Penny's Big Breakway Review

This was a good time, I wasn't expecting much out of the game and I mainly played it at all because it was one of the few indie games that had a simultaneous console and PC release which I wish was more common among indie games.

I'll start with what I liked first, the game has a great movement system, probably one of the best in 3D platformers that I played in a while, I thought Hell Pie's grapple hook system was innovating but this game takes it to the next level where you don't need to find upgrades, and you can just swing in the air at any time by holding the square button, it just feels amazing to chain multiple jumps and then do a swing to land on a platform. I felt like generally felt like a fast and nimble character most of the time, and the sense of control I get with this movement system can almost feel unrivaled at times, there were times where I thought I was going to die but instead I barely managed to make it, all though there were also times where I did miss jumps too.

This leads to me to the next thing I liked, the checkpoint system, you will be dying pretty often in this game and the best part is that you never get overly chastised for it. The worst that can happen is you losing a lot of points but I'm not really in it for games for that so this never really bugged me, all the checkpoints felt reasonably spaced out and there was never a moment where it felt like the game gave me checkpoint starvation, which is great since checkpoint starvation is one of my least favorite tropes in games.

The camera system is innovating for a 3D platformer too, I'm surprised I can't name many 3D platformers with this system, it felt like the old God of War games in how you have no control over the camera and it constantly follows you, the camera isn't behind the character's back like in 3D Sonic or Spark the Electric Jester 2 either. It's s surprisingly good system and I welcome more of it in the genre.

What I dislike about the game is that it can be pretty buggy, I had a grappling hook bug happen where I'd fall off for no reason, but it seems that got patched after since I never fell off once after I picked up the game again later. However, I did clip through walls, and the floor a few times so there is that to deal with just be warned.

The controls are mostly fine but using the analog stick can be cumbersome especially during some sections where they are timed and you need to be precise, these aren't too common but it can get grating trying to say aim a bomb directly at a rock formation you want destroyed as you are moving through the level. It's nothing too bad. There is one annoying thing where trying to build up speed momentum and not having the character just move seems to be a herculan task. Sometimes, I held R2 and I would start to build some momentum and other times I held R2 and the character would just move instead, I never managed to figure this system out.

Finally, the bosses are quite weak, they aren't "terrible" but 95% of them can be beaten pretty easily too, every time I beat most of the bosses, I'm like, "that's it?" The patterns can be pretty simple and the methods of getting to damaging them are so simple that you can beat them in probably less than 10 minutes, with the exception of an Ape Escape styled race boss that happens late in the game, this part is the hardest and a massive difficulty spike, you not only need to win a race where the boss constantly teleports a few steps ahead of you but you need to collect more tokens than the boss as well. This almost made me quit the game, but I was able to beat him but it felt like a close call more than anything, I'm willing to bet this would be a stumping point for many people who play the game.

There is also that 3D platformer issue of accidentally missing a fast jump and constantly adjusting the left analog stick hoping you will make the landing but I'm sort of used to this.

Overall, Penny's Big Breakway isn't my favorite game but I had a good time considering I didn't know much of what I was getting into outside of hearing it was a 3D platformer and how much I gravitate towards the genre. I'd say it's up there with Spark the Electric Jester 2 as a high speed 3D platformer that does 3D Sonic better than 3D Sonic.