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\n Platform:<\/b>
\n PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X\/S, Switch, PC
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Publisher:<\/b>
\n Private Division
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Developer:<\/b>
\n Evening Star Studio
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Release:<\/b>
\n \t2024
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Rating:<\/b>
\n Everyone\n <\/p>\n
Sonic Mania is widely regarded as one of the blue blur\u2019s best games. More than six years after its 2017 release, that sentiment remains as strong as ever, even after recent outings like 2022\u2019s Sonic Frontiers and this year\u2019s Sonic Superstars. While published by Sega, longtime Sonic fans who grew up playing the series, like Christian Whitehead, Hunter Bridges, Dave Padilla, Brad Flick, Tom Fry, and others, led the game\u2019s development. And without speculating too much, the degree of separation afforded to these fans-turned-developers allowed Sonic Mania to feel like both a fresh breath of air and a return to form.<\/p>\n
Not wanting to wade too deep into the world of independent contracts and wishing to maintain the friendship between each other strengthened in Sonic Mania\u2019s development, the five of them formed Evening Star months after the game\u2019s release. Studio CEO and executive producer Padilla, CTO and game director Bridges, creative director and lead engine architect Whitehead, design director Flick, and art director Fry all admit the easy follow-up was right there: A Sonic Mania-type 2D platformer. It\u2019s what fans of Sonic Mania wanted, and to their credit, they worked with Sega on potential sequel ideas before amicably parting ways. But, unsatisfied with the easy answer, Evening Star got to work on a 3D momentum-based platformer inspired by Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater, an early 20th Century ballet, and 1995\u2019s Jumping Flash on PlayStation.<\/p>\n
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Evening Star<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always had this idea of, \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be great if we had a character that could use a yo-yo to do different moves?\u2019\u201d Whitehead says. \u201cInitially, we jotted them down on a 2D playfield, but there were several concurrent themes swirling in the background. At least for me, my perspective as a developer is I\u2019ve spent the last decade working exclusively on 2D pixel art, so I really wanted to expand and prove that I could do something more than just one particular genre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitehead says he\u2019s aware Penny\u2019s Big Breakaway is another platformer but says it\u2019s a different flavor in a different dimension. After playing more than two hours of the game myself, experiencing the first three of 11 regions in the world of Macaroon, including three different boss stages and special Star Globe bonus levels, that much is clear. Knowing the development leads of Sonic Mania are responsible for what I play, it\u2019s impossible to deny the momentum-based inspiration that lives in both titles. But Whitehead\u2019s right \u2013 even beyond the obvious shift from 2D to 3D, Penny\u2019s Big Breakaway features a different flavor. It is not just a new flavor for these developers but something unique in the long-standing platforming genre.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m terrible at the game, at least for the first handful of stages. It doesn\u2019t help that I just watched Bridges speed through them like someone with intimate knowledge of every stage\u2019s challenges, but I\u2019m slow and struggle to combo yo-tagonist Penny\u2019s yo-yo-based moves across ramps, flag poles, gaps, and more. Penny can toss her yo-yo forward to attack enemies and break barrels with a button on a controller or, more curiously, by flicking the right stick in a direction. And that directional input is independent of Penny, meaning you can flick the yo-yo to her right while she walks left. It\u2019s admittedly bizarre at first \u2013 not because it doesn\u2019t feel good, but because it\u2019s so different from how I typically interact with the combat and moveset of a 3D platformer mascot.<\/p>\n
In the same vein, Penny can double jump, but instead of gaining a good amount of height with a second jump, she gains a barely noticeable amount; the purpose of her double jump isn\u2019t height but a stop in momentum, Bridges tells me. She can dash by tossing her yo-yo forward, performed by flicking the right stick in the same direction twice, and she can swing left and right, forward and backward, on her yo-yo anywhere in the air as well.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/01\/1c2e1380\/03_0.jpg\")
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Although it takes me some time \u2013 something I welcome because it\u2019s rare to experience a new moveset that challenges my preconceptions of a genre \u2013 I finish my Penny\u2019s Big Breakaway play time with the realization that it\u2019s not a 3D platformer in the vein of something Nintendo might create, another challenged preconception. On the one hand, it\u2019s a Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater-inspired platformer with an emphasis on momentum that will appeal heavily to speedrunners and time trial fans, with a constant score and Devil May Cry-style combo tracker on the right side of the screen, too. On the other, it\u2019s a team\u2019s love letter to the weird and sometimes broken platformers of the 3D genre\u2019s early days. Together as a complete package, it rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rules [of 3D platformers] at that stage weren\u2019t really established that well,\u201d Whitehead says. \u201cI remember growing up playing a lot of PlayStation games where they were maybe a bit rough around the edges but trying to grapple platforming mechanics in 3D, and I felt really inspired by that era. I experienced that as a kid, but I wanted to experience that as a developer.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/01\/141e62cd\/04_0.jpg\")
