Yoku’S Island Express: Video Game Overview

The most insane ideas often lead their authors to success, and this also happens in the gaming industry. Rocket League – Football in which instead of athletes on the field are machines. Crypt of the Necrodancer Great combines the study of dungeons and rhythm game. BUT Yoko’s Izland Express – “Metriculum”, in which almost everything is implicated on the mechanics taken from pinbol. It is difficult to imagine how such an idea visited developers, but they got a great game.

This is me, postman yoku

The main character – Yoka appears on the island of Mokuman and it is arranged to work there by the postman. The tiny shoulders of the protagonist lay heavy burden – an ancient deity is immersed in sleep, and Yoka should not only find several leaders to save the island, but also help all sorts of creatures with their problems. The story is not the most interesting – during the study of the world, you will constantly forget about this Divine, remembering it only on returning to your home. Fortunately, even weak plot The overall impression does not spoil.

Surely you have ever seen photos of beetles, riding the ground balls. Yoku has a ball, too, and only with his help hero can do anything, because neither jump, nor break the bodies with his paws. He only runs in both directions and breaks some objects, making loud sounds with a tongue pipe. To achieve long-range platforms, flippers scattered throughout the island are used, and already after a day later, you begin to work perfectly in their device.

Maximum control: L2 on DualShock 4 activates blue flippers, and R2 – Yellow. The movement of the hero from left to right and on the contrary is carried out by stip. It is enough to call with the ball on the desired flipper, click on the corresponding button on the gamepad, and the beetle will come. Or will collapse down if the blow came from above. The character is tightly holding his paws behind the ball and never let go of it, so you will not lose sight of it.Often, the appearance of a pair of dozens of fruit follows the activation of the light bulbs.
It works all this wonderful, and all sorts of riddles and surprises expect a player at every step. Island is divided into many regions with different inhabitants and a special atmosphere in each of them. Somewhere sunny and fun, somewhere constantly goes raining, on the snow-covered location, the expeditionary group is preparing to conquer the highest peak. The world is large enough for the game to be ended in one evening. All regions are residents who need help, and their orders are always unique: someone hit a trap, someone needs to find fragments of the statue, and some need to deliver special packages, which will be not so simple.

Most often, these tasks are performed in zones resembling Pinbol tables. If they walk through the corridors outside of their limits, looking for secret passes and throws letters to mailboxes, then in these episodes the camera stops moving, and two flippers of different colors appear in the bottom of the screen, as in arcade machines. There are bumpers here, from which the ball bounces, there are tracks, there are zones with light bulbs that light up when touched. This, of course, not a full pinball, but its main elements are present here and do not look inappropriate.

For any age

If pinball (at least virtual) you have never been carried away, there will still be no special difficulties. In the game, there is even a significant punishment for entering Central Drain, which in reality leads to the loss of the ball and the need to launch a new one with the help of a plunger. IN Yoko’s Izland Express The hero, which was allocated between two lower flippers, only confuses several fruits collected by him, which directly on the same “table” can be returned to themselves, bouncing from bumpers or lighting lights in certain places. Sometimes when the flippers are activated, the circles are rotated with light bulbs or the lights are changing in places – they should also follow this, if you want to earn the fruit as much as possible.Although the assignments of the inhabitants are rarely connected with the main activity of Yoku, put letters in the boxes are still desirable.
And they will need a lot – here they serve the currency and spend on everything in a row. Most often, the player unlocks with their help under the castles of flippers, which either lead to a completely new zone or allow you to get to the secret corridor or cut the path. If the bag is completely clogged with fruit, yoki will still collect additional, that’s only their amount in the inventory will not increase, so it is desirable to spend them at the first opportunity. Over time, the beetle will acquire a more roomy bag and may not just carry with him a few hundred fruits, but also to buy expensive things like cards indicating chests and collectible items.

IN Yoko’s Izland Express I never had a feeling that I would jump in place and I don’t know how to take myself. As in many “metriculosions”, the main character constantly gets new skills, and therefore the player returns to old locations to old locations and can use objects that they only seemed to be decorated for a couple of hours ago. And as soon as you think that after passing the next “table”, you will turn off the game, it throws up new pleasant surprises: it will appear flipper, unlocking which you will go to a completely new place and meet there some kind of creature, then you will go to the riddle, and you will go to the mysteryCorridors further and come will only after a couple of hours.

Right and roll

The world is pretty big, puzzles – a lot, secrets – Darkness. Among the optional collectible items there are so-called rootiers (translated into Russian, by the way, excellent, albeit with typos), and they are sometimes in the most unexpected places. You can stumble upon a dead end, but in fact it is a hidden cave, where it is a valuable subject. You can successfully complete the passage of the “table”, but do not notice the puzzle associated with exploding mollusks. It happens that the chest or korenoches lie on a higher platform, and nor use the flipper, nor bouncing there – you have to look for another way. Island perfectly thought out if not counting one episode in which I got stuck without the possibility of getting out, but the problem was solved by rebooting from the control point – they are scattered here at every turn.Red plants serve as checkpoint – you only need to run.
You can navigate from one zone to another not only on foot, but also a faster way, the description of which will be a spoiler. I will only say that he will remind the studio fans RARE about Donkey Kong Country.

In general, much in Yoko’s Izland Express Reminds the colorful and insanely fascinating platformers of the past. At the same time, it is impossible to say that the game copies or directly borrow some ideas, – in many respects it is due to its uniqueness it delays from the first minutes. The only thing that can slightly sang the impression – the need to rebuild “tables” to return to some zones. To do this, you need to accurately get a ball on a certain line so that it swept to the exit, and the first time it turns out not always.

But in Routine, this process does not roll – largely due to beautiful graphics. Characters and surroundings, as if drawn by watercolor, make you remember Rayman Origins And Rayman Legends, Although in its structure it is different games. Yes, and yoku, I will be frank, it will be forgotten immediately after passing – it is practically not visible on the TV screen, so he was not easy to harness. But the secondary characters were able to: some of them, like a bee helping from time to time, were drawn from real animals and insects, and some – the fruits of developers imagination, healthy fit in a company of funny creatures.In other games, I would have to jump onto each platform, everything is easier.***
Yoko’s Izland Express became an unexpected surprise – this is an excellent “metriculum” with the original idea that cool to implement. She is bright, fun, very high quality and made with great attention to detail. This is a rare case when I didn’t even look at the list of “Agriculties” – if there is no need to collect all the collectible items and everything is thoroughly studying, I still will do it, because to explore the local world and help its inhabitants, passing the secrets, not bored. There are shortcomings in the game, it seems not the best main plot, but they are so insignificant that they would not recommend it to everyone and everyone would be sinner.

Pros: Interesting mechanics taken from pinball and healthy woven into the usual “metriculus”;Bright world with a variety of locations and funny characters;Many secrets and collectible items;Great visual style and suitable musical accompaniment.

Minuses: simple main plot;Need to rebuild “Tables” to access visited locations.