Yoshi's Crafted World (Nintendo Switch) Review

Yoshi games have generally catered to the younger audience, and that couldn't be more clear as day than with Yoshi's Crafted World. It could be said that this title even strays being too child friendly to a fault. Even ignoring the optional "Mellow Mode," which grants Yoshi wings for infinite flutter kicking in the air, this is a pretty simple and easy game throughout most of its numerous levels, of which there are plenty to tackle across multiple lands. It's going to be the perfect 2D platformer for kids, but older gamers should definitely look elsewhere if seeking challenging gameplay.

Whilst not as beautiful and appealing as the yarn-like art style of Woolly World, the arts and crafts work used as the baseline for Crafted World's visuals are nothing short of brilliant and creative. Just about everything is a cardboard cut-out, with clouds hanging up in the air by string, and cans and scraps used to build trains and other enemies. The imagination of the designers clearly ran wild, and it makes for a lovely looking adventure that brings a smile to the face when seeing how some levels and creatures have been put together. Inversely, the soundtrack is awfully bad, repeating the same tracks over and over, with just a few variations on the main theme used throughout the game. A big shame off the back of Woolly World's great OST, so the change of composer was for the worse here.

This is your standard Yoshi adventure. Kamek and Baby Bowser have stolen Dream Gems from the Yoshis, and it's up to the dino crew to get them back. Commence baddie swallowing, egg throwing, and flutter kicking across a whole host of stages that are mostly well designed, but are lacking in the sort of secretly-hidden wonders that Yoshi's Island had back in the day. Sadly, this quest doesn't hold a torch to what is still probably Yoshi's greatest title to date. Plenty of originality makes its way through the game, thanks in part to the sort of cool designs the art style lends itself to, but it is a little too few and far between, and many levels will simply see you rushing to the end due to tedium, rather than wanting to search for every red coin and flower.

A neat touch is the ability to earn costumes for the Yoshis to wear, which are more than cosmetic; they grant extra protection from enemies, breaking apart after so many hits. The means to win them is through gambling coins away, so, much like in Super Mario Odyssey, money finally has a good reason to be collected now that lives are done away with for the better. Two-player co-operative gameplay is also available, although it can get pretty messy in close quarters, and some good communication is required, since hopping close to one Yoshi will place him on the other's back, and in tight situations, this can cause quite a few problems.