Apr 01, 2019  Yoshi's Crafted World is out now on the Nintendo Switch, and it's another great example of a Nintendo platformer featuring a broad range of challenging and easy content.Depending on your skill and interest level, you can easily breeze through the game without a care in the world, or you can challenge yourself to collect every single hidden item, unlock the hidden levels, and beat every boss.

Every square inch of Yoshi’s Crafted World is oozing with cardboard charm. The game’s unique art supply closet aesthetic creates a world so vibrant and so endearing that you can’t help but to appreciate just how much love was put into the making of it. Yoshi’s latest solo adventure isn’t one of tremendous challenge, but instead an explorative chill-sesh across some of my favorite platforming levels in a long time, and the cuteness is as infectious as any Nintendo game in recent memory.

The low-stress nature of Yoshi’s Crafted World makes for an accessible adventure with few roadblocks, and I mean that in a positive note. Difficulty only arises in when it comes to collecting. Each diorama-like environment consists of three main collectibles - smiley flowers, coins, and poochy pups. Finding items early on is a breeze, but in the latter half, retracing your steps becomes a mood-killer. Unlocking the next section of the world map requires smiley flowers as payment, and despite the abundance you collected in the initial areas, your account quickly depletes as greedy gatekeepers demand more. Just as my excitement of unlocking the final boss started to rise, I was met with “sorry Yosh, I need 30 flowers.” Proper labeling of each areas' required amount would be a wise addition in a patch.

The game’s platforming and mild-combat elements are par for the course with past Yoshi entries. The lovable dinosaur-like creature swallows enemies, throws eggs at objects, ground pounds, and ends his jumps with a flutter kick and adorable grunting sound. Controlling Yoshi isn’t quite as precise as controlling Mario in the recent Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, but he doesn’t come close to feeling floaty when compared to other 2D games.

RELATED: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe review

What surprised me about Yoshi’s Crafted World is the simple, yet engaging plot. When familiar foes Baby Bowser and Kamek attempt to steal the mystical “Sundream Stone” from Yoshi’s Island, resulting in five gems being scattered across the world, Yoshi must embark on a Thanos-like quest to collect them all (minus the wiping out half the population part). I never expect platformers to have much of an attention-grabbing story, but I was all in from start to finish, cliches and all.

Outside of the main game are a ton of customizable options to mess around with. Nintendo found a way to make Yoshi even cuter by giving him costumes that update both his defenses and his look. Dressing the little guy up in coffee creamer packets, a pirate ship, or even a Bullet Bill provides tons of laughs. I cannot confirm nor deny spending at least an hour just looking at him in every clothing set. It’s simple side features like this only enhance my overall feelings on this wonderful little package.

Yoshi’s Crafted World never outstays its welcome. Levels are short, objectives are simple, and the positivity it exudes is undeniable. Adding Yoshi’s Crafted World to your Switch bookshelf is highly recommended. This is Nintendo at the peak of its creative powers and another reminder what the finished product can be when a little bit of love is put into a video game.

Review code provided by publisher

For more game reviews follow Joey Greaber on Twitter

Great visuals, easy gameplay

Game Info

Game Name:Yoshi’s Crafted World

Developer(s): Good-Feel

Publisher(s): Nintendo

Platform(s): Switch

Genre(s): Action/Adventure/Platformer

Yoshi's Crafted World Kamek Challenge 2017

Release Date(s): March 29, 2019

ESRB Rating: E

The Sundream Stone shines over Yoshi’s Island and makes the land warm and bright. When Baby Bowser learns that the Sundream Stone has the potential to fulfill the owner’s wildest dreams, he and Kamek set out to steal it…but instead send the gems scattering across the island. It is up to Yoshi and his brothers to retrieve the gems and restore the Sundream Stone before it is too late.

Developed by Good-Feel and published by Nintendo, Yoshi’s Crafted World is a side-scrolling platformer. Following Yoshi’s Woolly World in 2015, the game was released for the Nintendo Switch and received positive reviews.

Yoshi's Crafted World Kamek Challenge 1

The Yoshi games are always a bit iffy for me. I like some of their creativity, but in general, the challenge level of the games isn’t that hard. Unlike a story driven game, you are essentially playing it to play it…and occasionally, the game does things to be real creative, but it doesn’t necessarily feel compelling.

Burt the Ball, we’re coming for you!

The game is typical Mario filtered through Yoshi wish Yoshi trying to collect lost gems on Yoshi Island’s and Baby Bowser and Kamek dogging them the entire way. The Yoshi games are slick and intuitive, but they are also not to the level of difficulty of New Super Mario or Donkey Kong games. I wish that between Yoshi-Kirby-Mario-Donkey Kong that Nintendo would find a nice happy medium side scroller that doesn’t bore nor makes you want to pull you hair out.

The controls for the game are pretty consistent with other Yoshi games and are easy to master. With the “hover jump”, it is much easy to save yourself and accuracy isn’t a priority. The game varies control gameplay by having levels where Yoshi’s movements control cars, fly planes, or track levels where the goal is to get a certain number of points in essentially a shooting fest. There is variety in the controls, but I wish that the “special levels” were more regular and less one-offs…fortunately, there isn’t a ton of the irritating Poochy.

Wow…Baby Bowser got big…what a shock! (said no one)

What Yoshi succeeds in creativity. Woolly World crafted Yoshi out of yarn and played with the idea of crafting and “homemade Yoshi”. This entry steps up the craft approach and creates worlds in a pop-up book fashion. The surroundings are made of man-made material (kind of like the miniature world of Pikmin) and these are often used creatively like the taped boxes of Cheery Valley’s “Open, Shut!” or the mobiles of Outer Orbit’s “Ride the Stars”.

Yoshi's Crafted World Kamek Challenge Youtube

Yoshi’s Crafted World is long and there is a lot of replay to it (each level has a number of flowers to collect in multiple run-throughs with “find” missions). In that sense, the game is a great purchase. It will keep you busy but taking breaks in playing it will be mandatory since the Crafted World sometimes feels a bit repetitive…but always manages to do with style.

Related Links: