I'm checking out another indie game I've been anticipating for a while. BACKGROUND:
This game showed up in my radar thanks to one of Nintendo's indie presentations, and as I likely wrote in the blog entry for it, I was hooked on a specific aspect of the gameplay shown. I also learned later on that the devs are the team behind Sonic Mania (more on how I enjoyed that game here), which added to my excitement. Fast forward to a few months back, when another Nintendo presentation revealed that it was going to shadow drop. I resolved to buy the game then and there, but I ended up deciding to wait a little while instead. PLOT: Penny is a young lady who seeks to audition for the Gala and perform alongside Emperor Eddie, who's looking to spice up his annual event with new talent. Along the way, Penny finds a magic string that makes her yo-yo come to life, which is all well and good until said yo-yo causes chaos during her audition, angering the emperor. Now branded a fugitive from the law, Penny travels across the world to evade capture, as well as discover the truth behind the magic string. Overall, the story's a straightforward light-hearted romp, as the antagonist isn't really evil, and you don't really feel the sense that you're a fugitive during gameplay (since you can leisurely explore the world and none of the NPCs are hostile towards you). I can't really say I was invested in anything that was happening since stuff just kind of happens, but the ending was pretty wholesome. PRESENTATION: The vibrant cartoon world of this game is a delight between its fun character designs and colorful locales, which take care to mix up the usual platformer world tropes by blending traditional areas like the desert world with other elements. Where the visuals falter is in terms of graphical fidelity, as faraway objects look noticeably blurry, which made me feel like I was playing the game with my glasses off. I also found issue with how the game approached shadows, which may seem like a silly thing to fixate on, but in a 3D platformer like this, they're extremely important. Your character's shadow should be the most reliable visual indicator for you to tell you where you'll land in games like this, and the fact that shadows only appear when I'm relatively close to the surface (and not on every surface, either) made sections that demand more precision unnecessarily stressful. The music is an absolute highlight of this game, with plenty of catchy tunes to accompany you as you traverse the game's many worlds. I particularly enjoyed the more jazz-leaning tunes, but the other tracks that leaned more towards other genres were great, too. GAMEPLAY: Penny's Big Breakaway is a 3D platformer where you use Penny's trusty yo-yo to maneuver around obstacles and interact with the environment. With the yo-yo, you can double jump, dash, zoom on the ground, swing and suspend midair, and even vault over ledges with simple inputs. I saw the potential in fun movement when I watched these mechanics in the reveal trailer, and I'm glad to say that it is just as satisfying to experience firsthand. Chaining these moves together leads to a satisfying flow to traversing the world, and the game even has a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater-style scoring system which gives you points for combos. You can also throw out your yo-yo and do a sort of spin move, which is how you interact with specific objects like switches or stop enemies in their tracks. This game isn't really combat-oriented (I'll get into that later), so you'll be using these moves mostly to interact with things. For the most part, the controls work perfectly fine, but there are more than a few interactions that lead to frustrating moments. These include inconsistent behaviors (particularly for the yo-yo ride move and the ledge grab move, which can lead to disruptions to your momentum or even your death), occasional eaten inputs (which could likely be made worse if you have a busted controller), and a few bizarre interactions (like when the spin move hits certain objects). It's unfortunate to say that I encountered such problems more often than I would have liked, and stuff like this really gets in the way of otherwise satisfying movement. It's also bizarre to me that I can't remap the controls, because the dash and the attack button being mapped to the same button has caused me trouble many times. I don't even know why the dash can't be its own button, considering all the possible commands in the game don't even use all the buttons of a standard controller (numerous inputs can be used for a single command). As opposed to a sandbox-style 3D platformer where the name of the game is exploration, the game's structure is more akin to Mario Galaxy, where the action is more linear and you need to get from point A to point B. There is the occasional bonus area and alternate path, but you won't get any Mario World-style secret exits or anything like that. What may end up jarring for some players is the fact that the camera for this game is fixed (I refuse to count what you can do with the D-pad as camera movement, because it isn't meaningful enough to be useful). This makes exploration a pain in the ass, as you can't backtrack without risking a nasty fall into the abyss. It also makes navigating more precise platforming sections tricky, because sometimes you can't see ahead to where you need to jump. I don't think it would have hurt the game to have some camera movement, even if the point of the game is to traverse linearly and not so much to explore and look around. The fixed camera also makes aiming for certain things with your yo-yo tough, but thankfully moments that require such aim aren't as common. The fact that you can throw the yo-yo in a specific direction with the right stick helps with this as well. Speaking of exploring, this game doesn't take kindly to you testing its boundaries, as certain surfaces are simply not made to be jumped on (you end up in a never-ending freefall animation, which is infuriating), and some supposedly solid areas like walls and floors do not have collision (and I have clips of more than one instance where I quite literally ran into such places). Again, I understand that the point of the game is more on the traversal aspect of the levels than it is the exploration aspect. I'm totally fine with that, but I think some efforts could have been made to block areas off so other players don't feel punished for indulging their sense of exploration. A lot of the level elements are standard stuff for experienced platformer players, like moving platforms, bounce pads, slippery ice, conveyor belts, hazards like spikes and fire, and switches that activate/toggle level