Yoshi And The Mysterious Book Review

Nintendo platformers oft come with a very specific formula, so much so that jumping into one is an exercise in discovering what is different, rather than what is new. I don’t say this with any negativity backing such a statement, it’s part of the timeless charm and familiarity one can afford to hop into the latest offering and feel right at home – charging ever rightward towards a goal flag while hopping death-pits and dodging dangerous do-badders. Maybe a boss will tie you up for a spell. You know the drill.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book however seems to be prodding the boundaries and subtext of such a formula, asking a simple question: What would happen if a dinosaur-shaped Steve Irwin was tasked with studying creatures on behalf of a talking book?

BAH to your goal flags. Enemies? Pfft, you barely need them. All you need is a sandbox of goobers to poke and play around with, because the real name of this game is Yoshi and his new career in Taxonomy.

The storybook style adds another chapter to Yoshi’s long history of gorgeous games

Deep in Bowser’s castle, a pile of books sits dusty and undisturbed – until a bored Bowser Jr decides to look through a rather unique tome, given that it has a bushy moustache. Within its pages are sights and wonders that inspire the young master to jump in his Junior Clown Copter and take off to find the lands described. On his journey he discovers that the book has a magnifying monocle, and upon using it to take a closer look at the fauna within he is suddenly sucked into the pages and the book (and his copter car) crash onto the beach of a familiar island. 

The book awakens and is discovered by a horde of colourful Yoshis, introducing himself as Mister Encyclopedia, who goes by the shortened name Mr. E. Turns out Mr. E is chock full of amazing information on strange and unique creatures, but given that he can’t read himself he struggles to collate and document these beasties unassisted. Yoshi’s are nothing if not inquisitive, so they happily volunteer to leap into the pages and have a poke around. Thus begins a scientific jaunt through Mr. E’s pages as you lick, stomp, carry and throw every living creature you encounter to see what makes it tick.

Clearly related to Lonk from Pennsylvania

The main format of the game is one of barely supervised discovery. You’ll identify a critter on a page of Mr. E and jump into the page to interact with it – with one of your main tools being the ability to pick your new friend up and place them on your back. Mr. E will comment on the things that you do, but the actual goal of a level (the big, critical ‘eureka’ moment) is up to you to find. Exploring the sandbox at your disposal will often have an immediate clue or two, but really it’s up to the player to scratch around and figure out what needs to be done. Sometimes you’ll luck into something (such as accidentally licking something distinctly un-lickable) while other times you will orchestrate the kind of methodical masterpiece that would make Charles Darwin proud.

The beasty at your behest will always have some kind of gimmick for you to exploit, either by way of a passive effect (a flower-y friend can make things bloom) or an active ability (such as a jet-propelling jellyfish). Mashing buttons and applying your new pal to whatever environmental options are available will uncover what you are dealing with, hopefully allowing further progress in the level sandbox. You’ll then be left to figure out what you are capable of achieving with your creative critter, with each breakthrough announced with fanfare by Mr. E as it happens.

These discoveries are essentially micro-objectives, hidden from view and organically uncovered by your actions. There is a certain prickle of dopamine that comes with having the game continuously pop up and exclaim that you have figured something out, and this then lends to possible new discoveries. The beaked beetle on your back can be thrown like a missile, embedding itself in the wall? Better believe that’s a new platform to climb ever upward. That same beetle can be thrown at organic dartboards within the stage, and seems to love hitting the bullseye? That will trigger a mad scramble to find every dartboard you can and slam your buggy bro into the red centre for another breakthrough. You’ll end your expedition by leaping out of Mr. E’s folio and reviewing your finds, to then give your critter a name. Sure, you can let the game name the creature for you – but then you wouldn’t get the magnificent pleasure of seeing the iconic ShyGuy get casually referred to as “Fella”. Just think of what you might be missing out on by skipping such an opportunity.

In classic Nintendo fashion your discoveries even award you with stars that unlock further areas to explore, so your scientific journey is constantly rewarding.

