Penny's Big Breakaway Is A BIG Disappointment: The Most Overrated Game of The Year?

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Why hello you lovely little peppercorns, my name's Noa Lee, god of game criticism, and in this video I"m going to do a deep dive in to why I feel Penny's Big Breakaway fails to live up to the standards of a good artistic experience; it's not a bad game, it's just bad art. Let me explain: From the game's awkward controls, level design that doesn't fit with the character's move set, bland and frustrating bosses, to it's over-produced and forceful design, Penny's Big Breakaway is a game that has a lot going for it when taken as individual pieces, but falls flat when putting those pieces together.
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Created by: Noa Lee
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Опубликовано:

6 апр 2024

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Комментарии : 122

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

💗So uh, I guess I'm in the minority on this one, huh? Let me know how much you hate every I had to say and subscribe I guess!

@tpfoxCastro 11 дней назад

To be fair, the comments are really that hateful. Most are just saying that you were not playing very well, which would obviously make the game less fun, some even explained how you could improve your moveset (double jumps slow downs your momentum for example). Others explained that it really isn't overrated cuz it didn't even sell that much. There weren't that many people saying how much they HATED what you said

@TurboPikachu 9 дней назад

@@tpfoxCastro aren't*

@tpfoxCastro 9 дней назад

@@TurboPikachu You do realise that weren't is just past aren't, right? Plus, since I never know when hate comments can rise, saying weren't makes more sense, since I don't want the comment to age like milk.

@TurboPikachu 9 дней назад

@@tpfoxCastro I should have clarified where the "aren't" belonged. Your first line says "The comments *are* really that hateful" instead of aren't.

@HunnysPlaylists 8 часов назад

No, sales and honest reviews agree with you.

@ethanchang8342 27 дней назад

"Overrated" buddy I wish the game sold well enough to be considered overrated

@SvensPron 27 дней назад

Small question, how can a game that basically no one is talking about be overrated

@MatthewStevensOrMattDave 7 дней назад

Considering all the usual suspects are talking about it, including an absolute glowing review from NitroRad, I can say at least for an indie game Penny has made a splash. As for how fair the review was, maybe the opinion was overly negative but man felt the way he felt. Not like he was being rude about it.

@andraw4002 4 дня назад

It's not about how many people are talking about it, it's about how positive the general consensus is.

@AwesomeSuaceable Месяц назад

Tell me you can't schmoove without telling me you can't schmoove

@tpfoxCastro 11 дней назад

LMAO, so true.

@joemama2499 Месяц назад

I say this respectfully, but I think you’re playing the game … un-ideally. To be fair the game doesn’t teach you the best way to move through the stages but based on your footage, I wouldn’t have had fun with the game either. Too much double jumping (it slows your momentum) and not enough swinging. I agree pro controls are a bit much. I just use the face buttons for all actions. Never had issue with the penguins. I just swing over them. Getting off the yoyo from riding took a bit of getting used to but feels natural now. The side quests are a bit at odds with the go go go nature of levels butttt, they add so much to the world and charm of the game. overall i loved this game. I think it’s clear a ton of passion was put into this on all fronts and maybe it just isn’t for most people but i think it’s such a daring artistic venture and commend their efforts. I’ve already played 30 hours of it 🤓

@milesharris249 13 дней назад

Ikr, I know this phrase is played out and Cringe but he seriously needs to *Get Gud*

@SKreal430 Месяц назад

skill issue 😩😩😩😩

@OnionCurry Месяц назад

i mean actually

@darth_hylian 7 дней назад

Gen Z likes to cycle through like 8 different phrases

@therealtijuanaman 15 дней назад

I'm not really behind this framing of what happened between Sega and Whiteheads company. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information other than they were in talks, and it didn't happen. So, this framing of "desperation" and "filling a void left by Sonic" is pure speculation when it's entirely possible that the developers simply wanted to move on

@HunnysPlaylists 8 часов назад

whitehead needed money; what you don't realize is that he also needed sega.

@CocoYeti Месяц назад

As for the penguin thing, I feel like the devs intended them more as an obstacle,being annoying I feel like is suppose to add on to that too. Yea they COULD be fixed in a few areas. But that’s my take to on it.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

I think you're right, seems like an execution issue ultimately.

