Penny's Big Breakaway announced!

[Sonicka]

The game does get better as it goes… right?

For disclosure - I really want to be enjoying this, but so far I don’t think I’ve played a 3D platformer that has so actively frustrated me. I can’t tell if I need to simply get better or if it’s because my input is lagging.

Regardless; I’m continuing to throw myself off ledges by accident, the lock on target cannot be relied upon in any circumstances, and judging platform jumps is… murky due to the shifting angles selected.

Simply put, I don’t think I’ve played a game where I’ve died so often on the first world as much as in this game (and platformers are my preferred genre / bread and butter). 

I’m not totally sold on the Penguin capture “mechanic” either as it just serves to slow the experience down when running about at speeds or exploring. I understand the point of them (and for the story); but it’s incredibly annoying when they crop up to bombard me that sometimes I can’t elude a capture because I’m taken off guard. I think to alleviate this either the team should remove “capturing” altogether so they only slow you down, or increase the amount of checkpoints in the levels as the respawn points can be quite harsh.

I’m going to continue for a bit longer, but am considering putting this on the bench until they’re able to patch the game up and/or improve performance, I think this needed a bit more time & testing before release if you ask me.

[JezMM]

Played a bit more - I had initially stopped after the first level of the second world, thinking I'd time my play sessions to end in the middle of each world to avoid the music/visual fatigue - but then it turned out the second world only has three levels (and the third is a unique one with different music like the final one was in World 1 too), so the critique of visual/music variety may vary as the game goes on.

I can't say I've had any major issues with softlocks or glitches yet on PC - I wonder if the Switch version is buggier due to the porting job?

 

The penguin mechanics over traditional enemies is certainly unique, I feel like if the areas in which they appear were a little more... I dunno.  The areas where they appear look no different to the other areas of the very visually busy stages, so whenever I start running away from them I always feel like I might be running past secrets and alternate routes.  I haven't quite forged that connection with the level designers yet to know if they're playing smart and design the penguin-filled areas to let you just enjoy the chase, or whether they are willing to challenge you by hiding collectables in areas filled with penguins, so the challenge is to keep your cool and spot/navigate to them while under seige.  As is, there's certainly no visual indictators as to which it is, and I certainly stopped 100%ing levels the first time from 1-3 onwards.

I am tempted to 100% the game though so I hope that experience is fun - I've enjoyed the two globe levels I've played so far and I'd like to see them all.  (I hope filling up the score meter at the end of each stage is a totally optional bragging-rights-only reward thing though, not sure I have the patience for that, seems like the target score is set with mistakeless play in mind and these levels are looong).

Edited February 22 by JezMM

[Sonicka]

9 hours ago, JezMM said:

I can't say I've had any major issues with softlocks or glitches yet on PC - I wonder if the Switch version is buggier due to the porting job?

I do wonder? I had the Boss of World 3 spazz out on me and get stuck to the snooker table sides during one of it's patterns which crashed my Switch. 

I'm at World 4 but still not quite jazzing with this, mostly I'm sweating that I won't make it to the next checkpoint about 80% of the time. I don't mind the resets if the levels weren't so long or the checkpoints so far apart. 
 

9 hours ago, JezMM said:

The penguin mechanics over traditional enemies is certainly unique, I feel like if the areas in which they appear were a little more... I dunno. 

This is actually a fair point, I haven't considered that there aren't any traditional style enemies in this game to bop. I think there actually might be more NPC's littering the world with their puns than enemies XD ...but because of this it difficult to tell if they are friend of foe half the time.

I'm also not convinced it was this necessary for so many NPC's to pollute a linear platforming experience either, it almost makes the levels feel more open than they are, which tugs at me to want to go over and find the secrets and see what they are all saying... but this is at odds with the style of game offered. It's weird. Normally you'd find an array of funny NPC's in hub worlds or the opening world, not every single level in the game.  

On top of that, levels are chock full obstacle jargon and other things to interact with. I tend to skip past most after trying one or two of these mechanics out because they aren't all that fun to play around with (the bull/golf mini game as an example, but mostly because it easy to get the bull/ball stuck to the side of the area).

