jackhnatejko Yoku's Island Express Review

Villa Gorilla have created a seemingly unworkable blend of genres and turned it into a fantastic, chill experience with awesome "water-painty" art style and relaxing OST. It excels in almost everything it does, campaign is short but engaging. It's really the side quests that did it for me - there isn't many of them mind you, but the characters you meet are worth playing for just a little longer. The puzzles are never very hard, but are well thought-out and just enjoyable to solve in general. Lack of jump button felt counter-intuitive for me at first but after an hour or so, you realise that the flippers is all you need really, to enjoy the traversal. The map could be a little bit more detailed, a tad more readable - it's not too bad, but makes backtracking a chore sometimes. Completed it in about 11 hours, that's full 100% - and I was taking my time with the game. All in all - it is a great "pinballoidvania", a blend of genres that should never work together, yet here they do. It's amazing that no one else had thought of a similar game since 2018.