Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo (2025)

Let me start by saying I considered giving this game four stars instead of three. It's an enjoyable game with fun puzzles, decent combat, and fairly challenging platforming. It has Earthbound vibes and Link to the Past gameplay. What's not to like?

For one: The yo-yo theme is a bit too niche. I imagine someone who has spent time learning yoyo tricks themselves will appreciate it, but overall it's just not relatable enough to go deep on.

Next: The graphics. I love 16-bit pixel art, but it's not done well here. After 18 hours with the game, I'm still not sure what our protagonist is. A bat maybe? Everything in the game is also just extremely colorful, but without any discernable palette. It's not great to look at.

The combat is fine, but the limitation of having a single axis main attack felt weird when all your other attacks operate smoothly in both dimensions. The base difficulty is slightly above average, which contrasted poorly with these limitations and the game's otherwise beginner-friendly vibes.

The platforming was overall great fun. There are some very clever move sets that all seem to fit well within a Switch controller. It has a touch of the same clumsiness that I found in the combat, which occasionally got annoying in some of the longer and more punishing challenges, but generally this is clearly the game's best strength.

Finally, it runs a little long. I beat it at 85% completion in about 17 hours. The first 3-5 were terrific fun. By 12 or so, I was ready to move on. They keep it interesting throughout with good pacing of ability progression, but the whole package just gets a little stale after a while. The final boss fight, however, was great.

In this genre, two years ago I played Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, and last year I played Minishoot Adventures. I adored both, and gravitated to Pipistrello because it looks like it's trying to do both those things.

Overall, this game is a novel experience and does a relatively good job at tying together all the things it set out to do. The final package is enjoyable enough that I'm curious to see what this dev releases next, even if I wound up a bit lukewarm on whether I'd recommend Pipistrello to friends or not.

This has been compared a lot to the classic Zelda games (specially Minish Cap) and that's great, but it doesn't make justice to this amazing game. It has its own personality and the way it implements puzzles is really special.

Loved how colorful it is, its sense of humor, fun music and how challenging it can get, but its the story and specially the ending what made me consider it one of the best games of 2025.

This is a must have. Don't miss it.

Yeah, this game is pretty much perfect. A top down classic Zelda-like with modern sheen, perfect execution- and so dang fun. I can’t think of a game I’ve enjoyed more this year so it’s potentially my GOTY.

It’s somewhere between a Zelda-like and a Metroidvania, as there is true ability gating, backtracking, etc. The level design is just incredibly balanced, as it is constantly branching and presenting tons of side-exploration, while still retaining focus and momentum (and never sacrificing quality).

The moment to moment gameplay is also just perfect. It’s somewhere between standard platforming challenges and puzzles platforming. The game constantly introduces new challenges and mechanics and abilities, while leaving the perfect amount of guesswork up to you to find the path forward.

It’s just one of the best designed games and a perfect balancing act between retro and modern, action and puzzle, exploration and focus, tradition and ingenuity. I don’t think I’ve played a better game in this style and I highly highly recommend it.

PS - my other favorites in this sort of genre are Master Key, Kharon’s Crypt, and Minishoot Adventures.

The second pair of abilities you get from the dungeons aren't quite so much fun as the first pair, and the puzzles built around them aren't quite as clever, but I still had a great time with the back half of Pipistrello. There's some excellent bosses (especially the fight against Link!), the dungeons are all solid, and I appreciated how the endgame pretty much completely takes the busywork out of finding the last few secrets you missed.

Just a super impressive effort in a genre we almost never see anymore.

Never in a million years did I expect a game to draw inspiration from NES homebrew classic Super Bat Puncher, but I'm glad to see that Pipistrello's done it! The wall-punch dash in that old indie is just too cool to be stuck in an unfinished demo forever, and it feels really fresh here. Love how it gets strung together with the pegasus boots in the tougher challenge rooms, too!

Still early days with Pipistrello, but I'm having a ball so far! Tackled the excellent southwest dungeon first, picked up the pegasus boots, and found a secret path that skips the southeast dungeon entirely by poking around the overworld.

It seems like such a small detail, but both the combat and the puzzles are making stellar use of your yoyo's ability to reflect off angled walls. Challenges that seem tough to face head-on can almost always be solved with a little lateral thinking and a well-placed ricochet trick shot, which feels exactly right for a game about an ultra-magical yoyo.

Pretty much every aspect is working for me, there hasn't been a top-down Zelda this good at least since A Link Between Worlds in 2013.

I've never felt so bad for wanting to drop a game before. I like a lot of what this game is doing from conceptual standpoint, but I really don't think it comes together quite the way I'd like. I can't escape the feeling that the control scheme never feels second nature, always reminding something that feels unintuitive and clunky. And while the analogue stick controls feel better for mini-direcitonal movement, they really tend to fail the player when you're trying to;ull of a lengthy sequence of tricks. The d-pad is the obvious choice, but for some reason it feels less enjoyable for standard movement around the map.

I really I wish I was enjoying this as much as I feel like the ideas that went into the game deserve.

Another great demo, this one's a classic 2d Zelda where instead of collecting a new gadget each dungeon, you have one super versatile tool (your yoyo) that gets continuously upgraded.

Your yoyo is a sword, a bow, the hookshot, the pegasus boots. It can richochet off walls for combat and puzzles, it can bounce Pipistrello off walls for platforming, it can walk on water; it does a million things really smoothly without ever needing to delve into menus to readjust your gear.

Dungeon design in the demo is pretty strong, with a perilous trek through an unfinished skyscraper. And instead of boring ol pieces of heart for upgrades there's a nifty, Paper Mario-style badge system, that lets you find and equip unique passives. Love the vibrant GBA aesthetic, too.