Yoku's Island Express

• Genre: Pinball/Metoidvania
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoiler, so yeah.
• Time Played: 11 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's good.
• Did I cry: Nah
• Soundtrack: It's fine for it's settings but nothing to really jam to.
• Why I played: A lot of "Metroidvania" and Pinball-video game spaces alike mention the game in a rather positive light. Definitely seemed interesting/different, and I like pinball as a mechanic.
• Jank: It's not too bad, but there were some points where things were stuck, not in a broken way, just in a... ugh this shouldn't happen way.
• Difficulty: Mostly it's not too difficult, but there are times when getting your ball exactly where you need it feels more difficult than it should be. You also get an ability later on that is very hard to control precisely, despite many challenges with it requiring very precise control.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Overall I'm pretty pleased, it was fun, and different, and inspired me to play some other pinball-video games.
• Recommend to others: It's an easy recommend for anyone that actually likes pinball plus the exploration aspect of exploratory action platformers, as the "action" is light unless you consider flipping flippers action, and the platforming is... well I mean the whole point is to get the ball onto different platforms in a sense, but it's not exactly the same kind of "platforming". There is no jump button, but obviously you "jump" via flippers and such.
  

Yoku's Island Express isn't necessarily the first attempt at a Pinball-esque adventure game, but it is one of only a few I can think of, and perhaps the only one fitting precisely into it's genre. It's pretty good. Besides a few sections that get a little frustrating for the ball not going exactly where you want, it pretty much meets all expectations. It helps you do have a little direct control over the ball as technically Yoku is a little beetle pushing the ball around. Though, most of the time the ball is yanking Yoku.

I would say I'm a little disappointed at the 100% completion ending(which I don't think you technically can get before the normal ending), as I mostly was there by the end of the game and went back in just to turn in that last bit. I guess it's just a cute little bonus, but for all the work for this whole other aspect of the game - throughout the whole game, I expected a bit more. Overall though, fun and pretty neat and different game.

Pokémon Pokopia

• Genre: Life-Sim Sandbox game?
• Spoiler Free Review: Allusions to potential spoilers, gameplay, unlocks, etc.
• Time Played: ~50 Hours
• Too Short/Long: This is probably one of those games that can greatly vary depending on what you want to do. I didn't B-line the main story, I "casually" enjoyed my progress as I made it and did activities as they were made available to me while engaging with the whole breadth of the game. So for me, it felt just right.
• Did I cry: I got just a little watery eyed at one point.
• Soundtrack: It's fine. It's cute. It's just a little more repetitive than I'd prefer, and considering they have dozens of existing Pokémon tracks in the form of collectable CDs and various ways to play them, you think one would be as a radio for you, the player, but no, they only come through in the lower quality output of the in-game music playing items. There are some neat reprises of classic Pokémon melodies though.
• Why I played: I honestly only snagged it out of FOMO. It looked like something people were talking about and already really liking prior to actual release, and I saw just enough things that made me want to give it a try. I thought going in to it, it was going to be New Horizons 2.0 and I would kind of regret getting it just because it was something everyone else was playing.
• Jank: Surprisingly jank-light. Not free. There are some controls that could be a little bit more refined. I can't count the times I removed or broke something I didn't want to, or placed something incorrectly. There are supposedly some issues with Pokémon "despawning", which I may have experienced a couple times but was resolvable, but apparently certain situations it's not. Just some other general funkiness. It's to be expected with a game of this type. The more room for error the more error there will be, and there is a surprisingly large amount of stuff in this game and it's just impressive how it handles it.
• Difficulty: It's hard to say this is "difficult" in any capacity, so this will be rated more on tedium. Is it tedious? Not really. Sometimes, but not that much. I could see some quality of life improvements that give you more storage/remote /universal access, but that's about it. There are several different "main areas" in the game, and pretty much the only time the game needs to load is going between them, and sometimes, I have items I need in a storage in one of those different areas, so I have to visit an area just to grab the item and return back to where I am playing. That's a little tedious.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased. I had way more fun with this game than I expected I would. I may even continue playing it a bit even though I finished the story. This might be one of those games some people say "only truly starts when you finish the story", which I can understand why even if I don't agree, depending on what you're looking for getting into it.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would highly recommend it to anyone who likes any combination of Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Minecraft(or Minecraft contemporaries like Terraria or Dragon Quest Builders). In fact, I'm a bit disappointed I didn't see more people I know jumping into this game immediately. I think timing is a factor, but I've expressed my disappointment with New Horizons, and this is just the complete opposite experience for me, and yet there was a time where practically anyone I knew with a Switch was playing Animal Crossing. It helps it came out right at the start of the pandemic in 2020, but like I said - timing.

