Penny's Big Breakaway Review – If It Ain't Broke

Penny’s Big Breakaway is a loving homage to a considerably awkward interval in gaming historical past. The early days of 3D mascot platformers have been outlined by garish saturated colours, exaggerated character designs, and quite a lot of gimmicks because the style discovered its footing on this new surroundings. Penny’s Big Breakaway matches proper into that legacy, like a misplaced gem that simply acquired a shiny new remaster. But whereas its stylized look will most likely be an acquired style, it makes good use of its gimmick to keep away from some pitfalls of the period it emulates.The story revolves round Penny, an aspiring yo-yo performer who goes to a expertise present audition placed on by a stodgy Emperor. Along the way in which, her toy prop fuses with a creature, changing into a type of sentient and voracious pet. The creature grants her all kinds of particular skills but additionally causes bother on the expertise present, angering the Emperor and placing her on the run from his military of penguin goons. Her “big break” changed into a breakaway, get it?That units the stage, so to talk, for a couple of totally different parts. For one, it units the expectation that levels will likely be propulsive with fixed motion. You’re a wished fugitive! As a consequence, levels aren’t vast open worlds to discover a lot as they’re programs to navigate, usually with nice pace, as you stunt and trick your well beyond traps and obstacles. You can often pause to catch your breath or discover a collectible, however for essentially the most half, every stage has you working from Point A to Point B as quick as you’ll be able to.The premise and stage design ethos additionally facilitates the main risk of the penguin military. While there are customary enemies and a life bar such as you would possibly anticipate from any 3D platformer, it is a extra novel ingredient. Instead of getting your well being whittled down by enemy crash harm, the penguins are attempting to seize you. They do not harm you in any respect, however they do cling onto you and sluggish you down, and if too many swarm you directly, you may be captured. You can fling them off in small doses, nevertheless it’s straightforward to get overwhelmed if too many come directly. They aren’t a relentless presence within the levels, however the risk permits them to be peppered in at key moments to maintain you in your toes or evenly encourage you to select up the tempo. It’s a intelligent little transfer that I appreciated extra as I noticed the way in which the stage design slyly inserted them at key moments.Finally, there’s the yo-yo. This is the main gameplay gimmick of Penny’s Big Breakaway, and the impetus in your entire suite of particular strikes and talents. You can fling it at enemies, naturally, however you may also use it to cling onto ziplines, to spin big screw-machines, trip like a unicycle, and facilitate acrobatic mid-air strikes. You can yank your self ahead for a pseudo-air sprint, or make the yo-yo stick in mid-air a single time to swing off it like a grapple level. It’s a flexible set of strikes that feels very pure after only some hours, which helps you are feeling correctly outfitted all through the progressively growing problem.On prime of your common skills, the yo-yo may also get quite a lot of particular skills when it eats sure meals. A hamburger will make it additional heavy and capable of knock down partitions, and a crimson pepper offers you a pace enhance in your unicycle capability, whereas a cake permits you to spin into the air and flutter your manner down. Like the usual skills, these are scattered all through levels so as to add slightly spice and selection.By default, the usual yo-yo assaults are mapped to the fitting stick, which suggests you don’t have any digital camera management. This is generally high quality, as the degrees are constructed to maneuver in a single path and the automated digital camera tracks your actions properly sufficient that it is not usually an issue. But the very uncommon event that I did hit an impediment or pit I did not see made me want for my very own digital camera management, and apart from that, I did not really use the stick-based yo-yo controls usually anyway–aside from the spinning maneuver, which might solely be carried out with the stick controls, I favored button-based controls. The right-stick management does help you fling your yo-yo in a single path whereas working in one other, which is a pleasant contact, however not usually essential. Maybe it is simply because I’m used to the usual bounce and assault button placement, however I used these far more usually, so the trade-off for full digital camera management left me wanting.Sometimes, although, and particularly in later chapters, the extent design is slightly too sparse with its checkpoints. Since ranges are designed to be chains of traversal, tips, and stunts, it is easy to get despatched again to a checkpoint after which need to combat your manner again to the place you died simply to attempt it once more. Fortunately, there is not any actual penalty for loss of life aside from a price to your excessive rating, since even in the event you run out of life, your checkpoint spot is retained.Penny zooms down a ramp on her magic yo-yoGallery Then, in fact, there’s the visible fashion, essentially the most direct homage to the period that it is imitating, and the one which leaves me with essentially the most blended emotions. The transition to 3D was a very thorny one in gaming historical past, because the rudimentary polygon-pushing might solely achieve this a lot with its energy and settled on easy shapes and saturated colors–think sequence like Banjo Kazooie or Klonoa. It’s a definite fashion, nevertheless it’s one which was outlined by very early limitations, and so it isn’t one which has aged gracefully. Penny’s Big Breakaway approximates this fashion properly, with characters who are sometimes little greater than bulbous spheres with faces drawn on and draped in a couple of different bubbly garments. I’m not nostalgic for video video games having that look, so I did not discover this visible fashion interesting, however I can think about it is going to really feel cozy for avid gamers who got here of age alongside the N64 and PlayStation.The story involves a candy little conclusion, although I could not even start to elucidate a lot of what occurs in between. The story meanders, generally seeming as if it is coming to a head solely to leap off in another path. One of my favourite boss-baddies was a strident, by-the-books choose, however his half was so minor and fast that I wanted for extra time with him on the expense of much less memorable antagonists.But then, even a hazy, dreamlike story could possibly be interpreted as a tribute. Penny’s Big Breakaway is a loving tribute to a bygone period, warts and all. Its new and creative concepts, just like the acrobatic yo-yo mechanic or the penguins scorching in your tail, present a stage of cleverness, however it’s also a candy, earnest throwback. I’d prefer to see Penny return, although perhaps subsequent time, this lost-gem motif will be utilized to a much less restrictive period in 3D platforming.