You can feel the Sonic creative tissue in Penny’s Big Breakaway. It’s impossible to escape and not something the team at Evening Star would shy away from. Christian Whitehead is the game’s creative director, and he’s the Australian known for sort of pushing SEGA into doing a Sonic CD port, which led to several other sonic projects, including Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins. And now some of that team, led by Whitehead, are working on a game that feels heavily inspired by the heyday of SEGA.

Penny’s Big Breakaway is all about speed and a Yo-Yo. A special kind of Yo-Yo that Penny has is capable of grabbing onto objects, being ridden, grinding rails, and more. Each stage has been built with time attack runs at heart, and mastering the perfect transitions from ridding the Yo-Yo down a hill to dashing forward with it and then using it to fling across a gap will see those climb the leaderboards. 

Much like Sonic games, there is the option to play Penny’s Big Breakaway at a slower pace, opening up a different game type. You’ll bump into characters during levels, giving you quick little side quests; secrets can be found in hard-to-reach corners, and there are plenty of coins to collect. The only downside to this pace of gameplay is that there’s a big timer stuck in the corner of the screen telling you how long you’re taking in the level. I wish that in ‘story mode,’ it would be turned off, as it can make you feel like you want to rush as much as you’re trying to tell yourself to chill. 

Each level is made to be replayed, either looking for the secrets you’ve missed or in a ‘time attack’ mode that is unlocked after beating a stage. You can also replay stages to increase your score as bonus objectives to successfully completing a mini-game at the end of a stage will affect all of this.

Penny’s Big Breakaway is purposely going for a throwback to minimalistic design, and visually, the game does look like it may have come from the SEGA CD. Though the art is lovely with bright colours galore and each world, based on my preview time, looks very different. However, when you see what feels like hundreds of penguins attacking Penny or a giant ball wrecking a stage as you outrun it, you see more modern technology being successfully snuck into this throwback game.

I can see Penny’s Big Breakaway being a highlight of the year for the fans of simpler mascot platformers and younger audiences. There’s plenty to love here, especially in a now relatively uncrowded genre. And given Sonics’ rather recent resurgence, maybe some of that could inspire fans to check out and support something different from a group of people who are huge fans but looking to create something that’s their own.

Penny’s Big Breakaway is releasing on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch in 2024.

A preview build of Penny’s Big Breakaway on PC was provided to us for coverage by the publisher.