Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2015
The Next Penelope
Developer Aurelien Regard
Set in a futuristic Odyssey, "The Next Penelope" is a fast paced action racing game with loud colors, an original story and a challenging risk-reward system. Weapons can be mixed and used at any time, but all these abilities cost vital energy! From the Steam store page
190 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Oct 2, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
67
Fresh
124 positive · 60 negative
95% range 60–74%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 124 | 60 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
6 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
204 of 284 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 190 · most liked firstFor all its explicit aspirations to be MicroMachines reincarnate, to me The Next Penelope falls far closer to the original F-Zero on the SNES, a game which easily captures my fondest memories of the platform and was one of the first experiences in my life which served to cement my love of gaming. The perspective might be more in line with arcade top-down racers like Rock’n’Roll racing, but the feel and structure is distinctly similar to Nintendo’s iconic futuristic racer. But calling The Next…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Humbled by the quality of this game, developed by a One Man Army. Have a look at the credits, you will see ONE name, Aurelien Regard. Graphics, music, game and level design, and code. Hats off to him for this incredible performance!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penelope is a sort of top-down, sort of on the side view (but mainly top-down), fast paced action racing shooter game that's full of color, an interesting classic looking story, and challengingly fun. The game's really polished with minimum issues that usually accompany games in beta or alpha, so it left me playing the game in its entirety, at least the main campaign of the game, smoothly, and I enjoyed most of it. The look of the game is a mix of beautiful and colorful visuals, and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →<Disclosure - This game was provided free for review purposes> Aurelien Regard’s The Next Penelope is a futuristic reimaging of Homer’s Odyssey; old meets new in a stylish yet retro world of neon race strips and mechanical monsters. Upon starting the game we are transported to Ithaca, Penelope’s home world. We soon learn that it is under siege by Poseidon who is seeking revenge for the death of his son at the hands of Odysseus, Penelope’s husband. After a brief tutorial, Penelope makes a deal…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I am constantly trying to get people to check out The Next Penelope. It's a sci-fi retelling of the Odyssey with the gameplay of Micro Machines + laserguns. It has a kickass soundtrack too. I won't spoil where but it has one of the sickest title drops I've seen store.steampowered.com/app/332250/T...
unlabelledView post →Signal boosting! There are some cool inspirations here, including the indie game The Next Penelope. (I loved Decline's Drops so I plan to play this one too!)
unlabelledView post →Fantastic top-down racer with an interesting story to boot. Gameplay Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAqfdj3B91M You play as Penelope on her quest to find Ulysses (her husband), making your way through the galaxy trying to avoid being captured or worse. Game progression is non-linear and up to the player as you can select any planet you like to explore but they are marked with advised difficulty settings. Each planet has a variety of race formats and some of these require much more…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has so much potential... I really hope they create a sequel or add more content! tl;dr: + Gameplay is fun!! + throws constantly new situations, playstyles and conditions in, never gets monotonous + good presentation: cool graphical style, fitting music + feels a bit like a mix of F-Zero and R.C. Pro Am + good difficulty: starts easy, ends with lots of challenges o if you expect racing, this may not be for you - controls need some time to get used to - the camera is way too close!…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not exactly the racing game I was expecting. Basically the single-player experience is little more than a tutorial. Local only multiplayer racing is nice enough when you have guests round but without online multiplayer there is little to do while playing solo.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Future racers, if you have played Wipeout, F-Zero, etc. You will all love this! You can take on any of the challenges in any order. It is challenging, but once you figure out the right way to beat a track you will eventually pull off a win, and it feels damn good to win in this. The electronic soundtrack is a very nice fit for the game and the controls feel smooth. You can spend XP in different attributes which adds an rpg element to the upgrade system in this game. The visuals are just…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →http://youtu.be/yo7E6n77GGw
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I provide an in-depth review of #TheNextPenelope Available via the Steam Early Access program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0blGsSvIuk
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love top-down racing games, but I also love games with a good story. Well, Next Penelope is a racing game with a story that actually makes sense. That's not enough for me to recommend it, but there's more An open galaxy to unlock, designed to give you a good amount of fun. Beautifully stylized vector graphics in warm colors. And very good sound design. All this makes TNP worth playing Final Rating: Positive
