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Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)

Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U) - Review

by Adrian Andrews , posted on 04 July 2015 / 6,820 Views

In many ways, you know by now what you're going to find in a Nintendo game, especially when that game is a 2D platformer. You'll get a great game with solid controls, tight gameplay, ingenious level design, and a good score. However, you'll also find it rather familiar and almost too "safe" at the same time. And whilst Good-Feel's latest title, Yoshi's Woolly World, might have been given a fresh coat of... erm... haberdashery, that singular but important criticism still very much holds true.

A word of advice, also. If you're looking for a story driven title which will make you stop and assess your actions then you'd best look elsewhere. The extent of the story is effectively that the Yoshis live on a small island in the middle of the ocean called Craft Island, and Kamek has come to turn our knitted protagonists back into their composite components. You're one of the few Yoshis to survive and your job is to travel across six worlds - composed of eight levels each, as well as a secret level unlocked by collecting flowers, and a castle at the end - and save the day.

Sound familiar? You might be casting your mind back a whopping 20 years to Yoshi's Island, and rightly so. There's a definitive sense of deja vu in Yohsi's Woolly World, particularly in the first few levels. Five flowers? Yep. 20 hidden "coins" (infact stamp tokens found inside beads, which function as you'd expect for the obligatory Miiverse functionality)? They're there too. Six eggs, hidden question mark clouds, health picked up from mid-level checkpoints, bonus games gotten by hitting the flower at the end of the level, and so on? Yep, all there. There's also very little difference in the enemies fought between this entry and the 1995 title, with some bosses even making a return (thankfully with different attack patterns). 

Is this a bad thing? Well, not necessarily. Yoshi's Island remains one of the all-time great videogames and playing through these levels and seeing these similarities did bring about a pleasant rush of nostalgia. As the game progresses you will notice it starting to take more risks and moving out of the shadow of the 1994 title, utilising some new tricks gained from its new woven aesthetic.

Nearly all of the levels are great and feature something memorable, but special mention must be given to the bonus levels at the end of each world. These levels are remarkable and pose quite a decent challenge too. The music for these courses is beautiful, although to be fair the entire soundtrack is pretty great; just as with Yoshi's Island you'll find plenty of tunes to hum along to on the way to work or school.

These high points offer nothing short of unadulterated joy for platforming fans. They demonstrate the best of a game that's fun and ingenious. Yoshi and his enemies are also bursting at the seams with character (flutter jump, anyone?), which really adds to the overall feel of the title. If you have someone else to play with you then the co-op is also both a non-intrusive and entertaining way to play Yoshi's Woolly World.

Everything, and that does mean everything, has been wonderfully and beautifully recreated in wool in Yoshi's Woolly World. This adds an extra level of charm to the title; you'll see crabs made out of purses, scenery made out of pillows that bulge slightly as you walk and jump over them, and eggs replaced by balls of yarn which wrap around certain enemies and are coloured depending on the enemy you gobbled up beforehand. Such little touches are often forgotten in the grand scheme of things, but it all adds up to make a greater whole.

The yarn also penetrates through to the gameplay as well in some interesting ways. It's possible to uncover platforms or pipes by hitting them with a yarn ball (again unravelling depending on the colour), for example. You can also pull away at the scenery or indeed push folds into the walls in order to uncover new areas, and plenty more besides. The yarn theme may have been a bit of an overplayed gimmick but it's been executed flawlessly in Yoshi's Woolly World and has some very real gameplay applications.

One final thing I would like to mention is the knitted Yoshi Amiibo. It looks absolutely brilliant, but the added functionality falls short of expectations; it merely adds a clone Yoshi to those playing in single player.

If you're a fan in any way, shape, or form of Yoshi's Island then you should definitely give Yoshi's Woolly World a shot. There are a lot of - perhaps too many - familiar moments early on, but the gameplay is just as great now as you remember it being in 1994 thanks to the improvements that have been made to bring it into the modern era. If you haven't played Yoshi's Island then there's still an awful lot to enjoy here as it is certainly one of the best, most charming platformers of the generation thus far. 



