Well, 100%ed this and obviously just loved it a lot. This is made by a core team of just three or four folks, which is pretty astonishing. Overall, the gameplay and level design is incredibly polished. Yes, it’s two genres mashed together, but the degree to which they each change each other makes that mash-up no simple feat.
I really liked the (admittedly light) world-building in this. It’s a world with Great Old Ones, but they’re good guys. (I might have read someone make that comparison somewhere, I’m not sure.)
I definitely had a hard time reading the map and seeing certain things during gameplay. It does feel like a game that just baaaarely fits on the screen of the Switch. But I played it all the way through in handheld mode, so as others have said, that’s totally possible. If you’re agnostic about Switch vs. PC, I would probably recommend PC.
Remember how Ninja Gaiden took fighting game mechanics and made it into an action adventure? Yoku takes a pinball game’s mechanics and makes it into an action adventure. Very cool. Finally there’s a point to all the pinballing.
Plus my 20 month old boy just loves the sound it makes when I hit “A” and it makes the party noise. He squeals in delight and starts laughing. So it makes it so that I’m constantly trying not to hit the “A” button too often in the game, because I don’t want to tire him out.
I can tell it’s a great game that accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, but boy do I suck at this game and would undoubtedly have a lot more fun if the ball moved in slow motion. As I get better I expect my enjoyment to better materialize. As for now I’m just sort of mashing buttons.
I picked this up on sale today and though it had been on my radar for a little while, I am surprised by how much I’m enjoying it. I figured it would be a solid game with a clever, gimmicky gameplay hook, and it is. But I really didn’t expect the world and level design would be this polished and charming. With most games I play, meeting all the characters and learning about the world feels like I’m just going through the motions. In this game there are lots of different creatures just hanging around doing different things and for whatever reason I’m really engaged in it. The art and colors are wonderful. I love all of the little side quests that organically pop up as you poke at the world, and all of the weird items there are to collect. There’s a real sense of mystery and wonder that I don’t often experience in games anymore. I can’t wait to go back to it.
Like many it seems, I had been following it and just picked it up. This is incredibly charming, even above Rayman’s levels.
Also it is the first time I laughed out loud by merely pressing the A button at an impromptu time in a game.
Just finished this and what a super polished gem. Getting 100% was really enjoyable because some chests and wickerlings look impossible to get until you acquire some new ability… but then you realise you were able to get them all along; you just hadn’t used your wits. This meant that I completed the game before doing everything and, usually, once I see the credits I bounce, never to return, but Yoku’s Island Express had several intriguing loose-ends: a locked chest, an inaccessible secret cave, some odd tadpoles in my satchel, a strange gorilla statue I hadn’t done anything with yet, the different ink bauble combinations, a giant egg… These kinds of things keep me playing and keep me guessing.
The visuals are gorgeous but the music and sound, particularly the creature noises, are just lovely. The skull gang, the frogs, Tilo, the magician – they all fit the appearance of the characters so well. The Metroidvania-like exploration and progression naturally involves a lot of backtracking and the pinballing around can be a little finicky when you find yourself trying to get through ‘tables’ that are awkward to exit. This happened a lot while I was trying to get to certain areas quickly. Thankfully, the beeline system takes some of the sting (pun totally not intended) out of this.
I gave up on unveiling the secret of the egg because of those traversing issues.
Yoku is just adorable even, as a character. I had no idea he was a character when I bought the game. As an insect lover (and especially a dung beetle fan), it was a delightful surprise.
Yeah it’s the only real issue I can level at the game. Towards the end you get awarded a lot of fruit that could have gone towards purchasing another ability or two to mitigate the traversal further, a bounce perhaps or speed roll or something. Double vacuum, skvader and bigger fruit wallet (with nothing to spend it on), were fairly useless upgrades. Faster dive fish was welcome though. Still, the game’s mysteries kept me playing. The egg was intriguing and thankfully had a satisfying pay off.
