Penny’s Big Breakaway is an indie 3D platformer created by the former Sonic Mania developer Christian Whitehead and his development studio, Evening Star. The game was shadow dropped at the Nintendo Partner Direct on February 22, 2024. It is also available on the PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows.
Penny’s Big Breakaway has Sonic in its DNA, and as I’ve been playing through it, I can see influence from both 2D and 3D Sonic games. This means, that the action is fast paced, the environments and colorful, and the levels play out in a particular way. To put it bluntly, if you like Sonic, you’ll probably like Penny’s Big Breakaway.
The story in the game is fed to the player throughout the experience, and it’s worth noting that the game has a quirky, attractive style, both in its art, and its story telling. However, things aren’t perfect. The platforming isn’t as precise as games from Sonic’s old rival, and things can get frustrating. Constantly having to restart sections because of bad controls and poor design choices really takes the fun out of the experience. The way the levels are divided does minimize this, but, for me, there were fun portions of the game, but this feeling was marginalized by the frustrating sections where I had to repeat parts.
Gameplay
In Penny’s Big Breakaway the levels are split into acts, similarly to the 2D Sonic games. This seems to be an efficient way to split up levels, and as a consequence, no level or part of a level feels like it overstays its welcome. Furthermore, there are regular checkpoints, and you are allowed to restart at said checkpoints as many times as you need.
There are eleven worlds in all, making for a sizable adventure. The gameplay is fast, Sonic style 3D platforming. Penny uses a yo-yo to swing around obstacles, and she stands, and then runs on the yo-yo to attain speed. It’s also reminiscent of Rodea: The Sky Soldier in that the yo-yo can act as a pointer, similarly to how you move around the game world. Using the Yo-yo to attack and move quickly is satisfying, however, it lacks precision. There are also power-ups such as a wrecking ball-like power-up that you obtain in the first world, and a hover power-up in the second. These mix up the gameplay and are fun additions. However, because the platforming isn’t precise, you end up floating around the place, missing ledges and falling to your death a little bit too often. When the gameplay does work it looks really cool, and the passage through areas is slick.
The levels have sections that are meant to be completed at speed, and other parts where it’s slower platforming, and after the first few levels you should have an idea of how things will play out. Again, the game has fun gameplay mechanics and the yo-yo is a fun tool to use. However, it’s easy to die cheaply (although, I wouldn’t say that I’m an expert player). Like in Sonic games, there seems to be routes through levels that vary depending on how skilled the player is. I think the better the player, the faster you will move though stages. To add to this, the most fun parts of the game are where you get the Chili power-up, and can speed through oceans, or lava fields, dodging obstacles. For me, those parts of the game, are much more fun, than when you are slowly platforming.
Once you play through the prologue, you’ll discover that the game’s main enemies, penguins, have been sent to arrest Penny, and this makes up a gameplay component. As you make your way through stages, at certain intervals, mobs of stylized penguins will be sent to capture Penny. You can destroy them by using your yo-yo, however, there are loads of them, so a combination of attacking, but also simply fleeing, is usually the best tactic. It’s a fun mechanic, and the scene where you discover that they’ll be trying to capture Penny, is ridiculous and hilarious.
Visuals and Story
The game uses a colorful, almost pastel style of art. Things run smoothly, and I barely noticed any frame rate drops. Although, the game did glitch on me a few times, with Penny becoming stuck in an animation loop cycle. However, this was quickly over, and the fast paced action continued. I only have the Switch as a modern console, but this is one of the prettiest games I’ve seen in a while. The titular character has a strange, but cool design, kind of a cross between Sonic and Rayman. So, in terms of the style, Penny’s Big Breakaway definitely hits where it should, and although the game is aimed at younger gamers, it gave me a laugh or two, more at concepts than specific jokes. It’s a fun game for anyone who likes Sonic-style 3D platformers.
Penny’s Big Breakaway has a world that is really well defined, and quite unique. The story is kind of like something out of Spongebob Squarepants (in a good way), and it’s stylish. In this respect it absolutely nails it. Once you are past the early parts of the game, there are storyline scenes spliced in between missions as well as in-game world building (such as text boxes above the heads of stylized NPCs) and it all works quite well.
The game has a nice soundtrack, reminiscent of similar games, and the sound effects fit with the odd style of the game. There’s variation in the worlds and variation in the gameplay of each world (there’s a quality set of levels that look like they might have been inspired by Super Mario Galaxy).
Conclusion
Overall, Penny’s Big Breakaway is a stylish 3D platformer with a novel world, that is limited by dodgy control and imprecise platforming. The game is frustrating at worst but sleek like Sonic 3 (on Genesis) at best. You can definitely tell that the head developer Christian Whitehead was involved with Sonic projects in the past. Penny as a character is really appealing, and comes across as a mix between Sonic and Rayman. The Yo-yo is crucial to gameplay and is equivalent to Kazooie in Banjo Kazooie. The art and sound in the game are great, and matches the gameplay. In terms of performance I’ve come across a few glitches and the game has frozen on me, but it’s definitely playable.
With 11 worlds and varied and challenging bosses, Penny’s Big Breakaway is a 3D platformer that is almost up there with the best. If this game had Sonic branding everyone would praise it to the hilt. The problem of cheap deaths are still there, but if you like fast paced 3D platforming you could do a lot worse than Penny’s Big Breakaway.
Penny’s Big Breakaway is available now on the Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. You can buy it on the Nintendo eShop.
The Review
Good