This review is based on a retail copy of Yoshi\'s Woolly World for the WiiU

Read more about our Review Methodology here

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29 Comments
Johnw1104 (on 04 July 2015)

If you're going to start counting "familiarity" against games then I'd better see you do so with every mainstream FPS coming out going forward... They're all nearly identical lol

  • +10
97alexk Johnw1104 (on 05 July 2015)

IKR, the familarity thing seems they just put it in there to try to find something negative about it

  • +5
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Johnw1104 Johnw1104 (on 05 July 2015)

There seems to be a double standard when it comes to Nintendo games, as if they have to apologize for continuing to have that Nintendo style and gameplay.

It's very odd as I never see it brought up in famous franchises that always look and feel exactly the same, from the shooters (CoD/BF/Halo/Gears of War etc) to others like Assassin's Creed and Uncharted. Sticking with what works doesn't mean it's not good.

I mean he begins by saying that it comes with what you'd expect with tight controls and ingenious level design/platforming, and compliments the yarn aesthetic. END THE REVIEW THERE. Given how he described the game he's essentially taking points off for consistently providing platforming greatness lol

  • +1
Conegamer Johnw1104 (on 05 July 2015)

The issue is mainly that whilst the game is indeed great, there's too much which has been copied over from twenty years ago. In all honesty for the first few levels I wasn't sure if the game was just a remake of the original in the wool exterior because even the level design was the same for the most part.

Like I said does it make it a bad game? Not at all. I was quite busy fangirling over a lot of it and it desperately makes me wanna go back to the original because it reminded me of how great it was. But too many times I was thinking of how amazing Yoshis Island was and not focusing solely on this title. I loved Yoshis Woolly World and there's still a lot more left for me to do. I'm sure you'll love it as well. But when even boss designs and the such are recycled, you can't gloss over it.

As an aside, there's a reason I don't play many FPS' or only get a FIFA title every 4 or 5 years. It's as you say, they don't differentiate themselves enough to make it a worthwhile purchase for me (fortunately Yoshi does but the familiarity remains a criticism). I'm sure other reviewers wouldn't care about that, and maybe someone who played this wouldn't care because it's all too easy to forget it when you're bewitched by greatness. But reviews are intrinsically an opinion, and that's mine. Regardless I would definitely recommend it to you guys and I'm sure you'd love it as I did :)

  • +2
Johnw1104 Johnw1104 (on 05 July 2015)

Expertly explained! Your review happened to hit a nerve with me as I've seen points taken off of this game and others (Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze comes to mind) for reasons that just didn't seem particularly fair... it often seems as if some reviewers are just sick of Nintendo platformers or, more broadly, platformers themselves. There was this strange trend specifically with this Yoshi game of people writing glowing reviews and seeming to love it, but then giving it a subpar score. Gamespot, for instance, appeared to love the game, and then dropped a 6 on it in the end lol

I definitely see the similarities in the initial game design, which I believe they actually commented on and included intentionally. That's certainly fair if you don't care for it, but I've really gotten the impression that the challenge of this game is in collecting more so than playing it through. Either way, my primary gripe is not with the negatives you pointed out in your review that I read from plenty of others as well, but that said negatives are never held against games of other genres. I'm not sure why that is, really, but there are definitely CoD games that you could swap out for one another without my noticing, but they always seem to get 9's and 10's.

To conclude, I'm jealous that you've gotten to play this game.

  • +2
Jon-Erich (on 05 July 2015)

Despite a lot of the criticisms Nintendo has been getting lately (some of them well deserved), one thing they are really good at is making games that stand out. Splatoon is a perfect example. You're not going to confuse Splatoon with any other game on the market right now.If you were to remove the title from an ad of the upcoming Call of Duty game, it could be a lot of games. If you were to show screenshots and videos of it, it could be a lot of other games. With Yoshi's Woolly World, like Splatoon, you're not going to mistake it for anything else. I'm not just talking about the Yoshi character and graphics. Even the gameplay is distinct. Even though it apparently hasn't innovated compared to Yoshi's Island 20 years ago, that style of gameplay still holds up to this day and not many companies are making mainstream games like that anymore.

The thing is this is how games used to be. Mario and Sonic were not alike at all except for the genre of the games they were in but still competed with one another. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat did not look alike, play alike, or have anything in common beyond the fact that they were both popular fighting games in the arcade, yet the two still competed with each other for quarters. Today, too many games try to be alike, try to look alike. They're even marketed the same. The industry needs to go back to having games competing with other based on their differences.

