Yoku’s Island Express

Yoku’s Island Express

WOW! Just “WOW”. This reviewer rarely plays big games, and frequently doesn’t have an overwhelmingly favorable opinion of platformers. But somehow the synergy of it all (especially the incredibly successful risk of heavily integrating pinball), along with an interesting puzzle aspect created some kinda Big Magic with “Yoku’s Island Express”.

There are plenty of good reviews available, so this review will attempt to focus on what this reviewer knows best – Yoku’s Island Express’s (YIE) pinball aspect. Is this really pinball? Yes…and no. (I’ve been playing pinball off and on for over fifty years, and have served as a moderator on one of Steam’s more successful pinball game’s discussion forums, just as background.)

Real player with 18.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Adventure Platformer Games.


Yoku’s Island Express

A provocative and thoughtful combination of well-known gaming mechanics as we all know can make for some seriously entertaining and popular new prospects, and Yoku’s Island Express really takes the cake when it comes to a profound and creative hybrid of genres.

A brave and unique potpourri of gameplay mechanics featuring the quick reflexive action of tight-knit and well designed pinball tables spread throughout an expansive and gorgeous platforming journey with the deep exploration of a Metroidvania, this is not only a long-overdue experiment of combined mechanics but a really well executed one!

Real player with 13.9 hrs in game

Yoku's Island Express on Steam

Rollers of the Realm

Rollers of the Realm

Gameplay

‘Rollers of the Realm’ is a game that combines pinball and RPG (role-playing game). And it does so quite successfully.

The pinball aspect of the game is classic: you push buttons (on your keyboard or on a controller) to move flippers in order to control the ball and prevent it from dropping down the drain.

The RPG aspect of the game consists of the following elements:

  • The ball represents a player character who has stats and skills. There are 10 playable characters. They each have a ‘class’ like knight, rogue or healer. Each of them has strengths and weaknesses and a specific ‘special skill’ that can be triggered when you’ve collected enough mana (magic points).

Real player with 18.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Adventure RPG Games.


Despite being poorly made, this is still a fun pinball RPG… if you play on “casual” so that you don’t have to constantly repair your flippers. An important tip: several characters have multiball abilities. Don’t use them, and don’t waste gold upgrading them! Unlike a normal pinball game where you only need to worry about keep one of the identical balls in play, secondary balls in Rollers are weak, the character still dies if its main ball falls into the drain (and it’s often difficult to tell the balls apart in battle, especially with the Rogue’s balls' dull colors), and secondary balls can’t activate special board locations that advance the level. That last point leads to some almost buggy situations where, for example, on a very long board you can get a secondary ball up to the distant top of the board but the camera won’t follow it. The only good part about multiballs is that the some of the Ranger’s extra balls stick to enemies, so they’re good for dealing with enemies that hang around right beside your flippers.

Real player with 14.8 hrs in game

Rollers of the Realm on Steam

jetPIN

jetPIN

EDIT: After playing nearly one hour, and making almost zero progress, I have to say I would not recommend this game in its current form, except to elite players. This is very disappointing, and I hope my review shows how much I wanted to like this game. But when it’s often not possible to see both the ball off the flipper and the target at the same time, it’s quite difficult to gauge shots. And gauging shots is critical in jetPIN, due to the time element involved. (An option to zoom in and out might help greatly.) The great probability to lose all progress in an instant makes this the most frustrating PC pinball I’ve yet played, and I say this as an original moderator of one of Steam’s more popular pinball titles. (Somewhat the feeling of climbing a mountain in a bucket using only a hammer, if you know what I mean.)

Real player with 0.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best Adventure Action Games.


this is like a pinball game made by someone who has played very little pinball themselves. i really really don’t recommend this one.

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

jetPIN on Steam

Witcheye

Witcheye

A green-skinned young witch named Mabel Syrup turns into a big, bouncy eyeball (why not a boob, liver, or buttock?) to recover her stolen magical ingredients in this incredibly novel take on the breakout subgenre. While smashable blocks are there in plenty, the majority of the challenge comes from the huge roster of foes and their extremely well-animated attacks, which increase in number and swiftness with the jump to hard mode. Normal is pretty dang easy on the whole – almost casual in spots – so I would encourage veteran 2D gamers seeking a bigger bang for their buck to immediately go for hard after beating the base game; all bosses are noticeably beefed up, not with more life or attack power, but with trickier patterns and maneuvers, and this is objectively the correct way to do such things. Bravo!