I think really that my problem is that nothing feels very intuitive with the controls and interactions - everything does almost the opposite of what I would typically expect of a platformer;

• The homing reticle - an early Sonic Team staple is emulated here whereby the reticle showing up doesn't always mean the yoyo will actually reach it - don't rely on this as it doesn't always work even when nearby. 
• No camera control - this game reaaaaally needs this as the angles presented aren't enough to see you though. There is so much guess work for where Penny is going to land and the perspectives that move around don't help to mitigate this fear - often I find it a detriment. Jumping and movement is a scary prospect in this game. 
• Double jumping gives no additional height, this is only really useful for throwing off the penguins - this game needs a decent double jump mechanic to alleviate the platforming issues. The mid-air yoyo swinging only goes so far to counter this issue.
• Stretching a tree/object and aiming to fling yourself takes me 3-4 attempts before I actually get this right. I seem to not be able to comprehend the button it wants to send me flying. A problem when I'm being pursued by Penguins because I'm panicking in wanting to escape quickly and mess up easily. 
• Aiming the character to vault off of a spinning pole feels very unnatural. Usually I'd pressed in the direction of where I want to go but you can't do this... instead there is an aiming target for where Penny will land instead, I'm guess this was implemented to mitigate vaulting off poles not working in the game, it's a really strange automation though as it breaks the flow.

It's annoying because these issues lead to further frustrations in other areas. Bosses were a focal annoyance for me earlier tonight for example. World 2's boss was dragged out into sections and painful to complete because of the lack of being able to double jump upwards on the boat to get to where you needed to go or vault yourself up. Likewise, World 3's boss was really unique in its premise - but when it came down to having to punt a ball into a hole (via a snooker like scenario), the game didn't intuitively demonstrate how I could achieve this like I imagined it would. I failed so often because the aiming line didn't marry with where my character was facing - and I couldn't tell where my character was facing because the camera had panned so far back into the sky - it was a real mess to get through.

On top of this I'm still not overly enthusiastic on the art style. I think it's more the diluted colour palette they went for though because the Sega Saturn / early 90's 3D render look they do nail. it's just every world feels samey, kind of like a palette swap has been applied and not much more. 

Also, I do wonder why they keep flipping between different animatics for cutscenes - sometimes the game uses in game models to show off cutscenes, and other times it might be the hand drawn cartoons. I'm a little confused at what they are going for in this element of the presentation as there isn't really a purposeful meaning to these sequences. 

Anyway, I dunno about this one. I might pursue it for a little bit longer on another day to see where it goes. But the frustrating deaths, level design, camera work and platforming implementation is really off-putting to make this a truly enjoyable experience for me personally. I'm still hoping it's just more of a case of a "mental click" needing to happen and I'm just some weirdo not gelling with some unique and amazing platforming on offer. 

Edited February 22 by Sonicka

[Jango]

You can tilt the camera a little bit with the d-pad, for what it's worth it, @Sonicka^^' ... I've discovered this by complete accident haha

Yeah, they gotta patch some stuff ASAP, especially the analog controls in some places. I keep failing that little QTE you have to do at the end of every level because I'm 100% sure it does not register my inputs correctly... Speaking of which, yeah, the homing reticule is pretty broken, ESPECIALLY on zip-lines... 

Also, it's pretty annoying that some missions begin without any warning or countdown and, if you fail, you can't retry it unless you die or restart the level...

Hopefully they fix that stuff soon.

[Sonicka]

I really hope so @Jangoas it feels like I’m playing something that is just on the cusp of greatness. 

A few tweaks and fixes will certainly help to swing my frustrations in the other direction when it comes to the gameplay. 

Also yeah… the Camera twerk on the D-Pad is hilariously pointless haha, especially silly since it snaps back after marginal movement. I found you can move this to the right analogue stick if you choose “simple” controls… but it’s still more of a tool to use when standing still at this point sadly

[mayday2592]

Up to the sixth world and man I'm really enjoying this game. I felt initially the same as Sonicka, but once the mechanics clicked for me, I really started enjoying it. The only issue I have outside of the lack of polish is that it can sometimes be tough to judge where Penny will land exactly on smaller platforms. I've overshot or fell short a couple times due to this. TBF, it's only really  happened in two stages so far out of the 15 or 16 stages I've played. Overall it's looking to be one of GOTY picks unless the game does a drastic nosedive past world 6.

