Hands-On: Yoshi’s Crafted World

Let’s be frank; some Nintendo games get more attention than others. Franchises like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokemon dominate industry conversations when a new title is announced or released, but not all of the company’s titles receive that much media hype. One such series is the Yoshi series; these games tend to fly under the radar more than most, despite their status as reliably solid and enjoyable platformers. Though it hasn’t seen much love in the past few months, Yoshi’s Crafted World is finally front-and-center at Nintendo’s booth at PAX East. and with good reason – it’s pretty darn fun.

Gameplay will be familiar for anyone who has played a Yoshi game before. Yoshi hops around, ingests enemies, and turns them into eggs, which can be thrown at other enemies, level objectives, and hidden secrets. The lovable Poochy is along for the ride in some levels as well; he can take out enemies, give Yoshi a boost to reach high platforms, and open new pathways to explore. Unlike older games in the series, your egg-aiming reticle does not move around on its own; it starts out targeting directly in front of you, and you can aim it at anything you want – enemies in front of you, collectibles above you, and even enemies in the background.

The background? Yes! The game makes liberal use of background and foreground elements, at least in the single stage we played on the show floor. Yoshi can switch paths and move between different areas of the world, and he can shoot eggs at enemies in the background to collect their held items. Thankfully, the controls are as tight and precise as you would expect, meaning that even when you’re presented with more challenging aiming sections, you always feel confident that the game will respond appropriately. For the most part, Yoshi games are not known for their difficulty, and the stage we played did not present much of a challenge, but that’s to be expected of a title like this.

While the gameplay is familiar, what really sets this game apart is its graphics. Like Yoshi’s Woolly World before it, Yoshi’s Crafted World features an arts-and-crafts aesthetic that’s both adorable and gorgeous in equal measure. The lighting is excellent and the texture work is exceptional; all of this helps to sell the game’s art-supply-store presentation style flawlessly. It’s a sharp and surprisingly true-to-life art style; you almost want to reach out to touch the clouds and walls. Yoshi himself is exceptionally fuzzy, and as you progress through the game, you can unlock additional outfits and costumes that, candidly speaking, send the cuteness level through the cardboard roof – think papercraft dinosaur helmets and a Nintendo Labo box.

There’s lots to enjoy in Yoshi’s Crafted World. The presentation is delightful, the controls are reliably responsive, and the gameplay is comfortably familiar. If you’re looking for a cute, happy platformer that makes you feel good while you play, this may well be the game for you, and you won’t need to wait long to play it. Yoshi’s Crafted World arrives for Nintendo Switch on March 29th; a three-level demo of the game is available now on the Nintendo eShop.