Penarium is a modern interpretation of those classic 2D arcade games of last century that is available on both the PC and the Xbox One (reviewed). Developed by Self Made Miracle, Penarium focuses on an unlikely hero called Willy who is kidnapped by the “Director” of a mad circus and is made to navigate through a deadly death-maze in order to escape to freedom which definitely has parallels to the Gladiatorial Games of Ancient Rome because our hero is being watched.
The controls are also well mapped on the Xbox One controller as you run, jump and avoid some nasty obstacles like fireballs, rockets, floods and all sorts of threats in order to get to the next level in this death-trap dungeon. It’s also quite a violent game and our young hero Willy will die again and again and again. Sure, there is a strong element of controller rage but more often then not, it’s generally the player who leads Willy to his untimely death. If you played Super Meat Boy, you’ll know the pain.
Nonetheless, this retro looking game on the Xbox One is filled with some well-designed gaming environments as you platform your way through various stages in order to collect items for the nefarious Director like barrels, lotions and balloons. So while you dodge blades and rockets, there is a careful balance of enjoyment yet frustrating gameplay that makes Penarium such an entertaining and addictive game.
Since the controls are limited to directional inputs and a jump button (which allows for a standard or double jump), it’s easy to pick up a controller and get started. Willy moves in a tight, responsive manner, making the blame of any failure reside with the player. Every now and again screen-wrapping can lead to a cheap death, but that’s a very rare occurrence. Directing Willy across small platforms and throughout various dangers requires split-second reflexes and reactions, so even though this is an accessible game, it’s still very challenging.
Unlike most arcade-style games, Penarium has a campaign mode. There are 30 stages divided equally among three arenas, and each stage has a specific objective. These range from collecting barrels, staying within a ray of light to reduce a meter, popping balloons in a specific order, and engaging in a game of Simon Says where it’s required that colored switches are stood on in sequence. Even though some of it does get repetitive, there’s just enough variety within these 30 stages to keep the campaign enjoyable until the end. It won’t be a particularly long venture for those with veteran platforming skills, but given the price of admission and other gameplay modes, it feels like a substantial enough piece of the package.
Once the campaign has been completed, there are two other modes to extend the life of Penarium. The first is Arcade, which will surely satisfy those looking to chase high scores and climb online leaderboards. Here it’s all about breaking barrels, collecting coins, and surviving the onslaught of deathtraps as long as possible. It’s essentially a slice of what’s found in the campaign, but there aren’t any objective variants to deal with. What is different, however, is that any money earned can be spent to unlock power-ups to assist during play. This addition adds a hint of progression to a mode that is otherwise about repetition and setting personal goals. Overall, arcade mode is highly enjoyable and hard to stop playing, which is good because it becomes the main focus after completing the campaign.
The other mode is Multiplayer, which allows two players to join up or go head-to-head locally. Both options feature the usual deathtraps, but scoring is determined by how many switches have been stood on and activated. Playing competitively is where most of the fun is at, as racing from switch to switch while trying to temporarily knock out your opponent is a riot. It’s too bad that there aren’t more objective variations or playable characters, though, because multiplayer alone could’ve been a reason to invest in Penarium. But even though it’s not quite the star attraction, it still manages to compliment the other modes, helping to round out the experience.
Graphically, Penarium pays homage to the classic sprite games of yesterday but unlike those titles, Penarium has some great attention to detail and really maximises high-definition TVs with the Xbox One. Even our chubby little protagonist is animated well and interacts realistically with the environment. Music, audio and sound effects go hand in hand with the gameplay and I must admit that the professional voice acting really transforms this silly premise into a way to draw the player into the world of our reluctant hero who was stolen from his father’s farm.
There are a few other criticisms that I could spend time discussing–lack of visual diversity, limited number of arenas, Simon Says can be a grind and the lack of online multiplayer–but there’s nothing meddling enough to disrupt what makes Penarium so entertaining. Even though the difficulty can intensify rather quickly, the inviting controls and reliable mechanics make you feel like a win is within reach – and that’s really the sign of a great arcade-style game. When you can taste success despite the odds being stacked against you, the greatest challenge is putting down the controller.
João is a games journalist, Senior Editor at XDA Developers. They contributed 156 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: previously reported for Neowin before joining XDA Developers in 2021, where he leads coverage of Windows, Microsoft, and hardware.