When you’re someone credited with not just one of the best platformers of past years, but one that happened to revitalize a legendary gaming franchise as well, expectations are naturally going to be high when it comes to any follow-up. Such is the case with developer Christian Whitehead ofSonic Maniafame, whose team Evening Star is set to embark in a bold new direction with their latest platforming game,Penny’s Big Breakaway.Said direction is straight into the third dimension, initially giving offSonic Adventurevibes, but instead revealing itself to be something entirely different…and unfortunately, something with a few flawsflaws as well.
Players put themselves into the shoes of Penny, a street performer with big dreams who finally gets their big break when they get to audition to be one of Eddie the Emperor’s new Palace Court performers. Unfortunately, Penny’s act accidentally strips Eddie down to their undies, and so now Penny is on the run from Eddie’s penguin army, setting foot across several worlds. Luckily, their living Yo-Yo friend is there to help them along the way, able to grab hold of platforms, swing through the air, twirl around and hit enemies, allowing Penny to ride across the ground and more. The levels inPenny’s Big Breakawayare mostly wide, open and allow for a lot of fun tricks and speedy playthroughs that can really help you rack up a high score, When they work, they can make for an absolute blast.
Review: Sonic Mania
An Awkward Yo-Yo Trick to Perform
You’ll notice the little asterisk of “when they work” back there, though.Penny’s Big Breakawayaims to innovate with a unique twin-stick setup that lets players run and freely swing Yo-Yo around, which sounds great, but the controls can feel awkward at times. The use of the right analog stick for everything means that dashing and mid-air swings use the same button, and dashes require two pushes, which have to be precise, and a little confusing at times. And while riding Yo-Yo is fun, it can be a tad difficult when it comes to precision, not to mention the fact that you need to get momentum going first. And the camera is mapped to the secondary d-pad, of all things, and even with it, you basically still have fixed camera angles. Everything just felt slightly off.
To be fair, these are the default “Pro Mode” settings and there’s a more traditional “Simple Mode” setting which works better but confusingly seemed to disable the ride function…until later, when I was informed that no, it was just mapped to a different button. In fact, you may use both the twin sticks and the face buttons, but I still have yet to find a combination that truly works for me. Maybe it’s just a learning curve, maybe it just needs more time to get used to, maybe I’mstilldoing something wrong, but something just hasn’t clicked with me here yet. Something about the mix of fast-paced tricks, exploration, aerial platforming, and more should be working, but it almost feels like some elements of the game work against each other, at least in my opinion.
Maybe I just haven’t figure out the right flow for the game yet, whether it wants to go fast or be taken more leisurely, or whether it tries to be accommodating to both approaches, but there just seem to be too many baffling design choices to get in the way of me truly enjoyingPenny’s Big Breakaway,which is a shame because it has a charming and vibrant aesthetic, cute character designs with little denizens in each world that serve up fun dialogue, huge levels with collectibles and little side quests/challenges, and even a unique combat system, in that there isn’t really any combat, as Penny instead has to outrun hordes of penguins and shake them off or swat them away if needed, leading to fun chases. I think maybe it just bombards you with a lot of different elements, like it’s trying to do a bit too much at times.
So it would be easy to say that with a little fine-tuning,Penny’s Big Breakawaycould be a platforming hit, with its unique ideas, fast movements and colorful world. But it seems as though the game is gearing up for a release early this year, leaving not much time to get things up to better shape. Still, that could just be my own issues when it comes to getting settled in with the game, and there’s a lot more of Penny’s world to explore later on and plenty more for others to enjoy as well, so here’s hoping Penny can still somehow stick the landing whenPenny’s Big Breakawayarrives later for all major platforms.
