Much better than the combination of genres would have one believe.

I was definitely more into the exploration than the pinball but everything felt mostly solid. The (at times useless) map and some of the physics tied to using the exploding slugs or the leash to swing put a damper on things but not to a severe extent.

One of the cutest and most charming games I've played in a long time.

phenomenal. Holy shit an original indie game concept.

Was truly blown away by this one honestly, partly because I wasnt expected to be (I was going through Gamepass games to decide what to keep/delete), partly because it was genuinely fun and something I’ve never really played before. Of course parts of it were annoying as shit, because its a pinball game, and is therefore impercise, so backtracking was maddening. And the boss fights didnt work. But besides that, my top game of the year so far

I'm generally not a huge metroidvania game fan. Don't get me wrong there are some games that in the genera that I ADORE (see: Hollowknight). I walked into Yoku's expecting nothing. At most, a fun concept that I could take for a spin and then put down forever once I was bored with it.

Except, I didn't put it down. I kept playing, because I kept having such a pleasant time. Who knew I was a pinball fan?!

A beautifully twisted genera romance, with a cute af comedic wrapper, decent story, and innovation. Somehow, this flew under my radar for years. Heck I don't even have any friends on stream who have the game wish-listed. I think that has to change, and we have to put a bit of spotlight here on Yoku. It's worth you checking out.

Check out our book club style gaming podcast, Garbage Game Club on Yoku - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4PoFSWe4bETMx3Se8znAaj?si=BHWFvr_GScGnNxXzNjpCiQ

Full review over at my website: https://www.nepikigaming.com/reviews/yokus-island-express/

''While combining two completely different genres into one sounds like a hefty task, development studio Villa Gorilla have done an excellent job at bringing this beautiful project to life. And let me put an emphasis on beautiful here because boy, do I love how much charm this game has when it comes to graphics and the soundtrack to make it truly feel like I’m on a mysterious island. The island was very fun to explore as well, giving the player freedom to go wherever they want to with only the optional side-content requiring specific upgrades. That said, I must also admit that there isn’t much motivation to go exploring besides your own desire, which was high for me due to how easy it was for me to travel everywhere but I can also understand that people looking for character improvement will be slightly disappointed. The pinball gameplay was very enjoyable for me and integrated well into the world. The only real loss here is that there is almost no difficulty attached to the pinball gameplay because you don’t lose anything upon failure aside from a few fruits that are very easy to collect, but the different amount of objectives and layouts of the ”pinball tables” compensate for it very well.''

The pinball gimmick was pretty cool and made moving around the world plenty of fun. The visuals are real nice and the music is pleasant, if forgettable. The setting feels pretty generic as far as nature-focused fantasy settings go and none of the story/characters are particularly interesting even though they try to give you a lore dump at one point. While I had plenty of fun over the course of the game, the ending is totally underwhelming with a lame twist and anticlimactic music. I don't really have any complaints about the rest of the game except that the pinball foundation for the gameplay means there's a lot of trial and error that can really put a damper on important parts like boss fights.