It's a shame that Nintendo is so good at giving their games and characters distinguishable identities yet they can't seem to properly market their current home console.

  • +8
Nuvendil Jon-Erich (on 05 July 2015)

I definitely agree on the lack of distinctiveness. Even this hen's new IPs seem dead set on leeching off existing franchise fan bases. Destiny is quite intentionally a blend of Cod with Halo with some open world and limited RPG elements. Watch Dogs is basically GTA mixed with a bit of Assassin's Creed. And none of that is by accident. More new IP need to dare to be different. That's how you get those great games, the games you never knew you wanted.

  • +1
Goodnightmoon Jon-Erich (on 05 July 2015)

This man gets it

  • +1
Jon-Erich Jon-Erich (on 06 July 2015)

I apologize for the messy text. I thought I had spaced those paragraphs. Anyway, I was thinking more about this and I realized that even these spiritual successors that we're getting such as Mighty No. 9, Yooka-Laylee, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will be games that stand out on their own. Despite the fact that they are indeed spiritual successors of games we're already familiar with, we currently don't have any games on the market today that look or play like these games.

  • 0
Vor (on 05 July 2015)

Cutest thing in 2015 XD.

  • +5
Goodnightmoon (on 04 July 2015)

AWESOME GAME. Best Yoshi game since 1995.

  • +4
z101 (on 05 July 2015)

Of course the amiibo functionality only a little extras. Like in all games. Nintendo stated a thousand times that amiibo will never unlock a basic function of a game but only little extras.

By the way there is more amiibo functionality: You can use a lot of the already available amiibos right in the game to change the appearance of Yoshi "knitting pattern" to the amiibo character.

  • +3
brandiesel (on 05 July 2015)

This game is pretty awesome. I still like platformers.

  • +3
97alexk (on 05 July 2015)

Poor amiibo functionality? i thought it was really cool

  • +3
Conegamer 97alexk (on 05 July 2015)

Each to their own I suppose. After Splatoon I was kinda expecting a little more, perhaps challenges like speed runs or limited egg (they're still eggs to me!) runs. What's there isn't bad, but the main draw of the amiibo is the amiibo itself and not the way it plays.

  • 0
shakarak (on 05 July 2015)

The worst thing about this game is having to wait until October :(.

  • +2
S.Peelman (on 05 July 2015)

Yoshi's Island is the single greatest 2D platforming games of all-time, and one of the best games ever period, but I'm still on the fence about Woolly World. It looks fun enough, but is it really that amazing? Will I subcontiously compare every aspect of the game unfavorably to the original Yoshi's Island or can I see it in it's own right? I just don't know.

I want the amiibo though.

  • +2
brandiesel S.Peelman (on 05 July 2015)

You will definitely be subconsciously comparing it to Yoshis Island but you should still give this game a go.

  • 0
Never (on 05 July 2015)

Best yoshi game ever. Yoshis island hasnt aged perfectly (thought its still great) and this is every bit as much its own yoshi game as super mario world was its own mario game.

  • +2
GuyDuke (on 04 July 2015)

And still I have to wait 'til Fucking October to get my hands on this! And here we are getting nothing for summer.

  • +2
Ultrashroomz GuyDuke (on 05 July 2015)

Yeah, this.

The fact that it's taking this long for the game to come out in North America is pretty unexcusable.

  • +1
ExplodingBlock GuyDuke (on 05 July 2015)

Agreed. 1. A game like this would not take much localization. Could probably be done in a day or two. 2. If they game is out in Europe than that means it is ALREADY IN ENGLISH

  • 0
Zackasaurus-rex (on 05 July 2015)

I mostly want the Yarn Yoshi Amiibo that will be almost impossible to get outside of scalpers because of Nintendo's artificial scarcity bullshit.

  • +1
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zippy (on 05 July 2015)

Could i just add that I think the Amiibo functionality is quite good. Along with clone Yoshi, its nice to be able to unlock all the Yoshi patterns based on the Amiibo you tap. I have 6 Amiibos which I have used across various games and all of them are supported in Woolly world.

  • 0
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Conegamer spurgeonryan (on 05 July 2015)

VGChartz don't do scored reviews anymore.

  • 0
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