In today’s Nintendo Direct, Nintendo revealed that a playable Yoshi’s Crafted World demo is available to download. This demo included the first level of the game so that players can get a feel for it. We played through the entirety of this demo, scouring for anything hidden and getting a full sense of the game and if you don’t have time to play it for yourself (or you want to know what we thought), then you’re in the right place!

First off, the game is absolutely beautiful! We’ve been able to see this from the trailers that have come out before, but this cannot be emphasised enough. The art direction is fantastic, with amazing attention to detail with its craft aesthetics. The use of the foreground and background makes the world pop in ways that haven’t been done in a 2D platformer before, using some nice focus effects to emphasise the position of Yoshi and the environments around him. In addition to being able to throw eggs as sideways, you can now throw them into the foreground/background, allowing for some new and innovative gameplay. The first level introduces you to this mechanic slowly, letting you throw an egg at a present in order to open it and collect the prize inside. This is also a way to uncover hidden secrets, which is essential if you plan on 100%ing this game.

Mar 29, 2019  yoshi's crafted world Jump into a new Yoshi adventure in a world made of everyday objects—like boxes and paper cups! As Yoshi, you’ll leap up high, gulp down enemies, and set out on a. Woolly World was a good yet not great game to me. It was enjoyable but so slow. This looks to have a similar flow, but I need more information. Honestly, I hope this is the Yoshi game that tries to be its own, new thing instead of either poorly mimicking Yoshi's Island, or repeating.

The gameplay is super easy, however that’s to be expected from the first level. That being said, recent Yoshi games are notorious for being super easy (especially if you turn on Mellow Mode which gives Yoshi wings), however the challenge is there for those who search for it. Finding every collectible and uncovering every nook and cranny of Yoshi’s Crafted World is where the challenge really is, which is a perfect way to adjust the game’s difficulty organically.

Just like in any Yoshi game, you can collect five Flowers, 20 Red Coins and more hearts to fill up your health meter that circles Yoshi. But what’s new about Yoshi’s Crafted World is that once you finish a level, you can play it again backwards, allowing you to see the other side of the stage. This part just shows the love and care that has gone into this game, going that extra mile to turn this game from a flat 2D platformer that has been done to death into a 3D gem.

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When the stage is flipped, your task is to find the three Poochies that have run away and are hiding within the level. You are also being timed, so you want to do this as fast as you can. Once I completed both sides of the level, an NPC in the overworld asked me to collect him five cows in the level for souvenirs. This then let me re-enter the level for the third time and take down the cows in the background with Yoshi’s eggs, something I never thought to do when playing through it initially.

The Yoshi’s Crafted World demo shows that this game has some incredible potential, breathing new life into a series that was growing stale. Yoshi’s Woolly World on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS made good attempts at mixing up the formula a little bit, but it always felt like an aesthetic change rather than a twist to the gameplay.

The Yoshi’s Crafted World demo is available to download right now and the full retail release is on March 29.

What are your thoughts on the demo? Will you be picking up Yoshi’s Crafted World? Let us know in the Comments section below.

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March is almost upon us, and that means the first wave of Nintendo’s 2019 releases is on its way. To help build hype for Yoshi’s latest foray into 2D platforming, the ‘Big N’ gave us a little taste by dropping a demo. Based on this snippet of gameplay, is Yoshi’s Crafted World looking to be a crisp fold, or a wet tissue?

Straight out the gate you will immediatly notice the beautiful visuals. Let me settle with you guys, I play ASCII games, so graphics are not really important to me. But butter my crumpets, is this a treat for the eyes. The world is made up of selotaped pieces of paper, cardboard and felt. It’s like looking at a 7 year olds art project – and it’s as glorious as it is adorable. Enemies are cute enough to squeeze and I think most people would want a Poochie in their lives if they had the chance. Even by Nintendo’s colourful standards, Yoshi towers above its contemporaries.

Backing the beautiful world is quite possibly one of the most relaxing, and charming musical scores in recent memory. You could overlay the music over Resident Evil and let me tell you – you’d be bopping along, filled with boundless jubilation. Heck, even the sound effects sound great. From Yoshi’s fluttering jump, or his eggs concussing a shy guy – it all just fits.

But all of this would be moot if the gameplay was naff. Luckily for us Switch owners, it is far from being naff. Yoshi’s Crafted World is 2D platformer where you guide your adorable green dinosaur from point A to point B picking up collectibles, finding secrets, solving puzzles and bringing untold destruction upon your foes.

Platforming in the demo is a very simple affair. Yoshi has a very forgiving double jump that allows you to leap around platforms with ease. There are no instant death pits, no blind leaps and honestly – no stress. From the trailers it is clear that things do ramp up, but I don’t expect things to necessarily get difficult.

The same goes for combat. Enemies are either devoured and instantly digested and turned into eggs, or those eggs are used to kill enemies too large for consumption. Yoshi feels almost unstoppable, in a carefree sort of way. The combat looks to ramp up with the inclusion of bosses and different enemies, but I think its safe to say combat will remain fairly simple.

Finally the exploration and puzzles. Again, these are fairly simple. You move through the levels, interact with the background and foreground to uncover collectibles. It took around 3 tries to 100% the 2 levels on offer. For completionists, this is where the challenge will likely emanate from.

Yoshi's Crafted World Impressions 2017

Carefree, stressfree and fun. These are 3 words that encapsulate Yoshi’s Crafted World in its entirity. For beginners to the genre – they will be able to play the demo (and im confident they could play the full game) and just have fun. As a grizzled veteran I found the slow pace and the charming atmosphere refreshing and I definitely want to see more of what the game has to offer.

Yoshi's Crafted World Impressions Inc

Overall, I feel like Yoshi’s Crafted World is shaping up to be a fantastic title. Whilst it is undeniably simple and is unlikely to get Super Meat Boy levels of difficult, this is a game that captivated me from the get go. To my great surprise, this has become one of my most anticipated games of the year. Definitely keep an eye on this one.