There is a very specific kind of joy that only the best platformers can deliver. It is that feeling of moving through a level so smoothly, so naturally, that your hands stop thinking and your brain just flows with the game. It is the satisfaction of spotting a secret tucked behind a waterfall, the rush of chaining jumps and rolls at full speed, the grin that creeps onto your face when a level throws something clever at you and you nail it on the first try. I have been chasing that feeling for years, and I found it, unexpectedly and completely without warning, in Marsupilami: Hoobadventure.
I picked this game up without many expectations. The title is awkward, the character is barely known outside of France and Belgium, and the studio behind it, Ocellus Studio, was not exactly a name I recognized. But sometimes the best discoveries come from the most unlikely places, and this is absolutely one of those times. Marsupilami: Hoobadventure is a masterclass in how to make a 2D platformer feel wonderful, and I mean that without a single drop of exaggeration.
For those unfamiliar with the source material, Marsupilami is a fictional animal created by Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in 1952, originally appearing in the Spirou comics. The character became enormously popular in Europe, spawning animated series and a whole universe of stories. His most defining feature is an impossibly long tail that he can shape and move in practically any way imaginable, and this tail becomes the centerpiece of everything that makes the game so fun to play. The game is developed by Ocellus Studio and published by Microids, and it is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
The setup is straightforward and cheerful. Three Marsupilamis, Punch, Twister, and Hope, accidentally unleash an ancient ghost from a cursed sarcophagus they find while playing on the beach of their home island, Palombia. The spirit immediately begins hypnotizing every creature on the island, turning them into hostile enemies, with the exception of the Marsupilamis themselves, who are immune to the curse. So the trio sets off to undo the damage and send the ghost back where it came from. The plot never goes much deeper than that, and cutscenes are minimal and lack voice acting or subtitles, which makes the storytelling feel underdeveloped. But in the grand tradition of great platformers, the narrative is really just a reason to start running, and once you do, you will not want to stop.
Mechanics and Gameplay
The gameplay in Marsupilami: Hoobadventure is where the game truly separates itself from the crowd. From the very first level, the controls feel exceptional. Responsive, precise, and intuitive in a way that takes very little time to absorb but a good while to fully master. The Marsupilamis move with speed and grace, and every input feels like it does exactly what you intended, which is something that many platformers struggle to achieve consistently.
The core moveset is built around a surprisingly small number of buttons, but the depth those buttons can produce is impressive. You can run, jump, wall-jump, and stomp down onto breakable boxes and secret floors to discover hidden areas beneath them. The roll mechanic, activated by repeatedly pressing a button, lets you build up speed and chain into a long jump off the edge of a platform, keeping your momentum going in a way that feels incredibly satisfying once you get the hang of it. Rushing through a level at full speed, stringing together rolls, jumps, and bounces off enemies is genuinely thrilling.
Then there is the tail, and oh what a tail it is. The Marsupilami’s most iconic feature is also the most versatile tool in the gameplay. You can swing it like a fist to knock out enemies, latch onto suspended rings to swing or gain vertical height, grab onto birds that launch you through the air like barrel cannons straight out of Donkey Kong Country, and slam it down in a spiraling motion to smash through boxes and floors. The game auto-targets hooks and birds when you press the latch button in their vicinity, which mostly works well but occasionally grabs the wrong object when multiple hooks are close together. It is a minor annoyance in an otherwise smooth system.
The level design is one of the most impressive aspects of the whole package. Each stage introduces a new concept or mechanic, starts you off with a gentle version of it, and then gradually layers in complexity until by the end of the level you are juggling that mechanic with everything else you know. Enemies that fall to attack you can also be used as temporary platforms to reach higher areas. Dark stages force you to navigate by feel and memory. Chase sequences demand quick reflexes and smart movement. Every level feels distinct and purposeful, and not a single one feels like filler.
The game spans three worlds, a coastal city, a lush jungle, and an ancient temple, each made up of around eight to ten stages plus a boss encounter. The boss stages are pursuit levels where you chase the ghost villain through an obstacle-filled gauntlet, pelting him with rings and dodging everything in your path. The final chase in particular is a genuine test of everything the game has taught you, fast, demanding, and deeply satisfying to complete. Each world also hides secret areas, bonus challenge rooms called Dojos where you must jump through a series of rings before time runs out, and five colored feathers per stage that unlock optional levels.
