Saving the world is a little pedestrian isn’t it? I’ve personally saved the world hundreds of times. Saving the genre of hobby known as “gaming?” Now that’s something new. This so happens to also be the main goal of HoPiKo, the new Switch eShop high-speed platformer from Laser Dog Games.

In HoPiKo you play as a hopiko, a small creature that lives inside video game consoles running the games you love to play. A virus is let loose on every console capturing all the hopiko except one. As the lone survivor you’re goal is to navigate complex stages to free your fellow creatures.

The complex stages are made up of several platforms and a large number of obstacles that will kill you instantly. Obviously, the goal is to jump from platform to platform while avoiding the obstacles. HoPiKo isn’t innovative in design, but what makes the game interesting is the sheer volume of unique platforms. There are platforms that explode after standing on them for a set amount of time, spin based on where you land on them, absorb your momentum to continue moving in the same direction, become tangible only after passing through them, or are literally a rocket.

I would show the various platforms in motion, but the game moves too fast to capture that.

I hesitate to call this next feature innovative since it really isn’t, but it also isn’t common to find on the Switch eShop. HoPiKo has the option to use touch controls, and they’re very good. I played through almost all of the campaign using them. They’re responsive and accurate. One quick swipe sent my avatar hurtling through the void exactly how I intended. HoPiKo was originally released as a mobile game, so the amazing touch controls aren’t too surprising. It is nice to see a developer take advantage of a Switch feature that I don’t think is taken advantage of too often.

On the opposite side of the control method coin are the Joy-Con controls; I don’t think they’re very good. This is because the joystick is pushed in the direction you want to go then released to actually launch the hopiko. This was never very accurate for me. Releasing the stick would move the aiming reticle slightly. In a game that requires pin-point precision at split-second intervals this is a death sentence. There’s a setting to use either joystick as the control method which might be helpful for some people. I tried both methods and thought both of them were unwieldy.

There is one specific instance where the joystick controls worked. Jumping to this platform has you drive it like a car which was much more difficult with touch controls.

The negatives don’t stop at joystick controls. The level structure is a major sticking point for me. There are five worlds with ten stage sets. Five levels make up each stage. To clear a stage set you have to beat all five levels in order without dying. This is a challenge due to the type of game that HoPiKo is. Death comes swiftly and often. Sometimes death comes in half a second after loading in. Repeating levels is going to happen. Imagine if Super Meat Boy sent you back to the first level of The Salt Factory after dying in any level.

I was continually repeating levels that I had already mastered over and over and over. There is some fun to be had deftly cutting through levels with a surgeon’s precision. Unfortunately, this means bad news for the patient though because that surgeon is bored out of his mind. Any fun replaying the levels is limited to seven times max, and there are sets that require being played more much, much higher than seven times. I could understand the decision more if there was a method to practice levels out of order, but this isn’t a feature that I could find anywhere. Add in the fact that I would sometimes die to nothing at all, and playing HoPiKo is an exercise in frustration.

These shuriken cannons ensured that I had to play this stage set far too many times.

Aesthetically the game is a mixed bag. Not because anything is bad, but because I really like the music and the visuals are fine. The chiptunes are energetic and fun. The OST perfectly matches the gameplay. Meanwhile, the visuals are merely a tool used to relay spatial information to the player. They’re fine. Everything is easy to read which is nice. I did think the virus sprite was a house originally, and that was a little funny. I don’t think that was the intended reaction though.

The use of color is commendable and would be more impressive if “minimalist graphics” weren’t a staple of eShop platformers.

Earlier in the review I mentioned that HoPiKo originally released as a mobile game. And so, I cannot think of a reason that a person would buy the Switch eShop version of HoPiKo over the mobile version. If the Joy-Con controls weren’t unusable, then maybe that would be a reason to pick up the Switch version. Especially considering the fact I spent most of my time with HoPiKo either bored or frustrated. As a result, unless you’re a platformer developer who wants to get a feel for great Switch touch controls or see some inventive concepts for platforms, I would just grab the mobile version for around $2.

Check out our reviews of Futuregrind and Jack and Jill DX for some other recent platformers. Share your thoughts with us by joining our Discord. Nindie Nexus is an ad-free passion project – consider buying us a coffee.