Edited February 22 by mayday2592

[JezMM]

The homing reticle is a little unintuitive - it took me a while to realise it has two phases.  When you see it initially, it is rotating with the four colours not connected, just communicating that this IS a lock-on target.  When the reticle snaps together and becomes a solid circle, THAT'S when you're in-range.  I think this causes some confusion because in the early game where the reticles are all so nearby, you're likely to try and push the button AS you enter range, so the snapping into a circle animation on the reticle just seems like an animation responding to your button press.  Once you understand this, it becomes more reliable.

The "double jump" is a pretty hard thing to unlearn compared to other platformers too.  If you're trying to get a little extra jump height such as on the world 2 boss, you actually want to do an air dash instead, as it does give you a little height.

The flingy trees I'm too suffering with.  I can NEVER get them to work the first time, and even when I tried to really pay attention to what I was doing to try and figure out "is it letting go of the button or the stick" etc it feels like my successful attempt at that moment was exactly the same as the failed one before lol.

I too have had issues with NPC tasks starting without warning and me taking too long to figure out what needs doing.  Waited the timer out to try again when it happened only to realise that shut me out of trying it again lol, annoying.

 

As for the camera... yeah I respect the confidence in a 3D World-esque "we've got the camera perfect for you, don't worry about it, just play!" system, but 3D World had MUCH more compact levels.  Penny is so sprawling, often to the point that it isn't always clear where the intended playable space ends and what little cliffs and islands on the periphery might have hidden stuff.  I do like the sense of scale on the world, world 1's "modern town growing out of a dense but surreal looking pine forest" was gorgeous, but yeah, I see the trade-off and why Nintendo chose to do such little scenery outside of the playable space in 3D World. At the time I thought it was just that they don't prioritise that sort of thing or for performance's sake, but I see the benefits in pairing back when I play a game that goes for the lush, busy scenery.

[Wraith]

3 hours ago, JezMM said:

The homing reticle is a little unintuitive - it took me a while to realise it has two phases.  When you see it initially, it is rotating with the four colours not connected, just communicating that this IS a lock-on target.  When the reticle snaps together and becomes a solid circle, THAT'S when you're in-range.  I think this causes some confusion because in the early game where the reticles are all so nearby, you're likely to try and push the button AS you enter range, so the snapping into a circle animation on the reticle just seems like an animation responding to your button press.  Once you understand this, it becomes more reliable.

 

Even taking this, the fact that the auto lock on can be overriden by the direction Penny is facing, and the fact that the "pull" for the lock on varies heavily depending on the object(Penny will latch onto zip lines with no problem but it's easy for her yoyo to whiff when aiming at a barrel) I've come to the conclusion that lock on actually is just bugged and will fail sometimes regardless of circumstance, which sucks for something that already has so many checks before it behaves the way you'd expect. I've had the yoyo go clean through items during crucial timed missions or boss fights which is super frustrating. 

Those little bumps the road are a shame for a game that imo is otherwise excellently designed for score attacking and mastery. Your tools can just fail when it matters the most which is a shame. Other than that I have zero problems with the game including the camera. I'll go deeper into the stuff it gets right later but I didn't want to come down on it without highlighting how much fun I'm having regardless of those flaws. 

Edited February 23 by Wraith

[Jango]

I'm at world 3 now, taking my time with the game. So far I haven't run into a single "that kinda sucks" element in the game, only a few annoying stuff in regards to the controls and level collision that I 100% believe it can get fixed with a patch or two. I love the artstyle, I love the music (Tideswell theme is GOA-Tee Lopes), I love the character designs and the flow. I went back and 100% every level in Vanilla Town, the "click" finally came to me. It's a great game and I hope Evening Star get the praise they deserve. Already looking forward to what they bring next.

Edit: World 4 now, easily my favorite so far. Major Spyro 3 vibes, the level's color scheme reminds so much of Firework Factory, a fan favorite for sure. The game gets better at every world. Fuck, the music is SO good.

