A Critique on Penny's Big Breakaway
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- Опубліковано 16 тра 2024
- From some of the developers of Sonic Mania comes Penny's Big Breakaway, a momentum-based platformer full of charm and finesse.
I would like to mention that this video has been created during a period where I have been unemployed, and therefore not earning any money to pay my bills. If you would like to help support me, please share the videos around, and consider donating via Ko-Fi or UA-cam. Thank you!
00:00 Introduction
00:35 Movement
02:49 Level Design
04:02 Fuzzy Context
09:06 Bugs
13:11 Presentation
16:06 Bosses
16:43 High-Speed Platforming
20:51 Conclusion
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The reason why Penny is so fun really can just be summed up in the sentence "It's a game that rewards skill with speed instead of just giving it to you for free".
When you say it like that it sounds EXACTLY like a sonic game
That was kind of the point of the video. It's not like Sonic on the surface level, but the more you understand the fundamentals, the more you realise that it kind of is a Classic Sonic game at its very core.
Penny's Big Breakaway is Sonic if it was Good
sonic if good
@@ssg-eggunnerHi IGN employee
I don't know a higher praise for a game than the fact that looking at footage for 5 seconds makes you want to get the game immediately, as is the case for me. Great critique! Evening Star could be a real juggernaut of indie with such a strong first release even with all its flaws.
Games mid ngl
@@blinkyy4594 [EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER]
17:29 This ending sequence in Sonic Advance 2 stages actually works slightly differently than how you described. What you did describe is accurate, but there's more to it than that. You get an initial set of points based on how fast Sonic is moving at the point of crossing the end-goal, then you can pull back in the opposite direction to force Sonic to skid to a halt. That's what the yellow, blue and red floorboards are for. If you manage to stop in the earliest, yellow section, you get an additional set of points. The blue gives you less and the red even less than that. So it challenges both your ability to keep speed up in the level by rewarding you passing the goal with speed, but it also challenges reaction time as well.
Apologies to make a Sonic focused comment on this video, just thought it'd be useful information. Anyways, good critique video 👍
Oh what?! I had no idea you could do that at all...thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks for that comment, i was actually coming to correct him on that, i really love that mechanic.
@@telekinesticman No worries. There seem to be quite a few mechanics in Advance 2 that people just don't know exist. Such as the kick-off at the start of a level being a timing challenge, along with pressing A when going off ramps sending you at a different angle than if you hadn't pressed anything
I FUCKING LOVE momentum based platformers I WANT TO FUCKING skillfully exploit well crafted levels to earn and maintain speed
I FUCKING LOVE momentum based platformers I WANT TO FUCKING skillfully exploit well crafted levels to earn and maintain speed
@@maude74821 I FUCKING LOVE momentum based platformers I WANT TO FUCKING skillfully exploit well crafted levels to earn and maintain speed
I FUCKING LOVE momentum based platformers I WANT TO FUCKING skillfully exploit well crafted levels to earn and maintain speed
I FUCKING LOVE momentum based platformers I WANT TO FUCKING skillfully exploit well crafted levels to earn and maintain speed
You play Hell Pie?
Before watching this video. I will say that I never played a game before where I wanted to do time attacks so quickly as Penny’s Big Breakaway because of how these levels are teasing you consistently to take shortcuts without being a god-tier speedrunner and it such a impressive achievement for a novice player like me who barely does speedruns for games.
This game really filled the void for lack of 3D platformers that have a high skill ceiling as their main design choice and kind of leaves me wanting me. I hope Evening Star continues to make these kind of games whatever the direction that they decide to take next.
This is kind of how I felt, too. I love fast-paced games but I don't often find myself drawn towards doing Time Attack. Penny was an exception. The only other thing I can think of, recently, was Ghostrunner, but that was specifically for its tailor-made time challenges, not the base levels.
@telekinesticman Yo telekinesticman, have you heard the news that sonic heroes might get a remake.
@@alejandroaguilar2012 Yes I have. I don't really care to be honest
@telekinesticman Yeah, and idk if they are gonna make the remake good anyway since the current sonic team isn't as good as the sonic team from before.
@@telekinesticman have you ever played Neon White?? It sounds right up your alley :3
Regarding the "fuzzy context" issue, one sensible solution would've been for them to map one of the other "bumpers" to throwing Yo-Yo in front of Penny, and have that method be context sensitive, while if you use the right stick, it'll always go based on your directional input without the context sensitive nature based on the "target".
what a nice thing to wake up to ‼
It’s YOU
It that hard ass fire edit creator
AL IS HERE
i dont think i agree with the notion that spark and rascal are just another "sonic game" or "sonic like" even if they wear they`re inspiration on they`re sleeve i still do believe they do enough different to stand out on they`re own
I agree. I think Rascal is gonna be awesome when it comes out… Hopefully
I'm one of the backers of Rollin' Rascal, I hope it's great! But it's undeniably going for a very Sonic feel, almost like a Yooka-Laylee or Mighty No. 9 kind of game.
I'm impressed with not only your fair, well thought-out analysis of the _game_ Penny's Big Breakaway, but also diving into the _game design_ that Evening Star was going for here.
(Shoutouts to Matthewmatosis)
I have personally been fighting against the isometric camera when routing in Time Trials, and those 360-inputs during showtime should be patched for better detection
It felt a bit sobering when thinking about "Sonic-likes", for a lack of a better term. For me, nowadays devs (around SAGE, Sonic hacking, and other scenes) are looking to forge their own path with original game projects. We all wear our inspirations on our sleeve, but to your point, what truly matters in making a great game that can stand on its own is what we _do_ with those inspirations
You my friend deserve a full thumbs up from me, good work 👍
Think my only real problem with this game (outside of all the bugs) is that the scoring system is kind of lame since it relies a lot more on you just spamming out actions to get a huge multiplier over playing the level itself well. Also just having some way to view what all the bonuses are and how to achieve them would be nice since i still have no idea what some of them are.