@mau2172 Месяц назад

I can't not sound like a condescending prick saying this, but I mean it in the most respectful way possible, from one person who puts too much thought into the design of videogames to another: I feel like the overall negative tone of your review is not very well earned. But, I also strongly believe that you are not responsible for the way you feel about this game. I'll try to be as clear as I can about what I'm saying. I desperately need to ensure that this doesn't come off as a simple "you just don't get it". We both can agree that the level design in this game is good. At many times while playing through them these levels really do feel like proper 3D translations of 2D sonic level design. Building and applying speed on curved terrain such as slopes and ramps, avoiding passivity traps, being punished by falling below to slower routes, many elements like these make fairly often appearances and they really do feed into the sonic-like ideas of encouraging constant activity and replayability to improve at the game. The penguins were never an issue to me, even when i was just getting a hang of the controls, I would only ever get captured if my stubborn ass insisted on mindlessly forcing its way somewhere without engaging in any mindful movement to avoid these swarms of penguins. I think their implementation works fairly well as a game mechanic that demands of you to keep up with the pace of the levels. I too would say that the side quests and collectibles directly clash with the time attack fundamentals of the level design, which is proably why they are both completely removed in the time attack versions of the levels. They are extra little things placed throughout the levels to motivate you to get to know them just a little bit better, and I never found them to break the flow of my intitial casual playthrough, especially since almost every single quest was about going forward to complete a certain activity, and the collectibles were either the reward for finding a hidden route or were instead at some fairly easy to find spot. I completely agree that the creation of a "dual stick control scheme" was, to some extent, an unnecessary burden placed onto the development of this game. I find it frustratingly awkward to use. Trying to execute any mid-air action is too much of a hassle when you can just point to where you want to shoot your yo-yo with your infinitely better trained left thumb, and use your infinitely more responsive face buttons to determine which mid-air action you want to do instead of dealing with the travel time of a controller stick. Overall it seems like a very tacked-on gimmick, and I think you are right on the money with the theory that the lack of camera control was nothing but a by product of that control scheme. Just like you said though, thanks to the linear nature of these levels, I never found it to be an issue. In fact I would say this is one of the better auto-cameras I have seen in the genre. So far in my entire playthrough (that is still going well over 10 hours, I am time attacking the hell out of this game) the camera has consistently let me see enough ahead of me to decide what to do next. When it comes to your thoughts on penny's controls, however, I have to say, I think the exact opposite. I think Penny has one of the most nuanced and flexible control systems I have ever had the pleasure to use in a platformer. The amount of options you have at your disposal while mid air is certainly a lot, especially since you have to keep track of which ones you have already used along with the ever-changing arc of your jump. What makes this mid-air movement so fascinating to me, ironically, is that there's EVEN MORE to consider during a single damn jump. As I said when listing out some noticeable sonic-like elements present in the game, the building and application of speed is one very important design element in sonic considered both for his controls and level design. Penny takes this idea and realizes it tenfold. You can completely redirect your speed with your swing, you can add onto your speed with a dash, you can extend the arc with a "double jump" (which really isn't a double jump, more so a move to slightly modify your vertical speed), you can even do a complete U turn from your swing and come out of it with just as much if not more speed. Every single second you are in the air, you are challenged with the task of turning the overbearing presence of gravity in your favor. You don't do a mid-air action to just "go forward", you do it to make the best out of your moveset, to be as creative and cool as you want to be. Maybe you dash to earn some quick speed, and then build on top of that speed with a precisely timed swing to reach higher into the air, and with that new arc roll onto a slope with all your newly earned downward speed, and so on and so forth. Before you know it, you are blasting through the level like it's nothing. The exact same reward you would get for playing well in classic sonic, in this game you get ten times as much, for ten times the asking price. I believe this is what has so many people torn on Penny's Big Breakaway. Getting good at this game is fucking hard dude. Again, I may be talking here like I just "understand these types of games" but you better believe it took me HOURS of gameplay to get any good at performing crazy shit like this. And these movement mechanics are not broken, imbalanced messes like Sonic Adventure's trademark spamdash or whatever crazy jank you could exploit in platformers of that era. The amount of nuance put into this movement system was so intentional, they added a whole ass combo system to incentivize you to get good at it. Problem is, like you very well said, no one gives a flying fuck about scores. So it only ends up being something of interest to those who are already into tryharding their way through the game. This over reliance on momentum based gameplay that you mentioned I think is very real, and a detriment not to the functionality of the game, but to the accessibility of it. I think a good display of that problem is that they made penny walk excruciatingly slow to try to get you to use the rolling as much as you can. But without understanding how to leverage your mid-air moves, rolling the whole time will often feel rather slow and awkward. The biggest absolute most offensive flaw of this game is that it doesn't show you a single snippet of just how badass you can can get to be. It teaches you these moves like they're as mundane as any double jump in any other platformer, and then sets you off in your way hoping that you learn to find the fun in them, to find the nuances of this weird ass yo-yo platformer that is at the same time suggesting you use both of your fucking sticks to move. Yeah good luck with that, game. What I've seen happen to this momentum-based platformer as a result of its poorly conveyed appeal, is that it more than ever separates those who have been long into this platforming genre from those casual players who may not have had games of this type offer them this much freedom of movement before. It really doesn't tell you the type of game YOU can get it to become, and if a game doesn't properly convey what's so good about its gameplay, then it might as well deserve its title of "mediocre", because what good is a good game for without a player getting good at it?

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

Really appreciate the well thought out and reasoned response and I pretty much agree with everything you've said, though my conclusion differs, obviously. I also appreciate that you took the time to understand my points before commenting too; not enough people do that these days, especially on a video as long as this, so thank you! I guess my only real rebuttal to this would sort of fall in line with what you said about the game not showing you what you can accomplish in this game. I absolutely agree that Penny's moveset allows you to pull off some crazy stunts and get some crazy speed and momentum, and I also agree that the game doesn't do a very good job of teaching you its core mechanics either. It's clear that once you've mastered the game and are able to exploit it, it can be a lot of fun. My thinking on this, however, is that this sort of holds true for any game, even really bad ones. If you learn the ins and outs of a game well enough that you can exploit it to skip large chunks of the game, or speedrun the hell out of it, or dominate a janky/broken area/boss or whatever, you'll always find some amount of enjoyment. My argument would be that that enjoyment doesn't come from the game though, but rather from your performance. From what I've seen the people who are really into this game are all of a speedrunning bent; that doesn't mean that their enjoyment isn't valid, but I think we need to be honest about where they're deriving their enjoyment from. What does it say about a game that's mediocre until you "git gud?" If the only argument for the game being good is that "I can exploit it and skip half the level" and similar thoughts, that, to me, is just indication that Penny's Big Breakaway is a good playground, not necessarily a good game. And there's nothing wrong with that; I'm glad people are enjoying it, but I'm of an artistic bent, and feel that enjoyment at a high level can't be the only thing going for a game, because if it is, that just shows a disinterest in games AS art and I don't feel that's good for the medium. To me, Penny's Big Breakaway is not art, at least not good art, it's a playground, just as all games played through the lens of speedrunning become. Playgrounds can be fun for the right person, absolutely, but they don't have a lasting, meaningful, appeal to them. The people that are super into Penny's Big Breakaway right now will abandon it as soon as a more interesting playground comes along, and once that happens all that will be left is a mediocre game that had the potential to be a great playground AND great art, but chose to play to the audience expectations and failed to do the latter. Ultimately, it's a question of where the art is--for me at least. To me, in something like Super Mario Odyssey or Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the art is in the games themselves, whereas in Penny's Big Breakaway or something like Sonic Generations, the art is in the performance of the person speedrunning it. That can be true of Odyessey or S3&K as well, but those games are good art first, speedrunning playgrounds second. Penny and Generations are speedrunning playgrounds first, bad art always.

