Yoku's Island Express

Traversing a 2d metroidvania world by way of pinballing. More traditional platforming segments stitch together a number of fun, albeit simple, pinball tables. There are fruits to gather by hitting sets of light diods and each table has a central puzzle usually involving activating and hitting some bonus shots. The bumpers have a satisfying rumble and cling-clang sound to them, accentuating the pinball feel even outside the parrs with table layouts.

As a metroidvania, it works like a charm. The level design is very dense and new abilities are implemented smoothly. I do wish it had some more in-depth pinball challenges though, as the game requires very little in terms of planning shots and figuring out useful routes / bonus combos. When multiball is activated, it is not because of a skillful combination of timing and planning, but because the game just throws in a couple of extra marbles for a basic puzzle. This especially makes the end "battle" anticlimactic, as its cinematic and on-rails to the point of almost obscuring the core pinball mechanisms.

What is it with Metroidvania games and bugs? Are we extrapolating that Hollow Knight’s grand success has to do with its cast of hand-drawn creepy crawlies as opposed to its myriad of other positive attributes? Did Ori and the Blind Forest capture everyone’s hearts because the titular wooded area was an ecosystem consisting mostly of insects? I don’t like bugs, and I’d be willing to bet that I’m preaching to the choir with this statement, so it’s assured that their presence in both games I’ve previously mentioned does not contribute to their acclaim. However, indie developer Villa Gorilla assumed that bugs were the most likely factor in attributing the boom in independent Metroidvania games and released Yoku’s Island Express. While bugs are not an original aspect to the Metroidvania genre, certainly the game’s odd pinball mechanics will inspire feelings of both interest and befuddlement. Pinball is a game with restrictive controls in a confined, almost quarantined space, so how can it competently mesh with the expansive, layered Metroidvania genre? Yoku’s Island Express’s fusion is admirable only because it seems absurd. We collectively assumed that this combination was unfathomable, and now the gaming industry has found a developer foolish enough to waste their budget on something unfeasible. However, Yoku’s Island Express’s master crafting of these elements came as quite a surprise.

One of the alluring factors of Yoku’s Island Express is its winsome protagonist. Seeing his bright, open-mouthed smile on the cover, how could you not fall in love with Yoku? The little guy is just too damn cute. I have to ignore the fact that Yoku is a dung beetle and his trusty rolling sphere is presumably a polished piece of shit, but realizing this did not stop me from beaming with glee at Yoku or this game in general. The game is simply too vibrant to resist. The developers might have taken obvious inspiration from Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest but radically altered the tone of those games. The sunny, bubbly atmosphere of Yoku’s Island Express is a stark deviation from the sublime, dour one conveyed in the previously mentioned Metroidvania titles. Color choices pop with a consistently bright contrast and character models have the endearing quality of them without sacrificing any refinement. The animal NPCs speak in a garbled gibberish like the villagers in Animal Crossing and Yoku quietly chirps as he’s knocked around, while panting excitedly like a dog as he moves. While the sources of inspiration for this game are obvious, Yoku’s style and direction expels a feeling of warmth that I’ve never received from a Metroidvania game. It’s the difference between putting a song that is most notably performed in a minor scale and shifting it to major scale.

Yoku’s Island Express draws so many comparisons to Ori and the Blind Forest particularly because both game’s worlds are so similar. The island alluded to in the title displays an eclectic range of climates with a large body of water as an outlying barrier. Between the sandy shores at the bottom to the frosty peaks at the top lies grassy hills, drylands, wetlands, etc. It fits the quota of the Metroidvania genre, whose intrigue is based on a diverse array of different locations. However, the big question that arises with Yoku’s Island Express isn’t if its world is vast enough to hold the Metroidvania mantle, but how one traverses through it with the pinball mechanics. Surprisingly, the pinball mechanics are interwoven nicely into the design of Yoku’s world. The developers understood that crafting the world into a glorified pinball machine would conflict with the expansive nature of the Metroidvania game, so they used the pinball features sparsely. Yoku moves left to right as freely as any other Metroidvania protagonist, but that’s the extent of his innate movement. Pinball bumpers are placed everywhere, with blue representing the left bumper and orange representing the right. They are often portrayed as springs that lift Yoku from the ground, catapulting the little guy to a higher area when triggered. More traditional pinball sections involving bouncing Yoku around in an enclosed area are still commonly placed, but are sectioned off enough from the rest of the world so as not to ruin the cohesiveness. Most of these sections also serve to unlock passageways with touching a series of identical keys being the main trajectory. I went from questioning the practicality of pinball in this kind of game to embracing it. The developers understood that traversal was a core mechanic of the Metroidvania genre, and using pinball bumpers to carry the player to higher, unexplored places is genius.

