What is with great games and yo-yos lately? First Animal Well makes one an essential tool in the best metroidvania of 2024. Then Penny’s Big Breakaway uses them in the best platformer we all failed to buy in 2024. And now, at last, we have a game that takes childhood’s crappiest toy and lets us smack people in the face with it.
In Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo, you play a little bat who’s been mooching off his auntie, who’s an energy company boss with all the ethics of Logan Roy. Then four equally horrible business monsters turn up and drain your auntie’s life force, but you interrupt the process with—what else?—your trusty yo-yo. Naturally, your yo-yo is now possessed by your nagging aunt, who makes it clear that if you don’t help her, she won’t be able to bankroll your lifestyle anymore. How’s that for motivation?
So begins a metroidvania with strong top-down 2D-Zelda vibes, except you have a humble yo-yo instead of the Master Sword. Luckily, it’s more than up to the task of overthrowing predatory capitalism.
At its most basic it’s simply an attack that always frisbees back to you. It’s when you start ricocheting the yo-yo off corners in the room that you start to suspect this one might be something special. Plenty of screens position enemies near those helpful corners, perfect for getting a lovely chain of kills in.
Once you’re out in the city, you’ll have aggressive traffic to contend with, Frogger-style. But fortunately you’re battling enemies who are just as vulnerable to a speeding car. Fights are just categorically more fun when you get to use a yo-yo to shove your opponents into heavy traffic. Soon you unlock new abilities, like the power to shoot the yo-yo off its string. Powerful, but now you have to get somehow across the room and pick it up, armed with nothing but said string. Ah.
There’s increasingly tricky parkour and lots of puzzles that make clever use of that yo-yo. All very Zelda, but there’s some nice ideas pinched from Mario, too. Like the equippable badges that give you powers, or the charming collectibles (including a string of musical notes that play a little ditty as you collect them—wonderful!). The clear influences and lovely GBA-style graphics make it feel like a lost Nintendo game—it could have easily fit into the Switch 2’s launch line-up last week.
Ah, then again, Nintendo are charging a million dollars for a go on Mario Kart these days—that might not gel with the cynical things Pipistrello has to say about our beloved capitalistic society. It’s an inspired running joke that the woman in your yo-yo is just as—if not more—evil than any of the bosses you’re fighting. And, brilliantly, getting yourself into crushing debt is a core game mechanic.
There’s a skill tree full of upgrades to attack power, how many badges you can equip, etc. But to unlock a skill, you have to take on a debt contract and a debuff, like reduced attack power, or enemies no longer dropping health pickups. Half of the coins you pick up will automatically go to paying off the debt. Once it’s clear, you can finally remove that debuff and enjoy your new skill upgrade.
You might think that sounds awful but I love it. Umming and ahhing over what handicap I’m willing to risk enduring for the next half hour is the kind of genuinely tricky dilemma I’d like to see in more games. And some of those upgrades are such game-changers that after paying off a contract, I find it impossible to resist immediately taking on another.
It’s like Animal Crossing, only instead of cheerfully greeting my animal neighbours, I’m introducing a deadly yo-yo to their skulls to pay off my dodgy credit. It’s also on theme with the game’s anti-capitalist message. Who amongst us hasn’t had a lean financial month and noticed a significant dip in our attack power?
The yo-yo is far from a revolutionary metroidvania tool. I’m not going to start campaigning for Team Cherry to delay Silksong some more so they can patch a yo-yo in, and not just because I’m good for being hung, drawn and quartered. The yo-yo is just a silly toy in a pleasingly silly game, one with great gags and gameplay to match. A magpie game that pinches from the best and makes something slightly superb in the process. What other title this year lets you keep smacking a boss in the face with a yo-yo after they’ve fallen, because they’re still coughing up coins?
This is from Pocket Trap, who made the absurdly good beat-em-up Ninjin: Clash of Carrots, and the absurdly absurd Dodgeball Academia. Clearly they’re a studio who loves going all-in on a jokey idea and then nailing the punchline by making a great game too. Long may they continue.
If I’ve piqued your interest, the good news is you can check Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo out right now—there’s a free demo available on its Steam page.