@m28k4 Месяц назад

rare quality youtube comment

@mau2172 Месяц назад

@@ThusSpokeNoaLeeThat is a very interesting way to think of games as a medium. Thinking of the art of the devs and the art of the player as two separate things, both equally as valid. I do stand my case that penny's was designed with these exploitable, high-skill ceiling mechanics in mind, but obviously not to the extent of snapping the game in half with extremely specific use of collision and pixel perfect swings. The absolute extreme of this playground idea is indeed the speedrun, where you sometimes aren't even playing the same game anymore. If a game is to be considered a succesful work of art, or design if you will, it makes sense that the developers must have some saying in what composes the "meat" of the experience. I think there can be something akin to a middle ground between a playground and a tightly knit game. S3&K and Odyssey are very good examples of that. Both games have huge amounts of space for player expression, yet you are still always playing the game the devs envisioned you playing. Even though I adore what Evening Star put out for us physics fanatics to enjoy, it absolutely could've been thighter in design. It could've held just as much nuance in its gameplay as it does now, yet still have enough confidence in its level design to get the player to engage with more of it. I do not think player expression and tight game design are mutually exclusive things. Funnily enough I do find myself seeking these middle grounds when I play these types of playground games, much more often than searching for the optimal way to break them. I see the potential for huge cheesy skips of huge amounts of level geometry and decide to instead go for some other route that gives me more "videogame" to chew through, even if it ends up worsening my time or whatever. It's almost like choosing not to cheat. It may be fun in its own way but I do like abiding by the laws of a *good* game much better. I may not find it annoying to have to make up these sorts of restrictions for myself, but it is not the type of decision making I would ideally have occupying my mind while learning the layout of a level. I always want to play the most fun version of a videogame, and while the "fun factor" of a game can be widely subjective, I don't think every player should be burdened with having to "redesign" the game in their minds as much as I usually do. This topic really does speak to me. I always find myself reformulating the videogames I play on the go. I have over 200 hours of Sonic Frontiers. Several 10+ hour long playthroughs of me scrambling for ideas, mods, restrictions to make the game fun, and alleviate the clusterfuck of incoherent ideas and broken feedback loops that it is. It's the best test subject I've ever found for that kind of mental exercise. It was very fun for me. Despite it all sounding, you know. Miserably delusional. I wish I had as much free time as I did back then lol That's a great, incredibly interesting point of yours. Thank you for bringing it up. I don't think I had ever been inspired to articulate my understanding of games the way I did just now.

@sonicthomasgamer Месяц назад

Maybe if this game had cutscenes of Penny Performing these crazy tricks. It could get you thinking, can I do that? Like almost falling and zooming up Penguins surrounding her and yo-yo becoming a protecting guard dog Dashing and combining moves Her getting tired of being so slow so Yo Yo pulls her off a ledge and she freaks out and YoYo catches her She moves fast down slopes and launches failing in a funny way, to reflect the player’s inexperience Penny is the player Yo-yo is the developers leading the player to better their skills

@JeffTheBagel 12 дней назад

shush

@tarriochu95 24 дня назад

I ve just finished the game yesterday. I can share some viewpoints and disagree with others, I will try to keep it as a list for simplicity, starting with the bad things then good things: Overall I was really looking forward to playing this game but its a bit rough around the edges. Bad: -The rolling yoyo mechanic feels very sluggish, sluggish enough to make me wish there was some sort of artificial acceleration when you start rolling, and one that also happens when going down a slope. The momentum while rolling runs out fast if you dont get the good angles, and even turning the stick a bit punishes you by greatly downgrading your speed (specially on pronounced angles on slopes). -I completely agree that the controllers while rolling are also bad, sometimes I would full on press my stick to the right and penny would turn juuuust a little bit, and sometimes I would do the same and find her steering hard for no reason. I dont know if this by design, or attached to how fast you are going, but it hinders the gameflow. -Game feels unfinished/unpolished in some crucial aspects, for example, finishing the bossfights, anytime you give the final hit to a boss, either the animation that plays for the boss defeat is too quick (blink and you miss it) or there is none, and the "stage clear" starts playing very suddenly. A lot of times I found myself being like "oh... thats it? no big boom? no feedback for how I was supposed to kick ass or something? (compare this to Mario 64 when the player defeats a boss and it explodes and gives you a star), maybe call me picky for this LOL. -The timers for the sidequests are very tight, not impossible, I like a challenge, I know this is a momentum game and stopping to read kills the flow. But some of them are fetch quests and I cant fetch what I havent read Im supposed to fetch yet (and timer is running out lol). -The yo yo swing has a cool momentum thing but I found myself dropping out because I was punished for going too fast (if you swing while going very fast, instead of doing a half swing, you start doing full on circle loops around your yoyo, and yes you can shoot yourself straight to the void while doing this, and because the swings are attached to how fast you are going, when you get this sort of swing, its very hard to time how to jump properly, IMO they should have had a hard cap for the swingin speed). -Money is useless, I understand there is a shop but nothing you buy there makes the game more fun (mostly second chance items or items to make your bonus in the end slightly bigger), I do wish they had added some cool stuff to buy, otherwise you are just stacking money for nothing, maybe even color swaps for pennys outfit. -Dash could be slightly better if it was also mappable to another button rather than the attack one. Good: -art and music are REALLY AMAZING, I love the artstyle and soundtrack is a banger. -if you play the critical path that the game presents you at the pace you are supposed to go, while doing tricks and stuff, it does give an acrobatic feel thats engaging, specially racking up the combo. Stupid penguins break the combo if even one of them latches onto you so I guess their whole purpouse is being annoying and rewarding the player by avoiding them -The secret coins and sidequests may make you look harder, but they are always in spots that will not hinder your progress and will leave farther on the level once you finish them (normally), I can trust the game that I didnt miss anything when taking the sidetrack, as they dont put any sidequest on the main paths while there is a sidequest path parallel to that. So you can continue with your momentum. -Bossfights while some are surprisingly easy, each brought different things to the table and a different flavor (I mean, emperor Eddie was really easy on his first fight, I know thats a bit of a shame), but there is the billiards with the head guy, the rolling on the water for the submarine, etc etc. No repeats (unless you count emperor Eddie s final fight first phase). -dash and swing in the air feel really solid. Wish the ledge grab wasnt just attached to swinging and then having penny touch a wall (this is never explained and I had to kinda figure out how the hell she did the ledge grab thing). -You have just enough moves to control your mobility/height in the air, which feels weird at first because you cant chain moves infinitely (you cant repeat a dash in the air nor a swing). But once you memorize the core (dash, swing, double jump), you can get almost anywhere you want. The walljump is kinda extra, you kind of never need to use it in the main levels. -The mechanic of spinning the Yoyo to interact is nice, i wish it could have been used a bit more and in different ways but its cool. Overall, If i could change anything, it would be the speed/momentum of how you roll in the ground

@torq21 22 дня назад

The design of the main character is quite hideous. So busy and blobby. All of the angles go in all of the wrong directions.

