It feels like it has been quite a while since we last saw a game dedicated to Yoshi on the Nintendo Switch. I mean, Yoshi’s Crafted World came out in 2019, but that’s seven years ago now! The last time I touched a game where Yoshi was the main protagonist was probably Yoshi’s New Island on the Nintendo 3DS.
When it comes to the Mario universe, so to speak, if you asked me who my favorite character was, I would undoubtedly say Yoshi is at the top of that list. As part of the series’ 40th anniversary celebration, Nintendo announced several titles, and one of them was Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, exclusive to the Nintendo Switch 2 system, which also marks his debut on Nintendo Switch 2. So let’s open the pages of this book and discover its quirky creatures.
A Talking Encyclopedia
One day, as Bowser Jr. was walking around Bowser’s castle, he spotted a curious book on top of a huge pile. After paging through its pages, he sees a very beautiful-looking bird depicted in it, and an illustration that looks very similar to the island where the Yoshis live. Curious, he attempts to take the book there to find out more, but after he grabbed the magnifying glass that started to dangle from the book and peered into it, he ends up getting sucked inside its pages. This causes his Clown Car to crash-land on the island, alongside the book.
The Yoshis all gather to find out where he crash-landed, and in doing so, the book wakes up, introducing himself as Mister Encyclopedia, or Mr. E for short. According to him, his pages are chock-full of information about all sorts of strange little creatures, but he does not seem to be able to read or understand what they are. And that’s where Yoshi can help. By diving into his pages, Yoshi will be able to fill out details about those creatures and satisfy Mr. E’s dream of finally understanding the creatures that live within him to become the ultimate encyclopedia. And hey, maybe we can find out what happened to Bowser Jr. in the meantime.
It’s Research Time!
To start things off, in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, you’ll use Mr. E’s magnifying glass to pick a creature that’s walking around in one of its many chapters. Afterwards, you’ll dive into the natural habitat where said creature can be found, and begin your study. You’ll be asked to do all sorts of things with this creature and see how it will react. This can range from ground pounding it, having it hop on Yoshi’s back, or in many cases, attempting to gobble it up to see how it tastes. For every new discovery you make, it will be jotted down as a Note.
Every stage will contain one main objective that must be completed in order for your exploration to finish. For the most part, it doesn’t take too long, with each stage taking me roughly 5 to 15 minutes maximum to complete its main objective. But even after clearing it, there is still a lot more you can learn about the creature. By collecting a currency known as Tokens, you can spend them on hints in case you’re stuck on how to trigger certain discoveries, or you can use them to “predict” a discovery you have not found yet. In fact, some stages will have you go back to them later, with discoveries that can be made with your newfound knowledge.
This game features some of the most fun platforming levels I’ve come across in a while, but there are some that can be a bit of a miss at times. Honestly, the biggest issue I had was how there are certain discoveries that become completely inaccessible until you restart a stage. Normally, that wouldn’t be too much of an issue, especially given that you’re expected to replay them, but this can happen even with the main objective. While pressing “Start Over” won’t cause the game to undo your existing progress, it’s still very frustrating to have to start over an entire stage just because of this specific solution it’s expecting. Considering “discovery” is a major theme, I would’ve loved if puzzles had multiple solutions, or at least were more lenient on what could be perceived as valid.
One thing that must be said is that initially, I thought the game was very short, because in just 10 hours of playing, I had already rolled the staff credits, so I thought that was it for the main game. But I was met by a sizeable post-game that feels double the size of that in the main story, with new creatures and tons of discoveries for you to find out. Of course, the definition of a short game is something that is rather subjective, but I would say that this is a game that will deliver quite a bit of content for you to enjoy.
Name Your New Discovery… Within Reason
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will feature many returning enemies from the Mario franchise, but it will also have some new ones for you to find. After you complete a stage’s main objective, you’ll be asked to name the creature. You can either let Mr. E “suggest” a name for you, or you can type a name yourself. I say “suggest” in quotes, but in practice, he will only suggest one name. However, if you choose to name it yourself, you have a 10-character limit to work with. I would sort of understand this limit for Japanese, but English? Well, you might have to get really creative with abbreviations. Still, that didn’t really bother me as much.
A surprising thing is that it appears that Nintendo decided to reconsider and backpedalled on what they did in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, because Yoshi and the Mysterious Book features a profanity filter that will prevent you from using that kind of inappropriate language, with a “This name can’t be used” error pop-up appearing if you try to name a creature with a swear. I can’t say I understand why they decided to implement a filter on this single-player experience, but I digress. It’s still really fun to come up with some names, especially when I didn’t really like the pun made by Mr. E’s suggestion.
Now, I generally don’t like nitpicking on a game for its graphics, but after playing through some stages, I couldn’t help but feel that the performance does leave something to be desired, even when considering the fact that this is a title exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2. I’ve had many instances where the frame rate seemed to drop significantly, in particular when a stage is loading, and I feel like it had dropped significantly with a specific enemy in Chapter 4. It’s not the type of performance that makes the game unplayable, of course, but I hope they can fix this in a patch.
A Cute Experience Filled With Joy
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a cute experience that I had a lot of fun playing. Discovering and naming new creatures, solving puzzles, and playing a game centered around Yoshi since the 3DS days was just my idea of a fun week. And when I thought I was done analyzing the creatures that lived inside of Mr. E’s pages, the game finds a way to drag you in even further. While some stages do have some rather obtuse solutions to their puzzles, it’s still a cute and fun experience that I enjoyed from start to finish.
Disclaimer: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.
