Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is wonderful. After his scene-stealing appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the courageous dinosaur deservedly takes a star turn in his latest adventure, which comes after his most recent woollen and handicraft-based escapades.
When Bowser Jr. discovers a dusty, moustachioed leatherbound tome dumped in a long-forgotten room in Bowser’s Castle, he sets out in his Junior Clown Car to search for its mesmerising contents. When the book is unexpectedly knocked from the prince of the Koopas’ clutches, it tumbles out of the sky onto the island that the Yoshis call home.
With the mishap having stirred the compendium from his slumber, we learn that this talking book is known as Mister Encyclopedia, but we may happily call him Mr. E for short. The wizened tome reveals that mysterious creatures are the subjects of his very pages, but, as Mr. E is unable to read them himself, he asks the Yoshis to help discover more about the peculiar critters that he lists for him.
Mr. E’s magic-infused monocle can be used as a magnifying glass to take a closer look at the quirky creatures that inhabit each chapter, having the miraculous power to pull your chosen coloured Yoshi inside his pages. This presents the chance for you to explore each creature’s natural habitat, where Mr. E will record any discoveries that you make from studying your interactions with them.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book’s credits reveal Good-Feel as the developer behind this curiosity-led adventure, in which Nintendo’s unwavering mission to put a smile on your face is achieved through the pure joy of discovery. Make no mistake, this is not a traditional platformer. There’s no need to hurtle towards a Goal Pole before a timer runs out, no constant threat from enemies who want nothing more than to whittle down your extra lives, and no wailing-prone Baby Mario to carry safely back to the Mushroom Kingdom. Instead, it’s a risk-free experience where you’re simply thrown into a playground and left to freely experiment with whomever and whatever you come across.
I can admit that such a change in the game’s approach to gameplay was slightly jarring at first, and it took time for me to appreciate chasing unknown objectives through playful experimentation. It didn’t take long before it started scratching a Pokédex-style itch, as I set out to make every discovery I could to cram into Mr. E’s pages. After conquering the game’s many chapters and having logged every creature dwelling within them, I was wholeheartedly captivated right through to the end.
From the shipwreck-strewn Seaside to the insect-infested Bug Country, each chapter is packed with critters that call their depicted locations home. I’m sure that you will recognise some of the creatures that have been plucked from across Yoshi’s many adventures, but, like me, you more than likely can’t remember their names or much else about them. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is your chance to learn more about their unpredictable behaviour.
That could see you use Yoshi’s long tongue to gobble down a creature to satisfy his ambitious appetite or to simply see what they taste like, to see if they can withstand his mid-air Ground Pound, or how they react to an egg that he hurls in their direction. There are those that you can carry on Yoshi’s back with a tail flick to see how they interact with your environment. Just make sure you don’t place them in harm’s way. Once you finish your initial research, you must name the creature, with Mr. E there to provide a helpful suggestion if your own creative spark is failing.
Your first encounter is with a Crazee Dayzee, for example, a cute, flower-like creature that skips wherever it goes. They first appeared way back in 1995’s Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, but did we know that they taste a bit sweet, can be revived with an apple when parched, or that munching a hot pepper can permanently turn their petals bright red? If we didn’t before, now we do.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a game that delights in delivering its surprises, so I wouldn’t want to ruin too much at this point. However, early favourites included the Croakaoke, which croak out a lovely tune when you hop on their heads, Loopdeecoop, birds that love nothing more than to neverendingly swoosh a hula hoop around themselves, and the seemingly Totoro-inspired Thudd, which grows bigger by inhaling things from its environment. I often found myself laughing at how wonderfully silly it all is and unexpected reactions, and I’m sure that you will quickly discover your own favourite discoveries and add them to your bookmarks like me, too.
Your interactions with one creature can even cause another to appear in the chapter’s scene for you to research next, and you are showered with Stars as rewards for each discovery that you make, which unlock access to new chapters once their required tally is reached. The creature encounters in each chapter get better and better as the game progresses, and, without wanting to spoil anything, there’s a heightened challenge that awaits you in the post-credits content that wasn’t always straightforward to overcome.
I do wish that the game was clearer in letting you know how many discoveries for a particular creature are left. Unless I have overlooked it, whenever you complete an exploration, you’re only left with a one-at-a-time tease at a discovery that you have missed. You can spend the hoard of Tokens that you will amass to “predict a discovery” or “reveal a hint,” which can help clear what remains. You’re just never sure how many are left or when you have completed researching a creature, which is a strange omission given the game’s premise.
There are Smiley Flowers to collect, a series staple that this time around can be exchanged with Mr. E post-credits to unlock Exploration Tools. These let you add optional elements to the game’s otherwise minimalist HUD, such as a Bioscanner that tracks the location of nearby creatures, a Clock that tracks elapsed time, a Speedometer that tracks how fast Yoshi’s moving, or a Smiley Flower Radar that, to no one’s surprise, tracks the location of the nearest Smiley Flower. There’s also amiibo Fortune, which lets you scan in a compatible figure to receive a randomised amount of Tokens.
I believe that this is an Unreal Engine 5-powered game, and it looks incredible. The painterly sketchbook-like visuals and stop motion-inspired animation make for a spellbinding combination that the whole family will be mesmerised by, even if a lukewarm soundtrack doesn’t always match the game’s energy and pizzazz.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book rekindles that sense of childlike wonder, successfully satisfying your appetite for discovery in ways that games rarely tap into. It’s unlike anything else that you have played yet remains familiar at the same time, and the brave decision to take the curious dinosaur’s adventures in a new direction was as genius as the old, wizened tome that it is based around.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch 2
Review Copy Provided by Nintendo
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