As the weather warms up for spring and things get a bit more colorful outside, Yoshi's Crafted World is also brightening up the Nintendo Switch. If you have loved past Yoshi games such as Yoshi's Woolly World or even older titles such as Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Crafted World will feel extremely familiar while also finding ways to iterate on what Yoshi can do. Sporting a cute, soft, and craft-item-centered level design, there's a lot to love about the aesthetics of the game - and its Mellow Mode, co-op, and gentle mechanics make it a great game to play with a child or friend.

Apr 05, 2019  Yoshi's Crafted World utilizes a tried and tested platformer formula that still works wonders – especially when it's executed this well. You play as your choice of colored Yoshi and saunter. I think I fell in love with Yoshi’s Crafted World when I discovered the costumes. You don’t know cute until you’ve seen Yoshi running around the place in a little shonky cardboard cow outfit.

Whether you're new to Yoshi games or not, here's a quick primer on everything you'll need to get started in Yoshi's Crafted World:

Moving as Yoshi

If you've ever played any Yoshi game before, you'll already be familiar with how Yoshi controls. But even if you're new to the game, he's not too difficult to figure out. Yoshi can move left and right on a 2D plane, but he can also move forward and back using the joystick in specific areas where the game allows you to move up and down. Keep an eye out for places where the path beneath your feet seems to branch forward and back - that usually means you can move in a 3D space!

Yoshi can jump, and he can also flutter to hover in the air and gain a touch more height before he descends. Press A to jump once, then press and hold again in the air to flutter. You'll want to get good at the flutter jump quickly, as it's one of Yoshi's most-used abilities.

Using the B button, Yoshi can stick out his tongue and eat things such as apples, enemies, and other bits scattered around. Some enemies he will hold in his mouth until you spit them out again by pressing the B button - this applies to creatures like Koopa Troopas. Others, such as Shy Guys, will automatically turn into eggs that follow behind Yoshi and can be thrown around. Enemies holding items like spears and some large enemies cannot be eaten by Yoshi.

With Y, Yoshi will throw one of the eggs following behind him. You can use the right stick to aim where you throw it, then press Y again to fire. Yoshi will automatically target items above or below the current plane he's standing on if you have the cursor over them, so don't worry about trying to aim in 3D space. You'll be using this ability often.

Finally, Yoshi can ground pound by jumping in the air and tapping ZL. This can be used to break through soft or crumbly ground, or pound down pillars.

Should you use Mellow Mode?

At the start of the game, you'll be offered the option to play in something called Mellow Mode. Mellow Mode makes the game considerably easier in a number of ways, for players who are struggling, younger, or just want a breezier experience. You can swamp between the two modes at any time.

Here are the changes that are made when you swap to Mellow Mode:

• Yoshi has wings, allowing him to infinitely flutter jump
• Enemies do less damage to Yoshi
• The controller will vibrate and an indicator will flash when a Smiley Flower is nearby
• All invisible ? clouds will be visible
• Eaten enemies give two eggs instead of one

There is no penalty for playing in Mellow Mode, so use it through the whole game if you like, or turn it on to find that one elusive Smiley Flower or get past a particularly tricky challenge. It's up to you!

Hunting for secrets

As with other Yoshi games, Yoshi's Crafted World is stuffed full of secrets, hidden items, and hidden areas. Every level has a number of collectibles it will challenge you to obtain, and while you certainly don't need them all to finish the game, some players may want to try to find them all!

• Smiley Flowers - Every level has a set number of Smiley Flowers you can find scattered throughout it. These are usually hidden just out of sight, either in alcoves, high up areas, or behind scenery. You'll need to carefully examine every corner of a level to find them all. You'll need to collect a set number of Smiley Flowers in each area to proceed to the next, though that number is fairly generous.
• Coins - Coins are plentiful, and are used to spend on costumes from the gacha machines at the end of each area. You also get a Smiley Flower for collecting 100 coins in a given level, which is usually the easiest flower to get. Look for more coins by throwing eggs at set pieces, exploring seemingly empty areas for ? clouds that might hide coins, and knocking out enemies in the background.
• Red Coins - Red Coins are special coins that take a bit more effort to find, and are often part of groups behind ? clouds or in the background. There are 20 in each level, and collecting them all will net you another Smiley Flower.
• Hearts - Each level also has a handful of ? clouds that will give Yoshi more health hearts. Collecting 20 of these hidden hearts in a level will give Yoshi another Smiley Flower. These are usually fairly easy to find and will usually be on your main path somewhere, though they may be invisible until you walk over them.
• Poochy Pups - After beating a level, you'll get the option to play the level again backwards. All other collectibles will be gone, but three Poochy Pups will be hidden throughout. Collect all three pups and return to the start (now the end) of the level to receive a Smiley Flower for each, plus a bonus flower if you manage to find them within the time limit. Poochy Pups will get harder to find the further into the game you get, but you always know one is nearby when you hear it barking!

