With its momentum-based movement and Sega Genesis color palette, Penny’s Big Breakaway proudly wears its influences on its sleeves. Rich in charm and cleverly designed levels, perfect for zipping through quickly enough to make even Sonic The Hedgehog dizzy, this homage to a bygone era of platforming only trips in its dedication to feeling like an old game. But if you look past its nostalgic inconveniences, you’ll find a short-but-sweet 3D platformer with clever platforming design and high replay value in equal measure.
You play as Penny, a yo-yo-wielding street performer whose dog-like sentient yo-yo embarrasses the wrong person and puts a target on their backs, sending Penny on her big breakaway. This yo-yo unlocks handfuls of abilities that aid Penny in her globe-trotting adventure through Macaron. In addition to a short double-jump and swinging from the yo-yo in midair for some extra momentum and distance, Penny can perform a quick dash that lets you build up momentum quickly. She can also ride her yo-yo to take advantage of that built-up momentum to really tear through each level.
Sure, you could take it easy and smell the roses, but these levels are so fine-tuned to zip through at a breakneck pace that it’s hard to resist the urge to bolt to the finish and grind out high scores and good times on each level. But Penny’s Big Breakaway makes sure to reward you for slowing down with loads of side missions and collectibles that each provide their own sense of accomplishment. And with varying types of challenges that put your speed and platforming prowess to the test, I never got bored by taking things easy.
The only times I ever felt unrewarded or annoyed by this game was when its somehow both vague and rigid rules cropped up at the worst times. Just when I felt like I’d mastered something, I found a new place for the same mechanic to fail. And this issue is never more clear than during the boss fights in Penny’s Big Breakaway. At their best, they’re white-knuckle platforming challenges that had me on the edge of my seat, rabidly throwing myself at each boss. At their worst, they hinge on a mechanic that isn’t fleshed out or polished enough to successfully let me do what I’m trying to do.
For example, Penny’s second boss fight has you taking on a pirate captain on their ship, but in order to reach the captain, you need to ride your yo-yo on the water’s surface while dodging incoming attacks. But if you slow down too much, you’ll sink and lose a life. If you slow down too much, Penny starts skipping across the water and you’re supposed to run into a ring that allows you to pick up speed. The catch here is that once Penny starts skipping, you can’t get back to her normal skimming state without executing a tricky jump. Old platformers (especially old 3D platformers) are rife with these kinds of frustrating limitations on what does and doesn’t work. Limited hardware and the untested boundaries of what defines a good 3D platformer were viable excuses decades ago, but time and time again we’ve seen that the best thing a 3D platformer can do is to provide challenge and resistance in its level design, and not its movement.
That old vibe isn’t all bad, though. Penny’s Big Breakaway is colored like a Sega Genesis game; stunningly bright and colorful with satisfyingly vibrant palettes that populate every level and world make it pop right off your screen. And with one of the best contemporary videogame composers in Tee Lopes, Penny’s vibes will draw you in even if its retro sensibilities can be a bother.
But beyond its vibrant levels, awesome soundtrack, and clever mechanics, Penny’s Big Breakaway gave me something I never expected; it helped me to understand why people like Sonic The Hedgehog. That’s not to say that I didn’t know how to play Sonic—hell, I’ve sprinted and spin-dashed through plenty of them. But for some reason, that weird little hedgehog never sunk his teeth into me. Maybe it’s because most platformers that I’ve played just don’t feel like that. Or maybe it’s because I didn’t like the sense of friction between feeling encouraged to go fast and the highly vertical levels that beg you to explore every nook and cranny.
Whatever it was, I never felt compelled by the series beyond its cultural impact as a goldmine for memes and its killer soundtracks. Where I happily sipped the nostalgic Kool-Aid for other mascot platformers despite not being around for or able to remember the age I’m being sold on, I just never got Sega and Sonic Team’s approach to movement. Developer Evening Star was founded by people who worked on Sonic Mania like Christian Whitehead. Needless to say, these folks are the experts on what made the classic Genesis games so impactful, memorable, and fun. And platforming as Penny through her day-glo adventure in levels that take their cues from the layered ethos found in classic Sonic The Hedgehog games while incorporating pacing and mechanical ideas that feel more inspired by Super Mario Galaxy or 3D World bridged a gap I didn’t know existed.
Penny’s Big Breakaway helped something click for me. For a game whose look and feel are so innately tied to the legacy of a franchise I’ve never really liked all that much, this is an impressive feat to me. In the same way that throwing someone into the deep end with a popular artist’s experimental album before showing them the artist’s more traditional and accessible work that won them the credit and goodwill to make something avant garde, jumping into classic Sonic games without a primer in a more familiar setting was never the answer.
It’s already been a busy year for game releases, but I’m so glad I took time off from the high-stakes, melodramatic adventures of ecoterrorists or the comically action-packed exploits of galactic fascist pawns for Penny’s good-ol’-fashioned sense of fun. Here’s a game that’s not just worth playing, but replaying and finding every little secret. Even if its retro vibes and dated designs can be frustrating, they account for pennies out of each successful dollar that Penny’s Big Breakaway cashes in thanks to its sense of speed, charming art direction, and clever innovations.
Penny’s Big Breakaway was developed by Evening Star and published by Private Division. Our review is based on the Switch version. It’s also available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Charlie Wacholz is a freelance writer. When he’s not playing the latest and greatest indie games, competing in Smash tournaments or working on a new cocktail recipe, you can find him on Twitter at @chas_mke.