Sonic Mania team's next game is a ridiculously colourful 3D platformer
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Evening Star, a new studio made up of the team that made Sonic Mania, have announced their first game, Penny's Big Breakaway. While Sonic Mania was a 2D platformer, the studio's first game under their new name brings them into the realm of 3D, taking an incredibly vibrant colour palette that would certainly work in any classic Sonic game, and marrying it a world that one could say is mildly reminiscent of the hedgehog's rival Mario.
The game was revealed during yesterday's Nintendo Direct, and is described as "a beautifully stylised, colourful adventure in which you play Penny, the ‘yo-tagonist’ who will have to escape an endless, bumbling penguin army as you swing, dash, flip, zip, and trick your way through a variety of challenging levels." Its platforming certainly looks like a lot of fun, and some of Penny's moves seem like they could easily fit into any of the 3D Mario titles. I'm also keen to see how her yo-yo based movement adds its own spin to it, too.
"At Evening Star, we have a deep passion for expressive, character-driven games that focus on a concise and satisfying move-set," said creative director and lead engine architect Christian Whitehead in a press release, who was also the director of Sonic Mania. "For our debut title, we challenged ourselves to bring that approach into not only a new IP, but to an entire 3D world. Penny's Big Breakaway has been a wonderful opportunity for our team to grow creatively and technically as a studio, and we can't wait for players to perform plenty of slick tricks with Penny and Yo-Yo!"
Whitehead will also be reuniting with several former Sonic Mania devs, including Dave Padilla, who's lead producer on Penny's Big Breakaway, Tom Fry as art director, Hunter Bridges as game director and technology officer, and Brad Flick as design director.
Penny's Big Breakaway is currently set to release in 2024, on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.