Edited February 25 by Jango

[Sonicka]

Up to world 7 and still fighting against this one.

Between the accidental firing myself off edges and the perspective misjudging (especially because the shadow isn’t reliable) this is becoming a bit of a stressful time. I died in one of the Moltobene levels a good 23 times in one section because either the target lock kept misfiring for a pole or I’d misjudged a platform from the angle. When the deaths aren’t your fault it’s really difficult to resolve yourself and see it through.

I’ve decided to stop again for a bit (on world 7-1) after a frustrating boss race battle and having similar “out of my hands” deaths. I don’t want to keep playing if it drags my experience downhill.

I will say that the soundtrack is phenomenal and makes me feel like I’m back playing a nineties game (agree on the tideswell level theme - glorious!). 

On the positive, I’ve seen some impressive speed and trick runs by the dev team which make my jaw drop. I am starting to feel like PBB was designed more for score-based trick runs once you know the level layout (hence the posited camera so the player can focus). If that’s the case then I think it could just be that this game isn’t for me. Score attacks aren’t something I typically chase for in platformer titles.

I have also considered that despite the Switch bugs/glitches (don’t know how bad this affects PC players), and the lower FPS to deal with, it could also well be a skill issue on my part. It seems like you really have to get good and find that “click” moment for it all to work (something that will probably help see you through the jank as well). Genuinely it’s great for those that have their breakaway “I mastered it” moment… but it’s also surprising to me that there is such a high skill ceiling in general here, I didn’t expect this from Evening Stars “first” game. 

[Jango]

I wanna get behind this idea of shadow dropping a game and have a "you can play it... RIGHT NOW!" moment, but I just think it did more harm than good in Penny's case, at least for what I've gathered from place to place (to be completely honest I also think it's kinda stupid to do this for a lot of reasons, but yeah...).

Obviously Reddit is going as far as calling the game "unplayable", which it really isn't... But it is pretty buggy at times, even if I consider myself luck so far. What baffles me is that most of these bugs are simple geometry collision and input issues, some of which are really unmisseable, like the busker bonus. It's stuff that you wouldn't expect from the team of Sonic freaking Mania (and I'm willing to believe most Penny's buyers came in large because of Mania). Things that could've been easily fixed with another round of bug squashing, period. It's a damn shame, because bad first impressions usually are louder, so I'm really curious as why and how they let the game out like this (maybe Private Division's demand?). 

Other than that, I think it's impossible to "fix" the core gameplay if you don't like it, but a few tweaks would be welcome: better drop shadow, the ability to stop the ride move with the same button, clearer visual cues for some moves, a little more camera control, just to name a few... 

The game is really brilliant all things considered, probably my favorite 3D in years. I had a blast in most levels. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did. The visuals gave me a punch of nostalgia, real nostalgia, not "pandering" nostalgia. I'm also convinced that Tee Lopes is probably the best modern video game composer out there. He will be right there with Koshiro, Uematsu, Kondo and so on in the future.

Edited February 27 by Jango

[Sonicka]

I'm onto World 10-2 now and there are points where I legitimately felt close to snapping my switch in half I really like a good casual gamer rage when things go amiss… but oh boy does this game piss me the heck off.

I’ve also feel I reached the “clicking point” so better understand the design philosophy going on and have learned some interesting platforming tricks (not useful just yet - maybe with more practise?). Surprisingly, I even discovered that I can latch the yoyo to an edge to help save and pull me up last minute - a useful move that I wish I knew existed earlier and one that isn't in the controls guide… but it isn’t reliable so perhaps that's why?

And actually I think that’s where my prime beef comes from here - the overall unreliability.

The camera, the controls and the ability to judge simple landings are hinged far too much on blind risk and guesswork from momentum, and this doesn’t work for such a busy 3D playground. It’s a really big problem if you can’t trust the move-set (weather input related or otherwise). So I sit here in disbelief that I trust in Sonic Frontiers controls to get my character where I want moreso than with Penny - never thought I’d find myself positioning Sonic Team over Evening Star on that front (especially after those DLC towers). 

