Review for Yoshi's Crafted World. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 29/03/2019
Nintendo's green dinosaur certainly needs no introduction. The charisma exercised by the greedy and tongue-tied mascot of the great N has enchanted crowds of adoring fans of all ages and inspired creatives of various generations and development studies, spurred to give their all to reinterpret and give life to incarnations at the height of the legend . Because being called Yoshi is really important (if you want to learn more about the history of one of the most popular icons in the gaming world, we have the editorial for you here).
To pick up the legacy of the saga were the guys from Good-Feel, longtime friends of Nintendo who, after experimenting in 2010 with the softness of wool with Kirby and the fabric of the hero, have put their experience to good use giving birth to the incredible Yoshi's Woolly World. Woolly differed from Kirby by offering more elaborate levels and a more rewarding level of challenge, although the real challenge always revolved around collectibles.
A wonderful world of cardboard
Left Wii U behind, the highly acclaimed Nintendo Switch could not make us orphaned by the thrill of driving the harmonious hops of a new generation of Yoshini. New console, new life, Good-Feel sets aside the very soft shapes of Woolly World to point to a more current theme, in line with Nintendo's unique proposal: the Labo.
Cardboard and poor materials, where recycling becomes art and a plastic bottle can turn into a rocket, represent the colorful heart of this new incarnation of Yoshi's adventures. The Crafted World that we will be called to visit is inspired, visionary and evocative: seems to whisper to the soul of the player in an archaic and instinctive language, able to recall the colors, shapes and sounds of childhood, an irresistible charm of which Nintendo is a master.
Once upon a time
The nasty Baby Bowser is a real rascal! Accompanied by the lackey Kamek he combined another of his own: in an attempt to steal the Sun of Desires from the Yoshi, he scattered the 5 gems that adorn it throughout the worlds. Reassembling it will be a pleasure, after all it is said that it can fulfill any desire. This is the narrative incipit of a new journey that will lead us to explore more than 40 colorful worlds through the stages of the world map.
Within each level we will have to collect the laughing suns, often hidden or made inaccessible, in addition to the canonical get to the bottom of the stage. The suns represent the real key currency of Yoshi's Crafted World, as to navigate from one setting to the next we will have to deliver the required number to the friendly Bricoli (DIY experts!) blocking our way. To get only bonuses, in each level we will have to find the 20 hidden red coins, cross the finish line with the full of lives and have collected at least 100 coins.
Shallow depth of field
The core mechanics remain more or less unchanged from the last chapter, with the huge difference in adding depth of field to interact with. After filling up on eggs, perhaps papping us some Shy Guy, we can throw them against the backdrop or against the backdrop of our journey in search of some interactive elements of the scenography, able to reward us by often revealing succulent secrets.
Continuing with the adventure, these scenographic elements of the backdrop will be the protagonists of the missions of "object hunting" that will be assigned to us by the Bricoli and another series of end-game searches that wink at pixel hunting. The canonical levels can also be tackled in reverse in a mode in which we will have to rescue Poochy's puppies within a set time limit to earn some extra laughing sun, using the barking of the dogs as a clue to be able to reveal their hiding places.
Cardboard armor
Forget the pins of power and say hello to a multitude of costumes to wear. The normal coins can be exchanged through the special surprise ball distributors containing very stylish cardboard costumes to wear, so beautiful and varied that they are the envy of the best ateliers of the Mushroom Kingdom. The costumes act as armor, capable of absorbing a variable number of hits depending on the rarity of the object, before ending up in a thousand pieces. Don't worry - your favorite disguise won't be lost forever, but it will be wearable again for free once you complete the level.
The amiibo have naturally been integrated with cosmetic functionality and registering them from the special screen accessible from the pause menu allows you to unlock new armor for our Yoshis. However, during our test only very few statuettes gave us unique armor; most led to the unlocking of the duplicate Labo costume, we are therefore far from the multitude of skins proposed in Woolly World.
A trip for two
The inevitable cooperative mode is back, corroborated by new quadra actions: we will be able to ride or let our ally ride and throw eggs as hard as possible once in the saddle independently, as well as we will see the crash ability enormously enhanced. Eating the Yoshi who plays alongside us and using it as a substitute for a throwing weapon is as always hilarious and we can only recommend with all our heart to live this adventure with a partner: it is more fun with two!
Although Nintendo is a master at making a painstaking layering of its games, where often getting to the end credits is an achievement that can be reached by anyone and the real challenge is to collect everything or a solid end-game, unfortunately. in Yoshi's Crafted World level design moves a few steps back from the previous incarnation. The linearity of the levels winks at the less experienced and even the hiding places of red coins and laughing suns are less ingenious than we expected. The difficulty has been scaled down, especially when we consider that most of the challenges require you to sharpen your eyes and hit elements at the bottom of the scenario rather than platforming skills.
End Game contents
After the main adventure, the end-game contents come to our rescue, offering us various opportunities to deepen our journey, having in mind the needs of the most savvy players. The magnificent bosses will be able to be faced again with specific conditions of engagement and a time limit: the renewed challenge makes these enemies very easy to beat during the main adventure, opponents to be studied carefully to understand the keystone of the clash and be able to meet the requirements of the missions dedicated to them.
A new island will also be unlocked, where a greedy Bricolo will ask for 30 laughing suns from stage to stage to proceed from one level to another. These extra levels present some pretty good mechanical challenges, where collecting all the suns hidden in the stages will require a good familiarity with the controls and each fall will require us to start the level over.. Unfortunately, these ingenious levels are very short and we would have liked some of the mechanics they introduced to be littered here and there throughout the canonical levels.
Yoshi's Crafted World is a daydream, where all the love and attention to detail of Nintendo and Good-Feel is embodied in a journey where the chrysalis of the videogame medium transcends its nature, turning into art. It speaks a universal language that only Nintendo can express in its triumph of emotions, sounds, archetypes and colors. Although the level design moves a few steps back from the more ingenious Woolly World, we are on the peaks of videogame excellence, where few dare and very few succeed.
► Yoshi's Crafted World is an Adventure-Platform game developed and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 29/03/2019
