Penny's Big Breakaway Review
Penny's Big Breakaway Review
Penny’s Big Breakaway is also Evening Star’s big breakaway. It’s the studios first game since their formation in 2018 that included many members who helped create Sonic Mania. It also sees the studio move from the 2D space to 3D.
It’s clear that 90’s Sega is in the team’s DNA. Penny is loaded with bright colors, random items to collect, a whimsical story (all the way down to you fighting an army of penguins), and an even more whimsical protagonist with a magical yo-yo. More importantly, the design mantra of the game about speed and combos with hints of Sonic and Jet Set Radio, as you chain moves together.
The speed and momentum Penny’s Big Breakaway is built around the skills of her magical yo-yo. Penny is given access to all of her skills almost immediately including grapples, rides, dashes and grabs. Each skill on their own are fun and the ability to combo them together leads to some memorable moments, especially when they are chained together with the interactivity of each level with things like cannons, spring boards, hang gliders and much more. There are also some smart design choices that force you to maintain the momentum and experience the game as intended like the penguins of the law that are trying to capture Penny.
Each level is gigantic and gives constant glimpses of secrets to find and alternative paths, should you choose to return. For the gamer who loves to find everything and discover hidden items on each level, this is a cornucopia of replayability. On top of that trying to get the maximum score on each level, there are timed stages, and bonus challenge worlds that you need to purchase to keep you busy well beyond the price of entry.
Mo’ Pennies, Mo’ Problems
It’s ironic that the same team behind Sonic mania, created Penny’s Big Breakaway as there can be times when the movement and flow is magical, as you turn riding riding on a yo-yo, into a vine swing and then onto a zip line that traverses you around the world beautifully, but just like Sonic, it can all come to a grinding halt in the blink of an eye.
The player doesn't always feel like they are in the drivers seat. You aren’t in control of the camera, the controls lack intuition and don’t always work as you intend them to and there are also some refinement issues with collision detection where you get stuck in a wall or fall through the ground. It should be worth noting that we reviewed the game on Switch and those could be exclusively Nintendo issues. Outside of those issues, Penny’s Big Breakaway plays fine on the Switch, but you would probably have a better time on the other consoles where it can be played at 4K/120.
There are no options for difficulty, which could have alleviated some of the headaches and frustrations with Penny’s Big Breakaway. Adding in more platforms, extra checkpoints or even just giving Penny a few more life bars would have been a great start.
The addition of boss fights to most games are a good idea as they add variety to the experience and design, but the boss fights in Penny’s Big Breakaway do the opposite. Instead the served as a negative distraction from the best parts of the game, which is the momentum based platforming as they introduced weird mechanics that were mostly frustrating. The boat boss fairly early on in the game as incorporates the control issues not working as intended, leading to one of the most frustrating boss fights of recent memory.
Is Penny’s Big Breakaway Good?
In an alternate universe, there is a directors cut of Penny’s Big Breakaway with refinements and some different design choices that puts it in the pantheon with the greatest 3D platformers of all time. Unfortunately, Penny’s Big Breakaway is held back from greatness by frustration due to lack of refinement, polish and the occasional odd design choice. However, the good news is that the positives greatly outweigh the negatives and during the moments where everything clicks together, Penny’s Big Breakaway is magical.