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful game, the whole Scirra team has been excited for this game for a while now and it plays great!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Want a MicroMachines inspired game for local multiplayer? This might be worth it. Looking for something that's enjoyable on your own? Look elsewhere. When TNP wants to be a MicroMachines remake, it's decent. The problem with the single player is that it doesn't want to be a MicroMachines remake for 2/3rds of the campaign. It's constantly forcing you into arenas and boss fights, and these simply do not work with a camera that intentionally obscures everything more than 10 feet in front of you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love top-down racing games, but I also love games with a story. Well, The Next Penelope is a racing game with a story that actually makes sense. That's enough for me to highly recommend it, but there's even more. An open galaxy with unlockable weapons to give you a good amount of freedom. Beautifully stylized graphics with retina-burning colors (retina-burning colors are a great thing — retinas are just an urban legend and we don't really need them). A weapon system that is actually smart…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Disappointingly, sometimes unfathomably bad. It looks great in videos, but the feel just isn't there, along with numerous bugs and bad decisions that make it a frustration. It's far harder than it should be as a result of slow, inconvenient, and wildly unsatisfying controls combined with limited visibility (distance and effects), RNG, and attempt-ending bugs. The menu navigation is equally annoying with arbitrary delays and load screens. The entirely 2D playspace and abuse of screenshake make…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ok F-Zero clone with top down view. Fast racing and plenty of different modes. Sometimes it's hard to see what's in front of you (just like in Micro Machines) so make sure to memorize the track first. Gameplay is somewhat fun but I don't like auto acceleration (vehicle drive by itself). Leave mines behind, boost and teleport on short distance at the fraction of your energy which is also health so use it wisely. Encounter boss battles and some challenges that will kick your bottom. Big con…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Quick Score: 3/5 Really good visually, and a decent foundation. But extremely short and feels very underdeveloped mechanically with zero replayablity. The entire exp and upgrade system is pointless. The games difficulty is extremely low. The only challenging sections are 2 bonus events at the very end that are more frustrating than difficult. Overall very underwhelming, but it was fun for about 2 hours. Would never recommend this at full price.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →this is not a f-zero like racer but if f-zero had a challenge mode with a catch 22 level up system. you need better stats to win but to get stat upgrades you need to beat 3 boards or you'll get no xp. it's a catch 22 fail. i also wont call them races as even the "race" levels only first place counts so you can't beat them, level up, then comeback to do better. if you do end up beating a area you do get the item those levels added to use in the other levels. if you want a racing game, this is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →At 2 hours I have seen the final boss, and then quit out of a rare blend of bored frustration. Despite the game's description this is NOT a racing game. It has racing elements, most levels are on tracks, and some are actual races against NPC opponents, but most levels are about combat or survival focused. I personally wouldn't mind this dynamic if the combat wasn't so deeply flawed. The health mechanic in this game is one of the worst health implementations I've seen. Energy (their term for…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If I could give a neutral recommendation I would, but you know this is Steam. I understand this was made by one guy and I give props to him, he made a game that's functional. However, it's mired in some strange quirks and wonky design. So running down the list of issues I had with this game. First, the camera too close in on the vehicle and the fix is an IN-GAME UPGRADE. Coupled with no map of the stage (Only a dinky Progress bar at the bottom of the screen) it can lead to you failing over…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A warning to anyone! This game looks pretty but it is insanely hard. In a bad way. No difficulty curve. Right after tutorial you face the level selection where the easiest "Medium" choice already requires perfect reaction and efficient use of abilities. No room for mistakes. You will fail a lot in this game, and to make things worse, the reload time is really slow. In a certain situation the five seconds it takes to load the race is already longer than the time until you fail it. (The same…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →(single player campaign review) The game isn't about ordinary racing. 1/3 = the challenges where you go solo and must solve the track task 1/3 = the bosses that are unique and require correct usage of your tools/weapons (which there are a lot) The game has a nice progression system that will regularly give you new tools/weapons until the game ends. Difficulty progression is good too. You can also upgrade your spaceship. It's challenging because your tools/weapons use energy and if you run…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penelope is top down racing game that has RPG elements. The story has you playing Penelope, the wife of Ulysses who is on a mission to find her husband and save her people from all sorts of techno space versions of ancient gods. In the game you use the left and right buttons, or triggers, to steer your vehicle. As you play you unlock new powers by defeating bosses, and just like Megaman you’re free to explore and decide which powers you want to unlock first. The teleport power is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game seems fun on the videos, and I thought it was a nice racing game from a top-down perspective, but there is too much annoyance to make it good. My advice if they wanted to make this game better would be to unzoom the fu@#ing camera and make the ship's life and the energy for weapons separated from each other, each with it's own bar. The game is too zoomed and even with +10% unzoom stills too close, only getting a little bit far when you are inside corners and can't react properly.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I saw this game on the Nintendo e-shop and thought it looked good. I of course immediately checked to see if it was on Steam (as I like my achievements) and it was, so picked up it and I have to say its Fantastic. I love these style of top down games. It literally is a mix between F-Zero and Micro Machines. It also reminds me of an Amiga game called Roadkill which I absolutely loved back in the day. The game is a little on the short side but the achievements which are linked to challenges in…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have to be honest. This game is really cool. I have reasons: 1. The musics are so cool and I like it 2. It looks like a racing game, but you have to use some weapons 3. It has multi-player not online sadly 4. I remember the Penelope exists on Indie Pogo as a fighter from the original game I finished the story mode from 12AM until 2AM. This gave me alot of chill. I will recommend you this game, but keep in mind it's 2,80 euros included with soundtracks on sales. Good luck!