Agree, in my experience I can say it comes with skill issues on my part sometimes but there are times I'm trying to rack up a high combo to unlock concept arts but since Penny sometimes wants to troll and not do what I say I end up losing it and it can become very frustrating 😭
congrats on working on an animated theatrical release!
Thank you! Hopefully a trailer isn't too far away so that people can finally see some of the work I did.
Which one?
@@chobies5383 Piece by Piece, the LEGO film about Pharrell Williams
@@telekinesticman r/brandnewsentence
Wait, is it stop motion or CGI?
@@chobies5383 I don't think it's been officially announced, meaning I shouldn't say anything about it, but you could probably make an educated guess.
2:32 They were angry at the Final Horizon because it did just that lol
Not really. If anything it's the opposite; the DLC punishes you for the its OWN shortcomings.
I will say in my opinion this game to me is like Mario Odyssey without the speed cap on since she feels like mario and his cap in a few ways
There's definitely some strong similarities to Mario Odyssey. It's almost like taking the movement of that game and increasing the focus on momentum, with levels built strictly around that instead of large open collectathon sandboxes.
I thoroughly enjoyed this game. But I absolutely agree with your section regarding "fuzzy context". It was my only, yet biggest gripe with the game. During my play through, it really surprised me how the devs seemingly didn't see this being an issue. For me, the most aggravating problem was that swinging and air dashing are mapped to the same button. Why they're not separate is really puzzling and honestly a simple and logical thing to fix. Having those functions on different buttons would have made many parts of the game less frustrating.
Anyway, Penny's Big Breakaway has much of what I've wanted from 3D Sonic, despite it not being a Sonic-clone at all. Evening Star clearly understands the concept of rewarding the player for mastering the game's mechanics, with a flluid, continuous flow state. There are very few artificial boosts and spectacles. Even with the "fuzzy context" for the most part, the game feels great to play.
I do believe that unlike Spark The Electric Jester or Rolling Rascal, Penny’s Big Breakaway is the only “Sonic Inspired” game that will manage to Stand Out as its own thing. It’s gameplay is more than a Sonic Clone and the World/Characters have their own unique Charm and appeal, something that Sonic is KING at.
Oh you say pretty much the same thing at the end of the video lol
I don’t know about this. Send Spark 3 to the switch and expect things to drastically change.
@@justice8718I’m sure sales wise it would do great because it’s a good game but I think my point still stands that it’s World/Characters wouldn’t have the same appeal as Sonic’s.
@@Terminal_Apotos No. Spark’s characters actually look like they’re targeted at the appropriate demographic, especially in Spark 3. No one ever looks at Spark and Fark as a “Sonic-ripoff”, they’re more often stupidly surprised that their games are Sonic-like. Meanwhile, Penny, her pals, and her environments look absolutely ugly and uncool as possible.
@@justice8718 Oh you just want to hate on Penny lol.
Me who has only Played Ape Escape series that utilized Dual Analog sticks meaningfully.
Also great review you did it critically without bashing on it and that is very refreshing. Valid points and show for concern without taking away from the fun to be had.
Also just like AE the dual analog control scheme is the *definitive* way to play the game (goddamn the PSP port/remake was rubbish).
@@TerrorOfTalos PSP was a downgrade is every possible way outside resolution. Static textures and missing effects. The VA stinks.
@@Zetchzie Facts, love Horvitz as a VA in general but he just doesn't fit spike for me; I was actually fine with the rest of the voice changes though (guess it depends if you're referring to the US or EU voices) but yeah the gameplay is where most of my issues lie with the port.
@@TerrorOfTalos The EU voices sound so strange for me. But I guess it would be the other way around if i grew up with that version. Ps1 US is the one i grew up with.
I've been waiting for this video since your time attack stream, and I'm glad the wait didn't disappoint. I'm also hoping to get this game sometime soon as well!
I don't have much to add because you basically said everything I would have! I'm really excited for Evening Star's future because this is the kind of creative game design that the industry lacks. The Yo-Yo tech is phenomenal but has some issues. The fuzzy context stuff was a great way to put it and I don't think it could be described in a more accurate way. I hope more devs consider putting the jump button on the bumpers, because it just felt really good here. I just believe it's the natural progression for fluid 3D movement with dual stick control, and especially for air control. As an aspiring developer myself, I'm incredibly impressed with the Star Engine and the unrestricted level design in this game. They learned all of the correct lessons from Sonic. Wonderful critique as always, keep it up!
Great critique. I agree with all your points. While on the subject I gotta say I was disappointed by Penny's narrative. I know complaining about the story in a 3D Platform seems silly but the story just felt so all over the place, when I think it would've benefitted from a simple "go defeat X bad guy."
8:32 Another solution to the controls when dealing with soft locks is perhaps you could double tap the ride button and it grapples to the nearest soft lock reticle
I was so confused what you meant with softlock, until I understood that you meant the homing reticle/lock-on...
It's not even really the lock-on icon, because as I show in the video, the icon itself doesn't consistently convey whether your yo-yo will even attach to it. Most of the time when I've tried to dash past a grapple point and I get attached to it anyway, the icon wasn't even fully closed in. The problem is that the game seems to think that any yo-yo flick of almost any direction near a grapple point means that the player wants to attach to it. Even when the point is above them, in an angle the player cannot normally aim the yo-yo anyway.
@@telekinesticman I'm sure it's *meant* to be a lock-on icon, but it probably just doesn't work in some situations because of other objects near the yo-yo's proximity which overwrite the yo-yo's original target.
(Also... the term "softlock" made me think for a bit that you got stuck in levels and had to reset the game/level; that's usually what a "softlock" means.)
Loved this review. At the beginning, I thought to myself how your style reminded me of matthewmatosis, and you mentioning him shortly after made me smile.
Obviously, you are doing your own thing, and I think that's great. Keep it up man.
