When it comes to the current state of the video game industry, it’s bigger, and mostly a very negative bag. In the past couple of years, we’ve had many layoffs, canceled video games, and just all-around poor business practices from the industry. This unfortunately has left a bad mark on the AAA gaming industry and it only seems like the games these days that gain a lot of traction and creative freedom are ones made by smaller development studios or unexpected hits that take a different and new creative direction. This is the case with the newest 3D platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway developed by Evening Star who were developers who originally worked on the Sonic Mania video game, but departed from their former gaming studio to start a new one. With that being said, let’s find out whether or not their newest entry is worthy of all the praise it has been getting lately.
The story of Penny’s big breakaway is pretty simple. Penny is a performer who attends a royal audition for the Emperors next Palace Court performer however, her sentient yo-yo who has an appetite for snacks and mayhem humiliates the emperor by eating his clothes, which results in his public humiliation and Penny being labeled as a criminal. Now she is being hunted by the Emperor’s army of royal penguin guards as well as his top associates, now Penny has to do whatever it takes to escape punishment and figure out a way to clear her name only armed with her now cosmically sentient yo-yo.
The gameplay and world is very unique with the main character’s primary weapon and traversal mechanics being centered around her cosmic Yo-Yo that has her swinging, rolling, spinning, and even performing tricks to get around the various stages, enemies, and unlockable bonus missions this game has to offer. One such bonus mode in this game is called Time Attack which centers around basically the player trying to get through a stage as quickly as possible. Still, this mode is completely optional and doesn’t reflect the overall 100% completion score of the game. It’s pretty much just seeing how fast you can go to beat the stage for an online leaderboard. On the other hand, every stage does have a collectible that can be unlocked which is a postcard given to players after achieving a very high score at the end of each stage. These scores determine whether or not you gained enough points to unlock said postcard. The scores are based on how many civilians you help, how many collectible pieces the player finds, and how quickly players can speed through each of the many stages. By the end of each stage, there is an event known as a buster stage which has the player depending on which three-layered space they land on perform a small mini-game where Penny performs tricks using her yo-yo in a series of quick time events that help to rack up your final overall score for each stage. Some coins can be collected that unlock various power-ups and other bonuses within the in-game store.
Penny’s big breakaway is more in line with traditional 3-D platforming games. What originally constituted a 3-D platformer game was simply the player traversing through different and unique platforms/obstacles to get to the end of a stage. Sometimes there would be enemies to fight and other times it was just a matter of getting through the obstacles without losing all your characters’ lives or running out of time. Games like the Super Mario Brothers titles are a good example of what fans of the traditional 3-D platformer genre would consider a 3D platformer. In the modern gaming era however, while there are a few 3-D platform games out there the genre has fallen out of favor with the general gaming public with some platforming games being relegated to small indie titles rather than massive budgeted AAA titles. That’s why while I see this game being very popular amongst those who love the traditional genre I do not see this game being very popular with general audiences due to a couple of reasons one the gameplay at first is a bit difficult to get a handle of, and I am not the only one to share this sentiment as I have seen a couple of reviews that have also expressed that this game lacks a proper tutorial there are also times where the gameplay can get quite frustrating especially when considering that each stage times how fast the player can speed run the level which adds a bit more urgency which can result in anxiety over trying to both collect everything and complete the level in the quickest amount of time possible. The second issue I believe will be the deciding factor upon first glance from casual Audiences is the graphics. However, despite these two factors the game isn’t terrible. I can appreciate that this game brings back a genre that hasn’t been what it used to be for years.
Overall the game is a fun experience that accomplishes everything that is expected from a 3D platforming experience challenging/ frustrating at times but very accomplishing to complete and replay over and over again.
Score: 9 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5