@mau2172

1 month ago

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?

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