@MaximumAddition 26 дней назад

That "no heart" comment... Man, I feel like you couldn't be more wrong if you tried, the very moment I got a hang of the controls it felt like an earnest passion project in every aspect, from visuals, to music, and specially gameplay. It felt like a genuine effort at a style of gameplay not yet done, and frankly, the game nailed it as far as I'm concerned. I kinda hate that "coming at it from an artistic bent"... Excuse, is the best I can call it, since I feel like you're also limiting art in another way if you don't feel like a game can have merit for committing to specific audience, rather than having broad appeal [may be misunderstanding your point, but that's how it sounded to me]. This was a big disappointment of a video, feels like it's totally separate from what the actual game is.

@HunnysPlaylists 8 часов назад

this is just "2004 sega" but with MUCH less skill or budget.

@muddrox887 8 дней назад

Overrated? Uh, no one has talked about this game nearly enough for that to be true. What a weird dig at a game that came out to very little fanfare...

@maicoxmauler2825 17 дней назад

Ah yes, the overrated sonic adventure clone that I only just heard came out and looks more like billy hatcher

@HunnysPlaylists 8 часов назад

Based.

@4847jordan Месяц назад

"just look at me I'm lookin fly as fuck right now"

@zariaalhajmoustafa2573 Месяц назад

The problem with the character penny is the 3D model specifically the shading colour you look like they're not finishing the colouring

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

Her mouth looks a little funny in the 3D model too come to think of it.

@Woodpli Месяц назад

It's natural for a fan of a game to want to defend that game when someone talks badly about it. And I'm gonna do exactly that, because WHAT are you TALKING about?? The majority of the "issues" you bring up with the game, I just can't understand. Penny controls very well, and working around the limitations of her movement is where the fun comes from. Penny is a character that's fun to move around with. That's where the core fun of the game stems from. If you don't have fun moving through these levels with Penny, then I have to assume you're just not understanding the game properly. When I first played through this game, I found it to be a good experience! Just... good. But I later found out that the real fun of this game comes from the Time Attack mode. Booting up a random level and ramming your head into it to try to shave more and more seconds off of your run is a wonderful time. I was never into time attack much in the past, but this game changed that. Once you learn the nuances of Penny's control, you can absolutely fly through these levels in a way that flows so nicely. Take all this to say, you've missed out on the best the game has to offer. There is value in judging a game as a whole on an artistic level, but I believe that it's perfectly fine to engage with only SOME of a game's content if it makes for a better playing experience. tldr: WHAT IS BLUD WAFFLIN ABOUT!!!!! 💀💀💀

@spectrumbots4268 20 дней назад

Taking inspiration from 3D Sonic games wasn't the best idea since Sonic doesn't work well in 3D for the most part, especially with the constant gameplay genre changes seen in most games. Mario would have been a better source of inspiration since that series is more cohesive and consistent.

@ordovicianscourge9520 16 дней назад

3d sonic games work better than 2d, 2d sonic games and mario games suck so do 3d sonic haters

@spectrumbots4268 16 дней назад

@@ordovicianscourge9520 I don't like Sonic much outside these four games: Sonic Colors, Sonic Mania, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. 😂

@whateverwavy Месяц назад

you genuinely missed the mark on this video, just based off the title alone. 1. how is a game with an average Metacritic score of 74 OVERRATED? 2. the devs have made it clear that this game is made for a specific crowd of people. it was never supposed to be some AAA world-stopping game, but rather a short niche platforming experience. 3. just because certain aspects and gameplay mechanics bother YOU (like the penguins) doesn't mean the game is A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. the devs had a clear vision of how they wanted this game to play out. it works for some. if it doesn't work for you, don't just make a 30 min video calling the game A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. this review was disappointing tbh

@nanazsan7536 12 дней назад

I understand feeling disappointed in a way, I LOVE hat in time and odyssey and really wanted this game to be the NEW BEST 3d plataformer for me with interesting dynamics, but I feel sometimes like if "that's it?" dash forward and then mount the yoyo, and then do it again and again and maybe try to go for a combo until the end. I feel you were much nicer on the levels since they blend together a lot but i do think they look nice and give a big feel, but not as perfectly shaped challenge like the extra levels or a normal mario level. I wouldn't mind the world but the main controls, like they have sooo much potential, why do you not get a single new ability? I've traveled like 6 worlds already and nothing new really, other than a chillipepper and a stronger yoyo. This is where the game should throw impossibly cool mechanics like give you a double use of the yoyo in the air or something like letting you use your yoyo mount in the air, or move speed in general. I really really wanted to love this game, the moment I saw it on sale on ps5 i instantly bought it but its been like 1 or 2 months since I bought it and I haven't finished it because it feels boring sometimes and I hate that. Maybe our opinions don't perfectly match but I do agree that people and everyone, including this comment section overhype the game, and yes it's great that the studio gets more support like I bought the game, but people can't see how it can feel frustrating to play.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 11 дней назад

That sentiment of really wanting to love the game and shower the developer in praise and support really rings true to me. I know a lot of people in this comment section won't believe it, but I really do think Evening Star are a talented bunch of people, I just want them to dig deeper and take more risks and trust the artistic process a little more rather than playing to the audience like they did with this one. Here's hoping they do just that with the next one because I totally think they have what it takes to make the next Odyssey or A Hat In Time, even if it still ends up being a momentum-based platformer such as this.

