Hopla — Ninja Academy › What is Hopla?
What is Hopla?
Hopla Ninja Academy is a free website of 35 movement games for kids aged 4 to 14, where the webcam is the controller: the child jumps, ducks, marches and stretches, and the game answers.
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Play now — free
It runs in the browser on a laptop, a PC or a tablet — nothing to install and no account. The browser watches the body through the webcam, finds the arms, legs and head on the device itself, and the games use that as the controller. The camera image is never uploaded, recorded or stored.
The facts
| Price | Free. Every game, every rank, every medal. Nothing to buy. |
|---|---|
| Ages | 4 to 14, with four ranks per game: Rookie (very forgiving, built for a four-year-old), Pro, Legend and Master (made to push a 12- to 14-year-old). |
| Games | 35, spread over six ninja dojos on a world map. The sixth opens on its own once twenty games have a best score. |
| Players | One or two at once, side by side. Two players share one score, each on their own rank. Points are never deducted. |
| A round | About a minute: jumping, squats, marching, stretching, balance, dodging, punching the air. |
| What you need | A laptop, tablet or computer plugged into the TV, a webcam, 2-3 metres of clear floor. Chrome, Edge or Safari. |
| Privacy | The video is processed in the browser and never leaves the device. No account needed to play; analytics uses no cookies. Only anonymous page views are counted. |
| Languages | English, Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian and Arabic. |
How it compares
| Hopla | Kinect | Just Dance | GoNoodle | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you need | A webcam and a browser | An Xbox and the Kinect sensor | A console and the game | A screen and an account |
| Cost | Free | No longer made (2017) | The game, most songs by subscription | Free, with a paid tier |
| Sees the kid move | Yes, the whole body | Yes, the whole body | Mostly the controller or phone in one hand | No, it is a video to follow |
| Built for | Kids 4-14 | The whole family | The whole family | Kids in class and at home |
What Hopla is not: there is no choreography and there are no chart songs, and there is no leaderboard against strangers. It is movement dressed up as a game, for kids, and the kid who stops moving stops scoring.
Hopla is not affiliated with Microsoft, Ubisoft or GoNoodle. Kinect, Just Dance and GoNoodle are trademarks of their owners.
Also available in
Where to start
Jump & Duck
Jump over the bamboo bundles, duck under the swinging poles!
Freeze Dance
Dance while the music plays, freeze when it stops!
Fire Path
Run on the spot, jump the logs, duck under the gates and step aside from the sandbags!
Power Smash
Burst the straw targets with a fast punch or a quick knee — slow does not count!
Kite Wings
Flap your kite wings to fly over the peaks — dip a wing and glide through the straw rings! ❄️
Bamboo Climb
Lift your knees high and climb the giant bamboo all the way to the top!
Sensei Says
March in the lantern parade and do only what Sensei says. The Fox said it? Freeze!
Pearl Dive
Reach far out to the clam and hold — slow and calm — and your ninja dives deeper.
Safe for kids, by design
- 🔒Everything happens right here, in your browser
- 🚫Your video is never recorded, saved or sent anywhere
- ⚡No download, no sign-up needed to play
What you need
A laptop, a tablet, or a computer plugged into the TV, a webcam, and about 2-3 metres of clear space. Works in Chrome, Edge and Safari. Nothing to install.