Penny’s Big Breakaway review (Xbox): Inspired by past platformers, but able to make its own identity

I have always loved platformers. In the early parts of my life, 3D platformers were a little overdone. Everyone had a mascot and was trying to be the headlining platforming star. Nowadays, 3D platformers don’t nearly get enough love. Outside of Mario and Sonic, there isn’t that much representation of games that feature interesting ideas, the freedom to jump around the entire area, and the flow and movement that makes playing that game feel great. That said, Penny’s Big Breakaway just entered the arena and showed that this genre can still do new things.

Yo, yo, yo-yo

Each level in Penny’s Big Breakaway is a linear roadmap that has you trying to reach the endpoint. While you take damage from falling in pits or getting hit by certain environmental hazards, the only enemies you mostly see are the hordes of the penguin guard. These birds will run at you in droves and try to attach themselves to you. If five grab onto you at a time, you are captured and have to start from the last checkpoint. While there can be a lot of penguins around you at any given time, shaking them off is very easy. The only time I ever got “captured” was once when I let them do it to see what would happen. Using your yo-yo for anything will throw them off you, and you’re always faster than them, so they don’t pose that much of a threat at all.

For the sake of comparison, the level layouts are built similarly to Super Mario 3D World. You have no control of the camera as you progress. For the most part, this is fine, but I did have some issues with blind jumps when I wanted to do a little exploring for side objectives. It’s not too terrible since you can see a shadow of Penny through walls when they’re in the way, but there were some annoyances along the journey.

Using your yo-yo, you can dash across gaps, spin around in a circle endlessly, ride the yo-yo for faster traversal, and more. How spinning the yo-yo around feels is the star of the show. While you don’t receive any new moves along the way, how you get through the world always feels fantastic. Riding the yo-yo down twisting slopes was a practice that never got old to me. There’s a great sense of momentum when you apply it at the right time and can roll right past a horde of penguins. You can even use this to ride across water and lava without any loss to your movement.

It took a little bit of getting used to, but once you understand how to combo the dash and ride moves, you can quickly speed through so many areas and skip quite a few obstacles like you were Sonic the Hedgehog.

This criminal likes to put on a show

Penny’s Big Breakaway has quite a few special levels that all could be considered boss fights, but some are a little more interesting than the standard fight you are thinking of. From running from a giant ball of penguins to playing pool with the boss’ head or fixing a ship while avoiding its owner’s attacks, these levels always bring something new to the table that I really enjoyed. Every time you are in a fight, it does come down to the simple rule of “hit them three times to win,” but I enjoyed the inventiveness at play and that the game wasn’t wasting time to get me to the next level.

There are 11 total worlds that you will work your way through in the story. Some of the music gets annoying since every level in that world shares the same music, but they also always introduce new mechanics that keep things fresh. One moment, you can destroy light bulbs to take away electricity from swinging bars, and then later, you are hitting bombs into explodable walls. Without that shift in focus between chapters, things would get repetitive, but because it does switch things up so much, I was always ready to see what new test was in store for me.

Every main level has three Show Piece collectibles and three Denizen Dilemmas. The former are like Mario’s Star Coins. They’re often hidden in various places that involve using a platforming trick to get them. Those aren’t bad. The Denizen Dilemmas, however, got old very fast for me.

These objectives always come down to a small number of tasks, and by about halfway through the game, I had to stop going out of my way for them because they were mind-numbing. Deliver an item to an NPC down the path. Do combo tricks in this area. Grab these three items sitting out in the open. In isolated instances, these aren’t bad to have, but when there are three in every single level, it really started weighing on me to do them. Timed dilemmas are also aggravating. The timer starts the moment you talk to them, so while you are reading and seeing what you have to do, you are losing valuable time. If you fail any of these, the only way to redo them is to throw yourself down a pit, go to the last checkpoint, and work your way back to that denizen.

Final verdict

Penny’s Big Breakaway is a great addition to 3D platformers that shares some aspects with your favorites but never relies on those inspirations too much. There are some camera issues and bugs, and the Denizen Dilemmas are not fun, but it’s filled with charm, has boss fights that switch up the formula, and runs with great controls that allow you to perform rewarding platforming feats. Penny’s run from the law is a treat many people can enjoy.

Penny’s Big Breakaway was reviewed on Xbox Series X with a code provided by Evening Star. The game is also available on Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 5.

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