Yoshi’s Woolly World – Wii U

We’ve been playing all day and love this so far! My son is eight now and one of the first games he could play on his own and play through was "Kirby Epic Yarn" for the Wii. In fact, he’s still disappointed when we get a new Kirby game and the characters aren’t made out of yarn… Woolly World is a spiritual successor to Epic Yarn. It’s a worthy successor and a lot of fun!

There are two difficulty levels. You can switch difficulty at any time (even in the middle of the level). The levels are the same either way. It’s just if you change to mellow mode your yoshi can float fly forever which gives you a way to avoid falling to death and sometimes to skip whole parts of a level. My five year old who is not very good with games can slowly go through the level with mellow mode on. My eight year old who played Epic Yarn when he was 4 could have played this well back then too. So it’s hard for me to give an exact age. I can definitely say that younger ages will need parent/sibbling help at points even with mellow mode. Mellow mode or not, you can take these levels at your own pace. There is rarely anything that forces you to move (except transformations, which are too quick, but I won’t ruin any of them for you).

The graphics are gorgeous. Epic Yarn was really flat compared to this which instead feels like a whole world crouched. Everything is made out of yarn, felt, and cotton balls. Backdrops are obviously hanging fabric, buttons are everywhere, and balls of yarn littler the landscapes. They did a great job of making everything look and animate wonderfully.

Hidden areas make very good use of the crochet theme. Often there is a string tied in a bow. If you grab that string with your tongue, it will unravel a whole crochet item and reveal a hidden area. The second way hidden areas are revealed that some crochet blocks are compressible which allow you to smoosh a big block to reveal a hidden tunnel. There are also clouds that you throw balls of yarn at to reveal whole items crocheted right before you. There are tubes you can take to secondary areas. There are a lot of ways that things are hidden right in front of you.

There are a lot of standard stages, but there are also a lot of special parts. There are transformations that can transform Yoshi into vehicles, items, or animals. There are levels where you roll around a chain comp that can destroy blocks. There are levels that you can walk on the exhaust of Bullet Bills. There are disappearing rainbows as the theme of at least one level. There are quite a bit of variety except in one area. The same bosses are used quite a few times in different ways and to varying success. It seems random whether a boss will be really difficult or really easy but maybe we just don’t get some of them… The bosses are forgettable but there are a lot of inventive levels that I don’t want to even begin to reveal.

Collecting is a huge part of the game. You collect gems, stamps, flowers, and yarn. There are 5 yarns in a stage that will give you a new designed Yoshi you can play as (you can also unlock Yoshi designs with Amiibos). If you collect all the flowers in six levels, you unlock a pretty hard bonus level. Gems allow you to buy special power patches that can give you powers for a level. Stamps can be used to make fun miiverse posts. My kids tend to rush through without grabbing things the first time, but the collectibles bring them back to the game again later. Sadly, if you die you don’t exit the level or go back too far, but you lose all the collectibles you got.

There are three color amiibos released with the game and a large yarn yoshi coming later. These are the cutest Amiibos ever! Thankfully, there is no reason to have more than one, but I want all three colors. They allow a single player game to have second Yoshi which makes it even harder to die and gives you more ammo.

We’re having a lot of fun playing and discovering things. My little five year old girl is learning platforming basics and the older two are jumping around like wild Yoshi’s. With the replaying I know they’ll do, we definitely will get our money’s worth!

As expected from first party title games from Nintendo Yoshi’s Woolly World is a very fun though light-hearted type game like the Kirby and Mario games. If you’ve played Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Nintendo Wii a lot of this game is going to feel pretty familiar to you but not in a bad way from the yarn created Yoshi and characters to certain abilities that Yoshi gets throughout the game. The graphics are simply astounding showing the power the Wii U has to be able to play this game at this level and of course you have the addictive happy tempo music that’s pretty standard with the first party Nintendo games.

The game is a great stress release to help lighten up your mood when you’re feeling in a rut after some bad gaming with the more darker games(Alien:Isolation,Evil Within ,etc,etc.)either due to online team match ups,boss battles or just having messed up. Like with most Nintendo games yo have co-op if you want to play with a partner or just the single player if you’re by yourself but once again you do need at least a pro controller if you’re going to have someone play with you. At the end a great new Nintendo game has come out for fans and families to enjoy until the next game which by the way comes out in November(Mario Tennis Wii U) and December(Xenoblade) so until then let the fun and entertainment continue.

Good game, not great. As a avid Nintendo fan, I’ve always loved all the Yoshi games. This game is a good example of the ‘great idea, but only decent execution’ issue. The game is beautiful! Very creative and fun in the design and feel of the game. Yoshi + wool? Come on! That’s adorable. However, behind the design and cutesy art style, the core and substance of the game runs a bit shallow compared to other Yoshi games. Keep in mind that I’m reviewing this compared to all the other Yoshi games. If this is your first time playing a Yoshi game then you’ll most likely enjoy it without knowing that it could have been so much better.

The levels are pretty average, mostly taking advantage of the art and design instead of cleverness and creativeness. Most of the levels are similar with one or two things added here and there so it isn’t exactly the same. A lot of the good things are only in very few levels and should be implemented more. Most of the game’s levels are predominantly a left-to-right style compared to the previous games that had more versatile levels that isn’t locked to left-to-right. Me and my fiancee played through two worlds and nothing in the stages stood out to us. We both agreed that the best thing about this game is not the gameplay itself but rather the side content and features.

There are five ‘yarn’ bundles in each level. If you collect them all in the game, after the game you’ll be able to stitch them together to form a new Yoshi that you can use. For example, you can unlock a ‘cow’ Yoshi that will be black and white with a pink nose! You can then slowly collect these ‘skins’ that you can use whenever you want. Our favorite thing about the game is finding out what the next Yoshi skin will be and that curiosity keeps us churning through the levels and finding all the secrets even though we don’t quite enjoy the levels themselves. Overall I still get to have fun and spend time with my fiancee and that’s what it’s all about.

Pros:
– Art and Design are beautiful and fun to look at.
– Yoshi
– Creative wooly concept.
– Yoshi skins!
– 2-player co-op mode.
– lot’s of play-time and levels.

Cons:
– Too easy, even for new players.
– Could be more creative in level layout design.
– Slightly repetitive in some levels.
– relies too much on the art design to carry the game.