Do you need to collect every Smiley Flower?

You don't! Smiley Flowers are used to move into the next area, but you'll only need a few from each level to proceed. Try to be diligent about collecting things as you go, but if you miss a few don't sweat it. You can always turn on Mellow Mode for assistance in finding collectibles if you find yourself finishing areas with too few Smiley Flowers to move forward.

How do the costume gachas work?

Each area of Yoshi's Crafted World has a costume gachapon machine where you can spend a set amount of coins to receive new costumes for Yoshi. These gachas will start by costing 100 coins, but the price will increase the further into the game you get (though sometimes you'll get a nice freebie!).

Each gacha has a set of unique costumes you can obtain. You will never obtain duplicates, and when you receive all the costumes from a particular machine, it will close so you won't spend coins on it anymore. Your goal may be to eventually collect every costume.

Costumes can be equipped to Yoshi to protect him from damage, with rarer costumes being able to survive more hits. The costume will replenish at the start of a new level, and you will never permanently lose the costume - if it falls apart in a level, you can re-equip it when the level is over.

Working with Poochy

Some levels partner you with your friend Poochy to overcome obstacles Yoshi could not on his own. Poochy can be a bit tricky to control, but is extremely useful as he will knock over and defeat most enemies, dig through soft ground, as well as fetch collectibles and bring them back to you.

When you are not riding Poochy, he will take the shortest path he can find to get to where you are. If he cannot get to you, he will either wait or try to move closer along a parallel plane to you (so if you're in the foreground and he's in the background, he'll move with you). Poochy can jump very high over obstacles, and he will also grab any collectibles he runs over on his way to you and bring them back. This is often used to collect Smiley Flowers that are out of Yoshi's reach.

When riding Poochy, he will move in the direction you are facing on his back, automatically defeat enemies he runs into, and keep going until he hits a wall he can't jump over. You can jump from his back to collect coins, but if you land off his back he'll stop and return to you so you can get back on. It can be a bit tricky to stay on his back while jumping or turning, so try to use small controller movements to stay on board.

Any questions?

Struggling with something in Yoshi's Crafted World? Let me know in the comments and I'll try to help!

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The sphere of video games aimed at children has become increasingly cluttered with overpriced plastic toys, flashy microtransaction emotes vying for adolescent attention, and mind-numbingly repetitive slogs through copy-and-paste LEGO games. Paradoxically, Yoshi's Crafted World feels fresh by being something more traditional: a 2.5D platformer with an emphasis on collecting all its hidden goodies. It's cutesy, creative, stuffed with content, and full of optional challenges to entertain and delight platforming perfectionists and first-timers alike.

Yoshi's Crafted World utilizes a tried and tested platformer formula that still works wonders – especially when it's executed this well. You play as your choice of colored Yoshi and saunter through the sizable number of levels while collecting the hidden Smiley Flowers scattered throughout each one. The mechanics here are simple: you can jump, briefly flutter at the end of your leaps, swallow enemies to make eggs to toss, and ground pound into the floor. The modest mechanics allow you to quickly grasp the basics and get on to the fun part: collecting stuff.

Collectibles are the primary focus in this Yoshi installment, and crossing each one off your list is met with an inherent sense of satisfaction thanks to how well each one is hidden and how effectively everything is tracked. Your close attention and scrutiny is required to find concealed areas and to pick out things in the background that could use an egg hurled their way. When you're bopped out to the overworld map between stages, the excellent collectible menu lets you easily see what you've missed in each level, and you can teleport directly there with the press of a button, so backtracking is a breeze. You only need a small number of the Smiley Flowers to progress onward, but the pull to collect them all is so strong that you'll likely never find yourself lacking the number needed.

