Yokus Island Express

I WANT A SEQUIL TO THIS OR SOMETHING. WOW. i normaly never 100% game for the achivments but for this game was so much fun that i got 99% of the achivment (i think one of the last achivment were bug i can't remmber) THE MUSIC everything, the cuteness the story, i wish there was more, my brain crave for more.

I couldn't believe those genres can be put together and succeeds!
Developed by Swedish indie studio Villa Gorilla, Yoku’s Island Express game is a metroidvania-style pinball adventure, in which you play the part of Yoku, an adorable little beetle. This mashup of genres succeeds despite being an uncommon combination, and seriously I hope they start a new franchise, because I want to play a lot more of this. The final result is a charming, delightful, and wonderfully satisfying experience.
Yoku arrives on Mokumana island, ready to start his new job as a postman. Sadly, things start falling apart pretty quick, as the island's god figures were attacked by something called the God Slayer. As a consequence, our cute beetle was tasked with bringing all the leaders together to health the last god alive. Yoku can walk along flat surfaces or gentle slopes, but unlike most platforming games, he can’t even jump. Instead, the flippers, launchers and bumpers widely present across the island are his main method of moving from one location to another. Moreover, late on the game, you gain new abilities like climb or swing that comes in handy.
This superb 2D world is filled with distinct areas (such as lush jungles, dark labyrinths, snow-covered mountains, underground caves or underwater temples) that are basically small pinball tables we need to beat to keep on our adventure. In parallel, the game-world is plenty of secrets, collectibles and side quests that it's worth to investigate, as they unlock new areas and rewards. The game also counts with Steam achivements. Most of them are fairly straightforward but occasionally you'll encounter frustrating collectibles that are almost impossible to grab unless you own insane skills. Probably this ridiculousness, is the only negative point on the game.
Moving onto the art-style, the background scenery is just as beautifully detailed as the foreground. Every environment of this large open-world island is perfectly accompanied by its sound design which gives everything a unique atmosphere. There are a wide range of NPCs on each area as well, each of them with their own dialogs and style.
All in all, here you are a simple but cute story to follow, alongside a great amount of side quests, hidden collectibles, and other distractions along the adventure. The mixture of genres are difficult to describe but good indeed, and flippers and bumpers make uncovering this wide island a ton of fun. You won't came across something similar for a while, so take this opportunity to play this unique and innovative game.

Hello friends,
Welcome to my review of Yuku's Island Express. In this game, you play as a small dung beetle who takes over for a pterodactyl in delivering the mail for a island. The game itself is a mix between rpg elements and pinball mechanincs. The storyline is pretty straight and linear, but you can explore the island at your own leisure. You also get abilities or items that can help looking around the island. They can help you explore the island fully. Be aware that some collectibles in the game require a special trick that is not mentioned. This is the slug explosion trick. Basically, a explosion that propels your character over obsticles. Anyways, here is my PRO/CON list:
PROS:
- A fun game.
- Great artwork and a nice soundtrack. The artwork is similiar to raymon series.
- Lots of collectibles.
- Puzzles mixed with pinball action.
- Nice storyline.
CONS:
- Sometimes the pinball mechanics of the game are hard to use and hard to get used to.
- The fact that the "slug explosion" method is never mentioned in the game, so it is up to the player to discover how to use it. They should of at least explained a bit about it.
- I wish there was more of the game..it was fun. Maybe a sequel in the future?
I do recommend the game because it is quite fun. If you also like pinball games, this will also be fun for you. I think this game would be great for young children and hard core achievement hunters too. There are things in the game that both group of players will enjoy.

