Penny's Big Breakaway announced!

[Shiny Gems]

This is made by the team behind Sonic Mania, by the way.

[Salamander]

Did the audial equivalent of a double-take when they said this was by the Sonic Mania team, but I can see it.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

It looks gorgeous!

[Wraith]

 

The highlight of the direct for me, a stylish new 3D platformer from the developers of the best Sonic game in over two decades. Momentum based gameplay finally realized in 3D with a charming new art direction and character as the face of it.


Everything about this game oooze's style, the blend of old and new going on with the yo-yo mechanics has me hooked. Everything looks so snappy that I can't wait to see how it controls and what type of depth you can wring from it.

[Marcello]

The moment I saw the key art, I was interested, then when they confirmed it was 3D platformer it rose and when they said it's made by Evening Star even more so. 

It looks great. Love the music, too! I hope this comes to all consoles. 

[PC the Hedgehog]

I had honestly forgotten that Whitehead and crew said they were working on a 3D platformer, but here it is! If they can tackle a 3D platformer as well as they tackled Mania, this game will be an absolute treat.

[Sonicka]

To be honest, initially my mind had written this one off as "oh look, another generic (but very playable) looking steam platformer coming to Switch, I have so many of these already so I'll add it to my Wishlist".

But then they clarified who the developers were. 

This in of itself is good and bad. I did immediately sit up and take note of what was going on here with the visuals, the music (oh man... Dynamite Headdy vibes here WOOOW) and of course the translation of momentum physics the team are known for into 3D. However... it shouldn't be the legacy developers namesake that makes me sit up and listen - it should have been the gameplay and entire vibe of the trailer as a whole. And had I not heard it was by Evening Star, I probably would have remained whelmed in my seat.  

I'm also not a fan of the main character's design, (like, at all), but that's just personal preference and I can get over this. The visual aesthetics are ...interesting, very 2D/Retro translated into 3D, but weirdly I feel very mixed on this too, I don't know if it's the openness of the level design making this a basic looking drawback or just that I've played so many similar looking throwback platformers. So it didn't "wow" me if that makes sense. 

That being said, I don't have much doubt that the gameplay will be top tier (and they almost always are in these Indie 3D darlings). So there is a lot to look forward to here.

I suppose the Trailer just didn't win me over - but hopefully I'll be proved wrong on all fronts when it releases. 

[TheOcelot]

Some new (brief) gameplay footage:

Sounds like this soundtrack is gonna have some absolute bangers.

[Terramax]

Initially, I really wasn't digging the art and especially the character design. HOWEVER, the moment I saw actual gameplay, i was sold!

This looks like the long await sequel to Billy Hatcher and the Giant egg. The movements, along with the further drawn back camera. Oh, and the fact that the characters are all chibi looking. I feel as if this is what Yuji Naka should've aimed for with Balan Wonderworld.

VERY excited for this title. I sure hope it comes out, physically, on Switch. But I get the feeling it'll be digital only, at least in Japan.

[TheOcelot]

More brief gameplay clips:

 

[Celestia]

Here's about 55 minutes of gameplay featuring some Q&A with the developers! They show off levels from the first world and a few from the middle(!) of the game.

And some music previews:

 

[Sonictrainer]

We have a new animated trailer

Quote

Meet the star cast of Macaroon! From Evening Star and Private Division, Penny's Big Breakaway is coming early 2024 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Wishlist now: https://pvtdi.vision/3N8uEVp
 
Get ready to join Penny and Yo-Yo as they make their grand escape and face-off against a colorful cast of Bosses, including: 

Sailor Sheila: Master of the diabolo, this seafaring rival is ready to contend for her place as top performer at the royal palace!

Mr. Q: This mind-bending magician and expert scientist has been described by some as a “man of many faces”!

The Taboo Artist: This avant-garde, once-elite performer has a love for fine art and a skill for puppeteering!

Judge Rufus: Resolute and by-the-book, this member of the Royal Court lays down the law in Macaroon!

Emperor Eddie: This stubborn ruler is out for retribution after Penny and Yo-Yo’s disastrous performance, and his army of penguins are at his every beck and call!

 

[Sonictrainer]

We have a gameplay video and interview from Game Informer

Quote

Following the release of Sonic Mania (and its various follow-up versions), director Christian Whitehead and friends decided to start developer Evening Star to do one of the most difficult things in video games: create a brand new original property. Penny's Big Breakaway is an original character in a unique platformer and we had a chance to go hands on with ahead of its release next year. Join Game Informer's Wesley LeBlanc and Kyle Hilliard as they play a few levels and discuss what's potentially cool about the game.

 

[Sonicka]

Wow, so this game is shadow dropping today then!? 

Time to check out if PBB matches up to the hype! :D 

Edited February 21 by Sonicka

[Kittea]

Let’s go, surprise drop!

Wish I could pick it up today, but I’m going to have to wait a bit.

[Sonictrainer]

Quote

 

Penny’s Big Breakaway is AVAILABLE NOW! Swing, whirl, ride & soar your way to a breakout performance all while evading the Emperor’s penguin army!

