Pipistrello and the Cursed YoYo

There are many a game that advertises itself as being multi-genre but then lets down players by splitting their attention so much that the whole experience gets watered down. A roguelike farming sim that doesn’t reach the heights of either genre, an RPG dating sim that only provides the shallowest forms of what makes both so appealing. In my opinion, Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo manages to avoid these pitfalls and strikes a good balance between all it’s trying to do. With evolving platforming, versatile combat, and puzzles integrated into each aspect of the game, the self-proclaimed ‘first Yoyovania’ is simple to pick up and play but complex and fun to master.

Right away, the startup screen is bursting with charm. A Game Boy Advance-like system twirls around and the cartridge of the game is slotted in (though it looks more like a Switch cartridge). The first game system I personally owned was a Game Boy Advance SP, so it’s a little different, but the nostalgia hits that sweet spot just the same. It’s obvious a lot of love went into this title sequence, and when a game has this much polish in even the smallest details, you know you’re in for something special.

The story begins with Pippit Pipistrello, a yo-yo-swinging bat boy who returns home to his rich and powerful family to ask for money. The Pipistrellos have a stranglehold on the city as the sole provider of energy, and the family head, his aunt Madame Pipistrello, is also the mayor. It’s a capitalist tale as old as time: Auntie muscles out all the other businesses and as soon as there is no other alternative option, raises the prices as high as she wants with no one to stop her. Well, almost no one. When Pippit meets up with his auntie, four business tycoons who have had enough storm into the Pipistrello Manor and syphon all that energy into four mega-batteries to power their businesses. Now Pippit and his aunt must work together to get those batteries back and restore the Pipistrello empire (if Pippit ever wants to access that sweet family fortune again).

At first, I was conflicted. Could these rightfully angry business owners really be the villains and the monopolising oligarch the hero? Well, it’s not that simple. On the one hand, I obviously don’t blame these business owners for getting upset at being strongholded by a monopoly. But on the other hand, as you go through their enterprises on your way to defeating them, you see that they are also taking advantage of the citizens by using their new energy source. As the old saying goes, power corrupts.

I do like that Pippit’s main motivation at the start is selfishness, which makes for an interesting aspect to a protagonist and leaves room for much character growth. I also enjoyed Auntie’s character arc; she was less one-dimensional than she first appeared. There are a couple of other members of the Pipistrello family, and though they do have important roles, I do wish they could have had more flavour text or interactions with Pippit to enrich their characters and the family overall.

Throughout the game I was worried about how the story would wrap up, considering that both the protagonists and antagonists are agents of capitalism. I feel like many times with these types of stories, they’ll say there’s a “right way” to do capitalism when it’s an inherently evil system. All in all, I love an anti-capitalist message; it’s (sadly) always relevant, and though it can be tricky to pull off in a satisfying way, in the end I appreciated the way Pipistrello handles it.

The gameplay itself is smooth and weighty; you really feel the heft of the yoyo in both animation and sound design. You hit a box and hear it crunch; you pick up coins and hear them jingle. The cool little voice blurbs characters have, the impact noise when you hop around, and the sounds in this game are a pleasure to the senses. The music is also great, with catchy, varied tracks that always fit the vibe of the levels. The pixel art is cute and vibrant, and it has idle animations for Pippit, which is always a huge plus in my eyes.

The enemy designs are also great, and not just the big baddies. Even standard enemies have unique designs that often telegraph how they’ll attack you. Each one feels distinct and memorable. A small nitpick I did have is that the jump button is the same as the interact button, which means that when I was hopping around and got too close to an NPC, I would initiate their dialogue. You can speed through it, but if there was a way to completely close the dialogue window, that’d make me, an impatient jump spammer, very happy.

The star of the game is the yoyo; it’s great both as a tool and a weapon. Its versatility is imperative in giving you options to solve the various puzzles and traverse the map, and it has special combat moves you can unlock and change to fit your playstyle. There are multiple solutions to puzzles depending on which yo-yo techniques you have unlocked and once you have all the various upgrades, it really feels, with a bit of creative thinking, that anything is possible. Most things you hit with your yoyo will do a little animation, reminding me of Humongous Entertainment games and making me smile even when I biffed a throw. My favourite yo-yo move is Walk the Dog, which you use to traverse over liquids like water and acid, and where Pippit will literally get pulled around by his yo-yo like he’s trying to control an unruly dog. I love when you get a fun mechanic that gets you around faster, especially when it’s been done with this much thought.

The overworld itself is basically one giant level that opens up new paths with each additional technique you learn. Additionally, the more of these platforming yo-yo techniques you unlock, the more complex pathing the game throws at you. The exploration of the gigantic map yields satisfying collectibles, i.e., things that you can actually use during gameplay, in the form of badges and blueprints. You can equip badges (and build them) to change aspects of the gameplay, like having your yoyo trail drop fire when you throw it, see enemy life bars, or block projectiles the first time you enter a room. You can also upgrade them to give them extra abilities or make them cost fewer points to equip. When you die, you will lose money, which can necessitate grinding because you need money to progress at certain points. However, not only do enemies respawn, giving you another chance to pick up more cash, but boxes with coins will also respawn after a while, and you can also equip badges to lose less money when you die and receive more money from enemies.

Other things to collect are Petal Containers (which raise your max health when you collect enough of them) and BP containers (the same thing but let you equip more Badges). They are a great reward for putting your all into the various puzzles spread around the map and exploring every nook and cranny.

There is also a contract system in place for Pippit to receive buffs that I found very engaging. The idea is that you buy upgrades in the form of a contract, such as gaining increased attack power or increased knockback, but you’ll also take on a negative debuff, such as less health, which stays with you until you collect enough money to pay off the debt. Once it is paid off, you get to keep the positive buffs permanently! This mechanic keeps the game from being too easy, but they can also turn you into a powerhouse if you can overcome those self-imposed challenges.

The whole game is pretty versatile, and you can make it as much of a puzzle game as you want. The upgrade containers and badges are pretty much all optional, so you can just go through the main story as quickly as you want with your starting stats and still have a substantial experience. If you want even more content, you can take on the jumping and combat challenges, which let you practise mechanics of the game you haven’t mastered yet and reward you for your tenacity.

The accessibility menu has the ability to turn on/off screen shake, change the game speed, and choose the level of controller rumble. All important, but where the accessibility really shines is in the difficulty options. You can give yourself extra health, get more money from enemies, and have more points with which to use badges. You can also make the game more difficult by multiplying the damage you receive, lessening money and life drops from enemies, and raising the amount of money you lose on a game over. I think difficulty options like these are the best for actually being accessible; we all have our own preferences and if you allow players to tailor their experiences with your game, it’s more likely they’ll stick with it.