I never thought I would play a metroidvania pinball game—yet here I am. Yoku’s Island Express, from the now disbanded two-man team Villa Gorilla, is so much fun. The game is charming, boasting a gorgeous aesthetic similar to the Ori series, but with the vibes of Delfino Island.

You play as Yoku, a tiny dung beetle tethered to and constantly pushing around the eponymous ball in this pinball adventure. When you arrive on the island, the former postmaster corners and tasks you with delivering mail to the islands' quirky residents in his stead. You scurry off to do the lazy pterodactyl’s bidding, traversing a beautifully realized 2D world using the left and right triggers to activate pinball flippers and navigate between platforms. It’s a lot of fun to explore, discovering secret areas, picking up collectibles, opening treasure chests, and completing quests for the local denizens. There are also dedicated pinball playfields which must be completed to unlock new areas and occasionally boss monsters to defeat in order to progress the story.

That story is fairly light, the deity of the island has been injured and it's up to you to gather the local chieftains so they can perform a healing ritual. It's very low stakes, Yoku can't take damage and the only fail states in the game are losing a bit of collectable fruit (i.e., money) or sending you back to the plunger in typical pinball style. That said, I appreciated the chill atmosphere and gameplay; it would have been frustrating to constantly hit a "game over" screen thanks to my abysmal pinball skills.

In terms of critiques, I experienced some minor graphical issues and terrain clipping—at one point I got stuck in a wall, forcing me to reset to the last checkpoint. Also, the controls do not seem to take pressure sensitivity into account, so you cannot lightly tap Yoku's ball with a flipper, which is a bit disappointing. As a result, I ended up having to brute force some of the more challenging pinball segments.

However, these minor issues did not detract from my overall enjoyment of Yoku’s Island Express. I've really come to appreciate small, but lovingly crafted games that can finished in a single weekend!

I bought the game in a bundle of smaller games when I got myself the SteamDeck.
The game is just perfect for it. You can always jump into the game quickly and complete a few smaller sections. It's very charming and cozy. The game mechanic with its mix of Pinball and Metroidvania is a great idea, even if it's not fully exploited. I'd be happy to play a similar game in the future that delves a little deeper into this genre mix. For example, it would have been great if the Pinball areas weren't so separate and if the mechanic was also used more as a tool to get around the map instead of walking from stage to stage.
Overall, it's a small delight, nothing too special, but it's just fun to play.

Pinball metroidvania
Pinball metroidvania
Pinball metroidvania

Just a charming game overall.

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.

Fun, oblique take on the Metroidvania that had me wrestling with the core movement controls a bit towards the end, but not in such a way that spoiled my experience. Wish there was a map for 'incomplete Scarabs' because I don't think I have it in me to go look for the ones I haven't activated.

EDIT: Thankfully, incomplete Scarabs are marked on the map when a certain threshold is crossed, so thanks for that. Still a bit of a nuisance to go get to all of them, but at least it was a directed nuisance. 😋

The Game Pass Metroidvania train keeps on a'chuggin' as I finish yet another. Yoku's Island Express is what would happen if someone took Sonic Spinball and made it a Metroidvania with a charming, light tropical island theme. It is, as strange enough as it is to say it, a pinball take on the Metroidvania genre, and it actually pulls it off pretty damn well! I did 95% of the stuff in the game, apparently (the last couple achievements were so time consuming I didn't bother) and it took me probably around 12-ish hours (the game has no playtime counter, so far as I can tell, and the Xbone itself won't tell me either).

You play as Yoku, the new postmaster on the island of Mokumana. Though a dung beetle, Yoku rolls around a white ball of rock to get from place to place, and that is your pinball. In places that aren't too steep, you can use left and right to roll around, but otherwise you're usually using the left and right triggers to activate yellow and blue bumpers all over the world to get you from point A to point B. You get new powers as you go through the game, as fits the genre, such as a noisemaker to toggle things in the environment, wallet upgrades to allow you to hold more fruit (basically coins that are also a kind of points that you earn as you play that unlock stuff in the game), the ability to swim, but the overall mechanic of pinball doesn't change much outside of the occasional spot to grapple hook.

There generally two kinds of areas in the game's fairly large contiguous map. You have more corridor-like areas where you're doing more simple bumper-based platforming to get from place to place, and then you have what are effectively mini-pinball tables to get through to get to the next area (often after doing some kind of thing within the table). Those tables are fun, but can often be frustrating with the very precise angle you need to hit. This is mitigated a bit by the bumpers themselves glowing where you touch them, so there's a clear visual cue for your position and therefore the spot you should be aiming to hit once you've done it correctly, but it's still so tricky that it's never really a solved problem (if you view it as a problem in the first place). Those tables also make it a real pain in the ass to re-navigate through them though. Navigating to a specific spot on the island can be a real chore due to the lack of save points and somewhat limited fast-travel system, but the very good overworld map helps mitigate that.

The writing is simple, but the humor is charming and not overtly in your face. The presentation overall is very laid back and pleasant. The music is very good, especially the main theme is one I can't stop humming to myself X3. The world is also awash in color and style. The 5 or so areas of the island have their own look to them, and the pretty, painted-looking style to the world makes everywhere very pretty. Put that on top of how there's never any kind of failure state beyond having to redo a little bit of pinball or re-collect a bit of the already super abundant money-fruit, and this makes for a very laid back Metroidvania experience (outside of getting frustrated at pinball, anyhow XD).

Verdict: Recommended. The frustration on the precision of the bumper hits and how long it can take to get around the island keeps this from being higher recommended, but I still had a fun time with this. It took me a time or two booting it up to really get into it, but once I did I was hooked and had a great time with it. It's certainly not for everyone, even people who consider themselves fans of Metroidvanias, but if the concept of a pinball Metroidvania sounds like something that'd be up your alley, then Yoku's Island Express is probably something you'll enjoy ^w^