@MatthewStevensOrMattDave 7 дней назад

I've been going back on forth on this one. It's been on my wishlist from day 1, I do want to eventually experience it but haven't been able to justify it. Especially with games like Psuedoregalia there for half the price and probably double the fun factor. Penny reminds me of Nights, in that I think it's a name destined for cult classic status, and is a tinge hostile to newcomers.

@battleon81 12 дней назад

I actually just finished the game earlier this week. I thought it was quite good, and I usually don't like 3D platformers. It's no Hat in Time, but still better than I expected. I'm just watching to see how someone could be so disappointed with it. *Update* Yeah...I can't really relate. All the "issues" are either things I didn't notice or actively made the game better. Then again, I went out of my way to carefully explore each level and talk to every individual NPC. Clearly, there are different expectations for what this game was supposed to be.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 11 дней назад

It's definitely no A Hat In Time. lol Still, I am glad this game has found an audience even if I'm not part of it.

@clayton_games 20 дней назад

ugh, enough qualifying your opinion and get to the point. I want to know if I will like this game or not based on you detailing what is in the game and how it plays. "Artistic critique" is not what I'm here for on a new game. EDIT: Okay, good critique on the penguins. The optimal way to play is to not interact with them at all, so they make a poor game mechanic. You spend so much time critiquing an optional control method? I've played other platformers that put your jump on the shoulder (optionally) like Lunistice. The Pro controls are mainly for people who want an easier time managing their thumbs on the hardest challenges. Maybe Penny doesn't have such hard challenges, but this control scheme isn't unusual. This seems far less Sonic Adventure inspired and way more Mario 3D World inspired.

@bigfanofsb653 13 дней назад

14:27 You never have to walk. Like what are talking about you can always ride the yoyo.

@FluffalKyurem День назад

Totally agree. The level design is great, but Penny herself is just not fun to control and is very cumbersome. I honestly wish I could play through the game with a different 3D platformer protagonist, like Crash Bandicoot or Spark the Electric Jester.

@MohamedSaber-rr3dk 23 дня назад

I agree, I didn't really like it

@Yipper64 12 дней назад

it sounds to me like this game's main issue is not having good tutorial-ized level design, maybe not indicating quite well enough how the game is meant to be played. From other reviews I hear the general idea is to always be riding the yoyo, which I can imagine makes everything kind of slot into place once you play that way. The penguins arent as much of an issue because youre blazing through the level, the controls probably click better. Mind you I am just speculating here. I havnt played it. Though if that is the issue what I would have done is have the mechanics introduced over time over the first world before giving you all of them all at once.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 12 дней назад

That does seem to be the one thing that everyone appears to agree on, though I'm not sure I agree with it all "slotting into place" once you get good enough and can ride the yo-yo all the time. From what I've seen high level players don't really interact with most of the level design as they've mastered the controls so well that they end up skipping 90% of it. Maybe that's the point, but that just makes me feel like the controls and level design complement each other even less than what I've alluded to in the video. I like your idea of introducing the mechanics slowly over time and really wish the game was designed to force the player to learn high level maneuvers rather than just allowing you to complete the level through standard platforming. Something like Demon Turf or Vexx comes to mind; those games expect you to utilize your abilities to the fullest in order to proceed, whereas Penny is designed in such away that you can succeed without ever even realizing there's more depth to her controls. Designing it that way may have made the game more frustrating, but I think it would've caused more people (like myself) to dig deeper with it and maybe jive with the game more after a while.

@Yipper64 12 дней назад

@@ThusSpokeNoaLee Yeah. I think the way a lot of games do that is by having different areas of the level that you can do depending on skill level, certain places are inaccessible without using the more in depth mechanics and said areas would get you through the level faster with more bonuses. Like I know Sonic employed this specifically. And since this was the team that made Sonic mania you'd think they could employ that in 3D but I guess not. But hey, every game has flaws. I appreciate your review because it could easily tell someone who approaches these games in a similar way to you that they might not like this game. And that's ok.

@RockyRZ 7 дней назад

It's genuinely not that good

@TimAquila Месяц назад

Thank you very much for this review! I was kind of interested in the game since the Nintendo Direct and I think this review helped me getting a grasp of what I can expect. The music clearly kicks ass! It still seems like a "maybe" title for me, that I'll only buy when I'm in the mood for a new 3D Platformer. I think your review helped me being prepared for the frustrating bits, making them more tolerable.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

Glad to help! It's defiantly worth a playthrough, and you've certainly got the right attitude for it. Hopefully you'll like it more than I did if/when you get around to playing it. :D

@MooseBurrito575 12 дней назад

I have this on my wishlist and definitely need to try it myself but I enjoyed the video. subbed.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 12 дней назад

Thanks, glad you liked it, and hopefully you like Penny's Big Breakaway more than I did. Cheers!

@PandaJerk007 17 дней назад

Your detailed review and focus on lesser known games has got my interest! I haven't played this game to know if our opinions align, but I am curious to see your future vids :) Do try to be a little nicer to the game developers though! [btw I am subscriber number 187!]

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 16 дней назад

Haha fair enough; I do tend to opt for a tough love approach when it comes to developers because I want to see them do great things, especially if they're a talented bunch like Evening Star. Cheers!

@MaverickHunterXZA 12 дней назад

I only played the Demo, but it's pretty much the same impressions i got out of it. The controls felt awful. Actions never felt intuitive, the tempo and rhythm was all over the place. And the game felt like it was never sure how it wanted to be played. I found parts of the levels too big for a fast platformer. Large open areas that had no purpose because you were still meant to blitz through them. Side Quest and collectibles enticed you to slow down and explore, while movement speed and the penguins communicated that slowing down isn't good at all. To me, it felt like a game with a severe identity crisis, which sadly kept me from buying it, as i really couldn't get into the demo. It's neither here nor there. Not a speedy platformer, not an exploration one, it doesn't feel good to play... It sadly wasn't meant to be :/

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 11 дней назад

Hopefully this is just Evening Star going through some growing pains and that they knock it out of the park with the next one.

@HunnysPlaylists 7 часов назад

@@ThusSpokeNoaLee they wont.