This game definitely has issues, but for a first impression it definitely scratches that itch that Sonic failed to deliver on gameplay forefront. However, I hope Evening Star continues to shift away under the hedgehog’s shadow and mold its own way to glory. If there is a sequel to this game, I hope it fine tunes everything. Maybe even a stronger style, because Penny’s design isn’t that…bad. I feel the design needs a stronger approach to where it looks it can stand on its own.
With your Sonic talk at the end, I feel it’s not so much “Sonic lacking in competition”; but rather the industry has moved on from him. His niche can only appeal to so many people who aren’t already casual platforming fans of Mario. The only reason Frontiers “worked” was other things thrown in there because his gameplay style isn’t enough anymore, despite Mania’s popularity. Sonic needs to focus on his strengths and evolve rather than trying to be everything else.
Yeah, the ending definitely caught me when he said Sonic Mania was a 'Fluke' and I couldn't agree more. After spending $60 on Frontiers and $70 on Superstars it's clear they have no vision anymore and I wasted a lot of my money. Heck me being VERY skeptical of Sonic X Shadow Generations is telling how much they mislead the franchise. But like how Bomb Rush Cyberfunk recaptured what made Jet Set Radio great all these other projects including Evening Star shows what the future has for 2D and 3D speedy platformers
Glad to see you back with another critique . I've been interested in getting Penny's big breakaway for awhile but I'm still debating because of all the bugs that's been recent. This video has got me interested to try the game now and experience it for myself keep up with your reviews
They could use motion controls to fix the softlock feature for users using joycons and dualshock 4/ dualsense. Mario Odyssey did that.
This is an awesome video! The only reason I feel this game had the bugs and other problem, *cough cough*, boss fights, was because they may have rushed it for the Nintendo Direct, for the sake of advertising. But awesome video, great points.
A Big Breakaway on Penny's Critique
I’m still excited to play Rollin Rascal, as it’s exactly how I’d want Sonic to play nowadays
EDIT: Spark 3 was fun, but I don’t like its medal system.
spark 3 score system could use some work too spark 2`s score system was arguably better aswell love spark 3 btw
Good video, you managed to have a good perspective on the controls and context sensitivity that I missed, I just have one noticeable gripe.
I'm surprised you didn't go more into the combo system currently in place, as to me it feels pretty sloppy and not too well realized, a big missed chance to help add more longevity to the game.
Currently it has a combo system similar to the standard Tony hawk Pro Skater helped establish for a similar enough comparison. To keep it brief and not repeat my own video, in penny it's a system that's very easy to cheese and comes at odds with the current gameplay structure with it's dilemmas to solve in stages, due to routing and combos not always easy to integrate into those miniature missions. It's also something that could've had *way* more moves to perform that's more than just flying yoyo swings, because in spite her being a **performer** that **travels the world to show off her cool stunts**, she can't even walk the dog. I don't think it's something that would've been hard to introduce either if you kept it to different tricks you do while riding the yoyo, or held tricks like in the aforementioned Tony Hawk games. There the presentation and mastery over the game's trick system fulfills both camps of looking stylish and feeling fulfilled while doing it, combos are even influenced by your speed and momentum in a huge amount of different ways.
Likewise the game surprisingly doesn't have time goals to strive for outside of self established goals, and I somehow didn't come across half the bugs you did. I wonder how people on different types of hardware faired when playing, on specific gpus the game straight up didn't work, mine were thankfully few and far between across about 14 hours of playing.
Hope to see more from you soon!
That is a good point, the combo system does feel a little sloppy. It would have been great to do extra tricks in midair as a risk-reward bonus. Defunct has something like this and so do the new Spider-Man games.
This is a really good critique! I personally have trouble getting behind the memorization part of speedrunning, but I also don't like getting a little bit too lost when trying to find extras when a timer is ticking and when I don't fully get the movement.
I feel this is just holding myself back from enjoying games by trying to get everything perfectly, and it's slowing me when trying to get to other parts of it, so it's not exactly and issue with the game, this is something I feel when playing other games most people can enjoy more easily, and even having said that, I still really like those games!
I do have to say I still haven't given Penny too much of a chance, but I'll be sure to dive into this game again when I feel like it! I think the movement can get me invested on it!
Since you say you do game development, I can pretty much see why you're very critical on the technical stuff regarding to physics, glitches and other stuff in games~
Still, this is a decent review that can benefit the team trying to fix this game.
I've never claimed to do game development. My experience lighting and programming inside the Unreal Engine has been exclusively for TV and film productions.
@@telekinesticman Ahh my mistake~
Still, you were clear with the technical hiccups on this game for the devs to look into~
OHHHHHHH... THATS WHY I HAD TROUBLE.
imma be honest. I didnt know the game had "physics" like dropping down the exact frame for the wheel to get a speed boost.
Or how to yoyos momentum actually springs you up. I kinda treated it as a sonic game.
Welp. Guess ill have a better expirience now
I still don't understand the timing, any tips? Sometimes when I swing the yoyo it makes me fall backwards into pits
I was a big fan of Sonic Mania and was naturally hyped when PBB was announced. It seemed really cool judging by the first trailer, but actually playing it was another experience entirely. I ended up dropping the game by the second world because it felt so shallow and not fun, in addition to all the control quirks that seem accessible at first but hinder more than help in the long run. It feels like a tech demo made for speedrunners more than an actual game at times, not even collecting has the same satisfying buzz as other similar 3D platformers.
I've nothing but respect to Whitehead and the rest of his team, but I hope they return to the Sonic franchise after this. Their talent is better spent there.
I too maybe hyped the game up a bit too much for myself as well. And I'm sorry you didn't get far as I'm sure with practice it can become a lot of fun, but with all the issues present in the game it's a big hard ask. as for collecting stuff I agree it really doesn't feel satisfying since most of the time you have to go off the beaten path to collect it and can break the pace badly. Time trials are probably where the real fun is since you won't have to worry about most of that stuff but issues like bugs and Penny's trolling are still present in the game which hinders it for some people
@@derple8524 I appreciate the polite response dude, thank you. It's just not for me, I guess. I'm not often disappointed by games so it probably just stung a bit more than usual.