Attempting to collect everything in Yoshi's Crafted World is made more enticing thanks to how intelligently designed its side-scrolling levels are. Level geometry is carefully choreographed to draw your attention to secret spots, and new mechanics are gradually introduced before things begin to ramp up. Each stage is filled with unique enemies, level contraptions, and vehicles (including an awesome Yoshi Mech); but you're always allowed time for experimentation before the challenge begins kicking in. The first few areas are a bit dull since they don't have much going on, but novel new mechanics, interesting ideas, and fresh level gimmicks quickly start seeping in to keep the meaty amount of content here enjoyable. High-score sections are peppered throughout to provide a welcome change of pace, and almost every stage has a Poochy Pup variant that has you scouring familiar locations for three yelping baby canines. There's plenty to do in Yoshi's Crafted World, and nearly all of it is enjoyable to partake in.

Being a successor to the stylistically unique Yoshi's Woolly World, this arts & crafts inspired installment is stylish, but it doesn't deliver on all the promise inherent in its premise. The general look of everything isn't all that striking – a fuzzy-looking Yoshi running through cardboard cut-outs and colorful construction paper gives everything a notably less-polished feel. Some of the game's worlds have cool themes like a ninja dojo that requires you to navigate via silhouettes or a an excellent pirate stage that has you blowing up ships full of Shy Guys, but the cooler ideas are rarely influenced by the crafty aesthetic. There's also some stunning stop-motion effects, but they're severely underutilized. Despite having “Crafted” in the title, this Yoshi sequel feels more like the Yoshi of old than it does an interesting twist or advancement of an established formula. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's hard not to feel let down when comparing this to its far more fetching predecessor.

One thing Yoshi's Crafted World does get right when compared to its precursor is its difficulty. Rolling credits isn't much of a challenge, but getting every Smiley Flower is. A keen eye and quick reflexes are required to find all the goodies, and there's a bonus flower in each stage for finishing with full health. You can ratchet the difficulty down a bit by using costumes that'll let you take a few hits before your health bar is exposed, and there's an easier mode that decreases the damage you take and gives your Yoshi a pair of wings to make platforming even easier. Thankfully, the bits that make the game easier are entirely optional, and there are some legitimately tough post-game stages that make for great tests of platforming prowess.

Despite striking the right balance in terms of difficulty, there are a few nagging issues with targeting here that cause unneeded frustration. You'll have to toss eggs at countless targets to reveal collectibles, and – credit where it's due – the egg-tossing controls here are better than they have been in any Yoshi game to date. There aren't any motion control options here – everything is controlled with traditional buttons and sticks, and there are next to no issues on that front. You're able to freely move your targeting cursor around the screen to pick your target, but trying to hit something that isn't on the same plane as you can be infuriating. Your crosshairs must be positioned directly over any potential target if it's in the background or foreground. To make matters worse, you might need to quickly throw an egg in front of you to dispatch an enemy only to have your cursor drift over something in the background, rendering your throw ineffective and wasting an egg. There had to be a better way to handle such a system, and it really stands out in a game that's otherwise frictionless.

Multiplayer makes a return, and it's full of ups and downs. With a couple exceptions, every level can be played alongside a friend that has full control over their own dinosaur pal, allowing you to take on the armies of Shy Guys and the boisterous boss battles together. The inclusion of couch co-op is extremely welcome, especially at a time in which such a thing is becoming increasingly rare, but the on-screen chaos when a second player joins the fray is often too much. You can accidentally swallow the other player which causes their egg supply to vanish; if your companion jumps on your back, you're no longer able to toss any eggs yourself; and you both need to stay on screen, or else one of you will be arbitrarily forced to respawn. Combine that with all the chaos that'll ensue when you're both fighting over enemies to swallow for more egg ammunition, and it's often a recipe for disaster. There's still fun to be had with the co-op, and there were some smart design decisions made to try and accommodate two simultaneous players, but it's clear that it's not the way Yoshi's Crafted World was meant to be played.

There can be a lot happening on screen at any one time, especially when you add a friend into the mix, but performance here is rock-solid. Gameplay is silky smooth, and hitches only occur in a couple of the busy boss battles. The overworld map and cutscenes run at half the framerate which is admittedly jarring, but all the gameplay sections are kept smooth and responsive regardless of whether you're playing portably or docked.

As a sequel to Yoshi's Woolly World, it's hard not to be disappointed by this entry's underwhelming aesthetics. However, as a Yoshi game, this is as good as it's ever been for Nintendo's endearing green dino. It's dangerously easy to find yourself committed to this game's many collectibles. Clever level design, an abundance of variety, and heaps of content make Yoshi's Crafted World well worth its full retail price if you're not picking it up solely for the co-op.

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