Yono and the Celestial Elephants Review – Wholesome, Adorable Fun

<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;"><em>Yono and the Celestial Elephants<&sol;em> had my utmost attention from the moment the menu screen appeared&period; Colorful&comma; eye-pleasing graphics and a catchy menu theme set the stage for the world I was about to explore&period; With inspiration pulled from classic Nintendo 64 games and a world full of quirky characters&comma; Yono is great for kids&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also great for really big kids&comma; like me&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">You begin the game as Yono&comma; an adorably-chubby blue elephant with a floppy little trunk&period; In this Zelda-like puzzle adventure&comma; Yono has been sent into the world to do good things&comma; and by-gosh does he&period; He finds that there are disagreements between three races of people&comma; and on top of that&comma; the princess has gone missing&period; Yono uses his heart as well as his trunk to put the world right&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s kind&comma; selfless&comma; and super precious&period; I mean&comma; look at his little face&period; He&&num;8217&semi;s so cute&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130876" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130876" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130876" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;24220550&sol;Yono1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Yono and the Celestial Elephants&comma; Plug In Digital" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"539" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130876" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Yono and the Celestial Elephants&comma; Plug In Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But don&&num;8217&semi;t let the cute face fool you&period; He can hold his own in a battle&period; I thought for sure a game this sweet would omit combat&comma; but you&&num;8217&semi;ll encounter bad guys that Yono has no choice but to headbutt to death&period; It takes a little time for him to recover between blows&comma; so combat never gets intense&period; As the game progresses&comma; enemies take more headbutts to defeat&period; There are a couple bosses that require a bit more strategy but nothing too complicated or challenging&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">In addition to his big head&comma; Yono has another useful tool&colon; his trunk&excl; He can blow air from his trunk to activate pinwheels&period; When the pinwheels are activated&comma; it usually results in moving a platform of some kind&period; When combined with water&comma; Yono can use his trunk to extinguish fires that may be blocking a path&period; He can even shoot peanuts from his snout to attack enemies or pop balloons&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Yono and the Celesial Elephants<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; developer&comma; Neckbolt&comma; doesn&&num;8217&semi;t hide the Zelda influence&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll slide plenty of crates and activate door switches&comma; reminiscent of those N64 dungeons with Link&period; One of the first things you can do in the game is pick up and throw a jar&period; Or headbutt into them to smash a bunch at once&period; The sound of breaking jars brings back the best memories&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t forget the chickens&period; Yono can pick up and throw chickens&comma; too&period; There are bomb flowers&comma; too&comma; but Neckbolt&&num;8217&semi;s design more closely resembles a bundle of dynamite&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130879" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130879" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130879" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;24220821&sol;Yono7&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Yono and the Celestial Elephants&comma; Plug In Digital" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130879" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Yono and the Celestial Elephants&comma; Plug In Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As he travels the world&comma; Yono picks up coins from defeated enemies and broken jars&period; I expected to use these coins to buy upgrades&comma; health&comma; or other little bonuses&period; Instead&comma; the only use for the coins&comma; as far as I could tell&comma; was to change Yono’s skin&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s okay though because the skins offer a fun way to customize the game&period; Each customization station had it’s own mix of styles&comma; from sweet little polka dots to that green-clothed hero we&&num;8217&semi;ve been talking about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span style&equals;"font-weight&colon; 400&semi;">While traveling across the world&comma; there are quite a few mini-quests for Yono to complete&period; These are optional&comma; of course&comma; and rarely even offer a great reward&period; In fact&comma; after returning someone’s lost marbles&comma; Yono is offered 300 gold&period; However&comma; he politely declines and says he doesn’t help people for money&period; How precious&excl; Even though the rewards aren&&num;8217&semi;t substantial&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s worth it to take the time to complete as many as possible&period; The extra dialogue and character interactions add a lot to the experience&period; Neckbolt sneaks in some powerful social commentary&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s done in a way that is kind and playful&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My biggest disappointment in<em> Yono and the Celestial Elephants<&sol;em> was the ending&period; The game builds up some pretty major conflict towards the end&comma; but the resolution is abrupt and unsatisfying&period; Even though the game is fantasy and make-believe&comma; the happy ending comes too easily&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;130877" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-130877" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-130877" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;10&sol;24220651&sol;Yono4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Yono and the Celestial Elephants&comma; Plug In Digital" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"538" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-130877" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Yono and the Celestial Elephants&comma; Plug In Digital<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>When it comes to hardware&comma; the PC version of the game lets you choose between keyboard or controller&period; Because much of the game involves moving a chunky little elephant across the tiniest of ledges&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s tricky to use arrow keys to maneuver&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s much more intuitive to play with joysticks on a controller&period; Knowing this&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m sure the Switch controls are just fine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma;<em> Yono and the Celestial Elephants<&sol;em> is an adorable game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s fit for kiddos&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of fun for adults&comma; too&period;  The Nintendo 64-inspired graphics don&&num;8217&semi;t feel dated&comma; and the not-so-subtle social commentary is a unique touch&period; The game does everything it set out to do&comma; and it does it in the most adorable&comma; wholesome way possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC review copy of Yono and the Celestial Elephants was provided by Plug In Digital for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;