@AngrySonMetaphist 18 дней назад

Man, to hear someone say this game doesn't have heart is one of the wildest things I've heard all year, and your efforts to explain it made me even more confused (and I say this while agreeing with most of the critical aspects of your review!). I feel like you're being reductive in your explanation of heart. You essentially describe an artistic process that involves constant adaptation that can lead to something very worthy despite it's flaws...yet this exact process can also lead to disaster. Furthermore, the opposite of this process - painstakingly molding something to your will until it achieves it's grand design - can indeed be seen as a fools errand, but nevertheless can lead to all sorts of incredible things along the way. The point I'm making is that both of these routes can lead to something with "heart" just as much as they can fail to do so. I feel like you missed the critical aspect of this game that actually points to it's heart, and tried to claim that it wasn't there because you were just looking in a different direction! It seems like they were cooking with a physics playground that allowed a lot of cool things to happen, and they really tried to get all of those elements into the game, resulting in something unrefined but littered with potential (ironically, what you describe as leading to heart...). It's completely possible that the game started out in the form of those bonus levels that you think represent the "real" game, and then evolved into the full levels we see now after they realized players needed room to "play" around with these things. And I say this because there is such an incredible "ah-ha" moment the second you hit a slope while riding the yo-yo and go flying even though you had no idea how it would work. I can't help but think the developers wanted you to get that moment on your own, and let the levels come to life from there as you looked for that sort of thing along the way. The point I'm making here is that you don't really know where development started and ended - they could have pivoted any number of times until the game "naturally" ended up in this form you don't like, and therefore has no "heart". The underlying intent of this game couldn't be more clear - indeed, it's baked DIRECTLY into the character and story - Performance! They WANT you to be Penny, they WANT you to preform. They reinforce this with the combo counter, they reinforce this with the quests that you say are an afterthought, but involve people actually asking you to "do cool shit please and rack up this score". A huge part of enjoying this game is leaning into this circus act, which demands mastery of the movement. For all the jank in the game, I'd say the heart is clearly exposed and speaking to the people that are looking for that sort of thing. It's fine to NOT be one of those people, but don't conflate the game not being what YOU wanted with the game not being what "it" wanted.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 17 дней назад

That's a very good point about the whole performer aspect of the game and one that I totally agree with, this game is very clearly meant to be a large playground/circus for the player to perform in and not spending more time on that aspect is definitely a flaw with my critique. I also appreciate you taking the time to understand my points before commenting as you're one of the few that seem to get what I'm saying despite disagreeing, so thanks! One flaw I see in this reasoning of the game being good because it's a good playground is that I think there's a difference between art being derived from the game and art being derived from the player's performance. I do not deny that Penny allows you to pull off some crazy stuff and speed run the crap out of the game, nor that this can be a blast for the right person, but where is that magic coming from? Is it the game delivering that magic or is it the player's skill? I would argue it's the latter. The problem with judging a game as good art based on this is that this can be true of any game a player is skilled enough in. Bubsy 3D's physics and moveset allow you to get out of bounds and skip most of the level if you're good enough and speedrunners do it all the time, but I don't think any of us would call it good art, but I think we would all call the performance of anyone speedrunning it so, at least I would. That's a bit of an extreme example, I admit, but my point is that at a high enough level anything can be enjoyable, the execution of skill can become art, but that doesn't mean the thing that's allowing for that performance necessarily becomes art. If that were true of Penny it would have to be true of Bubsy 3D as well, or Doom on GBA, or a thousand other bad games that allow for magical performances at a high enough level. I will admit, heart might be a poor choice of word for what I'm getting at as that seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people despite me spending a lot of time explaining that I'm using the word differently from how it's typically used. I do think that allowing your art to grow and change is the only way true art is made; forcing something can lead to something polished and technically impressive, definitely, but it will always be heartless, at least by my standards. I don't believe that technical achievement leads to good art; the two occasionally coincide, but not always. When you say that the path of artistic pursuit that I'm vying for can lead to disaster, you're absolutely right--that's entirely the point. Creating good art is dangerous and the pursuit of it ends in failure more often than not. The problem I have with the methodical forcing of something to fit your vision method is that it's cowardly--it's using hard work and tedium as an illusion to say "this thing has value because I put my blood sweat and tears into it!" But did you put your heart into it? Because that's what I care about. The other method can lead to incredible things along the way? Absolutely, technical achievements; an increase in skill level; a deeper understanding of one's medium. Never art. We can disagree on that, that's fine; but that's my take on art and that's what I'm arguing for.

@AngrySonMetaphist 17 дней назад

@@ThusSpokeNoaLee Fair enough! Thanks for taking time to reply. I realize that the word heart itself is probably just getting in the way, in my book your getting at something else that is quite nuanced but heart just might be the best word you can attribute to it. Some valid observations nonetheless, and it's definitely interesting to hear some different takes on things.