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →okay, almost completed this game in a good 2 to 3 hours. Only need the final boss, but hes hard as heck. Now actual review time: you a fan of futuristic racing games or Greek tragedies? Well, why not both? The story of this game takes a spin of the Odyssey by Homer, just this time as Penelope - Odyssuses wife who is ordered by Poseidon to find her Husband. In doing so she visits several "islands" (say:planets) of figures from the Odyssey. On each of the planets you have to complete 3 stages,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can only assume its not done yet.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penelope recipe : Ingredients: 1 fluid ounces Micromachines 1 fluid ounces F-Zero GX 1 fluid ounces Ulysse 31 Mix ingredients in an powerfull race game. Add great art and amazing control, and shake. Pour into a very cool story and serve.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →♥♥♥♥ that Bloody red car.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is super awesome, it feels like a breath of fresh air. It has some F-zero vibes, mixed with micro machines. The history mode is completed, so even if this is in Early Acces, you are going to have a blast. The visuals are stunning, the explosions feel incredible awesome. Give it a try, couch multiplayer will come eventually, up to 4 players, that will probably make you lose friends, or bond with them in weird ways, dunno. Give it a try 10/10 11/10 with rice
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a sci-fi retro-inspired tribute to those old NES top-down racers. The visuals and sounds are nice, and it focuses narrative to a surprising level for a simple arcade title. The mechanics ruin it. Gameplay is difficult. Your ship doesn't actually have a speed, and instead you use a combination of weapon abilities to harry your opposition to take 1st place from them. Most of that opposition is significantly faster than you, and you require 1st placing to progress. It's like russian-game…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"The Next Penelope" is at its core is a top-down racing game similar to Micro Machines, Nitro, or even DrawRacer2. The camera stays fixed above your car (or a space ship in this case) showing a small area around it, and you try to do anything you can to overcome your competition and finish 1st. That's the basic idea, but the developers didn't just stop there and decided to expand it with concepts usually seen in actions games rather than the racing genre. Unfortunately those concepts fail to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Initially I absolutely hated this game. Which was disappointing, because I absolutely love the aestheic and concept, having a top-down racer/combat game based on Greek legends while beasting an f-zero inspired skin/mechanics, I was absolutely devastated by the control scheme ON A CONTROLLER. The shoulder buttons feel incredibly imprecise and really do not feel like they afford the level of control you need to keep your racer going straight along a track. I was about to give up complete on The…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I picked this up as part of a Humble Bundle and it was a fantastic surprise. The colours, music, and modern take on the Odysseus legend were all beautifully done. The weapons were great fun too (the harpoon is awesome!). In short, there is no game quite like this on Steam (though the pure racing levels do remind me somewhat of Super Laser Racer). Other reviews correctly note the short length of the main campaign (about 3 hours). However, completing the campaign unlocks additional levels, and a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A really nice surprise, a game that mixes action with races in a really lovely graphic style. It has everything a game needs to be a good game, but also adds some interesting points like new game mechanics or a interesting story.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →+Looks great, it really is like f zero had a baby with f zero but he grew up and wanted to look super cool because he thinks his partents suck. +Good Music +-MicroMachines control ~ After the first tutorial missions this game is rage quit city So yes, get this game if you like a challenge or don't mind grinding to level up your car and love a nice looking game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A "must have" in your gamebrary !! Very beautyful and very addictive!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penelope is very enjoyable Action/Racer. While it does have a bit of a learning curve. All the elements work very well. Especially for an Early Access title. The only negative thing I can think to say is. DIE RED RACER DIE! I made a video preview to show off some of the features and gameplay of this game! http://youtu.be/ppfSeMSM1Ns I hope you enjoy! Martyr
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. If youre a fan of fun, you must check this out.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penelope will bring you your daily dose of fun during lunch breaks at work. It's fun and challenging, well executed, progression & XP systems are well done and the visuals are really nice. Impressive work for a game made by just one guy (Code, Art, Music)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penelope is a challenging hybrid of F-Zero, Mashed and Micro Machines with some uber boss battles thrown in for good measure. Penelope must master an arsenal of weapons and abilities such as mines, teleports and speed boosts to defeat her enemies in races, and destroy the massive bosses waiting at the end of each section. The game is tough but fair. If you fail, it's probably your own fault, and when you win it gives a great sense of achievement. the single player here is enough for…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penelope is a great game. You should try to revive the golden age of F-Zero/Mario Kart. IT's beautiful, the music sounds great. This game is a must buy! :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"The Next Penelope" has a F-Zero vibe mixed with micromachines gameplay. The ship is always accelerating so you can focus on turning and using the weapons/skills. Using those weapons makes the racing way more complex and deep. There's a campaign mode with different missions and bosses, these stages have different goals (it's not always about racing), so there's a lot of variety. There are different difficulty levels, my first impression was that it would be a bit easy but there are some pretty…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →12) The Next Penelope store.steampowered.com/app/332250/T... i liked the top-down F-Zero look which is why i bought it, but i then forgot about it. apparently it's also a shooter? & a re-imagining of Homer's Odyssey? seems like the sort of thing that might have caught on more if it came out later
