Penny’s Big Breakaway, to me, feels like a holy conglomerate of Super Mario Odyssey, Pizza Tower, and Sonic Mania. To anyone even remotely familiar with any of these games, this is a huge note of endearment. It hits the nail on the head with how it prioritizes the momentum based flow that Sonic Mania and Pizza Tower mastered, the “maintaining your speed while weaving around to find secrets without losing your combo” of Pizza Tower, and the open-feeling level structure and more nuanced moveset of Mario Odyssey. It exceeded my already lofty expectations in spectacular fashion that, while lacking the polish and finishing touches to be placed in the unabashed masterpiece department, offers moment-to-moment gameplay of such high caliber that its all too easy to ignore its few shortcomings.

Similar to 90% of people interested in this game, my own interest stems from the development team being the same as Sonic Mania’s. Let me lay out something really quickly: Sonic Mania is one of the definitive, tangible examples of proof we have that beings of divine ordinance do, in fact, exist. Everything from the game’s presentation to how its levels are constructed to take advantage of your momentum-based toolkits feels so meticulously and lovingly sculpted. Its one of my all time favorite games, period, and as someone who grew up playing the Genesis era of Sonic games I can’t even begin to describe how satisfying it was to see a group who was not only able to capture that magic again, but surpass it.

So naturally, I was stoked for Penny’s Big Breakaway. I had absolutely no reservations about picking it up just from the names attached to the work. To my complete lack of surprise, they hit it out of the park again with another immensely satisfying gameplay experience that scratches an itch that many other games aren’t really trying to hit on.

This is a 3D platformer, yes, but I think limiting it to that is honestly deceptive towards where it’s true strengths lie. In actuality, Penny’s Big Breakway is the Momentum based experience, with all of the moves and your arsenal and the winding paths wanting to take advantage of the fact that you rarely ever need to slow down. I will note that there’s absolutely a learning curve here, a bit more harsh than most modern platformers which have begun to gravitate towards more simple control schemes, but once it ‘clicks’…it really clicks. You realize that everything in Penny’s arsenal flows into every other move in her arsenal and then, before you know it, you’re chaining together longer and longer unbreaking combos and completely demolishing stages in record time. At times, you even feel “smarter” than the game, especially on repeat visits to stages where you start discovering shortcuts and how to get through that part that gave you trouble more efficiently. But the truth is that all of these “I’m so smart” moments are baked into the game’s design philosophy of making a level that initially feels very disjointed and confusing into something with a very clear, connected flow. It’s great stuff.

Also of note is that it’s a great example of a platformer that retains its consistency in quality from start to finish. There’s no fall-off with some of the later stages which a few of my favorite platformers have fallen victim to in the past and, in fact, I would go as far as to say that the later levels of PBB are where the game really shines.

The game’s shortcomings are relegated pretty strictly to things that all fit under the umbrella of “it maybe needed a couple more months in the oven”. The fixed camera (a bold choice for a modern 3D platformer btw, but it works) can cause some issues sometimes and leads to a few risky jumps that really shouldn’t be that risky. Collision with certain objects and platforms is just super janky and lead to more than my fair share of completely unjust deaths, including a few instances where I just straight up fell through the bottom of the map for no reason. Presentation wise I think the game flip-flops from being charmingly inviting and whimsical to…sort of ugly (but it’s clear that this is more of a budget issue and it doesn’t impact gameplay so I don’t care much). Honestly my biggest little nitpick that’s not technical is that there’s so many little dudes all over the map who are constantly saying things to you, and I want to stop and hear what they have to say but I also really don’t want to stop my zen mode constantly to let a textbox finish. It’s a really minor detail but it was a genuinely conflicting issue for me.

Thankfully, a patch can resolve most of these technical issues and they don’t really detract from how great the game is overall. Platformers have been killing it recently and I really want to continue communicating the message that “yes, we want more games like this. please.” Super excited to see what this talented team has in store for their next project!

it’s fine….it’s ok

‘gameplay’ itself is very dull and the story is executed in a very strange way. It feels like the skeleton within the shadow of something put together more competently.

some really cool set pieces though if nothing else. And I won’t lie I was a little moved at the final moment; sometimes, a text is all it takes.