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Whitehead, admitting creative selfishness, says he wanted to try and make a PlayStation-style 3D platformer that fixes the problems he experienced growing up with the genre. The small slice I\u2019ve played proves Evening Star is on the right path. But in speaking to others within Evening Star, like Bridges, Fry, Flick, and Padilla, it\u2019s clear everyone is all-in on that idea. Even Fry, the art director on paper, says he was involved in all kinds of decisions outside of his development realm, a philosophy everyone else expresses too. \u201cThe collaborative effort is an intrinsic part of the team,\u201d Fry says. \u201cNot one person has an idea and everyone follows them like the Pied Piper with it. It\u2019s something where we believe everyone has something of value to throw into the pot, and with the art, that\u2019s certainly no different. I refer to it as a roundtable philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
That collaborative energy even made its way into the so-far-amazing score of Penny\u2019s Big Breakaway, which utilizes a wide range of weird synthesizer instruments, instrumentation from genres like Latin and Calypso, and more to create a jazz-like symphony of music. Bridges, Whitehead, and others in the team contributed to the score in various ways, even after Evening Star hired Streets of Rage 4 and TMNT: Shredder\u2019s Revenge composer Tee Lopes, who the team also worked with on Sonic Mania, and Sean Bialo to create the score.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/01\/cf9bed61\/05_1.jpg\")
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If one aspect of Penny\u2019s Big Breakaway speaks most to its early PlayStation inspiration, it\u2019s the art direction. Inspired by the early 20th Century Triadisches Ballett and the Germanic Bauhaus art movement from the same period, combining colorful abstract ideas with primitive geometry, the world of Macaroon feels like one big performance. Your social status is defined by the performance you can give to denizens of the world. Every stage ends with a \u201cBusker\u201d bonus that requires quick and accurate QTE sequence completion to add additional points to your total score. Within each stage are three denizen challenges, like collecting four missing tax forms for an electric company while riding Penny\u2019s yo-yo like a unicycle, and during the Busker bonus, the denizens you help watch you perform.<\/p>\n
Even the conceit of the narrative speaks to the idea of performance art being everything \u2013 Penny attends a talent show after finding a special yo-yo with an insatiable hunger and, instead of wowing the emperor with a showstopping performance, the yo-yo eats the emperor\u2019s clothes. She spends the rest of the game running further and further away from the emperor and Macaroon\u2019s capital, chased to the world\u2019s edges by the emperor\u2019s ever-present penguins, only temporarily slowed by your efforts and never outright defeated.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe want the game to keep the flow and dribble going,\u201d Bridges tells me. \u201cWe really wanted to have that rhythm […] and never interrupt that. It\u2019s a game where the most skilled players can theoretically make it through a level in an unbroken string of moves. That\u2019s Penny\u2019s masterful performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why Evening Star controls the camera at all times, which requires a flip in my brain. With three denizen challenges to complete and three Show Pieces to find in each level, I want to explore every nook and cranny. But without camera control, I can\u2019t, and I hate this at first. It\u2019s only after realizing that if Evening Star isn\u2019t allowing the camera to take me here or there, then there isn\u2019t anything to miss that I begin to play on the team\u2019s terms. This switch is freeing, realizing Penny\u2019s platforming playground is predicated on my ability to keep moving forward to where Evening Star was taking me in its design. With thoughtful movement and a keen eye, completing every challenge and finding every Show Piece feels intrinsic to Penny\u2019s \u201cperformance\u201d in each stage.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.gameinformer.com\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/02\/01\/093e37f0\/07_0.jpg\")
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The game clashed with every notion I had of 3D platforming. I wanted to take things slow; I wanted to search every corner for something; I wanted to take my time. But Penny\u2019s Big Breakaway is a welcome antithesis to everything (mostly) Nintendo had taught me about this genre. It\u2019s a bold design choice and one I would have called risky on paper. In talking with Evening Star, it\u2019s clear it understood that risk going into its first original game and IP. However, each member I spoke to expressed humble confidence in their respective facets of the game\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a lot of skills we really excel at when making games, and a lot of specific nuances we bring to the table because of our team dynamic and our tools, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be a complete surprise,\u201d Padilla says. \u201cI think a lot of folks are going to see this as something completely new and something completely original, but in terms of what we\u2019ve done before and what we\u2019re doing now, and hopefully what we\u2019re doing in the future, folks are going to be able to connect the dots.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in Issue 362<\/a> of Game Informer.<\/em><\/p>\n Purchase<\/a><\/p>\n\n \u7acb\u523b\u8a3b\u518a\u53ca\u5831\u540d\u96fb\u8166\u88dc\u7fd2\u8ab2\u7a0b\u5427! <\/a> www.ITSec.vip<\/a> www.Sraa.com.hk<\/a> 
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