If penny feels like a tech demo to you then you better not be excusing *any* of the absolute bullshit the blue rodent franchise has produced since 2017 lmao.
Also you hoping they return to the blue rodent franchise all because *you* didn't like penny is delusional af, similar to multiple people thinking a studio like fucking Insomniac would waste their time on that franchise either if they had the choice.
@@TerrorOfTalosoh, get off the high horse. The game currently has the same score as superstars in metacritic.
People have their issues with this game and their are allowed to voice them.
And call me cynical, but I feel that if this game was exactly as it is but with sonic in it, then more people would be pointing out its flaws, calling it mid instead of a “flawed but with passion”. And also probably making fun of the people who enjoy it.
@@Frank-zb7zh I prefer how Opencritic averages since there are no weighted scores from specific outlets and it compiles the reviews from all platforms into one and Penny's is higher on there but it doesn't really matter much anyway.
So I'm on a high horse for making logical sense while the person I'm responding to said that the developers talent is *better spent* making something that *he* wants just because of their first attempt at a full 3D game didn't click with him? That's laughable.
Also you've actually played the game yourself, right? I hope you did because making some hypothetical scenario like "if (x) was in the game instead people say (y) about it" when you just compared scores the game got with another with different expectations and flaws behind it is peak nonsense.
10:41 if you want to steer better you should point with the left stick to the direction that penny rolls to(drives) and then slowly or not too fast move the left stick to the direction that you want to go. If Im not wrong it steers faster and I tried it myself, its really useful!
I genuinely want to love this game, but the control lockout when you first activate yoyo ride feels awful.
I'm relieved you brought it up, because I can't tell if that is how the ability is supposed to work or not. It seems super inconsistent.
And more importantly, it feels awful and the game would be so much more fun without it.
It is the difference between being my favorite platformer of all time and being pretty fun for a casual playthrough.
I also can't tell if it's meant to be like that, since other things have been patched out (like when Penny would sometimes stop midair when trying to dash + roll). I didn't want this video to be too aged in the future considering a lot of that section will hopefully not apply anymore, but I also didn't want to risk not mentioning something that ends up going unchanged in all further updates.
I'm interested in what you'll talk about. I've seen nothing but possitive reception but its refreshing to see some criticism. Could help in the development of its sequel
Very good video! Youre incredibly articulate 😊
I wanted to adore this game, I really did, a silly 3D platformer with an interesting control scheme is right up my alley, but the many little problems made me not be a huge fan of this game. Got stuck in a wall a few times, the soft lock killing me 4-5 times, accidentally clipping though stuff sometimes, the first boss being easy and then the 2nd and 4th boss having a massive difficulty spike being jarring, and the mimic race spawning you into a death pit if you fall off during a certain part, and the game straight up crashing during a loading screen one time, and needing to reopen the game on switch, and the tricks you can do at the end of each level being VERY touchy with the circular motions killed the game for me.
All those issues are patchable though but yeah that's unfortunate, only ran into a few collision issues myself.
It needed 3 more months in the oven. bug squashing and problem solving specifically.
For me the biggest thing holding this game back for me is the CRIMINALly low turning efficiency during the yo-yo ride. Consistently careening off of cliffs and into walls and hazards because penny has to file her taxes before she can tell the yo-yo to turn sucks. And, the best part is that when it does work, if you turn to much too quickly you loose speed (I’ll admit a skill issue here if the first problem didn’t exist. The first problem feeds into the second since when you do feel the joy of turning occur once every blue moon, you turn too far from excitement and grind to a halt).
Also the yo-yo doing fuckall when I’m adjacent and parallel to surfaces.
I know It’s hard to get game testers, but a dozen plucked off of the street gamers with recorded performances through the whole game could have fixed a lot of things if the complains and bugs they had were addressed
i loved this video. It has a 10/10 narrative, pace, and it talks perfectly about everithing you would wait to see in a critique about a game of this kind. Thank you for making this, and hope you luck with the future of the channel (:
11:00 You might've learned this by now, but you can re-initiate the yo-yo ride by double tapping A before pressing RT.
One A press dismounts the yo-yo, the second cancels it into the double-jump, which can then be cancelled back into grav drop and yo-yo ride. A -> A -> RT. There's no tricky timing involved, you can press the buttons as fast as you like. It's very useful for when you reach the top of a slope and can re-ride the yo-yo to gain a speed boost.
Oh interesting, I didn't know that. I'll have to give it a try. The fact that it's so simple but also not very clear to the player is still an issue, I guess.
>pennys character design is appealing
Looks like a clown monstruosity, doesnt look inviting at all
2:23 you did not need to roast Sonic Frontiers THAT hard 😭
But thank you tho
To be honest, that part was only added *because* I saw Sonic fans complaining that the controls were "too hard" and that the game "wasn't fast enough", that kind of thing.
Very, very ironic considering the years of hatred thrown towards professional game reviewers who have also struggled to understand the movement of Sonic games.
@@ordovicianscourge9520did u really go there? Stalin and hitler. Over viddy game critiques on sonic. Come on now surely ur taking the piss
I appreciated a more realistic review of Penny. A lot of people are hyping it up a lot but ignoring a lot of things that need to be mentioned. I guess my biggest problem was not being explained how certain things work. I didn’t realize you can jump off the paper things, sometimes grabbing ledges or starting a roll midair can be inconsistent and the combo system didn’t make sense at first. But I can understand how a lot of that could be on me. I do pray for the team’s success and am excited for what they have planned next.
fuck yes, another good telekinestic video, another good game
Well I guess I need to play this game now.
it's here
What in the-
Dude, I was subscribed to you already. But I’ll be honest. I was shocked by how good this review was. Guess I haven’t watched enough of your stuff.
