Yoku's Island Express Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 9/14/2022)

[Image from igdb.com]

Yoku's Island Express

Developer: Villa Gorilla

Publisher: Team17

Genre(s): Metroidvania, Pinball

Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One

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 assumed 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 was 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 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 consistently bright contrast, and character models have an endearing quality without sacrificing 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 expel a feeling of warmth I’ve never received from a Metroidvania game. It’s the difference between putting a song that is most notably performed on a minor scale and shifting it to a major scale.

Yoku’s Island Express draws so many comparisons to Ori and the Blind Forest, particularly because both of their 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 lie grassy hills, drylands, wetlands, etc. It fits the quota of the Metroidvania genre, whose intrigue is based on a diverse array of 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 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 enclosed areas are still commonly placed. Still, they are sectioned off enough from the rest of the world to not ruin the cohesiveness. Most of these sections also 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. A difficulty may arise where the fruit limit might exceed the amount 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 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 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. Metroidvania games, on the other hand, are adventure games to meet a goal. Some progress may be lost upon death, 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 is 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 often? 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 inhabited by an obstacle. I don’t mind crawling back to a 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 from point B back to A is tedious. The player will unlock an 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 cannot 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 as the island’s mailman, passed down to him by the previous mail taker at the beginning of the game. The only instances where Yoku delivers mail come 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 with a task with epic proportions as the 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 as Kickback, the bloated creature aiding Yoku on his quest. He unsheathes his claws and attacks the vulnerable deity. After Yoku and his 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 implemented 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. Still, 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.

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I want a Yoku plushie. Do they make those?