InfernoAceington

Consider Arson

  • She/Her/It/Its

30 something transwoman. Setting your heart aflame.


LeahPlease-Streams
@LeahPlease-Streams

I don't think the Mega Man X games are particularly well known for their movement mechanics, but X3 was the game where I really understood how important it was for me to have fun with movement in a video game. Speeding through the levels once I got all the upgrades, air dashing in any direction and catching walls to jump and climb on felt wonderful and I decided that, to me, character movement was the most integral part of any game that featured it.


Over the last decade or so, a huge increase of smaller titles released by independent game studios has allowed for tighter focus on simple core mechanics, which has reopened the door for games solely about things like movement. Games like Super Meat Boy, Trials, Celeste, and the more recent Pseudoregalia present you with a unique set of movement mechanics and give you one major goal: navigate the environment you find yourself in.

Penny's Big Breakaway continues this trend beautifully. Early on in a prologue level, Penny is provided with a magic yo-yo she'll use to jump, flip, swing, dash, spin and roll her way through increasingly complex and silly environments and challenges.

That's the whole game.

And it's an absolute joy.

Aside from directional movement using the left analog stick, Penny has three basic commands: Jump, Throw, and Roll. And each of these commands can be used in a few different ways. A jump can of course be performed with a tap of the B button, but each bumper can be used to jump as well.

With a press of the Y button, Penny will throw her yo-yo forward in whatever direction she's facing and it will sleep wherever it stops for as long as you hold the button, but the right stick can be used to throw the yo-yo in whatever direction you wish, regardless of where Penny is looking. Crucially, the camera moves perfectly well on its own to free the thumbstick of the obligation it would have in almost any other 3d game made in the last 20 years, and honestly I think this is a wonderful change.

What I think makes this even more impressive is that, as far as I saw, this use of the right stick is never tutorialized, meaning the designers knew that at some point early on, the player would instinctively try to move the camera, only to throw the yo-yo instead; a prediction which led me to just one one of many moments of wonder over my time so far with this game.

I cannot recommend this game enough, especially to anyone who loves games about movement. Games that know they're about their movement mechanics and revel in each and every one of them. Go play this game, run and jump and have fun with a girl and her yo-yo.


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