Penny’s Big Breakaway review

It may be a 3D platformer released in 2024, but Penny’s Big Breakaway by Evening Star takes us back to the nineties. In fact, it hugely reminds us of classic 2D platformer Dynamite Headdy by Treasure, and that’s no bad thing. The protagonist here doesn’t catapult their head to hit enemies and the like here though; instead they use a yo-yo.

A street performer, Penny dreams of making it big. It’s for that reason she’s drawn to a call by Eddie the Emperor, who wishes to find new palace court performers. After putting on a solid performance, however, her yo-yo – becoming a living creature after an encounter with a Cosmic String – attacks Eddie the Emperor and shows him up. Needless to say, Penny’s dreams of performing in the court are over. Instead, she needs to evade the Emperor’s penguins, pronto.

As you’d expect, it’s Penny’s yo-yo that’s central to the action in Penny’s Big Breakaway. Travelling through a variety of levels across numerous worlds, while Penny can use her legs to move herself around and jump across gaps, it’s her yo-yo that grants her a wider range of moves that allow her to negotiate the most troublesome of hazards and environments.

Penny can send her yo-yo to attack enemies, for example, and destroy objects such as canisters and grass to expose collectibles. Even more helpful is being able to throw out the yo-yo and suspend it in mid-air, allowing Penny to swing from it. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It can also be used as a vehicle of sorts, with Penny riding it to travel at greater speed. A range of pickups also grant it special properties, such as turning it into a wrecking ball which can break blocks blocking your path.

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Penny’s yo-yo is versatile indeed, then, though it needs to be in order for you to succeed. Get mobbed by a group of penguins and you’ll need to use it to break yourself free, or else you’ll find yourself captured. And with plenty of verticality to be found within the game’s levels, one false move could find you falling to your doom. Well, not quite; a health bar means you can get hurt or captured numerous times before it’s a game over. Even then, you can generally just continue from your last checkpoint. Although they’re not always that well placed.

What’s more troublesome is that Penny’s Big Breakaway can feel a bit awkward mechanically at times. Using your yo-yo as a vehicle, for example, can be unwieldy, and the usual problem with 3D platformers – correctly landing troublesome jumps across platforms – is exacerbated by Penny’s ability to swing from her yo-yo as well as double jump. With a bit of time you can get used to these issues, however, so the more you play Penny’s Big Breakaway the more you’re going to get out of it.

Playing on PS5 for review, hopefully some of the bugs plaguing Penny’s Big Breakaway will be eradicated in time, too. There aren’t too many, but one we’ve encountered consistently regards a mini-game which finds you inputting numerous strings of commands at the end of a level. It often doesn’t register your inputs correctly, meaning you miss out on a valuable score boost.

Those that find themselves really enjoying Penny’s antics will likely want to replay levels, completing the multiple optional missions found within and tracking down hard-to-reach collectibles. The latter can even be used to unlock a range of bonus stages, challenging your skills in new ways. Together with a unique visual style that’s reminiscent of old SEGA platformers and a soundtrack that’s certainly a bop, there’s a lot to like about Penny’s Big Breakaway.

It has some issues that can frustrate, mechanically it can take some getting used to, and it could do with a patch or two to clear up some unfortunate bugs, but Penny’s Big Breakaway has a lot of charm which sees it pull through the other side. If you’re a fan of 3D platformers, especially those with unique quirks and gimmicks, chances are you’ll absolutely love what Penny’s Big Breakaway has to offer. It’s certainly a solid debut from Evening Star, and we can’t wait to see what the studio does next.