So, what very nearly broke me? It was the boss of World 9. I couldn’t judge distances when platforming from book to book to the boss (especially as the thunderclouds got in the way of the camera and covered the screen), and often the "lock on" wouldn’t steal his hammer power up despite me being right next to him to grab it. When you reach the player attack pattern of destroying the anchors (for the weights to shift) you have to manoeuvre yourself to the outer rim, but  the camera would position itself so low to the ground that I was fighting the game controls to allow me to position penny to attack and launch the yoyo in the right direction - it feel nearly impossible to see what I was doing. Add to this the lighting attacks which speed up... which causes me to speed up, panic, and fling myself off the arena by accident - I just want to launch the yoyo to attack, not Penny herself.

There was also far too much visual information to process with this boss encounter, and a lot is incoherent - for example; does a white circle radius (that expands) indicate I need to jump over it? Is it a shockwave? Is it an attack on me? Is it an indicator of where I should attack? The game sure didn’t know as it kept changing its mind - there were times I'd take a hit and other times I didn't. and because of the camera position I still couldn't entirely make out what was happening.

When it comes to these bosses and the character designs (apart from Penny herself - who eventually sort-of grew on me by the end) I actually really like each bosses visual designs and the concepts for their arenas in fighting them. It’s just a shame the fights themselves don’t live up to their prospect. 

There’s some semblance of a great game somewhere in PBB and the momentum based physics are always a joy from this developer - I can feel it when scooting around on the sonic'y yoyo and going up and down those ledges and halfpipes - this is really fun & I wish there were more of these speedy sections. I also happily retract my earlier groan of the “samey worlds” vibe I had at the beginning. The world of Macaroon has some lovely ideas presented later on (and a freaking sweet soundtrack). There are some very cool references to older plafformers thrown about (confident we get a NiGHTS reference in World 10). But overall it feels like they took the abstract Zone vibe from Sonic 1 and went FULL 3D with it, which is actually really, really cool.

I think what lets this down for me is the lack of polish (at least on Switch), not to mention the continuing soft locks and visual glitches, and developer hard on for taking the camera control away from the player - especially given that the choice of camera position is dicey at the best of times.

It also turns out that a number of YouTubers were offered promotional codes and were given the opportunity to review and publish a video… if they could do it within 24 hours of notice, which is insane! It does suggest to me that the shadow drop may not have been the choice of Evening Star but one made by the publisher to bang it out quickly to generate hype, which, if true wasn’t a smart move IMO. Throwing out a game into the wild without any press backing and only the word of mouth that it’s by “them sonic mania devs” who haven’t released a 3D title before is a risk, especially when there are a lot of retro Saturn/PS looking platformers out there already (looking at you Lunistice!). The market is crowded with these games already at very budget prices (because they are smaller and tighter experiences). PBB releasing at £24.99 is kind of a gamble - the content is here for sure to justify the price - but do users know that the game is essentially gunning for a "Triple i" experience? Probably not.  

I'm pretty sure PBB wasn't originally going to be released until sometime beyond April (that’s what I had read was the targeted release previously). So it does make me question if the game got pushed out earlier than it should have done. 

-----------------

Addendum: Finished this last night and have some final thoughts.

I almost couldn't complete level 10-2 - I got stuck on the inside of a building once, fell to my death "forever" (so had to restart) and then the drive up the building at the end (which was a really awesome idea) was hindered by bad camera placement and lack of visual indication of where to traverse - when going across different buildings the geometry mistakenly flipped Penny back to a regular upright position instead of keeping my attached to the surface. It took me roughly 9-10 tries to brute force my way through it and I still don't know what I did differently when it finally allowed penny to remain on track.

I did like the final world and felt this was cleverly designed by incorporating almost every obstacle and challenge that you should have learnt and overcome during the first 10 worlds - kind of reminded me of an end of year school test. XD

The Final Boss was also super fun - the only boss I enjoyed and very easy to complete (weirdly) - but I had feel good vibes from the ending so it clearly the game resonated with me on some level here. 

I might return to this one once it's been patched / the bugs are ironed out / frame rate improved as I'd like to give it another chance. For the time being though, it will sit with me as a curio of cool conceptual ideas that didn't quite work as a cohesive whole thanks to some bad camerawork and move-set problems (level design is pretty solid and I largely have no beef with this side of things).