All the best titles have a fishing mini game

The depth of gameplay definitely comes from the many recurring elements that appear throughout the levels. You’ll often come across various fruits, mud and even honey on your journey, with each offering a unique twist on what you might have come to expect. Maybe you fed your animal friend a hot pepper, and their signature gimmick behaviour changed in a unique way – prompting a new range of chin-scratching considerations for what to try next. The aforementioned beetle friend changes into a ballistic missile with some spice, while another hang-glider like creature suddenly sprouts a jet turbine. A heart-shaped radish can turn a belligerent bug into a far more friendly fella, while a pool of gloopy bubblegum can turn your jellyfish jetpack into a supercharged rock-busting afterburner.

The game will even shake things up further by displaying an option to revisit past levels with a new twist. The simplest of these was where the game would introduce a new species into a past experience, so you can take the unique abilities of that varmint and put it through the paces of a level where it never previously existed. I’d hesitate to call it Metroidvania-like in its execution, as most objectives seem immediately accessible, but the introduction of a late-game goober might provide an alternative solution to a puzzle that was far easier to achieve. Like, why formulate a triple jump with a range of umbrella-birds when you can just blast off into the sky with a different friend?

There are also remix level types that change the sandbox in a meaningful way to chase down new discoveries. One seaside level found itself with a much higher water level, and I was quick to discover a net that asked me to fill it with prickly urchin types. I explored the level to find that these spiny slags were in brand new locations, and made use of an introduced species to reel them in like a fisherman – dragging them to the net and getting another major discovery for my time.

Plenty of reasons to dive back into Mr. E’s contents

Of course, if you run out of ideas and can’t conjure up new lines of investigation the game offers a variety of ways to stimulate the scientific process. A recurring inkblot appears and travels the pages of Mr. E, highlighting creatures that have some pending discovery you are yet to make. Selecting this bugger will take you directly to that discovery item, with the added incentive that unlocking the objective will reward you with a bundle of currency. This currency can then be used to uncover further pending discoveries, and even additional clues as to how on Earth you can make them happen. I’ll admit I was a little bummed to find out that my shadowy friend was basically a Clippy-esque “why don’t you try this” feature, considering that a rogue inkblot in a living book begs for more interest than that.

While the inkblot may not have been an antagonist, you do meet resistance within the book. Both Bowser Jr and Kamek are traipsing across the pages, intent on making their own major discovery – only their scientific methods are often cruel and result in them being accosted by the larger organisms within Mr. E. This often results in giant set piece boss encounters where you are either rescuing the two of them or giving them a swift animal-assisted beatdown, with unique levels built around the showdown. These serve as a great little action-based palette cleanser from the usual fare of mushing your animal mate into various situations, and reminds you that actually yeah, this is a Nintendo platformer.

He’s missing the arms, but he’d make a great whacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube-man

Once your initial jaunt through the pages of Mr. E is done, you’ll get access to further stuff to do, including a very unique set of Exploration Tools. To further lean into the scientific method, your Exploration Tools are a range of targeted UI elements that can be unlocked via a special currency and configured to your liking to assist with your endgame investigations. Radars that detect certain elements within a level, meters that communicate the quality of a discovery – you essentially gain the ability to set up your workspace to best suit your own personal scientific method. It helps that this feature comes at a time when the game gives you a knowing wink and communicates that there is still plenty to do, so now you can equip yourself to kick arse and discover new things – and you are all out of arse.

Final Thoughts

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is an oddity to describe to others. Your average Yoshi-based adventure is one of predictable expectation, with your tongue-lashing lad moving from point A to point B to save the day. Mysterious Book’s casual approach to figuring things out at your own pace wormed its fingers deep into my brain – the rewarding sensation of playing this game felt more like slowly solving a Sudoku than trying to rescue my princess from another castle. But I can’t help but feel the lack of overt direction will alienate many that come in expecting another standard Nintendo platforming experience. I applaud the incredible uniqueness of it all, and can’t wait to crowdsource further discoveries from my mates when they get their hands on it.

Reviewed on Switch 2 // Review code supplied by publisher

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