elements. Where more of the fun lies are the elements that are designed around the yo-yo, like poles and ropes you can hook to, quarter-pipes and slopes that help you build up speed and height with the zoom move, screws that twist when you do the spin, and more. Though I found that some of the elements aren't always 100% responsive when you fling the yo-yo towards them, these additional mechanics generally work well in tandem with Penny's innate movement options to keep the flow going. You also run into the occasional power-up, like one that lets you zoom across hazardous surfaces like lava without slowing down, a couple designed to break specific blocks, and one that propels you into the air when you spin. These are sadly restricted to specific sections and typically expire after a set time, but they're fun for the brief time you get to mess with them. There isn't much in the way in terms of enemies, as you only really run into Emperor Eddie's penguin army. All they do is dogpile you, and if five of them manage to get their hands on you, you lose one hit point. You can dash, swing, or spin to get them off you, but they typically don't die unless you've knocked them off multiple times or you send them into the abyss. They're really just mild annoyances that you're better off running away from more than anything, so I feel like you can take them or leave them. Some of the game's worlds end in some sort of boss encounter, though those are pretty simple as well. Simply interact with the appropriate objects to create openings, avoid the highly telegraphed attacks, and navigate any additional platforming sequences until you win. I personally enjoyed the less traditional boss encounters more, like the chase sequence at the end of the first world, and a platformer race. There are eleven worlds total, though the level count for each is pretty disjointed. The first world has about six or seven levels, while there are worlds that only have two or three. There isn't really a storyline justification as to why Penny stays in some worlds longer than others, so this approach just ends up making the overall pace of the campaign a bit uneven. I didn't mind this all that much, but this uneven pace is noticeable, and I can see it being jarring for some players. While there are plenty of ways you can take damage in this game (deliberately designed or otherwise), you do have four hit points, falling into pits only counts as a point of damage, and you can pick up healing items on occasion. Even if you manage to hit zero, you only really lose points, and you can restart at the last checkpoint. All the regular levels have six collectibles: three NPC challenges and three bolts that you can collect. The latter is more straightforward since they're more your traditional "hidden" optional collectible; all you have to do is keep an eye out and try to explore alternate paths to spot them (or the area leading to them). Only a handful of these are tricky to find or get to, but it's nonetheless satisfying to get them all. The other collectibles involve fulfilling NPC requests, which can take on many forms. Some of them involve collecting or breaking scattered items in an area, others involve hitting a certain score with a single combo, while others have you deliver an item to another NPC without getting hit. These are all fine as they are, but sometimes the game blindsides you with challenges that are time-sensitive, and not only are you given zero warning, you're also locked out of retrying if you fail unless you restart from the last checkpoint. This game conditioned me to avoid walking near the challenge NPCs (the challenges trigger automatically when you're close enough) until I was ready because of this, which kind of grinds the pace to a halt. At the end of each level, you can land on one of three levels of the end platform, which you can think of like the flagpole in classic Mario (the higher you land, the greater the bonus). Once you land, you're treated to a quick-time event minigame where you input the specified buttons or directions to make Penny perform a yo-yo routine. There's no real reason to go for this unless you want the points (or you just want the satisfaction of landing on top), but I think it's fun. Speaking of points, each regular level has a score threshold you can aim for to unlock pictures in the scrapbook, which you can also think of as bonus collectibles. They're worth collecting if you like looking into concept art, but that's about all you get for hitting the high score (other than a sense of accomplishment, I suppose). The collectible bolts in each level are actually used for something, as they're spent to unlock the Star Globe levels. There are 15 of these you can unlock, and they're probably the best showcase of the game's platforming. The Star Globes are super challenging levels that mix and match the game's various mechanics, and it's all about getting to the end. I found these levels a ton of fun both in terms of the challenge and the fact that they're the best place to get that flow of movement I enjoy so much. If you're the speedrunning type, you can play all the levels in Time Attack mode. It's basically the same thing, but you're just trying to clear them as fast as you can, and your best times are tracked on each level's scoreboard. VERDICT: I love a lot of what Penny's Big Breakaway has to offer, especially its satisfying 3D platformer movement and how the bulk of its levels are designed around creating a fun flow of movement. However, I feel this game could have used a bit more time in the oven to smooth out its control issues, the weirdness of some of its levels, and the problems I had with the camera. I had fun with what I played here, but I must admit that I didn't love this as much as I thought I would due to its issues, and that this game has the potential to be much better than it currently is. If you don't mind the caveats I mentioned, I think there's an enjoyable 3D platformer experience in this game that's accessible even to casual players (the inputs are easy to learn and few levels demand insane precision). That said, I think it may be more worthwhile to wait for any patches to come around before giving this game a go, because I don't feel comfortable recommending a game with issues that can interfere with the core gameplay and affect one's enjoyment of it. You can check out the game on Steam right here: Penny’s Big Breakaway on Steam (steampowered.com) Listen to the game's soundtrack on Spotify: Penny's Big Breakaway (Original Game Soundtrack) - Album by Tee Lopes, Sean Bialo | Spotify - end -
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June 2024
Derryck
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