Yoshi's Woolly World - Maxi-Geek Review

Yoshi is back, it has been quite a ride for the little guy, his last solid outing was some time ago and we have been waiting for Woolly World for quite a while, so now that it is here, how does the adventure stack up? Is it a good yarn? Or is a tale hardly worth spinning?

Yoshi and his pals were enjoying a carefree day when Kamek comes in and turns all Yoshi’s into balls of yarn and so Yoshi himself sets off to save the Yoshi’s and stop Kamek from causing trouble. As far as story goes, it's pretty light, but that is ok, because it does not need to be anything special. As Yoshi progresses through the world, Kamek will make appearances and attempt to stop him and while there are brief snippets of chatter before the battle, they are nothing important.

What is important is the visual style, not only has it influenced the design of everything, it has even changed elements of the game itself, hidden walls, enemies and more are all altered because of this wool art style. The first thing you will notice is how well Yoshi looks when made from wool and while we have had Kirby in this style before, the power of the Wii U has allowed the developers to get really detailed when it comes to every aspect of the visuals. But while Yoshi looks like he is made from wool, he actually behaves as it he was. When Yoshi gets going, his feet will unravel and then reform into wheels, to indicate he is moving at speed, later in the game when on Ice, his feet will change to skate looking shoes.

But it's not just Yoshi and his visual changes that are amazingly well done here, the world itself reacts to all Yoshi is doing. The ground will sink when Yoshi or an enemy walks over it, loose threads of wool will indicate points where you can use Yoshi’s tongue to pull the thread loose and find hidden areas. Even attack enemies, by either jumping on them or unravelling them will have the wool fall apart, with masks and non-wool items falling off the stage. Yoshi can of course flutter jump and when he does, his feet will turn into tiny little propellers, indicating he is trying his hardest to get up higher, even the little beads of sweet that come off him are made of wool.

The levels themselves are just as wonderfully made, there are parts where you can push the fabric walls back against themselves, only for them to return to their original shape a short time later, just as fabric would in the real world. Pipes and platforms that are not filled in, can be done so by throwing a yarn ball at them, which when struck will cause them to appear as if they were knitted in an instant. The throwing mechanic is still as troublesome as it has been in past games, when you trigger the throwing move, you have to wait for the indicator to move to the position you want, which means sometimes dodging attacks while you wait, or if you need to throw straight away, you might need to wait until it comes back down. If you play with the Wii Remote, then you can manually control this indicator, but you are unable with the other control types.

The problem with the levels though is that the checkpoints are placed quite a fair ways apart, which can be a problem as some of the boss fights take place sometime after the last checkpoint, which means you need to play through the same section of stage again and depending on the stage, that can be a pain. Some of the stages are wonderfully done, while some of them are exercises in how to avoid snapping a controller in two, which highlights how back and forth the difficulty is here. While the Yoshi games of late have not worried about timers, letting players explore to their hearts content, which is perfect for kids, there are levels that are so challenging that people will wonder if they have moved onto a new difficulty level or something.

You can offset this difficulty by using badges, to give Yoshi a little edge when in a stage, these range from being able to take more hits, to being able to see the secrets of each stage. Some are really useful, like the magnet badge, whereas others such as bringing Poochy into the stage are odd, but the strange part is they must be purchased before each stage. So if you purchase the badge for one stage, you then need to purchase it again for the next stage, while some are not that expensive, some like being able see where false walls and hidden clouds, are expensive, which means you might need to replay some levels in order to get them. Some levels will need these to be used as they can be quite clever, others it is just a bonus.

The later levels, the ones with the ice specifically, can be quite infuriating, trying to line up your throw, avoiding enemies, all while trying to stay on the ground and they only get more complex from there on. As I said the earlier levels are no problem, they are done in a way that they help show players the ropes on the mechanics needed to progress through the game, the problem with the games newer mechanics is that they are shown once and then you don’t see them again for some time, which is a shame. The transformations are one such mechanic that is underused, when Yoshi turns into the umbrella or motorbike, they are the only times he does, his growing big and some of the others do make a second appearance, but weather once off or not, they all have a time limit applied to them, meaning you have to rush through them, so you don’t really get to enjoy them to their fullest.

The bosses are also a sore point in the gameplay department, they are so uneven, they start off super easy but then the later boss fights are a challenge that younger players will not be able to deal with, there is one in particular that proved to be quite problematic for me and I am sure other players will find it a challenge as well. The other issue with them is they repeat, I fought the Monty Mole boss three times, the Koopa Troppa more than once as well and all they do is wear a little more armour and change their attacks slightly, meaning once you know how to defeat them the first time, you can do it again no problems.

For the issues the game has with its gameplay, the presentation is almost perfect, as I mentioned before, the visuals are stunning, and seeing the many, many ways that the developers have been able to use wool and other craft materials to create the worlds is nothing short of amazing. Seeing lace being used to create the effect of rushing water and then again used to create sleet and snow is cool, but being able to see clouds made of fluff to which Yoshi can sink through, it's just incredible. There are even some pixel art elements throughout the game where they have been created with a needle point look, showing that almost every style of creating with wool was used.

It is not all good news with the presentation though, the music swings back and forth between great and annoying so frequently, I searched for a way to turn it down in game. There are some tracks, such as the ones in the spooky or ice themed stages, that are amazing, but there are some that sit on repeat so often, they become so annoying. It is so hit and miss with the music, it honestly surprised me at how a game from Nintendo, known for great in game music can be so back and forth.

The game also supports amiibo, but they don’t offer up anything other than a different character skin for Yoshi to adopt. The good news is that almost every amiibo currently released is supported, I say currently as any Pokémon character amiibo will give Yoshi the amiibo logo on his chest, whereas the rest will make Yoshi look like the scanned amiibo. These themselves, can be a little strange, some are quite easy to spot, whereas others are a little odd, but it's nice to see amiibo support for the game. In fact the best thing about amiibo here is when you scan another Yoshi amiibo, either the Smash Bros or Super Mario series or the Yarn Yoshi amiibo released for the game, doing that will add another Yoshi to the game, which can add some fun to the game.

Yoshi’s Woolly World is a game that has an amazing presentation, but uneven gameplay, there is a lot to like about the game, but the inconsistent level difficulty and repeating bosses put a damper on what could have been something really special. 

Thanks to Nintendo Australia for supplying the game for review.