Penny’s Big Breakaway Review: The Yo-Yo Master

To say that Sonic Mania was an astonishing success would be an understatement. It was the most acclaimed game the Sonic brand has ever seen in half a decade. Sonic Mania was so good it made the game it was meant to tie into look like garbage by comparison. It was a true labor of love, by fans, for fans. Sega would have been insane not to go forward with a Sonic Mania 2. But alas, both parties decided that that wasn’t what they wanted. Instead, lead developer Christian Whitehead went on to found his own studio and make his own stab at a massive platforming franchise. Though it’s easy to assume skullduggery on the part of Sega, both parties are still on great terms, so that’s nice.

The lack of a proper Sonic Mania 2 stings, but this might actually be a good thing. After all, one of the only major criticisms of Sonic Mania was that it played things very safe. It had copious amounts of nostalgia key jingling. With their own original IP and a new extra dimension to play around with, that will no longer be an issue. The developers at the newly re-christened Evening Star are here with their own, bold new attempt at a platformer, now in 3D. Does Penny manage to “Break Away” from the oppressive, busybody management of their former corporate overlords, or does Penny’s Big Breakaway fall apart without the guiding hand of the corpos managing it?

Penny’s Big Breakaway is available now for Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam for $29.99.

Story: She Just Kept On Yo-ing

It’s an (incredibly disturbing) fact that many children nowadays want to be influencers. Sure, it sets them up for failure and a life of disappointment and anger, but it’s easy to see why so many of them want that. It’s the ability to be loved and famous, to share what makes you special with the entire world. And this is also what drives Penny, the hero of our story.

Penny sees a flyer for an audition, the winner shall feature at the largest gala on Planet Macaroon, with no less than Emperor Eddie as her partner. Wasting no time, Penny sneaks inside the palace and shows her stuff, immediately winning the heart of the Emperor. All would go well, were it not for the fact that Penny’s newly-sentient Yo-Yo attacks the Emperor, and he sends his penguin army to apprehend the two of them. Penny goes on the run, traveling all across the planet as she fights to clear her name and understand exactly what makes her Yo-Yo so special.

The game’s cast is lovable and full of weirdos, but in a good way.

The game is effectively a playable Saturday morning cartoon, so the story is largely inconsequential. It’s all devoted to being silly and charming rather than building a compelling narrative, though that is hardly a bad thing. The game has a very eccentric cast of characters with very outlandish designs, they’re all immediately memorable. The outlandish nature of the game’s world is further highlighted by the various sidequests that NPCs have you do. From collecting beach balls, performing stunt challenges, or having to deliver roses to someone before their anniversary, the game’s NPCs are consistently amusing to meet.

Gameplay: Roll When You Land

Penny’s Big Breakaway, if nothing else, feels very unique. This absolutely feels like the product of a team that was creatively stifled during the production of Sonic Mania. Now that they’re free from the soulless bean counters at Sega, they can let their imagination run wild. This is immediately visible even from Penny’s base moveset, heavily making use of her Yo-Yo.

The penguins are relentless in their pursuit of Penny.

Platformers are best when they manage to take an idea and run with it, emphasizing fun over practicality, and Penny’s Big Breakaways excels at this. Penny has a wide variety of different maneuvers she can perform with her Yo-Yo, from using it as a weapon, a grappling hook, a vehicle, and more. Penny’s base moveset is incredibly fun to play around with, and the game does an excellent job of encouraging you to play around with it. There’s a ton of hills for Penny to build up speed while riding her Yo-Yo, and a combo-based scoring system to ensure that you move through these areas as stylishly as possible. 

She Never Scored

Scoring systems can be a very touchy subject in gaming, and Penny’s Big Breakaway is no different. I love the fundamentals of this system, and how it encourages you to play stylishly. The core of the scoring system is in the Ride button, where Penny can ride on her Yo-Yo like with Kirby’s wheel ability. Landing on your feet ends your combo, but landing in Ride mode will allow you to extend your combo indefinitely and rack up a huge score.

Riding across water is satisfying, but difficult to control at times.

The score system is completely broken, sadly. Stages are not timed, and there’s nothing stopping you from just finding a flat patch of land and building up a massive combo in relative safety. Scoring the way the game intends you to, exploring levels for items, completing bonus challenges, and navigating stylishly, is ruined by an obnoxious bug where checkpoints will randomly reset your score to 0, and you have to jump into a pit to get it back. This goes doubly as nearly every stage has at least one do-or-die challenge, where the only way to try again if you fail is by reloading from your last checkpoint. Despite my misgivings, it’s better to have a scoring system that’s generally broken in the player’s favor than a scoring system that’s wholly broken.

Creativity Abounds

Another place where creativity thrives in this game is the level design. The game is largely devoid of the typical level tropes one would expect from a 3D platformer. Even when typical level themes are here, there’s usually some sort of twist to it. The industrial area is surrounded by beautiful blue quicksand, the water area is a giant spa, and the lava area is a tropical restaurant. Levels do a great job at integrating Penny’s core moveset while incorporating their own gimmicks. The only real complaint I have about the game’s levels is that their distribution is odd. Some levels have a boss, some don’t, some have two acts, and some are stretched out to a whopping four acts. I think things would have been slightly better if they had been more consistent.

Can’t think of many other games that have an outer space library, now can you?

The levels have a myriad of different obstacles, though enemy variety is sorely lacking. Emperor Eddie’s penguin army is easily dealt with. They mostly just attempt to dogpile on Penny and capture her, and can be easily shaken off by just jumping and swinging away. Running away from them can be satisfying, but there are very few enemies aside from them. You don’t meet another proper enemy type until the evil puppets in zone 6, halfway through the game.

Graphics/Sound: Yo-Yo Crimes

The Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe of the game’s story is also reflected in its visuals. Penny’s Big Breakaway uses a very bright and saturated color palette, combined with a simple, low poly aesthetic. Character animation is very exaggerated and expressive, especially in cutscenes, be they animated or in-engine. The game, simply put, looks beautiful, and some of the views that you get at the beginning of stages are breathtaking. The game also has you traveling down zip lines a lot, providing yet more opportunities for beautiful views of the game’s world.

You are right, electrical worker, it is a magnificent view.

Camera control is not the best, sadly. The game defaults to complex controls, where you can aim Penny’s Yo-Yo with the right analog stick. I never used the right stick for attacks outside of the spin move which requires it, but that means the right stick can’t be used for the camera. You have to use the D-Pad for it instead, which is so inconvenient as to be basically useless. You generally don’t need precise camera control as the levels are quite linear, but several setpieces would be a lot easier if you had better camera control.

The music is similarly outstanding, with an energetic, bombastic soundtrack full of memorable tunes. The songs are incredibly catchy, perfectly suiting the cheerful vibe that the game has. My only problem is that I wish there was more music. You only get one song per zone, and, as mentioned before, hearing the same song four times in a row can get rather old.

The only other bug that I noticed was Penny sometimes getting stuck in the terrain. It only ever happened in the first world, and it only ever happened when I would have fallen in a pit anyway, so it didn’t hurt me at all.

Penny’s Big Breakaway was reviewed for Nintendo Switch using a key provided by tarabrunoPR.com