I just don't know where to begin with Pokémon Pokopia as it exceeded my expectations at almost every turn. It was such a joy to play. I'm not much of a "sandbox" style game player. I enjoyed Breath of the Wild more than Tears of the Kingdom. I played Animal Crossing until I rolled credits. I played Terraria until I rolled credits. I played Starbound until I rolled credits. I never cared for Minecraft, at all.

Yars Rising

• Genre: Platforming Action (Metroidvania), Arcade
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, just mechanical progression shared and such. The story isn't the draw anyway.
• Time Played: ~10 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's solid.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Actually way better than I expected going in. It's a pretty awesome soundtrack with a lot of original vocal tracks.
• Why I played: I've been playing Panzer Dragoon Saga here and there and while I was playing I wanted to play Panzer Dragoon(not Saga), but diverted to the 2011 Yar's Revenge which is also an on-rails shooter, but then was like "Wait don't I have some kind of Yars-themed Metroidvania and I decided to check this out.
• Jank: It's got a little jank with the controls not feeling 100% the way they're supposed to. Other than that I don't think there is anything.
• Difficulty: This one is a roller coaster. Because of the original Yars Revenge style arcade challenges, it has moments where it's very difficult. By default it leaves a prompt for "Invincible Yar" for arcade sections - if you lose a couple times it'll prompt you at each challenge. I turned this off myself, so I can't speak for how much "easier" the game makes it. I imagine some of those arcade challenges might even be a little difficult even when invincible. 
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pretty please with this, I enjoyed it way more than I expected.
• Recommend to others: I'm not entirely sure I would go out of my way to. It's not like I know a lot of people clamoring for more Yars Revenge content in 2026. It's kind of an odd weird out of place game that feels like it's made by a bunch of of 50+ aged developers who want to make a game to appeal to the 15-35 age group who aren't into classic Atari games enough.
  

Yars Rising surprised me, I enjoyed it a lot. As a stand-alone metroidvania, it's not too much, it's pretty much the basics at bare-minimum with serviceable game play, often cringy but not entirely too bad dialog, in near-stock with just enough going on to not look too bland environments. It's one of a million in the genre, especially those in the breadth of recent indie metroidvania games.

Then there is the music, the music is stellar enough that it may have kept me playing on it's own. Good music can really elevate an experience in a video game. Not necessarily make a bad one enjoyable, but make a somewhat enjoyable one enjoyable enough to keep playing, or otherwise make a good game a great experience.

Then there is the "hacking", which is performed by playing various challenges that are - for the most part, just playing the original Yars Revenge, each with a condition, goal, modifier, etc. Sometimes you're playing a version inspired by another Atari game entirely. Some of these are extremely difficult, but besides turning invincible mode on, you also have a degree of skill customization that allows you to equip abilities for both the overworld game play, and the hacking.

And that's another point. The game isn't just a Yar game, it's an Atari game. It's filled with references to other Atari franchises - primarily in it's boss battles. As you progress, or once you've finished the game, you've unlocked dozen more of the Arcade-style challenges just to play from the main menu sans equipable skills. So when you're done with the adventure, you're still left with more straight-forward Yar game. At the very least, it's a good value.