisher.