Ever question life as a box? No? If you’ve ever wondered, then Hoplegs tries to answer that by asking if boxes could grow Legs. Hoplegs has you play as a young wizard named Hoppus on a mission. A mission to tell the king about a great evil heading their way told by his master. Unfortunately, the transportation spell messes up, and you’ve become a box. Now desperate, you have to use this body to get home, up and over many obstacles, including small ledges, big ledges, large gaps, walls, floaty smog, and ice to get to the king. Hoppus needs to warn the king about the great prophecy, one which could devastate the whole kingdom! He climbs over mountains, jumps through tunnels, and traverses icy landscapes trying to reach the castle. The gameplay felt great, the art style seemed to fit with what the creator was going for, and the story added a nice charm to the game.
The controls felt pretty fluid and not too complicated. Press a button, and a leg extends out. The game expects a lot from you, and it can get a little confusing, but button icons float around each side of the box, so you know what button controls which leg. You can use the joystick to angle your hops if you need to land on a specific side or find yourself needing to jump off of a wall. However, timing is important as your legs have force. It’ll be difficult to go anywhere if you tap the button rapidly since it’ll cancel your momentum, which means that you can’t just get a slight push in the chosen direction. But it can allow you to push yourself off the ground a tad to adjust yourself for a jump in a different direction. Momentum plays an important role when controlling the character. If you hit the floor at high speed, you bounce a little instead of stopping and might roll onto another side of the box, like boxes in real life.
The art seems to appeal to a younger audience, lots of vibrant colors and popping visuals, yet at the same time, the color palate was narrow and simple. Still, it emphasized the art style and made it easier to follow the character as the art helps differentiate types of land. Blue and shiny usually meant ice, grey brick with yellow flooring meant castle, and black floating circles meant you’re traversing floating gas. Since the color blue doesn’t often pop up, this specific color palate helped me find where I was located in the world. It also helps the cutscenes show what happens and makes everything feel cohesive. The colors tell the difference between grass and buildings, or parts of a building from each other. The cutscene’s art direction helped me envision the story the developer was trying to build, rather than leaving it to my imagination to make something that vaguely made sense. The colors used show what’s important and differentiate the foreground from the background. Everything that is in the background is usually lighter than the rest of the game. Meanwhile, colors in the foreground are darker than everything else. As a wild and goofy story told to kids, the art style felt like a perfect fit.
Hoplegs was fun and enjoyable. It’s semi-short but a great game for those days when you don’t have much to do. Maybe you’re waiting for a doctor’s appointment and need to kill some time; the game does well keeping your attention in short bursts. The difficulty is well balanced where puzzles don’t require hours of thought. They’ll challenge you to think “outside of the box,” but they certainly won’t have you throw your arms up in frustration. As of this review, Hoplegs is on Steam for $17.99, falling right in line with what I think is a reasonable price. However, this review was done with a Nintendo Switch copy. It lists for $6.99 on the eShop, and I would say this is certainly a steal on the Switch. Hoplegs is a great game, one that respects your time and allows you to play between errands or when you have a few free moments.
A Switch eShop code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
