Months on from release, we’re still playing it - and here’s why.
It’s a perfect blend of old-school sensibility and innovation: a rare treat in today’s gaming industry.
It’s also a game built entirely using in-house, from-the-ground-up technology.
At its core, Penny’s is a 3D platforming game.
Focusing on presentation, Penny’s Big Breakaway is built on the Star Engine using the StarSDK.
This is a series of tools and technologies designed to streamline the creation of 3D game development.
It is the successor to the Retro Engine that powered Sonic Mania.
It’s fast, it’s fluid and it directly benefits the game design.
I’m also a huge fan of the visual design - characters are expressive, bizarre and beautifully animated.
The colour scheme is eye popping and unique.
The lava stage, for instance, feels like a Mega Drive game brought to life in 3D.
While the shapes, colours and designs do feel suitably old school, the raw geometry is extremely dense.
Shapes are rounded and smooth lending the game an almost 90s CGI look at times.
PlayStation and Xbox all receive flawless 4K gameplay running at 120fps, and it’s wonderful to play.
Of course it also supports 60fps if your TV lacks this feature.
The PC version is also fully capable of this, of course, with relatively low requirements.
Crucially, the PC version is completely free of stuttering.
Nintendo Switch, however, is curious.
Performance mode retains the same resolutions but removes anti-aliasing.
Thankfully, this mainly seems to occur in specific levels especially Vanillatown - the game’s first world.
It’s also true both in docked and handheld mode.
That is, the game responds to resolution changes at the system level.
This works even without closing the game and remarkably, it solves most of the performance issues.
Areas which previously dropped frames suddenly spring to life without a hiccup perfectly sticking to 60fps.
There’s only one more thing to note about the Switch version - the draw distance is pulled in.
You get a perfect mix of cool looking angles with useful ones that frame the gameplay very effectively.
Nailing jumps and judging depth largely works well though there are moments when it can be a little fiddly.
Audio also deserves mention.
The same goes for games like Nights Into Dreams among others.
It has what I call a ‘reverse ring’ system.
Instead, avoid them.
The key here is getting into the groove.
Which is why it works so well for me.
I love games that put you in a state where you just feel pure happiness.
It has a crunchy exterior with a warm, wonderful centre that richly rewards those who reach it.
Months on from release, I’m still playing it.
And there’s a demo, so why not give it a try?