A free DLC update added a fourth island called The Hidden World, themed around prehistoric jungles and volcanoes, with ten brand new stages and a set of Cataclysm variants that ramp up the difficulty significantly. The Cataclysm levels replace regular terrain with lava and demand precise chaining of every move in your repertoire. For experienced players, these are the most challenging and most rewarding stages in the entire game, and they elevate the overall package considerably.
The one missed opportunity in the gameplay department is the fact that all three playable characters handle identically. Punch, Twister, and Hope look different and have different personalities implied by their designs, but choosing between them makes no difference in how the game plays. Giving each character a unique ability or playstyle could have added a meaningful layer of strategy and replay value. As it stands, the choice is purely cosmetic.
Graphics
Marsupilami: Hoobadventure is a gorgeous game. Full stop. The visual presentation is so cheerful, so vibrant, and so meticulously crafted that it is impossible not to smile when you first boot it up. The art style sits comfortably between a high-quality animated film and a classic Saturday morning cartoon, and the execution is flawless. Every color pops, every surface is rich with detail, and the world feels alive in a way that few games at this budget level manage to pull off.
The character animations are a particular highlight. The Marsupilamis move with an expressiveness and fluidity that brings them to life in a way that goes well beyond what the gameplay strictly requires. The way the tail coils and swings, the way the character stumbles slightly when landing from a high jump, the way enemies react when hit, all of it is animated with genuine care and craft. Even the background creatures that serve no gameplay purpose are designed with enough personality to feel like characters in their own right.
The three main worlds each have a strong and distinct visual identity. The coastal city is warm and sun-soaked, full of tropical colors and bright architecture. The jungle is dense and lush, layered with greens and organic shapes. The temple world shifts into darker, more mysterious territory, with ancient stone structures and dramatic lighting that changes the mood significantly. The Hidden World DLC island adds yet another visual style with its Jurassic savannah and volcanic environments, and it is arguably the most visually stunning part of the entire game.
The Dojo rooms and certain bonus stages use a high-contrast silhouette aesthetic where only the outlines of the character and platforms are visible against a stark background. It is a stylish visual choice that also works as a clever way to make the geometry of these challenge rooms easy to read at a glance. The game runs at 60 frames per second across platforms, which makes movement feel sharp and precise and contributes greatly to the overall visual experience. The sense of depth in each level is remarkable for a 2D platformer, with well-layered foregrounds and backgrounds that give every stage a genuine feeling of space and dimension.
Sound
The audio design in Marsupilami: Hoobadventure is a consistent delight from start to finish. The soundtrack is upbeat, melodic, and perfectly matched to the tone of the game at every moment. Each world has its own musical identity that reinforces its visual theme, with the coastal city getting breezy and rhythmic tracks, the jungle getting something more adventurous and organic, and the temple world leaning into more dramatic and mysterious compositions. None of the tracks overstay their welcome, and after hours of play I never found myself wanting to mute the game, which is a meaningful compliment.
The standout musical moments come from The Hidden World DLC. The main theme of that island has an energy and grandeur that feels like a step above the rest of the soundtrack, and the track that plays during the Volcanic Panic finale is an absolute banger. It builds urgency and excitement in a way that pushes you forward and makes the challenge feel epic. It stayed in my head long after I put down the controller, which is the ultimate test of whether a game’s music has done its job well.
Sound effects are punchy, responsive, and satisfying. The thwack of a tail strike, the pop of breaking a fruit-filled crate, the whoosh of launching from a bird cannon, every sound effect gives you clear and immediate feedback on what is happening in the game. This kind of audio feedback is essential in a fast-moving platformer, and the developers clearly understood that. The absence of voice acting in the cutscenes is a noticeable gap, and even basic character voices during gameplay would have added another layer of personality to the already charming cast.
Fun Factor
Marsupilami: Hoobadventure delivers fun in a way that feels effortless, and that is the hardest kind of fun to design. Every session I had with this game left me feeling good. Not just entertained, but genuinely uplifted, the way a great animated movie can lift your mood without you fully understanding why. The game radiates warmth and positivity, and it wraps all of that in gameplay mechanics tight enough to hold your attention and keep you coming back.
The game is accessible to younger players and newcomers to the genre, with three difficulty settings that adjust how much punishment you can take and how many times you can fail before losing a life. On the easiest setting, only falling into pits costs you a life, making spikes and enemies essentially harmless. On normal and hard, the number of hearts you have decreases accordingly. Time trial modes lock you to three hearts regardless of difficulty, adding meaningful tension to replays. The abundance of extra lives earned through fruit collection is the one element that dulls the stakes, as reaching the 99 life cap happens surprisingly early and makes the lives system feel redundant.
