fast penguin is a game i'd only ever heard about once before it's launch day, in a trailer I saw in my RSS feed once, I didn't even know it was out until I stumbled across it on PSN on its launch day but god i'm so glad I was able to get into it as early as I did because this game really owns and I really want people to play it. the game plays like a mix of a mad dash racing and monkey ball but with its own systems to make it feel different, I've seen people compare it to mario kart but that doesn't feel accurate to me since this game does't have things like power ups or drifting, it's really much more similar to mad dash racing for the xbox especially with how it does its level designs, them all being downhill courses with elevated platforms you can reach, or maybe those downhill levels in tony hawk.

the racing here has some serious depth, you go down pretty slowly normally but you have tons of options for how you can speed up, the main mechanic is to use the other penguins as boost pads by managing to launch onto them and using them as a jump boost, though if you miss it's a big wait to redo it and that can really mess you up, when you do have a bad round with the hits it can feel pretty not great, but the game does have tons of catchup mechanics like the hangliders that spawn for last place players that are like bullet bills and the sardine cans will start giving you 3 at a time for extra help, so its never like you dont have a chance to catch up, it can be very forgiving. the ceiling its very big, you can do things like chain jumps and the sardeen cans that give you your ult can be collected even while you ult, so some maps you can spend most of the map speeding up, it's seriously fun to pull off some of those chain jumps, especially if you manage to do more than 3. the game is pretty forgiving with getting through rounds which is nice, it's for sure the most forgiving battle royale i've ever played, only about 5 people are knocked out per round and it scales so by the end only half the lobby doesn't make it to the end of the game, which i like a lot, you never feel cheated out of a match and it works on a points based system so one bad round won't end it for you unless you come in dead last.

there's a ton of variety in stages and all of them are fun, mostly, the one with the stingrays can be a little iffy but still fun, i love the tomb one which can be cheesed so hard with one jump in the middle, i love the one with the balloons because you can use the balloons to go through at mach speed, it's the fastest stage and the one with the highest skill ceiling, also the one i come in first the most often. there's cool tropical ones like the waterslide one with the bowl near the end thats maybe a little annoying to maneuver with, there's some mostly without gimmicks though like the forrest, and sometimes the gimmicks can be unfun, like the desert dunes and the magic carpet that drops the power up cans. could use some snow stages though, hopefully after christmas we get a few!

the events are all just cosmetic thingys so far, the Halloween one with witch penguins and some very good cosmetics, a current saleryman event with a very good free skin with papers balancing on the penguins head and an amazing suit cosmetic (plus a really good energy drink emote and an amazing office desk ultimate that i also went for) and there was a summery event before that which is still going on with the battle pass, its a cheap pass that i did end up buying and i was pretty happy with the skins, one with a banjo and some really cool ice goddess ones that i use all the time, i also saved a bit more using the currency it gives you and got a Harajuku fashion skin that's been my main ever since, at least until the saleryman costume, it even came with an emote you can unlock for using it a few matches, many of the skins come with freebees and alt colours like that which is very nice. the second battlepass i'm not as into though, with the desert themed skins and the party ones, though the party themed ultimate is very nice with some dancing penguins on it :). the new maps are great and have some new mechanics too, like the bears that if you can hit them send you onto entirely different routes and seals at the beginning of a track to give you an extra fast start, they're party themed with neon and dance floors with the bears on them and it has a great remix of the main theme. the soundtrack is super nice too, it's super high energy and reminds me a lot of the music in fall guys, but i might prefer it here, just super high energy electronic kart racing music and the motief they use is super catchy, very reccomended, i don't know who composed it though since the game doesn't have a mobygames or wikipedia page yet :( the game also doesn't really have much in the way of solo things to do or a full bot mode, though they did recently ad bots to fill out matches, which is nice, they're surprisingly good too! but i do hope some dedicated solo offerings come soon, at least a full bot mode if nothing else.

the developers, historia inc are a developer with not a ton of games behind their belt, but the ones they do have are really solid, they did space penguins which is a really great puzzle game i bought because of this game and i loved it, they also worked on things like the live-a-live remake, various daylife, shenmue 3 and, a personal favourite recent game with caligula 2, presumably as a support studio or with porting, but that's still a damn fine game to have on a resume. the game is one of the years biggest surprises for me, came out of nowhere and ended up being one of my favourites of the year, joining the likes of my hero: ultra rumble, tears of themis and (now) infinity nikki as my daily games, i'd please ask you to give it a try because its a lot of fun and very unlike anything else on the market right now, it's cute and fun and it's got an amazing vibe, plus penguins, they're my favourite animal, no game with penguins is ever bad and that's a fact, plus i mean, it's free, what have you got to lose.