All the way back in 2017, Christian🍷 Whitehead and a talented team of developers managed to save from a long run of mediocrity with , a 2D adventure that is, to this day, considered to be one of the♓ best Sonic games ever made thanks to its excellent level design, pitch-perfect platforming, and a sense of speed that had long been missing from the series.

After finally putting Sonic back on the map and starting a resurgence for the Blue Blur, it’s safe to say that many thought Whitehead and his team would somehow end up at Sega and continue their winning streak. Although thos🍌e talks did happen and we almost got a much better version of Sonic Superstars🌠, it was time for something fresh.🗹 Whitehead instead formed a new studio, Evening Star, and got to work on his own platforming IP - .

Penny’s Big Breakaway puts you into the tiny blue shoes of Penny, a charming street🌳 performer who hopes to perform for the emperor. As she makes her way to his palace to audition, she comes into contact with a cosmic string that makes her yo-yo sentient and starts her on her journey to figure out why her yo-yo is suddenly eating everything.

That street performer back𓆉ground also comes into focus at the end of a level, where Penny busks for people to close out the stage.

Beyond introducing a whole new world and set of characters, the yo-yo is what sets Penny’s Big💦 Breakaway apart. It’s similar to Cappy from or Clank in Ratchet & Clank in the sense that it’s a constant companion to Penny and used for all of her platforming tricks, including double jump🍃s, creating a swinging perch at any moment, hitting enemies from afar, spinning around like a razor blade, and, best of all, serving as a vehicle.

Although there’s more to the yo-yo and its uses than that - like being able to grab power-ups that offer temporary abilities like smashing through objects❀ or using it to help people out with timed side quests while making your way through levels - the main crux of Penny’s Big Breakaway and what makes it feels so special is getting used to and mastering that core set of moves and using them to fly through levels like a certain cyan mammal.

The thing that surprised me the most about Penny’s Bi🎶g Breakaway was how much trouble I had getting the hang of it. Platformers are my jam, so I can usually jump in and mess around with the movement mechanics pretty easily, but that embarrassingly wasn’t the case here.

I’m not sure what it was about Penny’s Big Breakaway that caused me so much trouble at first, but every time I tried to be flashy or cocky to speed through levels, I always ended up coming short and ha♍ving to slow way down. Of course, that’s a great option too if you’re a more casual platforming fan, but as someone with something to prove, speed was my main goal.

After a few levels of struggling and more restarts than I’d care to admit, I eventually got the hang of Penny’s Big Breakaway and started feeling the same magic of movement and momentum mastery that makes Sonic such a good time. O🅠nly this time, unlike Frontiers and most other 3D Sonic games, with more focus on momentum and a refreshing new world that couldn’t be further from Green Hill Zone.

Penny’s Big Breakaway is a mechanically dense game that relies a lot more on momentum than most other 3D platformers. As you might expect, it’s a lot closer to 𓄧than it is to Sonic, which takes some getting used to but works for it overall thanks to how tight and purposeful the movement is, and how satisfying it feels to blaze through levels by chaining together moves as you st꧑art to understand how everything works.

It’s easier than learning how🍎 to use a yo-yo in real life, at least.

While I eve𓃲ntually started falling for Penny’s platforming prowess, there is one part of the game that I don’t gel with so much: the enemies. While exploring levels, Penny will find the emperor’s penguins chasing after her and trying to swarm her. They’re everywhere, an ever-present thorn in your side, grabbing onto you and slowing you down if they catch you.

On paper, the 💦penguins are a smart inclusion that keeps the player moving and using the yo-yo as much as possible, but in practice, I found them to be a little bit too much of a hat on a hat. I think Penny’s Big Breakaway’s mechanics encourage you to keep moving on your own without having another part of the game pushing you to go fast.

It could just be a skill issue that I won’t have problems with when the game launches, but I hope🐓 the penguins become a little easier to manage as the game goes on. Even with a bit of a difficulty spike and some ♛annoying enemies, Penny’s Big Breakaway is shaping up to be one of the most exciting and unique 3D platformers in recent years.