Amazing video.
Incredibly insightful and directed analysis here! I've yet to play Penny's Big Breakaway but you managed to articulate so much of what makes it shine and where it could further improve.
It's so cool that Evening Star are making their mark on the gaming landscape.
This channel is so good, it's so difficult to find game critique of this level on here! Genuinely excellent stuff!
Thank you very much! I've had a bit of writer's block this week trying to nail down what I want to tackle next because I really try to avoid discussing the same things that everyone else has already said. If I can't contribute anything valuable or insightful to the conversation, then why bother even making a video?
I worry that I set too high of a bar for myself, but it's worth it when people appreciate the hard work that goes into this stuff. Thank you again!
Next time I need to try this game’s analog control. I used the buttons mostly.
Good video!
I'd been looking forward to playing this game as something "Sonic inspired" but not necessarily "Sonic repainted as a new IP".
To get things straight, I don't at all take problems with other games like Rolling Rascal trying to be legally distinct Sonic (else I wouldn't have backed it), but I do appreciate when I see devs taking that inspiration and running the extra mile to a new direction.
Nothing is truly original. No one can create something brand new without having something in their brain being the cause of inspiration to it, so again, things like Rascal and Spark, I still have big respect for what they've done and accomplished, but it certainly takes a lot of courgage and passion to create a spiritual successor that has the potential to become an inspiration in it's own right, carving it's own place in gaming history.
Honestly? I don't know at this point that Penny is actually that. But I think they're close. So whether they can achieve that with a sequel, or perhaps something new entirely will be really interesting to observe.
A pretty well put together video on a game I thoroughly enjoyed start to finish and now consider one of my favorite 3D platformers, though I have many disagreements with the points presented, mainly dealing with the comparisons to Sonic titles.
I know you state a few times in the video that you don’t want this game to live in the shadow of Sonic but I seriously can’t help but feel like you’re doing a lot of that here. Playing the game myself made it very hard to draw many parallels between Penny and Sonic beyond physics-based movement, which while that IS a thing that the hedgehog basically invented in the context of video games, is also a concept that has evolved greatly from its initial conception.
Penny, while it is a game that rewards fast gameplay, is even more so a game that rewards agile and dynamic movement. The gameplay is supposed to evoke the feeling of a circus act, a performance. In that sense, it’s much more of a 3D platformer translation of something like the Tony Hawk games than Sonic. It’s not a game about moving fast (which despite what many say, IS what Sonic is about), it’s a game about being able to switch from moving fast to diving in the air to spinning around to bouncing back and forth at a moment’s notice. A game about linking together your bag of tricks in a way that doesn’t only look badass but **feels** badass. Like Pro Skater with an end goal.
In that sense, the game is fundamentally not trying to do the same thing Sonic is, so I think it’s a bit reductive to paint it as “what we want out of Sonic”. It maybe what you or some people want, but it’s not what Sonic has ever been about. Sonic games have always (well, since Sonic 2) been more of a high speed crash course than anything else, basically a single-player racing game. Many of them are called platformers simply due to the lack of a better term, the series usually doesn’t involve a lot of the precise hops and elevation based design synonymous with the genre.
That’s why games like Rascal (haven’t played this one, just going off what was shown here) and the last two Spark games feel like “Sonic clones”, Sonic is really its own sub genre of platformer that has rarely been explored outside of the franchise, and those games just happen to be in the subgenre. To that end, it’s hard to give Penny credit for not falling into the “Sonic clone” category when it’s not even the same type of game.
It’s also why I find it hard to jive with a lot of the criticisms the sonic franchise. They usually are coming from the lens of Sonic being about “rewarding good gameplay with speed”, when the series can more easily be defined as “punishing bad gameplay with slow”. Seems like the same statement, but it’s really not. Even in Sonic 1, there’s frequent instances where speed is just given to the player with minimal effort required. It’s up to the player to avoid obstacles and traverse the environment at this high speed to maintain satisfying gameplay. The red spring in Green Hill Zone 3 (you know the one) isn’t there to teach the player that they have to earn their speed, it’s there to teach the player that speed can be taken away just as easily as it’s given. That’s the constant theme in the franchise’s gameplay, and it can be found in Sonic 1 just as much as it’s found in the Final Horizon towers. It’s why Sonic Generations is so much more satisfying than Sonic Forces, or why Adventure 2 is so much more engaging than 06, despite them sharing similar gameplay foundations.
Barring those gripes I have with the Sonic comparisons, I resonate with a lot of what you find special in this game. I think you put it best when you said that the most satisfying element of the game is that at any time you can translate your current movement into any direction. It’s an element of control that is common in other genres (shooters with movement derived from Quake especially) that you surprisingly don’t see often in platformers, and it allows for an incredibly satisfying gameplay loop. The genre loves its grappling hooks and pole swings but rarely utilizes them in this fashion and I hope this game inspires others to do something similar.
You do a great job at describing the game design behind PBB - while I’ve had some trouble getting into it because of some janky control interactions, I’ve been consistently impressed by the trust that Evening Star is placing into players to be responsible for their own speed.
That being said, I don’t think that you need to disparage fans of games that (at this point) play completely differently in order to make your point. 2:32 feels a tad mean-spirited - a lot of people enjoy the boost gameplay *because* it allows for quick recovery from failure and has a generally lower skill ceiling. Just as PBB might not be for them, newer Sonic games might not be for you. Neither is bad, but disparaging one camp in favor of another creates a false dichotomy, because both games can exist!
Sonic fans have, in a generalised sense, spent the last few decades complaining about professional game critics who are bad at Sonic games and don't understand the movement mechanics. I found it very ironic that when some of them tried to play Penny, they experienced the same thing firsthand, and complained that it was too hard to go fast.
Again, this is a very generalised statement, I'm not saying that anyone who complained about Penny also used to bully the staff at IGN, but it was an interesting example of how the tables had turned when the shoe was on the other foot. I understand if it sounds a little mean-spirited, but I only included that section after I noticed this particular reaction from Sonic fans, and the general lack of interest from the more modern-focused Sonic community.