Of course, the prime design philosophy of the Metroidvania game is locking those unexplored areas with a myriad of obstacles. Yoku’s Island Express offers only a few Macguffins to bypass these impediments but the few here are used frequently. The island’s currency is a mixture of tropical fruits that range in value, and either thirty or eighty of them at a time are needed to unlock the ramps that shoot Yoku upward. Acquiring these fruits is no problem as they are scattered around the island and they appear from the springy bumpers in the pinball sections. Difficulty may arise where the fruit limit might exceed the amount that Yoku can carry at a time, so Zelda-esque wallet upgrades are essential and an incentive to explore the island more thoroughly. A streamer Yoku finds early on can be blown to open cases and vases to collect more fruit and alert any drowsy NPCs (I just kept blowing it because it’s so cute. God, I love Yoku). The fish that latches itself onto Yoku’s ass so he can swim underwater and the sootling that allows Yoku to latch onto purple plants and swing on them are the core traversal upgrades and finding paints to color Yoku’s ball will be needed for a few sidequests. That’s pretty much it. The upgrades may be minimal compared to other Metroidvania games, but then so is the utilization of pinball. The fusion of both genres trims the fat of both genres, making for something more manageable.

Diluting the elements of both the pinball and Metroidvania genres also reduces Yoku’s Island Expresses. A regular game of pinball grants the player with three balls and the player must rack up as many points with them as possible before all three balls inevitably fall between the bumpers at the bottom, ending the game as a result. Metroidvania games, on the other hand, are adventure games with the intention to meet a goal. Some progress may be lost upon dying, but the player can infinitely respawn at any given checkpoint. One genre is blunt and absolute with its margins of failure while the other is more liberal and forgiving. The way that Yoku’s Island Express attempts to find a compromise between the two makes the game easy to a fault. Thank god the game offers unlimited continues, but dying is also not a consequence. Under the main bumpers in the more pinball-latent sections where a black pit of oblivion would be in a normal pinball game are a patch of thorns. A few fruits will be taken away and Yoku will make noises of discomfort, but that is all that happens. Beating the pinball sections are ultimately made facile because removing the consequence of failure diminishes the skill associated with the game of pinball. All the player accomplishes in these sections normally associated with high levels of reaction times and precision of pinball boil down to a breezy task. Purple plants are used as autosaves in the field, so why couldn’t Yoku respawn at one of these after falling into the prickly patch too many times? Implementing this would’ve made for a meatier compromise.

The pinball sections of Yoku’s Island Express are fun enough upon the player’s first go arounds, but integrating them into the overlay of the game's world fails to recognize one aspect of the Metroidvania genre: the backtracking. A Metroidvania world’s immensity relies not only on the wonders of discovery, but also becoming acquainted with areas that have already been scouted. Like in any other Metroidvania, the player must backtrack to procure items, collectibles, and unexplored ground that was once inhibited by an obstacle. I don’t mind crawling back to discovered territory as Yoku, but my only wish is that I could bypass the pinball sections after completing them. Doing the same challenges just to retreat back from point B back to A is tedious. The player will unlock a island transit system that blasts Yoku from barrel to barrel like Donkey Kong Country on three different lines, but the full convenience is negated by the fact that Yoku can’t exit the transit until they reach the end of the line. Imagine riding a bullet train whose itinerary goes from Miami to Boston and not being able to stop at any of the major cities in between. Also, the world map is difficult to discern because the player is unable to zoom in, only zoom out to better see pinpointed objectives. I usually don’t begrudge backtracking in Metroidvanias, but the quirks of Yoku’s Island Express irk me a bit more than the average game.

Yoku’s Island Express is also a short game that is light on plot. I’ve failed to mention it before, but the “express” portion of the title refers to Yoku’s job of being the island’s mailman, passed down to him by the previous mail taker at the beginning of the game. The only instances where Yoku is delivering mail comes with side quests involving stuffing envelopes in red mailboxes across the island and delivering some overdue packages to three NPCs. Otherwise, the game presents Yoku a task with epic proportions as a main quest. The last God of this world has taken refuge on this island from an evil entity known as, “the God Slayer.” The giant toad-like avatar has been injured by this foul creature and Yoku must band together to eradicate the God Slayer. Once Yoku rounds up these warriors, the God Slayer reveals itself to be Kickback, the bloated creature that has been aiding Yoku on his quest. He unsheathes his claws and attacks the vulnerable deity. After Yoku and friends stop him, the island is at peace and Yoku can continue his postmaster duties. It might seem like a high stakes story, but its curt pacing makes the plot practically ephemeral. With both the mail portion of the game and the epic overarching plot fighting for precedence, it’s hard to determine what the prime focus of Yoku’s Island Express is. At least the developers managed to implement a well-executed final boss fight with the pinball mechanics, something not even Ori and the Blind Forest could do. What was that game’s excuse for not having any bosses?