@tailsspin621 16 дней назад

@@ThusSpokeNoaLee Allow me to be blunt. the way you discredit games whose appeal is a high skill celling with your argument is baffling and insulting. Improvement for Improvements sake, the drive not to simply be good enough or even the best but to be better than you were before, is a beautiful thing and unlike your examples of bad games with impressive speed runs, this game is built from the ground up to push you into getting faster and faster. you aren't preforming in spite of the game, but because it purposely gave you the tools to succeed. Even good games with speed running communities like Zelda OoT are not built like Penny, and when watching a glitchless run that shows. Penny shares the exact design philosophy behind all of the Sonic's games, even if execution hasn't always been there for the Blue Blur, as well as games like Super Metroid. That is an important distinction that should not be ignored, yet you clearly have. On the subject of heart, I don't really know what your trying to say. More accurately, I am trying to deny to myself that you are actually saying staying true to your starting vision is cowardly and heartless. Flexibility is a good trait to have, but if you don't know where your going your project is doomed to failure. The path my change along the way, the goal may look different than you initially expected, but you need to understand what it is you're actually trying to do. Eiichiro Oda knew the world of One Piece quite well before he ever penned Romance Dawn. He knew who Luffy was, and who he would become. The same was true for Tolken when he wrote about Middle Earth. Even Akira Toriyama, a writer well known to rely on improve, understood what themes he was planning to tackle with each new arc in the story of Son Goku. I cannot accept an argument that aims to diminish the accomplishments of these great artists, alongside the countless others who understand this same truth. "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything." It's a cliché quote whose source I don't actually know, but it's just as true in art as it is in morality. Feature creep is a term used in game design, and it's a very negative one with good reason. When an aspiring artist simply follows their whims and does whatever seems good at the time, you get Yandere Dev and his never ending development of disappointment. Restraint is just as much a piece of creation as expression, yet you slander that ideal when you refer to it as force. In game design especially, your foundation needs to be solid before you build anything in order to prevent it all from falling apart, yet it seems to me like you are decrying the very process needed to build a foundation at all. Please, if I'm misunderstanding your argument correct me, because I myself do not want to believe anyone who claims to takes art seriously would take such a misguided position. Yet here I stand, reading your argument over and over and unable to discern any other meaning. I don't write out of this anger, but instead a genuine passion for art in general and storytelling specifically. I have not played this particular game, and thus I cannot comment on your critique of it's execution, but your Philosophy is what has me most concerned. There is a lot about art and the philosophy around it that is subjective, but there is objective truth mixed in as well, and the truth is you are wrong about what it means to create art.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 16 дней назад

@@tailsspin621 After reading this I think we're a lot closer in agreement than you think. First, I'm not discrediting games whose appeal is a high skill ceiling level, I acknowledge that in Penny and agree that it gives you the tools to play at a high level whereas other bad games require glitches or exploits. The problem though is that I don't really see a difference there--if it's allowed by the game then it's just as valid as anything intentional the developers added in. Something like LV50 and wallrunning in Doom comes to mind; neither were intended for use by the developers but the game's code allows for it and speedrunners make use of it to refine their runs: improvement for improvement's sake, as you said. I also agree that the intention of the developer was to create a playground to foster this playstyle. I just think that in chasing that goal they ignored other possibilities that would've, in my opinion, made the game a whole lot better. The game feels forced. That's all there is to it, and I know I'm not wrong on this because even the people who love this game and disagree with everything I have to say, still admit that the game doesn't do a very good job of teaching you how to play at a high level and that, to me, is a holdover from their forceful design. You mentioned Super Metroid and I think that's a perfect example of what I'm arguing for. Super Metroid was a very iterative game that began life as merely an updated version of the NES game, but as the developers dug deeper with it new possibilities and ideas and failures emerged and the developers threw out old ideas in favor of new ones, overhauled the game's progression, experimented, grew, and changed. They didn't stick to a vision and force it to be what they set out to make, they let it change, they let it evolve. Penny's' developers didn't do this, or at least not as much as they should've. You say I'm discrediting the likes of Tolkien, Oda, and Toriyama, but I say I'm arguing for the very process these creators utilized. Tolkien spent almost two decades thinking about, jotting down ideas, and drawing maps for Middle Earth before he wrote The Hobbit, and clearly he let the work grow and change because if he hadn't we never would've gotten Lord of the Rings just a series of swashbuckling children's stories in the vein of the Hobbit. That's the kind of iteration and following your heart/muse/soul of art/whatever you want to call it that I'm talking about. Feature creep is an issue with what I'm arguing for? You're damn right it is! That's one of the very pitfalls I'm talking about and one reason why creating good art is a dangerous endeavor. Restraint is important? Again, couldn't agree more--it's the iterative process that allows for restraint though, not forcing your project to stick to your initial vision. Restraint is a willingness to throw out what isn't working, that's the kind of "heart" I'm talking about. Creating good art is a balancing act of compromise and I mention this in the video. Am I saying that forcing your art to stick to a specific vision is cowardly? Yes, I very much am because I don't believe that art comes from logic and planning, but from irrationality and a willingness to go to uncomfortable places, to completely throw out your vision for something greater, something that only comes about when you're deep in the creative process. Logic and planning are mere tools that can be leveraged to help keep you from losing your way entirely and going down the Yandere Dev route you mentioned (also great example). A lot of philosophy and art is subjective mixed with a bit of objective truth? Again, couldn't agree more.

@tailsspin621 16 дней назад

@@ThusSpokeNoaLee I tried to reply, but it seems my comment didn't go through. I referenced a well known piece of literary advice that happens to use a word that starts wit k and rhymes with hill, so I wonder if RU-vid's filter picked it up. I hate to ask, but can you check to see if it's being held for review? I'd rather not try to reform my arguments.

@iamLI3 18 дней назад

i wonder how much the devs would agree with your critiques here....

@Logben 21 день назад

I think its under rated 💀

@tonyadobe1904 20 дней назад

I will say one thing, I do respect your points and I won’t say they are baseless, this game has a lot of jank to it and especially as someone that went for the Scrap book legitimately (which basically means not just cheesing it by doing the same 4 moves in a circle) where certain things start to matter a bit more and it’s frustrating. However other then that specific case (in an already flawed system), with less true mastery but understanding what you can do and the environment around (because playing half the game ain’t even gonna come CLOSE to mastering anything), skill issue.

@tonyadobe1904 20 дней назад

Also the title is trash I think that’s half the hate tbh lol, I don’t think it’s fair in an sort of way at all even people that love these games to death (Like, THE DEVS) are very open of their critiques and try to fix them. Also this game is simply awesome

@JOSEPHEROPKIN-wr7co 10 дней назад

A little late for April Fools mate

@hijster479 15 дней назад

Coming from a fighting game player, I think Penny has a detrimental skill floor. Unlike pretty much any other platformer, Penny doesn't have a traditional primary input. It sounds odd but most players are much better at learning and performing difficult or even outright janky execution when they have simple and intuitive inputs. If you sit down a new player and have them play Smash Melee and then Virtua Fighter 5 they'll say Melee controls better 100% of the time even though under the hood It's objectively worse. Virtua Fighters input reader is literally ten times as lenient, directional inputs are binary and thus more consistent across all input devices, and it technically has less buttons to boot. But Simple and intuitive controls are just that important. I think Penny controls great, better than most games even. I honestly can't think of a time my inputs didn't register. But as a new play, that didn't matter. I still constantly fumbled my execution. There are just so many different moves that are relevant at any given time and so much nuance in how you input them you're bound to make mistakes even after you're comfortable with what each button does. In most other platformers this demanding the answer is almost always to press A, so you can completely focus on your timing. In Penny I constantly had hiccups where I'd hesitate and mistime inputs or panic and air-dash to my death. Part of it really is just down to getting good, but I will say that the game doesn't really do a good job at motivating or teaching the player to do so. And some of the difficulty just feels arbitrary. When you're already juggling three different buttons just to move normally having to remember which button lets you use a power-up or interact with different objects needlessly adds to your mental stack. I don't see why you can't activate everything on contact.

