Cute and charming Metroidvania meets Pinball. Mostly letdown because of clunky controls.

Especially the grappling which is a guessing game as to where you will fly when you let go, i ended up giving up on trying for 100% when one of the collectibles where placed in a spot requiring extremely precise timing after 20 tries i gave up. The Spider boss also pissed me off, because of the way it was designed meaning that it if you mess up it you fall down to previous area, which means i spent more time pinballing myself back up to the boss arena than i did in the arena.

It leads to a game which frequently frustrated me with controls that just aren't precise enough for what the game asks of you at times. The to mention the backtracking gets old quick. The "Git Gud" crowd can maybe dismiss that, but to me it ruins what could have been an easy recommend because everything else is good.

Even if you don't think you like pinball I highly recommend you give Yoku's Island Express a shot. This game takes the concept of a pinball adventure we've seen in the likes of Sonic Spinball and expands on it in ways I've never seen before.

It's just a fun Metroidvania with no pretense of anything but fun. By the end you'll find yourself carefully studying angles and velocity as you try to aim and time your shots with this surprisingly great physics engine. It's charming, it's cute, and while it left me satisfied, it definitely left me wanting more.

I haven't quite collected everything like I would like to, but I don't think that'll change my opinion. I love Yoku's Island Express! It's such a fun little game brimming with charm. I'm glad I crossed paths with this one and hope more people can do so as well.

I think it's important to know my background: I'm not great at pinball. I grew up around grimy arcades and have played tons of pinball, but never got it down. That said, I thought the pinball stages that are included in here are great. Really bite-sized and comprehensive. Every once in a while I'd feel a bit braindead, slamming the ball in the exact same spot 12 times in a row. But that's my problem! And despite that, I had a wonderful time.

There's something really magical about the combination of genres that Yoku's Island Express (YIE) is able to pull off as well. Using fruit to unlock new areas, new areas unlocking new abilities, and having an objective across a big open map all works SOOO well. Every little loop of gameplay is perfectly refined and harmonious with one another. It's really made me want to check out more "casual" metroid-vanias.

I think some people might look at how little it takes (by way of playtime) to reach end credits, but I thought it was perfect. I estimate that I probably have another 3 hours to get all the collectibles for the "true-ending", and on top of that the game ships with a randomizer! So there's a lot of potential for replayability.

Overall I don't have any complaints with Yoku's Island Express. It's such an excellently casual and cozy game, I believe that just about anyone who picks it up will have a really fun and relaxing time playing it.

Pinball metroidvania
Pinball metroidvania
Pinball metroidvania

Just a charming game overall.

On paper, this pinball platformer metroidvania should be a thrilling experience, especially when factoring all the well executed elements. However, there's simply not enough thrill/excitement that you crave from a pinball game. The sprawling map gets cumbersome to traverse outside of the pinball sections, yet a large aspect of progression is doing long traveled fetch quests. There's a level of pinball flashiness that's lacking in most areas that disguise the repetitiveness of the genre, and without it you get your fill very quickly. The world is visually satisfying and the mechanics work decently well, but there's not enough fascination to avoid the game feeling like a chore.

Cara, esse jogo é o tipo de loucura que só existe na indústria Indie e que eu AMO! Simplesmente um dia alguém olhou um Metroidvania, olhou um Pinball, virou pros amigos e disse:
"Rapaziada, EU TIVE UMA IDEIA!!!"
E graças a esse cara, hoje temos essa pérola!

Yoku's Island Express é um jogo tremendamente relaxante, simpático e fofo. Toda a parte de exploração (Metroidvania) dele é ótima e bem montada, com diversos caminhos, missões secundárias e segredos espalhados pelo mapa. E, claro, toda a parte de Pinball é muito bem adaptada ao todo, desde o próprio personagem principal até as mecânicas mundo afora, que nunca saem do tema.

Algo interessante de mencionar é que não há formas de morrer no jogo, o máximo de penalidade que existe é perder algumas poucas frutinhas (que são o dinheiro do jogo) ao deixar a bolinha/Yoku cair em alguns trechos de Pinball. E o mais divertido é que, ativando essa penalidade um certo número de vezes, você desbloqueia uma missão secundária para fazer que é obrigatória para alcançar o 100%, então nem mesmo o ruim é de todo ruim.

É o joguinho perfeito para desestressar no final do dia. Apenas sentar, pegar o controle e sair explorando todas as partes da ilha desse pequeno monstrinho Pintroidballvania genial, fazendo missões e apreciando toda a beleza dos cenários, artes e soundtrack do jogo ao longo do caminho.

This is a game I’d been looking at for a while before finally getting the chance to play it. The gameplay looked interesting, but I didn’t really expect the Metroidvania elements to be so well-integrated. They feel like natural progressions of what you are able to do, and the abilities make it fun to traverse and explore the world. Like most good Metroidvanias, it incorporates some backtracking and shortcuts, so most of the time it’ll never take you as long to traverse an area the second time. The gameplay really captures the feeling of a real pinball machine, with tons of fruits (the game’s currency) to collect popping onto the screen as you hit targets. The music and atmosphere is really relaxing and it’s a great game to just sit back and enjoy. It isn’t too long, which I don’t really mind. I’d rather a game be on the shorter side (<10 hours) but be fun all the way through than leave me feeling like it overstayed its welcome, and I think this game was a perfect length. Even though most of the game was fetch quests (which doesn’t surprise me since you play as a postman), the pacing and exploration aspects were done really well. Whenever it feels like you’re getting a little tired of a linear section, you come to a fork in the road or stumble onto a hidden path. The boss fights feel distinct and find a way to mix things up while retaining the core pinball mechanics that make the game unique (and it’s fun to play multiball. I really like how they reserved that for boss fights instead of overdoing it).