Real player with 7.8 hrs in game

Pros:

  • Only mouse is necessary to play

  • Has the charm of platformers from the GBA and DS era

  • More to do after the main story is complete

  • Has both mini bosses and bosses

  • Awesome OST

Cons:

  • Multiple playthroughs required to unlock other modes and difficulties

  • No powerups at all (except for an optional one for one level)

All in all it is a simple adventure game that mimics the charm of a kirby game. It is short, but it is a 5 dollar game that still manages to provide value past those 5 dollars. A good enough game that I hope the developer(s) can follow up with a sequel that this game deserves.

Real player with 4.3 hrs in game

Witcheye on Steam

Ordinem

Ordinem

They take over the railing system in Ordinem.

Your objective is simple: match the ware to the right colors.

Manage one or more rails and match the ware to the right colors. Remember: no ware should pass and matching the wrong color means losing score. Your objective is simple but tough. You can use the rails with button [1] to [3]. It’s only important that the right color is moved over the right field and you push the right button at the right time. If the wrong color should pass, not a problem, you have three lives. If three wrong ware are collected, it’s game over and you collect your score.

Hint: Don’t complicate things, three rails can be confusing. Keep an eye on the whole map and work foresighted.

You can unlock new maps with points, that get more difficult and represent new situations. If the standard modes are too easy, try the modes [Inverted Ways] or [Random Maps], where the normal rules don’t apply.

Ordinem on Steam

Crazy Jump

Crazy Jump

TL;DR : This is a simple platformer game with 70 levels in total. The content it holds is worth it’s price. If you want to relax and attempt some easy puzzle+platforming, this game might be the right choice.

Difficulty at beginning looks like the game was made for toddlers, until level 60+ the difficulty spikes up a lot, mostly due to wacky movements and grapple hook physics.

One of the few things I dislike is the movement. You are a bouncy ball that constantly bounce up and down while you move, however when you bounced into mid-air, jump input will get eaten, the problem worsen when you are on a moving platform where you can’t even time the bounces because they became inconsistent.

Real player with 3.1 hrs in game

Given the size and graphics requirement, this is probably a bitcoin miner.

If it isn’t… I’m not sure why it exist. It’s not a very good game (and because I collected stars in groups of 3, I skipped over 100 and have locked myself out of that achievement permanently…)

Avoid.

Real player with 2.5 hrs in game

Crazy Jump on Steam

Grove flowers

Grove flowers

Fun and original game for passing the time on long waits,

its like a reboot for the old game, and its relaxing as well

You get a sense of accomplishment when you complete the achievements in this one!

Real player with 0.2 hrs in game

Grove flowers on Steam

RagDoll MadDoll

RagDoll MadDoll

The game is fun for about 5 min. Good mechanics. The game can be better if they added different body types and a work shop. Just my 2 cents.

Real player with 1.6 hrs in game

RagDoll MadDoll on Steam

On A Roll 3D

On A Roll 3D

I loved original Rayman on PlayStation. It had magnificent levels, absolutely awesome soundtrack and overally it gave to its player really good feeling despite having sometimes really challenging difficulty. In conclusion, it was a great success.

Reason, why I brought Rayman to here is how On A Roll 3D’s beautiful retro-style gameplay reminds me of it a lot.

  • It has tiny puzzles every here and there, where you have to think most usually from one vision to few seconds to how to accomplish it, whilst not being just runthrough over the maps.

Real player with 14.0 hrs in game

PRE-UPDATE: A classic 2D side-scroller with 3D graphics (2.5D?) with some unique twists thrown into the mix creating a fresh and fun platforming experience.

And although it does use elements seen in most platformers what’s wrong with keeping the tradition if it’s not broken?

Now I have played the original On A Roll on XBLA and so far On A Roll 3D isn’t as difficult as its predecessor, but don’t let the game’s bright, colorful art-style fool you as it may provide challenge in the later levels.

Real player with 8.2 hrs in game

On A Roll 3D on Steam

Pinball

Pinball

I have played all the 11 tables and I must say that this is a good pinball game. The tables are very creative and different one from another.

Do you remember the 3D Ultra Pinball series from Sierra? The tables have these kind of creativity and fun.

The graphics are ok, not ugly, not remarkably beautiful.

I have found bugs on one table, “Pirate Fantasy” and reported. Aside this, the game runs smoothy.

For the price, number of tables and creativity I highly recommend it.

Real player with 3.5 hrs in game

Stay far away from this game and dev

This game is an asset flip and the dev even had the audacity to ban me from the community hub because i did the community a service and made the information available for all to see via links i posted.

So what grounds did he ban me on ?

“You have been permanently banned from the pinball Hub.

You were banned by a pinball developer.

Reason: “Posting spam””

First ban i ever had on steam or any where else on the web.

Besides of that he completely wiped away all comment from everyone else at that time so i can only wonder how many other people in those posts got banned as well.

Real player with 0.6 hrs in game

Pinball on Steam