Yoshi’s Woolly World isn’t the first videogame to look like an arts and crafts project, but it might be the most adorable. Mario’s dinosaur pals are already almost panderingly cute, and now they’re little stuffed animal versions of themselves. Somehow they’ve made Yoshi even more adorable, and that actually feels kind of dangerous. You’ll be so busy oohing and ahhing you might forget you’re playing a game.
If that style makes you think of Kirby’s Epic Yarn, well, it’s made by the same people. Woolly World looks even crisper and more lifelike because it’s in HD, and it’s also a better game than Epic Yarn. That’s good, because Epic Yarn was pretty great in its own right.
Everything looks like it’s made of yarn. When Yoshi latches on to his enemies with his tongue and swallows them up, he actually untangles them and turns them into a ball of yarn that can be used as a projectile. Those balls can take out other enemies, unlock secrets or, in one of the game’s most clever touches, reknit platforms or other environmental objects that have disappeared. Yoshi should always have a few balls of yarn at his disposal, as you’ll never know when you’ll need them. There are also loose threads throughout the game that, when tugged on, reveal hidden areas or collectibles. Unlike Little Bit Planet, which is excellent but uses its real-life crafts aesthetic for primarily cosmetic impact, Woolly World leans heavily into the concept.
Yoshi doesn’t always remain a dinosaur. Throughout the game are timed set-pieces where Yoshi will turn into some new kind of yarn-based object with unique ways to move. Some times Yoshi will turn into an umbrella and have to ride air currents through a level. Other times he’ll turn into a massive Yoshi who plows through everything in his path. The game regularly introduces these moments, and along with the regularly changing environment they keep the action from becoming too similar or repetitive.
Woolly World can be deceptively hard. The adorable art and the fact that it’s an old-fashioned sidescroller might lull you into thinking it’ll be a breeze, but keep in mind how hard those sidescrollers could be back in the day. It’s never quite as challenging as the late stages of a Super Mario game, and between Yoshi’s strong constitution and frequent health refills it’s rare to actually die through enemy contact. Yoshi’s unique, fluttery jump and the instant death of the open pit will conspire to send you to your end more than you’ll expect. (You should probably buy the special power badge that lets you survive pit falls on a level as often as you can afford it.) I sat down thinking I could blast through the game in an afternoon, but there were a few moments where I had to turn the Wii U off and collect my bearings after repeated failures.
It follows the structure you expect from a Mario-adjacent Nintendo game: there are multiple worlds made up of various levels, and every world has a miniboss about halfway through and a final stage that might as well be one of Bowser’s castles. There are three different kinds of collectibles to keep an eye on, including stamps that are easily found within clusters of coins, and five flowers per stage that are a bit more hidden. Those flowers act like stars in a Mario game, unlocking more levels and secrets down the way. You also can find bundles of yarn, and if you grab all five on a stage it rescues another Yoshi that can be swapped out for your playable character. Yes, you rescue your dismembered friends and put them back together again. Kind of dark for the cutesy yarn dinosaur game.