unlabelledView post →The controls take time to get used too but it's a fun game and an interesting take on the Odyssey.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →When I first saw the game in the store, I saw it was similar to games like "Hot Lava" and "Speedrunners" which are some of my favorite games. So paired with the 80% discount, I jumped on that. However, what I got was disappointment. In my opinion the game is having an identity crisis. It want's to be fast but; The camera is too close for that even while fully upgraded to zoom out, When you crash into an enemy normally, you get completly out of wack, Not to mention crashing into walls, now…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Do you want to play an overhead racing game ala the 80s where you can't even see the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ map? How about boss battles where the bosses are off screen for 99% of the fight? Punctuated by boring unskippable cut scenes? Boy have the cooked up a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game for you. Graphics and music are nice, but the game play is trash.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is listed as a racing game, but that's only 60% accurate. The game is a top-down racer 60% of the time, a janky bullet-hell PoS 30% of the time, and a janky-af pinball minigame 10% of the time. The controls are consistent, but everything feels floaty, and it's awful. It's like the entire game is set on an ice rink. You have no control over your acceleration so, when coupled with the floaty controls, whether you succeed or not comes down to how well you can memorise a level. Oh, and…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First impresions after 12 missions and 3 bosses The game has a lot of style, and the controls feel really great. The music fits perfectly and makes you really engaged in the race. The quality of the missions is really hit and miss though. Races are fun, like topdown Wipeout, but with reliable weapons, and that's super cool, most challenges are good too, but some are a bit boring for now, maybe because I'm early in the game. Things might get more interesting when I move out of the " weapon…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If this game is on sale, I bought it for 2 dollars. Then consider this a recommendation. My main issue is the price being 13 bucks. I didn't give it a recommend because I don't want to recommend when it doesn't technically deserve it. This game tricks you in a lot of ways. Not saying it's a bad game, but 13 dollars is not worth what It promises but doesn't deliver on. The game spikes in difficulty after the 2nd level. Which isn't a big deal except its from a rubber band effect. It's…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →You need to give this Racer a chance, but once you do, you're likely to LOVE it! In the beginning of the game, I didn't think I'd have what it takes to finish this, because I'm not that great at the genre, but do yourself a favor: stick it out until you have enough experience to unlock the boost to your maximum speed, and things start to get possible, even the level marked Impossible (which does let you cheat on 2 out of the 3 tracks). So what is it? Well, it's a neat cross between F-Zero…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a hard vote, but it comes down to the $12 price for flash game mechanics. The game is better than a flash game--the art is great, the upgrades are independently useful, and functionally speaking, I can't say the gameplay has many flaws. I did, however, run into bugs twice using the Teleporter and had to shut the program down and restart. And I do wish that the upgrades had a second level that you could upgrade to boost their power... The thing is, the whole campaign lasts about…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Next Penepole is 2/3rds great action game with another 1/3rd of it being a rather frustrating racing game or an annoying side scrolling shooter. You'll probably go into it expecting some kind of crazy top-down F-Zero. Unfortunatley that's not only roughly a third of the game, but also the worst part about it. It boils down to annoying AI drivers. Not only do they dodge pretty much anything that's not in front of a boost pad (while you slam into everything else...at least when first on…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Got this game via Indiebox some time ago but I'm afraid it's just not my jam. It's colourful, has some nice aesthetics and music but on the first post-tutorial race I failed it 4-6 times and it's supposed to be "medium" difficulty. Maybe the game is just too difficult for me, but I don't think I care for the perspective. I understand that it's trying to emulate older games and if those older games are your jam then maybe you'll like this but I came back and tried this a few times but can't…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →top down racer with shooter elements? art direction is great? even the 'story' is neato. only 86 reviews? weirdos.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It got stuck on the load screen, so I erased and downloaded it again. Still didn't work. tried several solutions, like changing permissions and now it doesn't load. Pitty, it looked promising
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →just... just ♥♥♥♥ it. (will give an actual review when less angry)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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