Yoshi’s Crafted World is only one of the many instalments in the Yoshi franchise. First revealed in 2017 as the eighth instalment in the series, the video game was officially released worldwide in March 2019.

Developed by Good-Feel and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch, Yoshi’s Crafted World is essentially a colourful, vibrant side-scrolling platform game featuring 3D characters in a 2.5D plane. The game has generally received positive reviews and has made its way to being one of the best-selling games on the system.

Storyline

Yoshi’s Crafted World starts with the Yoshis, a group of fictional dinosaurs who peacefully live on their home island and revolves around their quest to retrieve a stolen gem-set artefact. This artefact, the Sundream Stone, sits safely at the topmost peak of the island and possesses the magical power to make anyone’s dreams come true, no matter how wild. 

One day, the game’s villains, Kamek and Baby Bowser, attempt to steal the Sundream Stone. The gems that make up the stone are sent flying across the world during the botched heist, leaving the Yoshis in a panicked frenzy. The dinosaur tribe then set out to find the gems and return them to their rightful place on the island.

Game Objectives

The recovery team includes your character, Yoshi, and his friends. The other Yoshis who are not exploring are guarding the Sundream Stone as they await the return of their exploring Yoshis to restore whatever gems have been found. When a retrieved gem is restored to the stone, the stone changes its colour to the added stone.

As the game proceeds, Kamek and Baby Bowser, the thieves, return during the final level and whisk away the last dream gem and the stone with all the other four stones that have been retrieved. Using the stone’s magic, Baby Bowser uses the stone to create a Great King Bowser robot. The Yoshis are to fight and defeat this robot, but when they do, they are faced with Mega Baby Bowser, a bigger form of the first enemy robot, made of Kamek’s wish on the stone.

Thus, the main goal shifts from just recovering the gems and the stone to defeating the robot and getting the Sundream Stone back to their island. Upon accomplishing the goal, Yoshis’ dreams are used to create an airship that carries them all safely back to Yoshis’ Island.

Major Strengths of the Game

At first glance, it would not be unusual to see Yoshi’s Crafted World as no more than a fluff piece. And in a way, that is great because you will be very quickly proved wrong. This game has many companions in its league, for example, Zelda: Battle of the Wild and the Mario franchise. However, Yoshi’s Crafted World differs from these two in a way that I have come to appreciate. Each level has a spin or twist that makes it not quite the same as the last. Some stages come with magnetic cans that make new platforms, while others feature a moving level with screen doors. You will even come across a scarier twist with murderous screaming dolls trying to cut down your character with a menacing axe.

While Battle of the Wild and Mario put in a lot of work into becoming more with sharper, more robust fillings, Yoshi’s Crafted World has stayed true to form. Even with its realistic cardboard world made of everyday objects like paper cups and cardboard boxes, I still enjoyed jumping high, gulping down my enemies, happily trotting on my treasure hunt, and gathering all the collectables, flowers, coins, and whatnot.

Interestingly, one feature I didn’t expect but appreciated as well is the backward feature. The game allows you to play each stage backward, giving you more playing time and a chance to see things from a new perspective. You can also give yourself a little extra protection from your enemies by getting yourself a handicraft costume either by unlocking it while playing the game or by tapping select amiibo figures.

Flaws Spotted in Game

Yoshi’s Crafted World is not meant to be a tough head-racking game. The fun is as simple as it comes, and it is very easy to get bored, in honesty. In fact, the game is such a non-challenger that most if not all of the more than 40 stages pose very little challenge.

Contributing to the non-challenging nature of the game, the enemies placed in your path are mostly passive and seldom retaliate as you use your Yoshi’s tongue to eat them or fling them out of your way. 

Final Verdict

In conclusion, anyone who has enjoyed the simplicity that Yoshi’s creators have offered for so many years would be thoroughly delighted by Yoshi’s Crafted World. Keeping players on edge with nail-biting suspense is not and has never really been the goal of this franchise, and really, that should not be a problem if that is what you are looking for.

I enjoyed all that the game had to offer for as long as I could but still cannot deny how easy it was to get bored with the order of the day. Yoshi’s creators were clever enough to include little challenging teases to test the skills and attention of its players. Being able to play levels backwards still marks a winner in my books. You might eventually lose steam when all you find yourself doing is jumping over props, but it is a good game to play. So, hand a controller to a friend and team up to make a gem-recovering group worth praising!