Yoku’s Island Express was a delight, and naturally caused me to tee up this game that also enhances pinball mechanics with a story, an adventure, etc. It’s very much on a tinier scale (I think I got through the campaign in an hour) but with a corresponding tinier price.

Momonga has a low-budget charm that betrays its mobile origins, but it’s charm nonetheless. It’s set in an East Asian-inspired world where owls have attacked the flying squirrel village, and Momo has to fight back with the help of a panda, a mole, and a firefly. The structure is level-based with a series of table-like areas you progress through, hitting rocks and switches, collecting stars, and occasionally fighting an owl. At the end you’re rated on time, health, stars, etc. as well as other bonus tasks, with an implied encouragement to repeat levels to imrpove your performance, if inclined.

I wasn’t too inclined to perfect everything. Performing at pinball with perfect precision is a path to pure pain, especially with limited lives. Losing progress within a level like that isn’t fun for me, although I suppose it’s only natural for real arcade pinball. Perhaps these mechanics work at odds to the adventure aspect in a way that Yoku was able to circumvent, or perhaps that’s just an unfair comparison since Momonga focuses on short, arcadey levels anyway.

Either way, I did enjoy my time with it, which was over all too soon. The game is advertised as “Episode 1″, and ends with a very clear sequel hook after the boss fight, but nothing more has eventuated since its release in 2013. Still, even in its bitesized form, it’s a well-developed “adventure pinball” experience, and I’d rate it as essential in this underserved genre.