Fun enough game. Unpolished areas of the presentation were a bit distracting (namely how shiny everything is), but the energetic, Dreamcast soundtrack more then made up for that.
Phasing through the ground is a bit harder to look past, but I think I'd be more bothered by that if I had the desire to perfect this game when it comes to time trials and score. Plus it only happened a handful of times.
Coins and boss fights felt like it was more of an obligation then anything. Really only one (maybe two) bosses had both interesting designs that made great use of the movement systems. Coins on the other hand are used for a shop that has some very menial effects, to the point that I didn't buy a single thing once. It's honestly not too great to have a prominent collectable feel boring to collect.
Really your here to speedrun through the many stages on offer, utilizing the momentum of your dashes and slopes so that your yo-yo ride ability can achieve some ludicrous speeds to skip large sections of the level. The many options you have while airborne can also allow for some clever shortcuts, whether it's simply dashing then comboing with a mid-air swing to fly over several platforms, to figuring out how to use a yo-yo bounce plus wall jump to reach heights that almost seem unintentional.

For what it is, I recommend you take your time your first time through, since mastering the physics won't be a quick learning process. Plus don't go in expecting a platforming masterpiece, it really isn't going for something grand or exceptional. Just sit back and enjoy the show for what it is rather then what it isn't.

Movement took some serious getting used to but once I did I realized just how much cool shit you can do in this game. However, even by the end there were some things that never quite felt consistently good (riding on the yoyo, jumping on the yoyo, stuff like that) and there's a fair bit of unpolished areas here. Still, a great time if you're willing to put in the effort.

Edit: fantastic soundtrack too. Tee Lopes is on it, that's a given I know but even other composers like Sean Bialo were COOKING

Hearing that Penny's Big Breakaway were the Sonic Mania dev's take on a 3D platformer had me having a keen interest for a while. Evening Star prove they don't need to ride the coattails of a big IP to produce a banger.

The game is mostly comparable to Super Mario 3D world offering a linear fixed camera level layout with optional objectives and collectables found along levels. The gameplay is something of a mix between Mario Odyssey and Sonic, with Penny's Yoyo feeling like Cappy with the throw/swing/bounce combos you can do with it, and rolling on the yoyo feeling like Sonic in ball form. It takes a bit of time to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it feels very free-flowy.

While I did enjoy the gameplay, it felt like it was missing something. Like it kinda felt sluggish a lot of times. The physics feel a bit too tight and could have benefited from loosening up a bit, embracing the looseness of Sonic Adventure and Mario 64, but the physics feel closer to Mario Galaxy. It hindered my enjoyment a bit when I wanted to zip through levels just to get a collectable I missed, but was hit with sort of a speed limit.

The visuals are amazing. I love the pastel Sega Saturn inspired worlds, and you can tell this was originally going to be some sort of classic Sonic inspired game before they made it into their own thing.

The music is mostly meh with some standout tracks.

There is a good amount of content here for a 3D platformer, and you will be spending a good chunk of time in this game if you intend to go for the 100%, which is the recommended way to play this game.

The most enjoyable part for me were the special levels which felt like Mario Sunshines secret levels. Here the gameplay shined the most to me, where it was still doable but a bit challenging, whereas standard levels were a bit too open and bit on the easy side. I think Penny's Big Breakaway would benefit more from having linear challenge based levels like Crash bandicoot, based on my enjoyment of the special levels.

Great game with a lot of potential, will be keeping my eye on more games by Evening Star knowing they have the dog in them to deliver us a 5 star platformer one day.