 

[Cayenne]

I will wait for a Steam sale. The game is very expansive in my country and I'm completely broke now. : (

[JezMM]

Given it an hour or so, it's pretty dang fun, very good polish.  The controls can be pretty finnicky and wild - it's VERY easy to fly off the course but also very easy to get back on thanks to an abundance of air moves you can do.  The level design is nice and it has that good chaotic Katamari energy.

My only gripes so far is that it's a little easy to get hung up on the invulnerable NPCs littering the stages, especially when trying to run away from penguins, I feel they should have just let us bat them about like anything else.  Beyond that, the soundtrack, amazing as Tee Lopes' work is as usual, is a bit repetitive.  In World 1 at least, the same bombastic song plays on all four of the main levels, and it becomes a little exhausting to listen to for 40 minutes straight.  If they didn't have the budget for more than one song per world, I kinda wish they had done the Mario thing by having the same amount of different songs but alternated throughout the game.  We'll see how that pans out across the whole experience, I guess.

[Cuz]

You know this didn't really interest me but now that it's out it seems kind of fun.

[Sonicka]

I’ve got to be honest (and I hate to say it) but I wish I stuck with my original gut feeling and waited for a sale. I am very much regretting impulse purchasing this already.

There are elements of PBB which are strikingly detailed for the era it is representing, the gameplay and artstyle really add a layer of nostalgia to proceedings with its early 90’s 3D look. This is for better and for worse.

It’s also been pointed out to me that this runs at 30fps on Switch. And whilst I didn’t notice this at first, that actually is quite disappointing. It’s completely fine, don’t get me wrong, but I hope they can patch this up in the future because it doesn’t exactly “look” like a title that pushes the hardware to not be able to obtain 60fps as standard - something which I do feel reactionary / action platformers benefit from more than most genres.

Also agree with you@JezMM with regards to the soundtrack, I’m already fed up of the World 1 music 3 levels in, hopefully either this improves (I know it does from the samples released) or there are worlds with rotating tunes later on. 

I think that my main gripes are the fixed camera angles (this isn’t bad - but feels oddly… restrictive?). It has also caused me so many pitfalls and deaths in world one alone when I accidentally end up misaligning my position due to the angle change mid scoot / jump, not to mention using the yoyo (which is also controllable by the right thumb-stick… which I keep thinking is for the camera) so this flings me off stage. Actually, accidentally flinging myself off the edge is something I tend to do all too frequently regardless of input. I’m really hoping this is just a me issue and that I need to simply adjust to the control scheme. 

But yeah, something isn’t quite clicking for me yet - hopefully it will in later worlds and I’ll have that “it all makes sense now” moment where practise makes for perfect runs and fun combos. But so far I can’t help but feel this would have worked much better as a 2D platformer to roll around with (ironically) instead of this 3D take which feels slightly at odds with itself in certain sections of the game. 

[ZinogreVolt]

If you're on the fence about this game, I'd say wait for a sale. It's excellent but the game is not in good shape from a polish standpoint. I can barely go a full stage without running into softlocks or bugs (playing on Switch fwiw). It needed at least a few extra months in the oven. Personally I'm gonna put it on hold till most of its issues have been sorted.

[Jango]

Game's really fun and endearing in my opinion. The music is excelent, but I 100% agree it can get repetitive after listening to it 4 times in a row. Running away from the penguins is WACKY, it's so purposely unpolished that it becomes fun because of that. Complete silliness in a good way. Took me a few levels to get the hang of the controls, threw myself off the stage quite a few times... Which wouldn't be a problem if the checkpoints were a liiiiittle closer to each other, or if the game had infinite lives... it's 2024, amigos ^^' But once it clicks, damn, it's so good to connect tricks. Lots of great ideas all around. It pretty much has a bit of Sonic in there, but hardly enough to give the "they clearly wanted to make a 3D Sonic game but weren't allowed" impression. It's its own thing and it's quite unique. 

Definitely needs more polish. I swear to Christ the left analog stick on menus doesn't work right, the very first in-game cutscene had the sound effects off sync, the animated cutscenes dips a lot (and don't quite look 4K) and in general, and that may be my eyes, but I don't feel like it quite runs at 60FPS?? I'm on PS5, so it should be no problem. Other than that, I had a lot of fun so far (cleared world 1 b4 putting it down).

Edited February 22 by Jango

[Soniman]

Think I’ll wait for a (limited) physical release, I’m in no big rush but it definitely looks like a lot of fun. Maybe some updates and patches will spruce the game’s aforementioned issues by then 

[Cayenne]

Got some pennies and bought Penny's game on Steam. It's an extremely fun experience once you figure out how to do combos but yeah, it has some little issues. In one of the levels in the first world, for example, I got stuck in a wall for a whole minute until Penny finally fell off and died.

Besides that bug, I have to agree with what JezMM said about the music, It gets very tiresome after some time. Also, this is may be just me nitpicking but I wish there was a bit more of visual variety in the levels, with different colors and backgrounds. I hope it gets better in the later worlds.

 

[PC the Hedgehog]

Rumors were swirling that the game's release date was going to be revealed during the direct, but shadow dropping it that day almost made me spaz out. Immediate download. Didn't have much time to play it tonight, but gonna give it more of a shot tomorrow.