I love a good pinball video game, especially when it breaks the limitations of real-life machines. Yoku is the most extreme version of this, fusing pinball mechanics into a large Metroid-style explorable world. This mechanical novelty combined with the glorious look and soundtrack makes for a very special experience indeed.

Yoku is a dung beetle, and the ball he constantly pushes around serves as the pinball in the table segments. Outisde of these instances, you control the beetle pushing the ball around the diverse locales of the island, using the flipper buttons to activate bumpers and launchers embedded all over the sprawling two-dimensional world map. Finding the right route and careening around are fun in a quite different way to most exploration platform games; it’s a very fresh movement mechanic!

Yoku is also a postman, which means part of the theme is delivering mail and parcels to the island residents (although it quickly gets into a crisis involving the local deity). There are many varied creatures hanging around, from animals to blobby persons to surreal beasties, all adding to the strange and beautiful atmosphere of the island. Did I mention the game looks amazing? The Rayman Origins-style visuals are part of what attracted me initially, and the music is no less smile-inducing.

I don’t know what else to say, it’s great! There’s lots of hidden collectibles and such, items to give you new abilities, little quests to do, and fruit to gather. Getting 100% completion requires mucho backtracko of course, but 1) that’s the nature of the genre and 2) I didn’t mind at all, Yoku’s Island Express is utterly charming and wonderful.