@@telekinesticman I think this is largely a case of understanding Group A as Group B. The term “Sonic Fans” is notoriously vague - sure, some of them might be used to “turn off your brain” gameplay, but many, many others DO like Penny for the emergent platforming seen in games like Adventure (and to a lesser extent) Adventure 2. I just don’t think you can accuse a group as a whole of being hypocritical, when it’s far more likely that said group is just a lot of smaller groups of people with vastly different opinions.
@@towndarling1618 I don't disagree with you, but I'm also not directly accusing anyone in particular of doing this. I do however, believe that people familiar with the gameplay of Frontiers and other recent 3D Sonic's will not enjoy Penny, at least not at first. I don't think it is too harsh of a thing to say, as the amount of player agency is very different between these games.
The goat returns
Incredible video, I was hesitant to play this game since I heard its PC version has a lot of suspicious shit(telemtry, borderline spyware, etc) but I might give it a shot after this.
Hello! I really enjoyed your video! You went really indepth about why Penny works and why 2D platformers are diffrent in a intresting way! I disagree with what you said about Spark, considering the levels are sprawling for a reason, and you used a bad example for a stage, I wonder what you think about other 2D momentum platformers, like Speedrunners
Me and my friends loved playing Speedrunners back in high school. That game was very unique and clever.
Nice video!
2:45 very Matthewmatosis-like edit
LMAO I commented this before I saw you name dropped Matthewmatosis
I think you sound a little too much like him I was able to clock it before I made it to the fuzzy context section
I'm not too sure what you mean by the edit, to be honest. I understand if my language is a bit similar, especially in the fuzzy context section since I deliberately wanted to use similar terminology to avoid any confusion, but I don't really know what about the editing in that section caught your eye? I'm just genuinely not sure what I'm missing, that's all. Hope you liked the video.
Your reviews improve each upload, man! I totally agree with how expertly crafted the levels are at getting players to earn their speed. As I was watching, I went, "damn, you can do that??" on so many of your clips. There's so much room for expression, that everyone's playthrough looks so different. This game is a great example of how good uncapped momentum really is to play around with. Just wish it had like 3-4 more months of polished. Great video! (I also liked your little snippet on backloggd lol)
"Without the fear of failure, there isn't much room for satisfaction." Well put, this is how I've been feeling about a lot of games lately. There's no enjoyment from a game that can't be lost
When did you decide that's what's softlocking meant though? It's just targeting. A softlock is traditionally meant to be when you can't progress through a level at all but you're still playing. A hardlock is a game crash.
I guess it was all engagement bait?
@@The_SOB_II Engagement bait? From using a term that might be sometimes confused with a different one? Not at all.
A soft lock in this sense is in contrast to a hard lock, which would be a manual lock-on system akin to DMC, Bayonetta, Souls etc. But, even when not hard-locked to an enemy in DMC, Dante will still auto-aim towards the closest enemy when attacking, which is the underlying soft lock. It's a form of context-sensitive lock-on that's outside of the player's control. Please see the "Context Sensitivity" video that I referenced for more information, it should explain it perfectly.
@@telekinesticman Oh yeah, meant to check that one out but there wasn't a way to add it to the queue so I had forgotten. Sorry if I came across a offensive, I've just seen tons of content where people misuse words in order to get corrections in the comments so I'm wary. The cycle of semantic drift is much much faster due to the internet. Anyways, great content and I subscribed
Man the ending of the video made me shed a few tears, this review was perfect. I love this game but I'll admit the game is a bit janky and can approve upon the cluttered control scheme.
Good video
As someone who hasn't played the game or finished the video, the "fuzzy context" problem really surprised me. Not only did I assume that the player's inputted direction would be prioritized (otherwise why have the reticle there at all), but also seeing gameplay beforehand I didn't even know you were throwing horizontally & locking on- I thought the game had buttons to throw upwards & downwards, which I'd imagine could help the issue if the context was more "aware" (if that makes any sense).
The game looks fun, but definitely isn't my thing. I'm thoroughly surprised issues like that exist (why put those lamps there especially if the context system is that flawed?). If something I mentioned is addressed in the game or later in the video, I apologize.
EDIT: I'm noticing that the "Ride" button throws the Yo-Yo downwards, does it force you into riding & can it latch onto lock-on points or is it more limited?
So what you're saying is, Penny the 'SBigBreakaway had a rough transition to 3D
This video made me want to buy the game. Is their any performance issues on switch?
I hope you enjoy it! I haven't played the Switch version so I don't know. I believe it just got updated to run at 60FPS, because for some reason it was 30 before.
It could very well be that some of the glitches could be due high framerates above 60 fps. That tends to be an issue in a lot of games that are physics dependent. Not saying it excuses the glitches present but it may be worth to bump down the fps to 60 and see if things improve for the time being.
Very true. I noticed after version 1.2 that I seemed to consistently swing a lot further in the air, and I think there was a patch note about yo-yo behaviour at higher frame rates. There very likely could have been other issues that I never even noticed.
0:40 W101 MENTIONED, VIDEO LIKED.
Team, unite up!
While it was a lot of fun I never really got the hang of the controls. I never got past a single score target at the end of a stage
I"d love to hear your take on Pseudoregalia. It's not momentum based, but I think it was a major addition to the 3D platformer genre overall.
I was trying to find the right way to work a mention of it into this video, but it didn't make the cut. I liked it a lot, I just thought the level design and presentation were a bit boring and dreary. I get that's the point, but it made me less motivated to explore.
No need to apologize for comparing. Penny's Big Breakaway looks and feels like a step toward true 3D Classic Sonic, which is something a lot of people really want.
Isn't softlocking when you put the game in a state where the only way out is to turn off the game?
19:00 No mention of N++?
Penny's one of the best game's I've ever played.
