Twin Stick platforming trickery just landed with the launch of Penny’s Big Breakaway
Big tricks, bright backgrounds, an army of angry penguins, and a sentient Yo-Yo might not be normal viewing for the weekly charts, but developer Evening Star and publisher Private Division are hoping that Penny’s new twin-stick 3D platformer is going to swing into a top slot. Published Coming to PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series systems later this year, Penny’s Big Breakaway is an inventive array of oddball ideas that mix Sonic-styled mechanics, skateboard trickery, and a delightfully silly set of ideas.
Story
Coming from the minds that made Sonic Mania the quintessential throwback to the console wars of the 1990s, Penny’s Big Breakaway is a new 3D platforming adventure that takes the gleefully irreverent tone of titles like Yooka-Laylee, Donkey Kong, and more but crafts a new character in a spot of bother. In the Land of Macaroon, a young performer and their cosmically transformed Yo-Yo, yes you heard, have come a little unstuck at a royal performance. Now the blustering monarch, some angry guests, and his trope of flightless friends are out to dispense some retribution. The only thing left to do is get running.
Full of Fun
Like many retro 3D platformers, this breakout is a boisterous endeavor. Painting the town purple, blue, and lurid shades of green, the animation and environmental designs unfold across a range of cartoonish concepts. Beginning in a carnival-tinged town full of ramps and rails through beachside resorts and trippy technology-themed levels, Penny and her Yo-Yo race, hop, jump, swing, and roll through a variety of level designs. There’s nothing overtly difficult in navigating the chasms, ramps, or platforms at first, and you will find more than one way to get from A to B. Don’t expect anything that will push the boundaries of 3D platforming design. Instead, the developers at the helm of this adventure take a familiar concept and add in a new twist. Much like Private Division’s Rollerdrome, it’s all about how you get where you’re going.
Penny’s compatriot in this chaotic chase is a Yo-Yo given powerful abilities and a personality of its own. Don’t think about it too much, just enjoy the inventive movement that it adds to each level. While mastering this contraption system isn’t always easy, it certainly stands out. Using both analog sticks on a controller, Penny can move around thanks to the left stick’s directional control, while moving the right stick triggers Yo-Yo to fire. Aside from smacking stuff, which you definitely do, this bright plastic plaything is used to keep Penny from getting caught. That might mean swinging across a chasm, twirling it around in the air to see off problems, or using one of the many in-game power-ups to avoid trouble. By trouble, I mean broods of angry penguins might catch you if you don’t learn to dash, swing, hang, double jump, and ride the Yo-Yo around the map. Don’t linger on the penguins too much. It’s as wonderfully silly as it sounds.
Control and Content
The addition of a twin-stick control system is a genuinely refreshing concept for this genre. While anybody more familiar with a D-Pad and action buttons can still swap to a different control scheme, levels are best experienced using the default setup. While shuffling Penny around isn’t overly difficult, mastering tricks flips, and spins is a whole other story. Whether it’s leaping into the air and swinging like a pendulum or firing Penny from a catapult, aerial movement can be just as challenging as it is fun. Spamming a dash or mounting Yo-Yo like a unicycle is easy enough, but being able to string together a range of stylish looking tricks, keeping momentum, and racking up big combo scores isn’t a total walk in the park. It takes precision, skill, great timing, and a camera that doesn’t hinder that effort.
That difficulty ceiling is pushed even higher by a camera that either leans heavily into the early era of 3D platforming or needs some work. I’m not sure which. Without player control of the view, Penny regularly goes missing behind environmental objects, runs around corners into obstacles that are not obvious to the player, or gets caught in situations that can’t easily be escaped. There are similar issues with map elements and objects, that sometimes left my antics stuck along the way.
Lasting Impressions
Despite that slightly unpolished finish, there are plenty of fun ideas wrapped up in this campaign. As Penny rushes through levels in story mode or tries to outrun the clock in time attack you might find Evening Star’s newest title riffing on Raiders of the Lost Ark when it uses a giant ball made out of angry penguins to run you down, comes crashing through walls with a cartoon mallet, turns Yo-Yo into a massive Bowling Ball, plays golf with cattle, or battles an angry captain with some loose screws. Despite a seemingly linear set of overworld levels, there’s a huge amount of thematic change, inventive mechanics, in game upgrades, and reasons to go replay the various game modes. Like many of the best games out of Private Division, Penny’s Big Breakaway seems frivolous but there’s tons of depth and plenty to do, all built around an ingenious concept.
There’s tons of potential for Penny’s Big Breakaway to be a timeless game if it manages to polish up the rough edges and marry the frivolity with the same sort of simple complexity that Rollerdome and Olli Olli World nailed before it launches on PC and console. If you like fun then keep an eye out for Penny’s stage debut on PC and console over on the official website.
