Once Upon a Time in Yoshi’s Island - A Yoshi’s Crafted World review

De-stress with Yoshi’s Crafted World – one of the cutest games there is!

In Yoshi’s Crafted World you control one of the eponymous friendly dinosaurs, Yoshi. The main goal is to retrieve the jewels of a precious artifact, which went missing when the game’s antagonists, Baby Bowser and the wizard Kamek, tried to steal them.

Yoshi is aiming eggs at a cloud in a pink and purple colored level.

Yoshi shooting an egg at a cloud, which will trigger a timed event.

During Yoshi’s travels the player goes through a beautiful world made with arts and crafts. The designs are meticulous, and the world looks like it is really made of paper figures, cardboard plastic cups, straws, buttons and so on. The music is relaxing and soothing but did get stuck in my head after a while. Every detail is well thought of and it looks great. I think I just love the visual side of the game the most!

It is essentially a sideways platformer with 3D characters and in some parts of the level the player can move also in the third dimension. The background of the game has some interactive elements such as enemies or other targets that can be shot with Yoshi’s eggs. The eggs are an important part of the gameplay mechanics. Eggs can be received by eating enemies or from egg-dispensing-flowers. The eggs are used as a projectile weapon by aiming and shooting them at enemies, or items such as coins.

Yoshi can also collect golden coins, red coins and smiley flowers. To successfully complete the level the player needs to collect a certain amount of each item to receive bonus smiley flowers, which are needed to move to new areas by giving them to a springy robot. Coins can be exchanged at a capsule surprise vending machine for costumes Yoshi can wear for fun and a little bit of protection. Costumes can also be received from Amiibos, which are Nintendo’s interactive figurines. Only Yoshi and Mario related Amiibos give special costumes, others give a generic one.

Yoshi and the Poochy Pups

On the road Yoshi meets the Poochy family, an adorable round dog with three pups. After clearing a level, the pups are let loose on the level and the level can be replayed as a hide-and-seek game. To lessen repetitiveness the levels are flipped and reversed. I think this was a fun way to lengthen the game!

The game offers two modes of play: classic and mellow. The latter is the easier of the two and it gives Yoshi a pair of wings so it can kind of fly, which is very helpful in areas that have pitfalls. I find this is an over-all easy game and the challenge is more in trying to get all the collectibles. Although, some of the later levels are harder, there’s never really worry for a game over. The game also supports multiplayer for two, making it an adventure for two Yoshis. Thus, friends or family members can play it together.

Yoshi is asked to give some Smiley Flowers to progress in the game.

To progress Yoshi must share some Smiley Flowers.

The only thing I think Yoshi’s Crafted World is missing is crafting your own world for Yoshi. I think a level editor would suit the game quite well. But overall the design is spot on. With absolutely adorable characters and bright colors, it’s a great game for de-stressing.

Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date: 29.03.2019
Genres: Platformer, adventure, children’s game
PEGI: 3

Screenshots via MobyGames: http://www.mobygames.com
and Nintendo: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/yoshis-crafted-world-switch/

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#Adventure #platformer #Nintendo