Yoshi's Woolly World Review

by Brandon Sultana

November 2, 2015

Wii U

 

 

The Yoshi’s Island series has had a bit of an odd history. The first game is considered by many to be the pinnacle of its genre and one of the best 2D platformers ever made (As you can see on the “About” page, I’m clearly one of those “many”). However the subsequent two games are considered to be pretty mediocre. I like Yoshi’s Island DS more than the average person, but the less said about Yoshi’s New Island, the better. Neither are bad games, but they both tried too hard to just be Yoshi’s Island again, but had worse level design and presentation. Woolly World is the first game since the original to be headed by the original game’s director, Takashi Tezuka. But is that enough for this game to finally live up to the original’s high praise?

 

 

Presentation

Yoshi’s Woolly World’s presentation is seriously top notch. The visual style of yarn is an excellent example of evolution from the original. We’ve gone from an artstyle of crayons and children’s art tools, to yarn and wool. The levels are modeled with amazing attention to detail to make them look like real dioramas. For example there aren’t any random floating platforms, instead they either hang from the ceiling on strings, or are stuck to things with pins and knitting needles. The game uses many artistic materials to represent the objects in the game, such as wool hats for mountains, buttons for flowers, and carpets for fields. The levels are a simple joy to look at, and taking the time to look at every detail shows how much effort was put into crafting these levels.

Additionally, the music is absolutely top notch. Something that Yoshi’s Island DS and 3DS couldn’t get right was the music, as it was either unmemorable or just straight up bad. Woolly World has an amazing score that fits the mood of the levels perfectly. It’s very obvious that the composer of Kirby’s Epic Yarn (which also has an amazing soundtrack), did this game’s music as well, as the style is very similar. There’s a wide variety here, from bright and cheery, to ominous and creepy. My personal favorite is “Fluffin’ Puffin Babysitting”, go check it out, it’s sure to put a smile on your face.

Lastly, there’s the game’s charm, which is of course, fantastic. Yoshi is super expressive and well-animated; fact that his appendages transform as he performs actions is an amazing detail. The enemies are also very fun to look at as they are very creatively designed. Oh and Yarn Poochy? It's done, he's amazing, cuteness overload. From a presentation standpoint, Woolly World is simply flawless.

 

 

Gameplay

Woolly World’s gameplay is near identical to that of its predecessors, where Yoshi can flutter, eat enemies and throw eggs (now yarn balls to keep with the theme). He’s incredibly satisfying to control, as his abilities give you tons of options, without ever feeling overwhelming. It’s definitely more advanced than Mario’s “Run n’ Jump” mentality. The biggest change is the lack of Baby Mario on Yoshi’s back. This is a superb change in terms of game design. While I didn’t dislike Baby Mario’s crying as much as most people, I think removing him makes the game far more challenging. Realistically in the previous games, you would never die from losing Baby Mario. He was incredibly easy to save once you got hit, making the only real threat things that are insta-kill like bottomless pits, lava and spikes. Woolly World has a traditional life system, making regular enemies actually harmful and dangerous if you aren’t careful. Speaking of life, one great move that they made was the fact that the game gives infinite lives. Personally, I think the concept of lives is a pretty archaic model, and seeing as most 2D platformers just shower the player in lives these days, they really seemed worthless. The game also supports 2-player local co-op, which actually works pretty well. The lack of lives makes it fun to experiment and mess with your friends. The ability to eat your friend and use them as a yarn ball is also a great way to get you out of a bind. I was honestly pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the co-op, as I'm generally not a fan of co-op in 2D platformers.

In terms of level design, Woolly World is also great. The pacing has been changed a bit from the previous games, where Yoshi moves a bit slower, and the camera is more zoomed out, which aids in a game where collecting is the main focus. The levels are chock full of secrets, but they are rarely unreasonably hard to find. Each level also has really fun gimmicks which keep things fresh. The ideas are very creative, and very rarely use the original game as a crutch, as it tries to do its own thing. They bring back a lot of concepts from the original, but often times build on them or use them in new ways that suit the game’s new aesthetic. The only real exception is the last two levels in the game. I won’t spoil anything, but both of them make a lot of copy-pastes from the original. It was a bit of a let down seeing all the creativity, only for the developers to just reuse concepts at the last hurdle.

 

 

Completion

Collecting is where Woolly World really shines. If you aren’t interested in going for collectibles, this game is totally not for you. Without going for collectibles and blasting through levels, the game is a breeze and generally not as interesting. Another key change made from the original game is how completing levels works. In the SNES game, if you wanted to complete level, you had to do EVERYTHING in one run (30 stars, 20 red coins, 5 flowers). It was pretty brutal, and as much as I love that game, I could never bring myself to complete every level. Woolly World introduces a fourth collectible into the mix (Wonder Wool), but also eases up on the strictness. Now, can complete the game in multiple runs. If you got everything but missed one Stamp (Red coin equivalent in this game), you can replay the level, find it, and beat it the level to get completion for the stage. It keeps the theme of exploring, while making things much more lenient, which I liked.

Another thing I loved is the fact that each collectible means something in the big picture. Stamps unlock Miiverse stamps, Wonder Wooly unlock Yoshi skins(you can also scan in amiibo to get themed costumes for Yoshi based on that character which is AMAZING, except for the Pokemon, CURSE YOU POKEMON COMPANY INTERNATIONAL!) , Flowers give you bonus stage chances and unlock secret stages, and Hearts of course keep you healthy throughout the level. It made it feel like I was really earning things for my efforts through the levels, rather than collecting arbitrary items. I’m also happy to say the game has a ton of content. I haven’t 100%ed the game yet, but completing each level alone will take a lot of time. There’s also harder versions of the bosses to fight, and a final level you unlock for getting every flower (I’ve heard this stage is super challenging). There’s a lot to do, and I know I’ll be playing this game for much longer.

 

 

Conclusion

I know I made a lot of comparisons to previous games, but it’s hard NOT to do that when it’s been such a long wait for a true successor. Yoshi’s Woolly World is the first game to feel like a real sequel to the original, rather than a retread (or should I say reTHREAD). It makes changes in the right places, has its own identity, and keeps what made the original game so great. It’s easily the best Yoshi game since the original, it even SURPASSES the original in some regards, but I could never bring myself to say that I like this game more than the original. Too much nostalgia there.

 

 

Rating: Excellent/10

+ Superb presentation

+ Fantastic Level Design

+ Great changes to the formula

+ Meaningful Collectables

- Uninspired Final Act