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.
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.