Yoshi’s Crafted World is the sequel to the Wii U hit, Yoshi’s Wooly World. It’s another lighthearted and creative adventure, where ease of play and joyous attitude are a high priority. You play as one of the many colored Yoshi dinosaurs, attempting to reclaim five stolen gems from the Sundream Stone. Attempting to outwit the villainous Baby Bowser and the wizard Kamek, the Yoshis must travel through a slew of bright and inventive worlds. Let’s find out if this cute and cuddly sequel provides enough joy and entertainment to make it worth your purchase.
Jump, Eat, Spit, Throw
Your adventure through Yoshi’s Crafted World is one with tons of personality and charm, and it’s highly accessible to players of all skill levels. This is mainly due to the very simple controls and mechanics, which haven’t changed much since the days of the Super Nintendo. Your main goal in each stage is to reach the end, collecting a few important items along the way. As Yoshi, you can hop and hover in mid-air, eat enemies with your long tongue, and then throw the eggs that result from eating said enemies. Each action is confined to a single button, resulting in a game that can be played with nearly every Switch controller available. I had fun playing with the GameCube Switch controller for an added boost of nostalgia.
Ontop of the simple control scheme, Yoshi’s Crafted World is an incredibly forgiving game. Most stages are low in difficulty, thanks to generous checkpoints and an infinite amount of lives. Things get even easier when you add in a cooperative player, who can help you across tough gaps and rescue you from pitfalls. Overall, the gameplay in Yoshi’s Crafted World is centered around lighthearted fun. Most of the challenge comes from attempting to collect the various hidden sunflowers and red coins in each level, and obtaining the coveted 100% completion. Even then, only a few collectibles are truly tough to find, so even the most casual of fans can revel in fully completing most stages.
Arts and Crafts
Yoshi’s Crafted World is very much true to its name, presenting players with levels that have an interesting look and style to them. Each level is a sort of diorama, constructed from various crafting tools and supplies. Yoshi can often interact with the environment as well, tearing through construction paper and knocking down decorative cut-outs with thrown eggs. While the “crafted” elements is mainly a visual one, it creates a great vibe and a unique look for the game. Like Yoshi’s Wooly World, the visual makeup of Crafted World‘s stages are consistently interesting and unique.
Yoshi’s Crafted World also excels by offering a great variety of visual landscapes and worlds to explore. Like any great Nintendo game, there’s a forest-themed world, a water-themed world, and so on. Additionally, the arts and crafts element is used to great effect here, making even the most cliche world designs feel fresh and inventive. The themed worlds continue to grow in variety as you progress, yielding carnivals, mine-carts, and more.
Decorative Dino
As you hop your way through the many levels of Crafted World, you’ll gain tons of coins. Luckily, coins aren’t just for hoarding, as they can be used to unlock new in-game costumes. In each world you can stop by a unique goshapon machine, spending a few coins to earn a random costume. These are often goofy disguises like cows, cupcakes, and clown fish. Each costume is a cute approximation that matches the overall arts and crafts aesthetic, adding a touch of personality and humor into the mix.
Costumes are good for more than just decoration though, as they also offer a few hits of protection during gameplay. The various unlockable costumes act like a set of armor, so equipping one gives you an even greater advantage. The rarer the costume is, the more damage it can take, making the gold-rated costumes even more alluring. There are over 150 unique costumes to unlock, so there’s always a new outfit to equip.
There and Back Again
Apart from trying to find the hidden sunflowers and coins, Yoshi’s Crafted World gives you plenty of reasons to replay its stages. The simplistic gameplay allows for the level design to shine, and that is further shown through unlockable level variations. Levels in Yoshi’s Crafted World are designed for replayability, and continuous variety keeps the experience fresh.
After you complete a level for the first time, you’re free to return at your own leisure. However, the game entices you back to previous levels by offering new objectives and rewards. Sometimes these objectives are as simple as knocking down a few select targets with your eggs. Other times, they require you to play the level backwards, hunting for cute poochie puppies along the way. The game cleverly uses the dual-sided levels to its advantage, as the “flip side” versions of levels feel like brand new experiences. Like any great Nintendo platformer, Yoshi’s Crafted World also contains some hidden surprises once you’ve finished the main game as well.
The Bottom Line on Yoshi’s Crafted World
While Yoshi’s Crafted World might not provide the kind of challenging platforming that some Nintendo fans are hoping for, it does give players a leisurely stroll through a wildly imaginative and colorful world. The cooperative play and low difficulty makes this an excellent game for parents with young gaming children, or those looking to share a lighthearted adventure with their less-experience gaming pals. There’s tons of content to keep you coming back, and with over 150 unique costumes, you wont run out of rewards very quick.
Besides some underwhelming music and a few odd difficulty spikes, Yoshi’s Crafted World is the ideal game for a nice afternoon of cute fun. Between the level variations, unlockable content, and various collectibles, there’s more than enough hours of Yoshi entertainment to dig into. When all is said and done, Yoshi’s Crafted World is a great sequel to Wooly World, expanding upon its imaginative ideas with even more creativity. It’s a visual treat and a pleasant gameplay experience that rises above the pack, as nearly every great Nintendo exclusive does.
Rating: 8/10