But lives or no lives, the game is a blast. Replaying stages for the time trials alone is worth the price of admission, because these modes reveal just how well the levels were designed for speed and flow. Hunting for hidden feathers and secret Dojos gives you reasons to slow down and explore every corner. The optional bonus stages and the entire Hidden World island give more experienced players a genuine challenge to sink their teeth into, particularly the Cataclysm variants, which demand real precision and skill.
There is a moment that happens in every great platformer where you stop consciously thinking about what you are pressing and just play. That moment arrives quickly in Marsupilami: Hoobadventure and it stays for the entire runtime. That is not an accident. It is the result of careful, thoughtful design from a team that clearly loves this genre deeply.
Performance and Optimization
Marsupilami: Hoobadventure runs very well across platforms. The game targets and largely maintains 60 frames per second, and the smoothness of that frame rate is directly connected to how precise and satisfying the controls feel. In a platformer where split-second timing matters, having a stable and responsive frame rate is not just a nice-to-have, it is essential, and the game delivers on that front consistently.
The only performance hiccup I encountered came during time trial runs on busier stages, particularly when restarting the same level multiple times in quick succession. On these occasions, minor slowdowns would appear and input responsiveness would drop slightly, breaking the rhythm in a mode where rhythm is everything. The fix was simple, returning to the main menu and reloading the stage cleared the issue immediately. But the fact that the fix requires leaving and re-entering the stage at all is a rough edge that the developers should address. Outside of those specific circumstances, the experience is clean, polished, and free of any crashes or significant bugs. The game also holds up well in handheld mode on Nintendo Switch, maintaining its visual quality and playability without major compromises.
Conclusion
Marsupilami: Hoobadventure is the kind of game that reminds you why you fell in love with platformers in the first place. It does not reinvent the genre. It does not need to. What it does instead is take everything that makes the genre great and execute it with a level of polish and care that would be impressive from any studio, let alone one working without a blockbuster budget. The visual style is stunning, the controls are exceptional, the level design is creative and varied, and the overall experience is consistently joyful from beginning to end.
Yes, the story is thin and the cutscenes are underdeveloped. Yes, the three characters play identically and that feels like a missed opportunity. Yes, the life system becomes meaningless too quickly. These are real criticisms and they keep the game from being perfect. But they are minor complaints against a backdrop of quality that genuinely surprised and delighted me, and they do nothing to diminish the core experience of playing through those beautifully crafted levels.
With the free Hidden World DLC adding ten more stages and a set of brutally fun Cataclysm levels, the package has grown into something even more substantial than it was at launch. If you picked this up at release and felt the campaign was too short, now is a great time to go back. And if you have never played it at all, do yourself a favor and fix that immediately.
Marsupilami: Hoobadventure is one of the best 2D platformers in recent years, and it is criminal that more people have not played it. Highly recommended, without any reservations.
Positive Points
- Exceptional controls that feel precise, responsive, and deeply satisfying from the very first level.
- Brilliant level design that constantly introduces new ideas and keeps every stage feeling fresh and distinct.
- Stunning visual presentation with vibrant colors, expressive animations, and beautifully layered environments.
- Excellent soundtrack that perfectly matches the tone of each world, with standout tracks in The Hidden World DLC.
- Free DLC content adds ten new stages and Cataclysm variants that significantly extend the game and raise the difficulty ceiling.
- Time trial modes give the game strong replay value and showcase how well the levels were designed for speed.
- Accessible to younger and less experienced players while offering genuine challenge for veterans hunting collectibles and gold medals.
- Runs at a smooth 60 frames per second that enhances the precision of movement and the overall visual experience.
Negative Points
- The main campaign is short and can be completed in just a few hours by experienced players.
- All three playable characters handle identically, making character selection a purely aesthetic choice.
- The extra lives system becomes irrelevant very early as the game showers you with lives and you hit the 99 cap quickly.
- The story is barely present and the cutscenes lack voice acting and subtitles, making the narrative feel underdeveloped.
- The Dojo stages on the world map are repeats of bonus rooms found inside levels, creating an unfortunate feeling of recycled content.
- Minor performance drops can occur during repeated restarts in time trial mode on busier stages.
Rating:
Graphics: 9.5
Fun Factor: 9.5
Gameplay: 9.5
Sound: 9.0
Performance and Optimization: 8.5
FINAL SCORE: 9.2 / 10.0
