What would that be like?
I don’t fully know what I’m responding to, even.
I don’t get this from actual 3D Mario games, which tend towards the toybox-like.
But I get it fromPenny’s Big Breakaway.
In a strange, hard-to-pin-down manner, it’s the action game I want when I play Mario Kart.
This is weird, because the clearest lineage here is Sonic.
Coin collection gives off a distinct golden rings chime.
But what marks Penny’s Big Breakaway out, I think, isn’t the way it looks back.
It’s the way all this stuff make sense for the present.
As the involvement of Whitehead suggests, this is a game that encourages flair in its players.
It’s one for the speedrunners, the short-cut finders, the combo-builders.
you might run, or you might hop on your spinning yo-yo and ride it like a dinky chariot.
Elsewhere the yo-yo gives great options for sudden bursts of speed, direction changes and environmental interaction.
And the levels make the most of this too.
I really love Penny’s level design, which tends to be broad with the promise of secret areas.
Some levels feel like golf courses as you roll the yo-yo chariot over perfectly sculpted humps of grass.
The game never forgets that yo-yo.
Of course there’s a cake at the end.
It’s purple-and-pink sky thinking.
It’s a deliriously creative and challenging platform game.
It’s odd and funny and a total delight.
