Penny's Big Breakaway review

What is it? A colorful 3D platformer from much of the team behind Sonic Mania
Expect to pay £24.99/$29.99
Developer Evening Star
Publisher Private Division
Reviewed on Windows 11, Nvidia 3070 (Laptop), AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, 16gb DDR5 RAM
Steam Deck Playable
Multiplayer? Online Leaderboards
Link Official site

When Sonic Mania’s dev team reformed as indie studio Evening Star, it would have been easy for them to play it safe and deliver another speedy, Sonic-styled 2D platformer. Instead, Penny’s Big Breakaway is a deeply compelling, replayable experiment drawing equal inspiration from modern Sonic, 3D Mario and more than a bit of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Just sub the skateboard for world-class yo-yo tricks.

This unfamiliar blend of mechanics does take some time to get used to, with a steep learning curve as you memorize each level’s racing line and figure out the optimal moves to navigate it. It’s good, breezy fun the first time through (around six hours long), but repeat playthroughs are where Penny shines brightest thanks to a trick-chain scoring system that channels the best of Tony Hawk, encouraging obsessive mastery of each map.

Without any looming franchise history, Penny’s Big Breakaway opts for a light and fluffy premise. On a strange cartoon planet, aspiring clownlet Penny aims to make it big at the Imperial Gala, a talent showcase dominated by incumbent sumo overlord Emperor Eddie. After her mischievous magic yo-yo strips the Emperor of his clothes (hate when that happens), Penny goes on the lam, platforming round the planet pursued by the Emperor’s Penguin guards, possibly the least intimidating antagonists in recent gaming memory.

That’s not a criticism. The penguins (which make up about 90% of the enemies encountered, bosses aside) are a silly, charming swarm of waddling critters that make everything feel like a big cartoon chase sequence. You’ll only lose a life if five manage to cling to Penny at once, and they’re easily shaken off by a quick dash or attack, but