Yoku’s Island Express is a game that hasn’t been played by many people on PC. I assume it’s been doing better on the Switch, since you generally see that audience talk about it more over there.
But they’re missing out, I’m telling you. Yoku is a metroidvania where you, as a little creature named Yoku (makes sense), deliver mail and parcels to its inhabitants.
Shortly after your arrival things start to go amiss and it’s up to you to fight evil, all the while making your deliveries and helping people out with other requests.
The island is quite big with different kinds of biomes and you get to walk around freely until you reach a point where the access is blocked. In order to get over these obstacles you usually need to complete a quest or acquire an item, like a true metroidvania.
The biggest gameplay aspect isn’t really it being a metroidvania, but rather the addition of pinball areas where you can flip and bounce around, collecting fruit, destroying objects and unlock secrets and as well as take different routes toward different goals and objectives. And there are a lot of them, all with different designs. No shortcuts were taken when they made these.
These pinball parts of the game are very unique and almost always fun to play, except for a few instances where you just can’t seem to get the ball towards the right destination. But maybe it’s my lack of pinball skills causing this.
Quests can be accepted and seen on the map where they’re clearly marked. Even though it’s not always clear where you should go or what you should do, too much handholding would lose some of its magic.
And it’s not a long game by any means. Finishing the main story should take around 6 hours and you can add a few hours to that number to complete of the quests and find all of the collectibles. So you can see why it would lose some of that magic.
Visually Yoku looks stunning with highly detailed 2D art, all smoothly animated. There’s no lack of weird and funny characters or lush environments. There’s always something nice to see.
The music fits the tropical theme of the game and the characters speak some kind of gibberish so I can’t really speak about the voice acting. But it all sure sounds like it fits the game’s attitude.
So if you haven’t played or heard of Yoku’s Island Express until now then you’re really missing out. It’s a game that any so-called gamer should’ve played. You can’t call yourself a gamer and not play unique and fun games. It’s all part of being a gamer in the first place. So in order to correct this you should buy it, play it and love it. And then let me know you agree by liking or replying to this review.
You’re welcome!
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Too Long; Didn't Read
This game is like a doctorate in fun, everything is so cute and it has a great flow.
I know metroidvania and pinball sounds weird, but once you start playing it immediately makes sense.
It took me about 12 hours to 100% and now that it’s over I feel empty inside and want more.
I highly recommend trying this one out!
Not Long Enough; Did Read
You control Yoku, a cute little dung beetle that rolls his ball around but can’t jump, instead you’ve got flippers and paddles scattered everywhere that you use to traverse the map.
Because of this and the fact that some paddles have sort of a “scripted” trajectory you can only go where the game wants you to, so movement is very deliberate and smooth.
And then you’ve got the "pinball areas" which use all the same elements you've used so far but in a somewhat enclosed space where you just go crazy and have to complete objectives in various ways to advance.
The open world and enclosed spaces are all interconnected in the same way you'd expect from any other metroidvania and the map reminds me a lot of that of Ori and the Blind Forest.
You progressively unlock a fast travel mechanic called the Beeline which eventually covers around half of the map, it has several pick up spots where you could hop on and drop off in any stop along the way.
The Beeline may be lacking a bit in coverage of lines and pick up spots, but it makes up for it with also being used to get to certain places and items you couldn’t access otherwise.
Besides the main story you've got many side quests, abilities and collectibles, one notable collectible type are the scarabs, located in the “pinball areas” you have little stone scarabs that you need to charge by performing multiple passes over until they bust open and spill all their fruit (currency), you don’t get anything special from them in particular but there’s an achievement if you collect them all.
Overall, albeit short this game amazing and crazy fun.
Definitely worth the full price, and if you catch it on a discount you shouldn’t miss it!

Open-world pinball is certainly not something you see every day, but this game acts on this unique concept very well. A great story, memorable characters, fun mechanics, and a great art style make this a very fun game to play.
Although the description sounds a little weird at first, the best way to describe the gameplay in this game is simply "open-world pinball". In this game you control Yoku, a small dung beetle with a ball. Although you can walk along the ground as you would in any normal platformer, the majority of your movement will be done by whacking the ball with the various paddles and bumpers around the environments to collect fruit, complete quests, and explore more of the island. The mechanics feel solid and it's quite satisfying once you get the hang of the pinball mechanics.
The story is very cute. It was quite fun to watch Yoku roll around the island with his never-ending smile while trying to help the islanders around him and save the island. The way the story progresses in a few areas does feel a tad bit weird, but I suppose that comes with the territory when you're telling a story using pinball mechanics. For the most part though, the story is told very well and it's a pleasure to experience.
The game features fantastic hand-painted visuals as well, which look superb, and was not necessarily what I was expecting from a pinball game, but was very welcome. It also ran well, and the only issues with bugs I had were a few areas where it appeared that I did things out of order somehow, which made some character dialogue not make sense (such as referring to things I'd already done). This was a very minor issue though, and there were not issues outside of this.
TL;DR This is a fantastic open-world pinball game, with great pinball mechanics, a surprisingly good story, memorable characters, and fantastic visuals. I would highly recommend this game for anyone who enjoys pinball or anyone who's willing to give a game with a unique concept a go, as this game does not disappoint.

It's delightful.