Many of its problems can be attributed to the publisher causing the game to be released way ahead of time.
I sincerely hope the devs can iron out a lot of its more rough aspects but I've already put almost 60 hours into it.
I don't speedrun it. I don't compete in any of its communities.
I just play it. Over and over and over again and everytime I discover more of what it has to offer.
For so many years I've longed for a game that makes me wanna play it for no other reason other than to finally play it again.
The amount of "I wish this was a Sonic game" in the comments already is very telling.
Maybe touch grass?
I love this game but 60hrs is crazy lol (just 10hrs myself). Also those people wishing for this to have the blue rodent since there hasn't been a consistent high quality game from that franchise since 2017 can go kick rocks.
@@TerrorOfTalos I think it makes more sense if you consider how many hours literally any game from your childhood had on it if older consoles counted them like Steam does.
I think there was a time people had some of their favorite games and that's all they played because that's what they had. Penny reminds me of that.
Well, it's a fun game but I think a lot of the stunting feels kinda pointless and purposeless and the level design often goes against the way you're meant to play the game. I'm the type of person who explores every nook & cranny of platforming games, but in this game you can easily break out of the stage and there's also just a lot of area that just serves no purpose. I'd rather have invisible walls than constantly waste my time exploring sections that have absolutely nothing. And the checkpoint system & health systems are also abysmal. Losing a single point of health equals losing a life, sets you back to checkpoint and resets your progress save for permanent collectibles & quests cleared (they do reset, but you don't have to redo/recollect).
It's a good game, but I feel like a few things in design and mechanics are a bit mismatched.
Triggers are analogue. I wonder if it would be fun if you could control the pitch of your yo-yo throw with the triggers.
That's a cool idea, my only worry is it might feel a bit unintuitive.
One problem I’ve had w h this game is there dash, it’s so unresponsive sometimes, like is there a delay or an input issue. I think they should have mapped it to a different button so I could have confidence the game will read two stick inputs and not one
Ngl I wasn’t Really online During Sonic manias Release or reveal So was it really that everyone liked sonic at that time?
The Stuff I’ve seen just makes it feel business as usual to me
When Sonic Mania released, it seriously felt as if all was right in the world. Non-Sonic fans loved it, fans loved it, critics loved it. Then Forces came out a few months later and took that all away.
@@telekinesticman I’m sorry for your loss… 😔
Ok I get it. I still hear people say sonic mania was the greatest sonic game ever.
I disagree… but hey they still say it.
@@telekinesticman You left out the part where everyone was at odds with eachother because Trump was president
goddamn finally i've found one guy that think Penny's art style is good and penny is cute. The whole reception has been negative toward penny's design (the game steam page forum even call her an abomination lol) and i just don't get it. The color palette is pleasing to my eyes and her general shape is easy to see from far away (bonus point to her hat that is literally an arrow pointing where she's looking at, cool stuff).
As for the game, i'm completing it 100% with steam's achievement included and so far i'm at the last zone (i think), and it does get a bit too difficult for my taste.
I'm also not really fond of the whole combo thing (mandatory to unlock all of the extra contents), because :
A) You can break the shit out of it by spamming air dash-> roll -> jump- > repeat to get 100+ combos points
B) if you want to do it the legit way, keeping the combo is unintuitive, sometime the combo doesn't reset even tho i've stopped completely, other time it only need one micro second of non-input to reset it. A cooldown bar would've been helpful but i suspect they didn't put it in because they knew the combo system was hacky (it took me a long time to figure out that switching a lever made the combo last longer for some reason)
C)Its annoying & looks stupid to play for the combo, i know, " just don't do the 100% then", but really it looks like those COD video where people do 100 inputs per second to move 1 meter. Making Penny dash everywhere like an idiot while searching the last medal is pure annoyance.
i agree that the cutscenes looks cheap as hell, i also would say that the story, i could do without.I would've just kept the introduction a la Mario and the ending.
the rest was terribly written as well to be a hundred percent honest.
I would also say that altrough i'm fond of Penny's design, i really don't like the bosses, they all look like some deviant art OC's and needed more time in the oven .
Otherwise great game! The controls, OSTs, and graphics are really really solid. Sadly I think the game sales isn't doing too hot right now and i hope Evening Star doesn't suffer too much from it because they got something going on here.
How was the story terribly written? I agree with cutscenes can look a little off at times but that's it, story is fine for what it is. As for the character designs outside of Penny; the denizens and penguins are fine and Mr.Q and Taboos designs are decent, though the rest are either just okay or meh but nothing terrible.
Good video. Glad I clicked it. Now I'm off to see my wife Sybil and kick a wall.
Maybe there will be an update with some fixes.
Penny's big Breakaway is interesting. It's a fantastic game, but I can't help to be drawn to games like Spark 3 more than it. I do think that is partly due to the games interesting but somewhat steep learning curve due to the controls.
Once you master it, it feels great but I can't really call the controls intuitive, as a result it might feel that some people are playing the game 'wrong' Not the games fault since it pretty much has a wholly unique way of controlling compared to spark which is just adventure sonic but with better control.
Though this game itself does make me wonder if the reason Sega didn't try to do a one to one transition with the classic style was because how steep the learning curve is.
Spark’s controls, music, presentation, and stage design are simply more appropriate for a speed run adventure. Especially… exploring.
Just beat the game and besides the gamplay I can’t really think of anything else I like about the game. I ended up giving it a 7/10
And I guess it’s because the game clicked with me but it was mind numbingly easy at times like baby game easy
The reason I will likely never try this game, outside of disliking Sonic 2 and 3 FOR their momentum focus leaving many stages empty and boring unlike Sonic 1 and CD, is because I already thought stages of Sonic Mania like Mirage Saloon act 2 both looked ugly and had boring dance music, with stages like Lava Reef and Titanic Monarch being the good parts of the game, and Penny looks like it has way more of the earlier.