I'm also still a little but puzzled by Macaroon's layout and progression through the world - we seem to ping pong around the map yet narratively most of the worlds and transitions (when they happen) feel like they are right next to each other. 

Edited February 29 by Sonicka
Wrote this on my iPhone originally - ironically making for a less coherent post.

[JezMM]

Well, enjoyed it enough in the end to 100% (as in all collectables and Star Globes done).  Definitely figured out the flow eventually and still didn't encounter much in the way of glitches on the PC version.  They cropped up a bit more during my collectathon replays of levels where I was being a little more experimental with exploration - stuff like Penny getting stuck on diagonal outcrops from buildings, flickering back and forth, being unresponsive to input, and sliding all the way along before detaching at the end.  There was also maybe 3 or 4 times during my 10.4 hours of playtime where the camera shot through the floor as if Penny herself had, and I died due to the fact that she hadn't and was currently responding to my wild button presses trying to unclip myself from whatever was happening up on the surface, lol.

Certainly a tough-sell game but rewarding once you figure out the very unconventional controls and movement - all the way to the end I still felt the need to jump before doing a forward dash even though the levels are pretty much entirely set-up for you to do them on the ground judging by mid-air collectable locations.  Just feels too risky lol.

I don't think I'll bother with the target scores though - despite feeling like I'd gotten a handle on things and was doing my best to regularly keep movement combos going during my full completion replays of various levels, I was often still only managing about 50-60% of the target required.  I don't think I have the patience to play entire levels without ever dropping combo, it's just too easy to do.  I wish there was a second's leniency period to keep your combo going when you touch the ground, as long as you jump/roll again within that second.

The only final critique I'd say is that, while the inconsistency between regular and 2D animated cut-scenes is a bit strange, I'm far more bothered by the fact that the 2D videos are just full of noticable artifacts and little visual glitches, kinda strange.  Finally, I do wish there had been one more full length bonus level for doing everything, but alas the Star Globe stages are little gimmicky affairs all the way down.  It's funny that the bottom one, likely the final one most people would play unless they're unlocking them in an utterly psychopathic order (i.e anything other than top to bottom, lol) is [bottommost star globe level spoilers]:

Spoiler

focused around wall jumps, an extremely barely used mechanic throughout the entire game. Not much of a send-off if that is the final thing you do on a 100% playthrough, lol.

Overall I'd consider the game a success, definitely didn't feel "not ready to launch" to me, so I wonder if the Switch version really is just glitchier. Also was just nice that it felt like a full product to me, not a little fleeting indie game, well done to the team, I hope it does decently for them.

Final note of positivity is just want a fun vibe the whole game is.  They managed to make the world feel like a world rather than just a collection of obstacle courses thanks to the ever-present silly little NPCs with their silly little comments and lives and tasks, in spite of the fact that it also feels like I'm adventuring through a giant indoor kids soft play area for the whole game.  The good vibes extend to the plot too [full game spoilers]:

Spoiler

what fun to have basically almost every boss fight and antagonist be a little misunderstanding that results in them being your friend afterwards, to the point that the final boss itself is just a big performance for a crowd rather than a fight.  Great stuff.

 

Edited March 5 by JezMM

[Jango]

Just finished the main story. I'm sitting here watching the credits roll and seeing a lot of well-known names for Sonic fans under the "Special thanks" tab, such as Tyson Hesse, Naoto Oshima, Yasuhara, Jun, I think even Iizuka and many more. Interesting.

I got this day 1, full price and knowing very little about the game, save it for the "dem Sonic Mania devs". Do I regret it? Not a single penny (heh). The game hit all the right notes with me. Needless to say, it's not a ride without its issues, as many, myself included, have repeatedly reported (and I do hope the devs are working on it), but it's still an amazing achievement considering this is their first 3D game and it's their own engine and everything.

