Review #691: Yoshi's Crafted World

 Can you please get out of my way!?

 I was pretty critical of Kirby's Epic Yarn, it simply wasn't much fun and it wasn't just because it was 'too easy', it simply was far too bland, and it was its art-design that actually pulled the game's weight. Yoshi's Crafted World is Yoshi's second wooly adventure and Nintendo's third take with the formula.

 The game follows the usual team of colored Yoshis as they set out to collect 5 wish-fulfilling gems that got themselves spread throughout the wooly land. You can play as any of the 8 Yoshis, all of them identical in abilities, and even join up with another player. Each level has a certain amount of hidden Flowers that you can collect, but collect them you must, as certain characters will gate you from proceeding into another section of the world map until you've collected a certain amount of Flowers. They are pretty easy to find, so you'll probably find yourself with flowers to spare, although the secret post-game levels require a much higher amount of them. The game has a ton of replayability, if you don't mind replaying levels, since after you finish most stages you can play them again backwards while trying to find all the missing Poochies. A few NPCs will also ask you to replay levels and search for specific items. As for me, I was content with just playing through the game straight and not bothering with these side activities. You can also collect coins on each stage, which you can then use on various gacha machines spread throughout  the game to collect various outfits that serve as extra hit points. Costumes are fairly uninspired, there are a lot of differently colored boxes and handcrafted cars or boats. And, if you ask me, they look kinda silly.

 Just like Kirby's Epic Yarn, the entire game looks adorable. Everything looks as if it was made with various materials, just as cardboard, wool or even egg-carton. The Yoshi's themselves are made out of wool, and whenever a boss is introduced, you get a pretty neat stop-motion like cutscene as it gets assembled. The game is truly a sight to behold. As with most of Nintendo's cutest looking games, its also quite easy and very hard to lose, and you can even play in a 'super' mode that makes Yoshi invincible and grants him wings and a fiery breath.

 Gameplay is fairly standard for a Yoshi game, which is actually a plus. One of my main gripes with Kirby's Epic Yarn was how little it resembled a Kirby game. But Yoshi's Crafted World is a Yoshi game with wooly aesthetics. You get three buttons: Jump, Tongue and Shoot. Jump is pretty self explanatory, but you can press Jump again to make Yoshi flutter his legs and try to keep his altitude. As a matter of fact, it's quite easy to maintain your altitude by timing your flutters and just avoid a lot of obstacles. The tongue button lets you eat your enemies and turn them into eggs, although some enemies can't be eaten and instead can be shot out. Lastly, shooting eggs is pretty simple, since you can just aim with the analogue stick towards where you want it to go. Eggs can be used to collect coins and flowers from afar, or just to defeat enemies. You'll also have to keep your eyes peeled, since there are plenty of hidden coins and even collectibles on the foreground and background. The game is usually smart enough to aim towards the background/foregrounds when you move the reticule next to an interactive object. It's pretty simple, but it works well.

 Two-player mode has its ups and downs. While two Yoshi's on-screen at the same time doesn't seem like it would get cramped, it can get downright chaotic. Yoshi's collide with each other, so you might get in the other's way. You may try to eat something or someone, but instead hit your ally Yoshi, which you can then use as a projectile, useful, at the cost of depriving him from his eggs! Way too many times me and my Sister would accidentally cost the other one his or her eggs. There's a brief amount of time to collect them from the floor, but more often than not you'll forget that you just lost your eggs. When jumping you might also bump into the other player and get on his back, which can mess up your jumps. Plus, the Yoshi on the bottom gets to control movement, while the other one shoots, which is rather boring. On the plus side, carried Yoshis get infinite eggs. I would've loved the option to turn off most of this features, particularly the carrying one.

 I'm not gonna lie, most of the fun with Yoshi's Crafted World comes from its artistic beauty. As far as gameplay goes, while it has a strong foundation, its pretty basic and the challenges are very simple. There are a few interesting change of paces every now and then, such as a race in which you must switch lanes with a car to avoid shadows, but nothing quite as memorable.as its artstyle. That said, it can be a fun time even in multiplayer once you learn to accept its shortcomings.
 6.5 out of 10