Despite me not liking Frontiers much it did nail the atmosphere, with the music making running around empty islands extremely calming.
Forces is one of my favourite Sonic games BECAUSE it reminds me of Shadow the hedgehog, the game I grew up on, with all the destroyed buildings and synth based soundtrack.
Spark the electric jester, Pizza Tower, and Penny all go for happy cartoony style I don't like at all, with only Freedom Planet looking appealing to me.
Penny especially with all those pastel colours and peppy music. It's strange because I am a gigantic fan of Kirby, but the styles these games go for don't give me anything to like. I guess Kirby still feels like an adventure if a relaxing one while this feels like like a party rather than anything with stakes.
I don't have any problem with Penny's design, unlike many, but I still enjoy Forces and Sonic 4 more. Sky Fortress act 3 is the best looking Sonic level still.
Your opinions make no sense to me.
I think my least favorite part of the game were the side quests given by the NPCs. For quite a lot of their objectives and areas where the quest itself becomes unaccessable are really unclear and just end up being really unfun, especially if you just want to have fun with the momentum system.
Some of them are a bit weak, although they function really well as soft tutorials to get the player more comfortable with moving quickly and chaining moves together. I'm very grateful that there's a "Restart from Checkpoint" option.
This game made me realize there's never really been a 3D Sonic game based around building and maintaining speed using stylish combos. Less running simulator, more Tony Hawk.
It's strange, because I can't think of anything that mechanically represents the character better.
Spark the electric Jester is simply way less polarizingly designed than Penny, especially for exploration and speed.
I had no clue this game was related to Sonic at all. the rascal game I knew instantly could tell (they didn’t try to hide it really) but not this one until smb told me
ngl without youtube i wouldve missed this release. Def buying this
I wonder how the new landfall game will be
Omg so that’s why I often felt like the game wasn’t doing what I was inputting. Honestly pretty frustrating and turned me off of trying to play all stylish
CRUMBLE MENTION!?!?!?!?
You don't know what soft lock is.
Love me some sloptiers slander. Also this game kicks ass
You actually dont want him to keep going at the end of advance 2 levels you wanna cross fast and stop fast for the most points
That's not the Noise...
Unlike sonic, penny dont chuckle
My only real critique of Penny is that I felt the scoring system was poorly thought out and explained. The whole system to me feels counterintuitive towards how the game wants you to play it. For starters its very vague as to what drops your combo. With a game like Pizza Tower, you see a full meter slowly depleting which gives you easy feedback to understand how close you are to losing your combo. Penny has no visual indicator and also is unclear about what stops your combo. I've had moments where when I have had a high combo I have been able to briefly touch the ground to then immediately jumping and my combo has kept going. Yet I have also had occasions where the frame I touch the ground is when my combo stops.
Now I would be fine with a stricter combo system, but the game doesn't feel designed around this combo system and thus makes the score requirements feel arbitrarily difficult as a result. Small issues like not being able to just walk into powerups to collect the point bonuses, need to be standing on the ground to initiate and complete npc quests, and certain stage design elements really feel like the combo system was an afterthought. This is much more prevalent in the later stages and the harder star stages. With how the game rewards you with special end bonuses for going fast, collecting all the collectibles, and not taking damage, you would assume that means to get the highest score you need to do that. However, thats not the case. I can't count how many times I played some of the star stages, went through the entire level getting all the end bonuses and even keeping my combo throughout the entire thing in some levels, and still barely reach halfway on the requirements. I eventually looked around online to see if I was doing something wrong and found out that most people instead of doing flashy movement and reach the end quickly instead sat in one spot grinding out the same moves over and over for a few minutes to get a really high combo so they could then get enough score. Which to me really tells me this system was poorly thought out. If you want a comparison, look at Pizza Tower again. How do you get a P rank, you have to do 4 requirements, get all the secrets, get the stages treasure, do Lap 2, and do all of that without dropping your combo after killing the first enemy. It's made clear to the player what needs to be done to get the rank, and every stage feels designed around doing that. With collectibles, and enemies placed in very specific spots to make keeping your combo much easier.
In the end, while I love penny and am having a great time with the game. I feel the combo system brings it down a tiny bit as it feels at odds with the games design and makes the act of going for the postcards feel tedious and unsatisfying
I agree, the game doesn't feel like it was designed to facilitate score attack properly because the combo system is a bit wacky.
2:30 Weird jab at Sonic fans for no reason. Especially when you make it sound like you have a problem with the boost but praise Generations later in this video.
why do people compare this game to sonic when its more similar to games like mario odyssey
its both
The control scheme and reliance on an object for better movement remind me of Ape Escape and Billy Hatcher.
@@perfectnamesdontexi-7932 yea i feel like this game is similar to alot of games .., sonic is the least of it tho , which is odd cus thats peoples go-to comparison for some reason
Thank goodness Mania was a fluke! I really don't like it. It's in the same boat as Sonic 2: some good levels but overall pretty bad. Marble Zone from Sonic 1 alone is better than the majority of 2, 3, and Mania. It has somber atmosphere, moody visuals, and PLATFORMING instead of a bunch of hallways for you to run across like Chemical Plant. Its only flaw is being too linear, which is why Sonic CD (with the atmospheric US soundtrack) is the best Classic game to date.
Bruh, rewatch the vid. He called Mania good.
Also, wtf are these opinions? Sonic 1 was terrible aside from Green Hill zone, like why would I want to stay in one place on a moving platform for awhile in a SONIC GAME where you’re supposed to run fast and gain momentum? And Sonic CD was a mess. Sonic 2 and 3 are better because they focus on what green hill zone did right and applied that to all their levels. Plus, why are you wanting moody and somber from a Sonic game? The franchise is meant to be colourful. Go look somewhere else.
This take is so crazy that I actually respect it. Bless you (Marble Zone is my favorite Sonic 1 zone lol)
@@Mister_Domm there was no need to tell them to go somewhere else. Completely uncalled for 💀