Yoku's Island Express Reviews

Yoku's Island Express is ranked in the 89th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
10 / 10.0
May 29, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is the perfect combination of pinball mechanics meets metroidvania, and is not only my favorite indie game so far this year, but my favorite pinball game of all time.

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10 / 10.0
Jun 1, 2018

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9.5 / 10.0
Jul 5, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is the perfect mixture of pinball and video games. Taking the best of both worlds and dropping it into a charming setting filled with likable characters makes for a relaxing romp that shouldn't be missed.

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95%
May 28, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is the best indie game of 2018 so far and an unmissable wholesome jaunt that manages to bind pinball gameplay with a gorgeous sun-soaked open world brimming with wholesome characters and secrets that will keep you paddling for hours on end.

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9.5 / 10.0
May 29, 2018

I never expected to be so enamored with a pinball adventure game, but here we are! Yoku’s Island Express combines fantastic visuals, sublime audio, and addicting gameplay mechanics to create a truly spectacular Switch experience. Pick this one up – it’s something special!

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9.5 / 10.0
Jun 12, 2018

Even if you aren’t a fan of the pinball genre, you will want to give this a try. It’s action gameplay, open world exploration, and platforming sections brought together in a wonderful and fun package. This is a game you can sit back and relax while enjoying the melodic music playing. You won’t find yourself so frustrated that you are raging and you won’t find that you have a game that will be completed in an hour. It truly is the best combination of mechanics and the best way to get those wary of the pinball mechanics to ease up and open their minds. This game is definitely a must have on your list of games.

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9.1 / 10.0
Jun 5, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is a must-have on the Nintendo Switch. It's a fun fusion between a pinball game and Metroidvania, with great lifespan and innovative gameplay mechanics. Get it now, you can thank us later!

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9 / 10
Jun 5, 2018

The unique blend of Metroid and pinball makes Yoku's Island Express as entertaining as it is charming.

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9 / 10.0
May 31, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is a delight, plain and simple.It's gorgeous, plays beautifully, and I hope it's the start of a new franchise, because I want to play a lot more of this.

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9 / 10
May 29, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is a genuine breath of fresh air, combining pinball and Metroidvania mechanics in a way that feels truly inspired. Add in one of the most appealing fantasy worlds you'll find on the eShop, and you have yourself an instant left-field classic.

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9 / 10.0
May 29, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is one of those titles to be valued without reserve, hoping to send a message to the market and the development team, and to have an ecosystem populated by less approved and braver projects.

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9 / 10.0
May 29, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is the open-world pinball adventure you never knew you wanted, but that you desperately need to play. The vibrant art, expansive world, and fun story come together with the best elements of metroidvania and pinball games to create a new experience unlike anything else out there.

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4.5 / 5.0
May 29, 2018

For as many great, engaging or immersive outings we've already been treated to in the past few years with this genre, Yoku's Island Express can now be added to that same list of essential efforts with an identity that is all its own.

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9 / 10.0
May 30, 2018

Yoku's Island Express brought something to the table few games, even among those I enjoyed, have managed to recently - a true sense of freshness. It really is unlike most games on the market, and it manages to grow beyond this defining gimmick, nailing almost every other aspect. Between the fantastic gameplay, lovely presentation and endearing characters, minor faults like excessive backtracking and a somewhat flat main storyline are negligible.

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GameSpew
Top Critic
90%
May 29, 2018

It's rare a game is as endlessly joyous as Yoku's Island Express.

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90 / 100
Jun 6, 2018

Yoku's Island Express innovates by combining pinball mechanics to platform and metroidvania genres, blending them in a unique and fun way. Despite focusing too much on pinball and having few moments of action (that, when occur, are well-made and creative), the game has an interesting story and a dazzling world to be explored.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

9 / 10
Aug 8, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is a very fun pinball/Metroidvania that you should check out on Nintendo Switch. The colorful art style and the great level design, mixed with the pinball mechanics and the Metroidvania side of things, make this a very entertaining release that everyone can enjoy, even those who are not a fan of full-on pinball games. Villa Gorilla HAS certainly found a creative way of presenting a new type of game, and one I'm sure you're going to like.

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9 / 10.0
May 29, 2018

Yoku's Island Express is a great time, it's a charming and enjoyable for any audience.

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9 / 10
May 28, 2018

If there’s one type of game I never thought I’d be praising to the high heavens in 2018, it’s a 2D Metroidvania-esque puzzle pinball platformer featuring a Dung Beetle as its protagonist. Even those words written together make very little sense to me, and on paper Yoku’s Island Express should be an absolute trainwreck. Keeping as many genre balls the air as developer Villa Gorilla are doing here Yoku feels like somewhat of a herculean task, and yet here we are. Yoku’s Island Express is my favourite platformer of 2018 so far, and I’m not even sure it’s a platformer at all.

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Jul 10, 2018

If you like pinball and adventure this is a must buy. Even for those wanting a new experience I can easily recommend this charming and beautiful game.

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