Yoshi and The Mysterious Book Review
You could easily copy any review for Yoshi’s Wooly World or Yoshi’s Crafted World, paste it and change the title to Yoshi and the Mysterious Book and it would be about 85-90% accurate. These three games in question are all whimsical, overflowing with Nintendo charm, bursting with creativity, and full of plenty of Yoshi series nostalgia, but offer minimal challenge and resistance.
However, the last 10-15% is what really differentiates the experience. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is very untraditional and doesn’t feel like a platformer, it feels more like an explorer. It doesn’t follow the platformer formula as there is an absence of moving from left to right for each level and there is no finish line. The concept of filling out the pages of an encyclopedia is an original and innovative way to interact with this world full of mysterious creatures that offers a childlike sense of wonder and joy as you constantly make new discoveries in an experience that doesn’t feel like anything else Nintendo have ever crafted.
The art style lacks commitment of the previous entries, the soundtrack is inconsistent, the boss fights are clunky and staying true to the last few entires, the difficulty is very low, but Yoshi and The Mysterious Book isn’t trying to challenge your skill level, it’s trying to challenge your sense of exploration. If you're expecting the second coming of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, you’ll have to keep waiting, but if you’re looking for a more casual and whimsical experience like Wooly or Crafted World, you’ll be delighted and surprised.
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YOSHI AND THE MYSTERIOUS BOOK REVIEW
Deep within the walls of Bowser castle is a pile of books stacked to the ceiling and shimmering at the very top is the encyclopedia that catches the eye of Bowser Jr. Once he reaches the summit, Jr curiously flips through the pages and decides to head to a remote island to learn about a rare bird in the book first hand. After losing control Bowser Jr crashes onto the island, but when a bunch of Yoshis discover the crash site, only the book is around and now Mr E as he goes by, needs help filling pages because he is a magical encyclopedia.
You’ll research the flora and fauna and one creature at a time, you’ll help bring life back to these pages. The more you learn and research, the more creatures appear. There are six worlds, which in this case are chapters and inside each biome are numerous plants and animals, with each one being it’s own level. Each biome is original, packed with creativity and unique creatures, most of which have never before been seen in any other Nintendo game. Just like the first explorers or astronomers that labeled the lands and the stars, you’ll be able to name your discoveries or if you’d prefer Mr. E can provide some clever names instead.
All you need to unlock a different biome of the world or chapter of the book is more stars gained from doing research and making discoveries. It’s a nice way that allows you to explore the island in whatever order you prefer, provided you have the stars to unlock it.
Yoshi can eat, throw, flutter, ground pound and the all new tail flick to learn about the world. When you stumble upon a discovery, a sketch satisfyingly pops up in the background. The series staples return with the throwing eggs, question mark clouds, six worlds, familiar faces and plenty of collectibles among many other things.
Yoshi is very responsive to control and despite the fact that you only have a handful of skills, it doesn’t feel repetitive, as Yoshi is constantly learning new ways to explore and interact with the world. One minute you might be floating in bubbles to reach sky high platforms or in another level you might be surfing the seaside waves a snail surfboard or as it’s called in the book, a snurfboard.
Unlike Wooly and Crafted world, Yoshi is less about left to right platforming and more about exploring all over until make the big discovery needed to exit the book. This is what makes special and how it differentiates itself from the previous two entries despite its cozy and casual nature.
Throughout the story, you’ll come across Bowser Jr and his loyal servant Kamek. For the first few times, these encounters are nothing more than interactions, but eventually these meetings become boss fights. Like the rest of the game, these boss fights are low on the difficulty scale, but what they do is provide a nice splash of variety to the exploration levels
CRITICISM
Yoshi seems entrenched into the niche of whimsical and casual that the series has settled into since 2015 with Yoshi’s Wooly World. But a large part of that comes from the art direction. Wooly World was completely constructed of yarn and this would be carried down to the gameplay. You could use yarn string to create platforms to make it from one area to the next or even Kamek would cast spells upon the Yoshi’s that would turn them into bundles of yarn. Crafted World was entirely built around the concept of being made of arts and crafts. Yoshi and The Mysterious Book lacks identity like Wooly or Crafted World that chose a theme and thoroughly embraced it.
In Yoshi and The Mysterious Book, you can select from whichever color Yoshi you want to play with, but there is no purpose except for aesthetic. The Yoshi series does have history with having different characters having different mechanics like in Yoshi’s Island DS, when having Princess Peach on the back of Yoshi would offer something different than having Wario on your back. Providing a reason for using a different Yoshi would have given the game a level of depth it could’ve used.
With Yoshi embracing a more casual identity over the last few games, it has become the perfect game to share with your family as there is no age restriction on the joy that comes from exploration. Both Wooly World and Crafted World offered local multiplayer, which was limited, but gave two people a chance to interact with the world. For some reason, Yoshi and The Mysterious Book completely dropped multiplayer and it’s a huge hole in the experience.
Yoshi and The Mysterious Book features boss fights as you encounter Kamek and Bowser Jr throughout, and while these offer a nice change of pace from the rest of the game, they were fairly clunky as you tried to figure out how to harness a newly learned ability. Yoshi also can’t be damaged at all, which made sense for the rest of the game as you’re just exploring, but during the boss fights, it removed all of the stakes and tension.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND SCORE
Yoshi games have been trying to live up to the expectations set by Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island since 1995 when it released on the Super Nintendo. Over the years, Yoshi games have struggled to find their identity. I want Yoshi’s Island to return as much as the next person, but I’m also happy with the new normal and cozy niche that the series has nestled into for the last three games.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book might appear similar to Wooly World or Crafted World and while it shares many common traits, what makes it unique is that it tried something new and largely succeeds with something that’s unlike any other Nintendo experience.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book captures that childhood sense of discovery. The joy that comes from exploring the world around you is emulated as you fill up Mr E’s pages by experimenting and just being curious. More often than not, what happens is Yoshi and The Mysterious Book leaves a huge smile on your face.
