It’s a great time to be a Nindie fan. I feel like every other month, I’m playing a game that becomes my new “Favorite Nindie”. This time, it’s Yoku’s Island Express and it deserves this title for a variety of reasons; Reasons such as the slick, unique gameplay. How about those cute, colorful characters? Not to mention the near-AAA presentation of this title and much more.

Yoku’s Island Express has been described by the developers as a “Pinball Metroidvania”. You play the game as Yoku, the dung beetle, who rolls his ball of…dung? Around the island of Mokumana in search of characters and items that will help him on his journey.

You see, Yoku has crashed landed on this island. The resident mail carrier, the Posterodactyl, is all too quick to assume that Yoku is there to relieve him of his duties.

Developer: Villa Gorilla

Publisher: Team17 Ltd

Digital Only // 10+ Hours Played // $19.99 // Review Copy

Along the way, you’ll explore the island. Navigation is done by using pinball-like areas to get around. These pinball areas done successfully will unlock passages to other parts of the island. As you traverse this island, Yoku will collect fruit in order to unlock new pinball paddles or new areas of the map. Here’s a short gameplay video to help understand how this all works:

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLWgKZesAJ0&width=500&height=300[/embedyt]

As you may assume, some of the pinball areas require some decent reflexes and pinball skills. Not to worry though, they’re all fun and creative, and very rarely are you truly punished for not having either of those skills. However, the better your skills and precision, the more fruit you’ll collect and the easier it’ll be to progress.

Along the way, you’ll battle some pretty menacing bosses that utilize the pinball mechanic to full effect. You’ll also meet some pretty cute and interesting characters that really bring the island of Mokumana to life.

Island o’ Pretty

Music and sound effects bring the island to life even further. The characters speak with a non-sensical gibberish that’s both endearing and adorable. The music is (usually) appropriately fun and occasionally grim where necessary.

Meanwhile, the hand-drawn look of every character, object, and background set piece of Yoku’s Island Express perfectly compliments the gameplay and sound. It’s a beautiful game to look at as you lose yourself to the pinball mania that frequently ensues.

If You Can Only Say Nice Things

There’s not much to say about Yoku’s Island Express that I don’t like, but I have to admit that the retreading of territory that’s a hallmark of Metroidvania does get a little more frustrating here. As traversing the territory does get a little easier with fast travel, it doesn’t become available for a little too long. This means there’s still a lot of revisiting that occurs.

That might be a critique of the entire Metroidvania genre at this point, but I do think other games make it a bit easier to move through their worlds. This is especially true for the genre’s best examples.

An Easy Recommendation

There’s not much else to say about Yoku’s Island Express. It’s a game that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone that enjoys a unique take on a tried and true formula. The addition of pinball mechanics is not something I ever considered before, but now that I’ve played it, I really hope that Villa Gorilla can iterate on it in the future. It’s smart, fun, charming, beautiful and a treat to play. If you enjoy metroidvania games, pinball games, or games with character to spare, you will enjoy Yoku’s Island Express.

Do you enjoy platformer games? Maybe you should consider my last “most favorite Nindie”, The Adventure Pals. If you enjoy something a bit different and unique, go read Steppen’s Immortal Redneck review and see if that’s something you might enjoy!