 

On 3/5/2024 at 5:11 PM, JezMM said:

The only final critique I'd say is that, while the inconsistency between regular and 2D animated cut-scenes is a bit strange

This, and I gotta say the cutscenes animated in-game are preeeetty mediocre, to say the least, looks like placeholder. The 2D ones are much more charming, even if it's basically just still images with a few effects and transitions. If they wanted to go full "lost PSOne / Saturn era game" vibes, they should've made creepy FMV cutscenes  I also do loved the little story, despite the kinda weird..

Spoiler

final boss' second phase putting you against Taboo and Eddie, but you're not actually fighting them, you're performing with them, but they still attacked me? IDK, felt kinda strange and sudden. The fight itself is pretty cool, tho', using all the power-ups and what-not.

Something I've noticed while going for the highest scores is that, the score system is a little messy. It'd be nice to know what each completed challenge actually means at the end of the level. I had to figure it based on the name, and yeah, some are pretty obvious, but still.  The highest score itself can be rather frustrating too, especially on later levels where it just keeps getting higher and higher, and since the level design is naturally more complex, with more enemies to avoid and harder to navigate, keeping a long combo is pretty difficult. Then again, you can always find a spot to cheese the score in pretty much any level (jumping from poles, trampolines and so on). I also don't know if the level time adds to your final score (like classic Sonic), but AFAIK, it's just another one of those every level challenges.

Other than that, the skills you can buy and equip are pretty useless TBH, I think something more like Sonic Generations would've been better, like maybe: "swing in the air twice before touching the ground", or an actual "double jump", some kind of "penguim shield" or maybe begin the level with a power-up. 

All in all, I had a blast. Awesome visuals,  even more awesome music, great and creative levels, great challenge, great gameplay idea/loop even if a little flawed here and there (nothing a few tweaks couldn't fix), charming characters (lots of Bonanza Bros vibes in here), cute and simple story. I also think the tone of the game overall is pretty chill and enjoyable, I especially like the fact that the last 2 worlds aren't the typical "evil castle or mechanical fortress" you'd expect from a platformer. I love when games do last levels more bombastic and fun, because even if it's hard, you're still having a blast. The only world that's a little more dull is Industria and it's the most forgettable world IMO. 

It's a flawed gem. I'd say let them cook, because I'll be there for whatever they deliver next.

8.8/10.

Edited March 11 by Jango

[JezMM]

First patch is available on PC and coming soon to consoles.  Most impressively, if I've understood Whitehead's tweets correctly, 60FPS is being added to the Switch version at no visual cost.  Meanwhile, if you do decide to stick to 30 FPS mode, the game will now look even nicer with anti-aliasing applied.

Beyond that, a bunch of fixes responding to common nitpicks have been put out.

 

[Jango]

This is great. A shame the game released with such issues, but glad they fixed it rather quickly.

[Sonicka]

Niiice! This is more than enough reason enough for me to give this a second go if all those updates and fixes hold true to the Switch version - especially the 60fps fix. 

There are an awful LOT of bugs squished on that list (most of which I encountered during the initial run) - I do still wonder if this game was pushed to release before it was actually ready.

Regardless, it’s nice to see that these things are being addressed. I might have had my fair share of problems, but the game still deserves the best chance possible in the best state playable. 

[Jango]

Great critique:

 

[Sonicka]

The Penny update finally hit Switch this evening… and what a DIFFERENCE this makes. 

For one thing, weather you play on quality or performance mode, the game overall just looks so much sharper and less “fuzzy” on Switch now, everything pops a lot more so I feel I can appreciate the graphical style moreso than pre-patch. But the uncapped 60fps (yes, it can stutter at points) is still the way to go. Everything feels a lot more fluent and capable now. 

A lot of the bugs and control freakouts that irked me seem to have been addressed too, like the turnstyle that throws her off actually does it properly now and completes its spin, and those grab and launcher palm trees actually work like I would expect them now. 

Essentially, I don’t feel like I’m fighting the controls as much any longer. I’m certainly gunna give this a second playthrough now to see if the overall experience is improved. It’s a shame they shadow dropped it when they did pre patch, because in this state the game fairs so much MUCH better on Switch.

 

[Jango]

I wonder if it's out on PS5 too? I already got the platinum trophy for it, but there are still levels to get the highest score. And the game is so addicting too xD