• Mar 28, 2019  Yoshi's Crafted World is a really fun title with a great design, perfect for fans of platform games and of course Yoshi fans. This makes us recommend the game to all players looking for an entertaining adventure starring their favorite dinosaur.
• But easy doesn’t have to mean uninteresting. And Yoshi’s Crafted World mines most of its cleverness by making its levels as tactile as possible. Most obviously it’s through the art style. Powered by Unreal Engine 4 of all things, the DIY dioramas are dense with delightful details.

Yoshi's Crafted World is out now on the Nintendo Switch, and it's another great example of a Nintendo platformer featuring a broad range of challenging and easy content. Depending on your skill and interest level, you can easily breeze through the game without a care in the world, or you can challenge yourself to collect every single hidden item, unlock the hidden levels, and beat every boss. Regardless, Yoshi's Crafted World will give you the tools you need to overcome however difficult a goal you set for yourself.

Whether you're floating by on Mellow Mode or trying to find that last hidden Smiley Flower, here are some tips and tricks for Yoshi's Crafted World that will hopefully help you collect the gems and free the world from Kamek and Baby Bowser once again:

Decide how much you want to collect

Yoshi's Crafted World is not especially difficult to beat if your aim is just to get through levels. You can easily slap on Mellow Mode and float on through. But the meat of the game is in its collectibles. Some of those are required to proceed, but not many. The rest are just for fun and exploration. With that in mind, you'll want to decide early on how dedicated you are to collecting them all, then focus your goals in each stage accordingly.

You can get by each level just by grabbing a handful of things. You'll likely want to aim for the easiest Smiley Flowers, which are almost always 100 coins and a few of the more visible flowers within the level. Heart Smiley Flowers can be easy as well, but sometimes they'll trip you up with a hidden ? cloud. Once you get past the first few areas, you can also return and do the level backwards, collecting Poochy Pups for one free Smiley Flower per pup. The pups usually aren't too hard to find, especially if you aren't worried about the time limit.

May 03, 2019  Yoshi’s Crafted World is a happy, almost relaxing place to be, and the game itself looks beautiful. Lending to that pleasant, relaxing feel is the fact that the stages can again be a bit on the.

Keeping expectations low, you'll get through the game fine. However, if you're someone who wants to 100% the game...

Repeat levels

Sorry, but you'll very likely have to repeat some levels multiple times to get everything. You'll miss items almost as a guarantee, but there are also some points in levels that are effectively points of no return (an early example of this is riding the train in the very first level). Once you do something in particular, you won't be able to go back and reach things. Or if you fail something like a blue coin collection challenge, you won't be able to do it again in that run of the level. You'll have to start it over for another shot at it.

There's nothing wrong with redoing a level, as you'll already have collected a great deal of the level's items and can just breeze by them while looking for the one you want. Smiley Flowers in particular are easy to gauge where to look, as they'll appear on your menu in the order they appear in the level. If you've collected the second and fourth Smiley Flower, for instance, you know to look in between those two locations for the third.

Walk everywhere

One of the biggest tricks of Yoshi games is hiding invisible ? clouds in hard-to-reach places, or just off the path where you might not necessarily go. These clouds will become visible if you throw an egg at the spot they're in, or if you touch them with Yoshi. However, when they're tucked away in areas you're not already in or throwing things at, they're easy to miss! And they often contain coins, hearts, or sometimes access to Smiley Flowers you need to 100% a level.

If you're struggling to find something, try walking and jumping Yoshi through any areas of seemingly empty space, or areas that may have enemies but not much else. Little alcoves below platforms, or blank spaces next to walls often hide blocks like this. And if you're still struggling to find that last block, you can always just switch modes...

Switch to Mellow Mode

There's no shame in swapping to Mellow Mode. Seriously! Mellow Mode doesn't just give you infinite flutter jumps and a better ability to take damage. It also will notify you when a Smiley Flower is nearby, and reveal all invisible ? clouds. You can toggle it on and off at any time, so you don't need to play the whole game with it on. Just turn the mode on if you're really having trouble finding a particular collectible, grab it, and move on!

Or, alternatively, play as much of the game as you like with this mode on and enjoy a breezy, untroubled experience. Mellow Mode doesn't just make it easier to find collectibles - it also makes it less of a struggle to overcome enemies, obstacles, and platforming challenges, especially as they amp up the difficulty late in the game.

