Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a brand-new platforming adventure for the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s been a long time since Yoshi’s last solo outing, 2019’s Crafted World, and oh boy is it great to have him back in our lives. My goal today is to let you know why this chill game should be on your must-play list.
The story is deliberately simple. The Yoshis discover a sentient book named Mr. E. His blank pages are missing the details for a long list of interesting creatures. The Yoshis are naturally inclined to assist Mr. E, and do so by jumping into his magical pages and exploring the various areas to discover how each critter works.
The setup is equally simple, making it easy to jump in and play almost immediately. You can choose from one of eight colored Yoshis, from standard green to light blue. The chosen one cutely sits on a little stool in front of the book, surrounded by his or her fellow Yoshis, using a magnifying glass to select the next creature to investigate.
The book is initially laid out in six chapters. Each one presents a unique setting to explore, beginning with Wildwoods and expanding to places like Mountaintops, Seaside, and even Bug Country. If you think this is light in terms of content, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find more chapters waiting to be unlocked after completing the main story. This provides an additional six chapters, but I won’t spoil their names or themes; you’ll enjoy discovering them for yourself. What it also means is first appearances can be deceiving. Simple setup and premise, sure, but this game turns out to have a lot of depth within its pages.
Each chapter boasts six creatures to discover. If you do the math, that’s a lot of creatures. That’s also the number of levels, since each creature has its own unique environment to reside in. This is where the creativity becomes abundantly clear. Both the creatures and their habitats are lovingly crafted. It reminds me of being a kid and drawing, making up your own strange creations. There’s a frog that blows bubbles, a boomerang-shaped slug, seagull-type birds…even a jellyfish that shoots water and allows you to fly around using it as a backpack. There are roly-poly bugs and giant crab-like things. Some creatures sing, some can’t be swallowed, some even attack! There’s so much variety on offer and they’re an absolute joy to discover.
You can also name each creature. Mr. E provides a suggestion for you, but you can call them whatever you like. I decided to stick with “Shy Guy” for the Shy Guys; it felt wrong to deter from their long-established nomenclature. Other than that, I went to town with the most creative names I could think of. Yes, I called one Fluffy; what of it?
Oh, by the way, Shy Guys were the only creatures I recognised. So, if reading that name leaves you feeling like there’s recycled content, don’t fret—there are tons of original critters on offer. Plus, the Shy Guys are a cute addition that make perfect sense in Yoshi’s world, having been featured since Yoshi’s first platforming adventure: Yoshi’s Island. They even have a few fun tricks behind their masks, which I wasn’t expecting. It’s all part of that joyful experience.
Along the way is a subplot involving Bowser Jr. and Kamek. It seems Bowser Jr. wants to find a magical bird named the Bewilder Bird. They’ll pop up in a few levels and even feature in a neat boss fight, but they’re mostly relegated to the background.
And that’s fine. It leaves room for exploration. This isn’t meant to be a tough platforming outing akin to Mario or Donkey Kong’s side-scrolling adventures. There’s no time limit; no hearts or death. While some enemies can attack you, most of the time Yoshi just says a cute form of “ouch” and stumbles a little before going about his business. Another enemy does send you back to a specific place within a level because of a hide-and-seek challenge. There’s nothing overly stressful here.
That doesn’t make it easy. There are challenges. The aforementioned hide-and-seek level is one. There, you have to discover four hidden keys in order to unlock a locked door. The keys are easy enough to find, but you also need to avoid the creature lurking nearby. There are also a number of smiley flowers within each level. Some are discovered by completing tasks while others are hidden among the nooks and crannies. It’s very clever, and completionists will have fun trying to discover them all.
Visually, Yoshi has never looked better. The storybook setting suits Yoshi’s world perfectly, with a hand-drawn style of animation that looks wonderful. Every area leaps off the virtual page, with Switch 2-worthy details and resolution to boot. The creatures are all cute and well designed. Everything loads smoothly and quickly, so there are no complaints here.
In fact, there’s little to complain about. The amiibo functionality is a little lacklustre, though at least it’s present. I’d like to see Poochy appear when I scan his amiibo, but instead his fortune is read, granting you tokens. Speaking of which, there are many, many tokens scattered around each level, but the only way I’ve found to spend them is by purchasing hints. It’s handy to have that kind of help around if you get stuck (I did use this feature once or twice), but where are my Yoshi costumes?
The other absence is co-op play. While I had a lot of fun playing solo, other Yoshi adventures have successfully included co-op play. The levels in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book are less linear than usual, with many levels requiring you to travel up, down, left, and right, backtracking a fair bit as you revisit areas with a new idea. It would be particularly tricky to work together in levels in which you fly quickly using a jellyfish backpack or swim furiously inside a giant fish. Plus, books are generally a solo experience. Still, the option would be nice.
So, did I convince you that Yoshi’s latest adventure is worthy of your time? Would it help knowing that there are large frog-like creatures who bellow out different tunes like Twinkle Twinkle when you bounce on their leaf hats in order? How about the walking conch shell that only whistles when it’s on your back? You can even feed the critters apples or chilis for different effects, or run through mud to change things up. Ever wondered what kind of bubbles come out of a frog when it eats a special vegetable that the flowers dig up? I cannot overemphasise the creativity, variety, and cuteness on offer within these mysterious pages. So, go ahead and enjoy this special ride.
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