You can put meat, raw fish, or even cheonggukjang into bibimbap. But you can't put jajang in it. That is a kind of black magic. In 2013, Swedish startup developer Villa Gorilla suddenly hatched a plan to mix pinball with Metroidvania. It was reckless. One is a game where you let the ball bounce where it may, while the other is a genre where you memorize paths and expand the map. The fun of giving up control and the fun of building up control do not usually sit side by side. The price of using forbidden magic was time. The development period, originally planned for one year, stretched to five years. That was how 'Yoku's Island Express' was born.
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What was the motivation behind development?
Developer Villa Gorilla is a small studio opened in Stockholm, Sweden, in July 2013. Co-founders Jens Andersson and Mattias Snygg are both alumni of Starbreeze Studios, a company known for first-person action games. The pair's goal was modest: complete a game within one year. The problem was that the team had no animator. With no one to draw characters walking, running, and fighting, they decided to create a protagonist that required almost no animation. The answer they arrived at was a ball. At first, things didn't roll out as planned. After testing their early prototype, 'Pinball Stories,' the duo judged that it leaned too heavily into pinball and reset their direction. The conclusion was that it shouldn't be a pinball game with adventure elements added, but an adventure game driven by pinball.
How does it play?
The protagonist, Yoku, is a dung beetle. Although he looks closer to an ant, that's the lore set by the developer. The only difference is that he rolls a ball instead of dung. Rolling a ball larger than his own body, he takes up his post as the new mail carrier of Mokumana Island. While the player controls Yoku, what actually moves across the screen is that ball. Flipping the flippers placed on the left and right launches the ball, dragging Yoku along with it up the island.
The entire island is a single pinball table. The fact that the pinball zones are not chopped up into separate stages is where the game's real idea lies. The whole island is one seamlessly connected pinball table, with cliffs, caves, and swamps acting as tables with different properties. Where a Metroidvania opens doors with keys and abilities, this game replaces them with aiming and flipping. The player decides where to go, and the ball decides how to get there. Because of this, even the sensation of failure is unique. If you miss your timing, the ball rolls back down the way it came, but rather than feeling frustrating, previously unseen branching paths catch your eye in the process. To begin with, there is no combat, no death, and no game over screen in this game.
Awards won for a debut game
The game won Best Debut Game at the 2019 BAFTA Games Awards. It essentially won an award given to debut works with its very first title. British outlet Eurogamer awarded it a 'Recommended' badge, and prior to release in 2017, it was selected as 'Best of The MIX' at the Los Angeles event for indie game showcase The MIX. Review scores back this up as well. Its Metacritic score stands at 84 on PC, while Steam user reviews sit at 'Overwhelmingly Positive' with 96% of 1,836 reviews being positive. These might not be numbers that sit alongside blockbuster AAA titles, but considering it is a small studio's debut work and currently priced at 2,050 won, the story changes.
Not suited for this type of gamer
If you enjoy games where you progress efficiently toward a clear objective, this game might prove frustrating. The ball often bounces in unwanted directions, the map is not overly friendly, and the game does not blatantly tell you what to do next. It is also not a fit for those who want the sense of growth gained through combat. What grows here is not Yoku, but the player's eye for reading the island. As Marcel Proust said, "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." For those with a perspective that discovers a journey within wandering, this is the most beautiful item 2,050 won can buy this week.
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