I suppose the effectiveness of basing a Metroidvania game around bugs and other small creatures is that their world is a microcosm. Below the surface beneath our feet lies a realm as vast and diverse as the world we know, albeit under a smaller scope. A bug’s world is organic and awe-inspiring, something game developers try to exude in the Metroidvania genre. The pinball mechanics of Yoku’s Island Express were a puzzling change of pace from the tropes and settings already established in the genre, but the developers understood both genres adequately to make for a fresh and tasteful take on the Metroidvania title. Yoku’s Island Express is a charming, unique title that falls under the rare category of game that warms my heart. However, the brisk ease of comfort associated with that sense of warmth is also somewhat to its detriment.

In Yoku’s Island Express, you play as a Dung Beetle who is tethered to his err... “ball”, in this cross between Pinball and Metroidvania. Yoku arrives on an island, ready to start his job as a postman.

Sometimes you are navigating like a sidescroller and other times you are placed in a mini table until you unlock the next route out of there. You will be required to do a certain number of ramp shots, spinner rotations, or destroy rocks with some exploding slug-like creatures.

You control the Blue flipper with L, Yellow with R, then A interacts or blows a whistle which can cause some objects to react.

You collect fruit which unlocks extra flippers. Many flippers cost 30 or 80 and a Travel point is 100 fruits. Some flippers will give you access to a platform above which may lead to a character who gives you a sidequest, or some kind of treasure like an upgrade. Other flippers will be required to proceed to the next area. There aren’t that many travel points but they do allow you to quickly move across large parts of the map, but there will be some backtracking involved to reach one.

There are some occasions where it is hard to work out how to get to some areas, but it’s otherwise well designed. The graphics are nice and colourful, and I’d say a higher standard to what you would expect from a game like this. The combination of Pinball and Metroidvania is an interesting one, and it has to be up there with the best “Pinball Adventures”.

Many games have tried to take platforming heroes and place them in the platforming world, ranging from the "better than you expect"Kirby's Pinball Land [カービィのピンボール] to the mediocre Metroid Prime Pinball to the "might be the worst in the series" Mario Pinball Land [スーパーマリオボール] and Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball.

Yoku's Island Express expands on the gimmicky pinball nature by fledging it out into a full-blown Metroidvania! Which is a totally bonkers idea. An exploratory platform game where you can't jump. The unique charm of this is rightfully exploited with proper pinball mechanics (bumpers, spin dials, multi-ball, etc). Yoku's Island also thankfully has its fair load of secret areas and items to collect so it fun to try and find all the gimmicks.

My only big complaint is some parts of the game lack some polish. There is an overriding story but I barely remember it leaving some character interactions relatively flat. There are also some boss battles that are not exactly threatening (even Kirby's Pinball Land had some more creative ones). And the only other major bummer is for a game that goes into a decent amount of exotic island locations, the score is sometimes just ambient nature noises.

If you've played all the other major indie metroidvanias like Hollowknight, Ori, Guacamelee and still want to fill in the Metroidvania shaped hole in your life, I can recommend you checking this one out. Games aren't a sum of their qualities and the pinball factor is one unique punch.

Yoku's Island manages to combine in an almost flawless way two genres that have nothing to do with each other, those being pinball games and metroidvania. And through the huge amount of charm and passion clearly poured into the game, they delivered a very pleasant, lightweight experience with this one.

Now the game is not the best at either of two genres it combines. The pinball's physics feel a bit too forced at times, lacking a bit of physical realism. Some of the pinball puzzles are also a bit annoying to figure out what is the objective of the table.

On the other hand, its metroidvania elements presents us with a world filled with secrets to find and backtracking, but unfortunatly transversing the world is a pain because of the lack of travel systems as well as low mobility.. It tries to circumvent this by opening shortcuts, but its still not enough, even more when you call fall verticallly through the world, and the way up takes a lot of time.

Even with these hiccups, its still a world filled with charm and a unique game in the way that it combines the two genres.