Penny’s Big Breakaway is a throwback to the, I would say, AA budget 3D platformers of the N64 and PS1 era. It’s not trying to emulate Super Mario 64 or Spyro the Dragon. Its inspirations seem to be more humble than that. Croc and the Legend of the Gobbos, Mischief Makers, Sonic Adventure, and Mystical Ninja 2 Starring Goemon — character action games that made the most of what they had — are closer in spirit to what Penny’s Big Breakaway is trying to evoke.
It’s a straightforward platformer that walks a rather slim line. If you lean on The Old Ways too heavily, the game could feel dated. Lean too far away and it risks losing the spark that made those old platformers compelling. The good news, at least in the game’s short and sweet preview build, is that Penny’s Big Breakaway almost completely nails the brief.
Deconstructing a genre
Penny’s primary mode of interaction is through her yo-yo, which can be fired using the X button on your Xbox controller (Square if you’re on a DualSense) or flicked in the desired direction using the right stick. This is an area that initially tripped me up. I’m so used to camera controls being on the right stick that my brain short-circuited when they weren’t there. Rather, camera controls are on the d-pad and, for the most part, can only be used to angle the camera slightly. This is because Penny’s Big Breakaway uses locked camera angles more often than it doesn’t.
It’s more forgiving than it sounds. I never felt like the camera’s positioning obscured my vision. It never prevented me from understanding what to do or where to go next. I confess, my desire to explore did get me into trouble once or twice — there’s a clear design expectation that you’ll stick to the golden path and not venture too far off. I found my way to an awkward corner of the first level, tucked away from the main road. There, I found a wall I could jump on and run along. At the end of that wall was a chasm. I couldn’t see the bottom of it.
Could it be a secret? A lifetime of playing old platformers told me, “Yes, jump in.” So I did! And I died. And yes, I was a bit miffed, but the game didn’t really lie to me, did it? The developers left a spot in the level they might not have expected me to go, but I did, and I brought my own ideas to the situation. So, I offer this as constructive feedback for the team at Evening Star: I saw quite a few of these enticing little gaps on my journey through the demo, and not one of them led me to a secret. Walling those off might prevent some player frustration down the line.
He Just Kept On Yo-ing
The thing that surprised me about Penny’s Big Breakaway was that it kept finding interesting things to do with a yo-yo. You can use it to bop enemies (or townsfolk). Spinning the right stick sweeps it around you to bop enemies or cut grass. You can use it to perform a mid-air dash. The yo-yo can also be anchored to nothing and used to swing across gaps in defiance of physics. You can use it to grab onto ziplines, and even ride it like a unicycle.
It’s quite cool, and each new use for the yo-yo took me by surprise. I’m really happy to see Evening Star playing in the space and thinking expansively about fun ways you can use a yo-yo. They don’t all make complete sense, but they are fun, and that’s honestly more important than anything so boring as realism.
In terms of the enjoyment you’re likely to derive from a game like this, I think it’s important to consider the target audience. Penny’s Big Breakaway feels pretty squarely targeted at the same younger audience as its inspirations. Older players will certainly enjoy it too, probably more from a sense of detached nostalgia than anything else, but it may not hold their gaze for long.
Final thoughts
I’m glad a game like Penny’s Big Breakaway exists. I’m glad someone is still thinking about 3D platformers in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty-four. It’s an effective throwback to a simpler time and understands what made its inspirations tick. It’s easy to think of these games as being in some ways archaic or uninteresting by modern standards, but there’s still such a thing as a simple pleasure. I think Penny’s Big Breakaway falls very neatly into that category. It isn’t perfect, but it was a pleasure to play and it sent me right back to an era of design I still have a lot of affection for. One to watch if you, like me, have a soft spot for the genre.
Preview conducted on PC with a preview build provided by the publisher. Penny’s Big Breakaway will launch on Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms this year.
Image: Private Division
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