@Zictor Месяц назад

I also didn’t like the game… I bought into the hype but it doesn’t feel good to play and is a bit annoying.

@DaMoowGawd456 10 дней назад

I love this game, but I’m glad to see someone who is giving there own opinion. I don’t agree with everything you said but it’s always nice to see opinions that differs from my own.

@Hugh_Mungus_Johnson 20 дней назад

"god of game criticism and lord of excellent taste" Never disliked a video so quickly after hearing that. How arrogant.

@JMDurden 19 дней назад

It was obviously a joke, but ok.

@boiled_walrus6960 Месяц назад

I second what mau said. That was a good comment

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

I agree, it was very well thought out.

@MaverickHunterXZA 12 дней назад

Though you have to admit, it couldn't be more SEGA than to cut ties with the devs of one of your most successful titles that rekindled trust in your core brand only to follow it up with your usual massive stinker.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 11 дней назад

That is about the most Sega move to ever Sega yeah; and I say that as a born and raised Genesis boy. lol

@MisterRegretti 12 дней назад

If youre gonna call the game bad at least be good at it and say things that are true

@teneesh3376 Месяц назад

After hearing so much praise this game is getting, it's refreshing hearing some critiques. I always want to hear some critiques before I buy any game. Kinda why I haven't bought Pizza Tower yet

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

Yeah, I'm actually surprised that there aren't any other criticisms of this game. I'm also really skeptical when I hear only good/bad things about a game. That said, I do really like myself some Pizza Tower, but it's certainly not for everyone; the game ain't perfect, that's for sure.

@teneesh3376 Месяц назад

@@ThusSpokeNoaLeeable to get more in depth with your criticisms on pizza tower or is that gonna be another video?

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

@@teneesh3376 Well, Pizza Tower is great and all but some of the level design could use some work; most of it's great, but there are some levels where it feels like the developer just sort of gave up trying to balance things but was too unwilling to cut it. The level "WAR" comes to mind as being the worst of these. Two playthroughs in and I've gotten used to all the other rough patches but I still hate that level. The game can also feel a bit too gimmicky for my taste at times with some levels really overdoing it with certain mechanics that aren't ever utilized again. The controls also take some getting used to, but once you've got them down they're pretty great. Other than that, I really don't have many complaints; excellent game overall.

@super8bitable 29 дней назад

This kind of energy should be directed towards AAA games and not indies💀

@NIMPAK1 29 дней назад

Why should indie games be exempt from criticism? If anything we should criticize indie devs more because they're actually willing to listen to the criticism, internalize it and use it to create a better game next time.

@Mister_Domm 23 дня назад

@@NIMPAK1True

@Hendog30_ 22 дня назад

@@NIMPAK1 Point is, AAA studios have the budget and manpower to actually respond to criticism in a timely manner, whereas if this game doesn't sell well, Evening Star is not going to be able to recover. Of course it shouldn't be exempt from criticism, but I think it makes more sense to direct negative energy towards people who can financially take it. Ultimately AAA games should be held to a much higher standard, as they have the resources to create higher quality games than indie studios do.

@AustinMSmall Месяц назад

It is good you know the truth about the fall out between Evening Star and Sonic Team. Also, Arzest is a successor company to Artoon also founded by Naoto Ohshima.

@ZukoPrince 27 дней назад

Most mental takes in one video. I've seen negative video about this game, that actually explained their grievances with the game well, but this? Just no. Also, at "game doesn't have soul" i laughed my ass off. Saying this with the straight face is ruining any semblance of your competence as the reviewer (not like whole vifeo before that didn't already do that, but i just found it funny)

@Dan-pv1sg Месяц назад

You're funny

@EnbyFish Месяц назад

game feels unfinished honestly. the gameplay is fine, but I wish they spent more time making the textures look better and avoiding these glitches where I die through the wall lol

@AustinMSmall Месяц назад

This game was rushed to meet the Nintendo Direct deadline.

@OnionCurry Месяц назад

there are no unfinished textures in this game, if you dont like the art direction say that

@EnbyFish Месяц назад

@@OnionCurry the art direction is great. The textures just don’t look good in my eyes… especially when you see a model outline through walls instead of a real shadow or something else more defined. If there were a higher budget the textures would be higher quality. More than half the levels look like the floor is a flat monotoned tech demo. We can get into semantics about how you feel regarding my opinion, or you can just accept that people are allowed to have criticism. I fully played through and enjoyed the game, and I still have my own issues that I wish would let me enjoy the game more. It’s not gonna make you lose sleep.

@AustinMSmall Месяц назад

@@EnbyFish Penny's Big Breakaway is nothing more than a half-hearted attempt to maintain the goodwill Whitehead built up over the years.

@EnbyFish Месяц назад

@@AustinMSmall I wouldn’t say that. I think this video covers it all really well tbh. Conveyed a lot of similar feelings I had

@TheComemnter Месяц назад

Excellent video

@ThusSpokeNoaLee Месяц назад

Thank you :)

@VexTrooper 5 дней назад

I am disliking your video, not because of you or for any ill intent, mind you. You seem like a well mannered fellow and a good person overall. However, I simply can not agree with your review and outlook on this game, which is why I choose to "dislike". Again, I am not doing it out of malice, but instead of a disagreement of your review.

@ThusSpokeNoaLee 5 дней назад

Can't argue with that. lol