Play with a friend

Another way to make the game a bit easier on all fronts is to bring a friend along. Yoshi's Crafted World has drop-in/out co-op, so you can play with a second Yoshi in the room at any time. Your friend will have all the same abilities you do, so they can help you defeat enemies, continue even if you're defeated, ensure you have enough eggs with you to find secrets, and help you find hidden areas. Plus, the game's even more fun when you bring someone along with you.

Don costumes

Finally, another simple way to overcome some challenges in Yoshi's Crafted World is to make sure your Yoshi is always wearing a costume. Costumes aren't just adorable, they also help Yoshi be able to handle more damage. If you're struggling with bosses or enemies or falling into pits, a costume is a good way to protect yourself from danger.

Costumes that are rarer can take more damage, and it's very easy to get one. Once you encounter the first gachapon machine, keep returning to it and putting coins in until you have the Super Rare costume within. You'll never get duplicates and your costumes are never permanently destroyed, so you're guaranteed to get the rarest costumes fairly quickly if you just keep trying, especially since the early levels have so many easy to get coins. Then, just make sure you put the costume on before you head into a level, and you'll have an extra layer of cardboard protection against the Shy Guys!

Any questions?

It's hard to get lost or stuck in Yoshi's Crafted World, but if you're struggling to find the best way to play, let me know in the comments and I'll try to help!

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I don’t take notes when I’m reviewing games. I used to, right when I got started, but I soon found I never used them. It turns out that if something about a game is especially good or bad, I’ll remember it. And then I write my reviews based on those things.

For Yoshi’s Crafted World, I almost wish I did take notes, because so little about this Switch platformer is memorable. Just like 2015’s Yoshi’s Wooly World for Wii U, Crafted World has similar gameplay mechanics to the classic Nintendo sidescroller Yoshi’s Island within a home crafts-inspired aesthetic.

I reviewed Wooly World back when came out. Reading that story now is bizarre, because I remember almost nothing about that game. Crafted World will have the same fate. It’s cute, but it’s so easy that nothing feels the least bit challenging.

Check out our Reviews Vault for past game reviews.

What you’ll like

It’s still adorable

The characters, the levels, the backgrounds, and the art are the best parts of Yoshi’s Crafted World. Levels look like something you could make yourself if you had an unlimited budget at Hobby Lobby, and it’s neat to see how Nintendo makes these stages out of things like milk cartoons and soda cans.

You can even go back through levels in reverse, which turns the camera around and shows you just how hand-made these levels are, exposing all the tape that’s keeping everything together. It’s a neat trick.

Above: Unlike with Yoshi’s Island, you can freely aim your eggs. That is part of what makes it too easy.

A chill experience

If you’re looking for an easy-going game, Yoshi’s Crafted World will make you happy. The game isn’t difficult, the music sounds like a collection of sleep-inducing lullabies, and everything looks super cute. It’s not a bad game to play if you’re in an awful mood, and you’re looking for something that isn’t the least bit stressful.

It’s like the video game equivalent of playing a background audio track of rainforest noises.

What you won’t like

Not challenging, not engaging

Of course, when I’m calling Crafted World chill, I also mean that it’s dull. You can progress through everything with the smallest bit of effort.

I wasn’t expecting a Yoshi’s Island-like experience. I understand that Nintendo now sees Yoshi as brand to target to younger, less experienced audience. It’s become the company’s second Kirby. But even Kirby is able to give us some platforming experiences that require a bit of brain power.

Above: Even neat stages like this become forgettable.

Crafted World became a game I would play while doing something else, like watching TV. I needed extra stimuli to get through it.

The game flirts with some cool ideas, like levels with branching paths that extend beyond the 2D plane and a series of puzzles involving magnets and tin cans, but none of these mechanics get the exploration they deserve.

Conclusion

Yoshi’s Crafted World may be a good fit for young children or other gamers interested in the cute-factor. But as someone who prefers more fast-paced sidescrollers, I was too bored to let the clever, crafted world put a smile on my face.

This is yet another Yoshi game that doesn’t come close to reaching Yoshi’s Island greatness.

Score:65/100

Yoshi’s Crafted World comes out for Nintendo Switch on March 29. Nintendo gave us a code for this review.