The Yoshi series is one of those rare Nintendo franchises that’s never quite surpassed its original 1995 outing on the SNES. Based on early reviews, it doesn’t sound like Yoshi and the Mysterious Book reverses that trend, but it does sound like it has some flashes of brilliance that other recent entries in the Mario spin-off series have sometimes lacked.
Out on Switch 2 on May 21, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book has the titular green dinosaur exploring the pages of a magical encyclopedia called “Mr. E.” Instead of strictly being a puzzle platformer that takes players from A to B, the objectives revolve more around discovering new creatures in the world and unraveling its hidden secrets. With a Metacritic score of 82, the newest sequel edges slightly ahead of both Yoshi’s Woolly World and Crafted World. Is that just critics eager for the egg-hatching explorer’s return after a seven-year wait?
VGC‘s Andy Robinson gave Mysterious Book a perfect score in his review, writing that it has the “kind of breathless imagination typically associated with mainline Super Mario adventures,” and praising it as a “brilliant, unique sidescroller.” IGN‘s Tom Marks found it similarly delightful on first blush, but argued that this initial charm doesn’t make up for a lack of overall depth. New discoveries and gameplay mechanics are neat at first, but never evolve into something truly memorable, he claims.
The Yoshi games have always had a creative pop to them that doesn’t always last the full playthrough. Designing for whimsical creativity and open-ended curiosity isn’t as straightforward as guiding players through an obstacle course with clever puzzles and dangerous hazards. It also requires players to recalibrate what their role is in the game and what they want to get out of it. It doesn’t sound like Mysterious Book is set to enter the pantheon of great Nintendo games any time soon, but players who go in with the right mindset will be in for a nice, breezy treat.
Here’s what the Yoshi and the Mysterious Book reviews are saying:
IGN
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is an undeniable delight, with adorable storybook creatures that are amusing to learn about in your first, surprise-filled encounters with them. But while there’s impressive variety on display, it comes at the cost of depth. Nearly all of its best ideas are left to wilt on the vine – especially one clever mechanic that could have supported an entire game on its own, but instead arrives far too late and then disappointingly disappears. Its open-ended levels certainly had me smiling, but only on my initial run through them, and the long list of potential Discoveries offers too few moments to take what you’ve learned and think creatively to solve a problem. That’s a significant weakness for a game that’s all about experimentation. The result is the most charming video game bubble wrap you’ll ever pop, and not much more. – Tom Marks
VGC
Yoshi’s adventures have been hit-and-miss since his sublime solo debut in 1995’s Yoshi’s Island, but The Mysterious Book shouldn’t be judged by its cover. Instead of retreading past formulas, the Switch 2 game presents a truly unique framework, full of invention and compelling platforming for all ages, finally allowing Yoshi to escape the shadow of his plumber-carrying past with a blueprint all of his own. A brilliant, unique 2D platformer I loved playing. – Andy Robinson
Polygon
If you’re looking for a more direct comparison, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book skews closer to Princess Peach Showtime! That game, released in 2024 for the Switch, sported a similarly novel discovery concept, with Peach finding outfits that gave her a new set of abilities, but it rarely gave players space to tinker around with their powers and test what they learned. The play in both games is tightly controlled, more like an interactive museum exhibit with lots of guardrails in place. That’s fine considering the intended audience, but it does stop Yoshi’s adventure from finding the full potential of a good puzzle-platforming concept. – Giovanni Colantonio
GameSpot
Perhaps because he’s so cute and marketable, Yoshi’s adventures have been designed for a younger and younger audience for the last several years. 2006’s Yoshi’s Island DS was not out-of-step with the difficulty of a mainline Mario game, but since then, the challenge of mainline Yoshi games has been slowly softened to target younger audiences. With Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Nintendo has made the gameplay even more gentle for gaming novices–but what it lacks in difficulty, it mostly makes up for in creativity and a playful gimmick built around discovery and exploration. – Steve Watts
The Verge
What makes it work is the sheer amount of weird, playful creatures you’ll encounter. Early on, they’re relatively simple; toads that will sing a tune when you hop on them, or a frog that is somehow also a bubble wand. There are giant fish, hula-hooping birds, and creatures that have evolved to mimic everything from an umbrella to a skateboard. At one point you meet what looks like a version of Kirby made out of bubblegum. The wildlife is diverse, but every creature shares two things in common: They are absolutely adorable and their abilities all have multiple uses, many of which are not immediately obvious. The only way to figure things out is to try things and see what happens. – Andrew Webster
Gamesradar
When I boot up Yoshi and the Mysterious Book for the first time, I fully expect to step into another charming platformer from Nintendo. Now, after 10 hours of playtime, I can say it does live up to that expectation, but what comes as a very welcome surprise is just how refreshingly adventurous the green dinosaur’s debut on Switch 2 feels – and that’s thanks to the way every level is entirely driven by your own experimentation and discovery. – Heather Wald
Eurogamer
Weirdly, when I think back to Yoshi’s Island, I don’t think of A to B levels so much as I think of something that works a lot like Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Both are games of experimentation, of interacting with the environment and discovering everything that it can do. A watermelon can be a gatling gun. A dandelion seed can be a psychedelic drug. That yellow stuff that cakes surfaces can be dug through, but you can also get stuck in it. Wow! I’m tempted to say that Yoshi and the Mysterious Book isn’t so much a sequel, then, as it is a game inspired by what it felt like to play Yoshi’s Island. It’s a game about the imagination and strange rigour that Nintendo always brings to its platformers. It’s a surprise. It’s a delight. – Christian Donlan
Game Informer
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is, by design, an inviting game with little challenge – a pleasant vacation where all the animals want to be friends and the soundtrack sounds like colorful bubbles bursting in front of a double rainbow. I admit I pined for the stress I associate with Yoshi taking care of a helpless baby, but this low-stakes adventure (potentially Yoshi’s lowest) does take care in making you feel acknowledged and generally rewarded in its attempt at a new style of puzzle-platformer. – Kyle Hilliard
Giant Bomb
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book comes with a tremendous amount of ideas and a distinct personality, which is more than welcome in a series that has at best evoked vague memories of a game that’s over 30 years old. It’s bound to be a fun time for kids, and it has enough surprises and callbacks to Yoshi’s history to bring plenty of smiles to older fans like me. Other Nintendo platformers settled into their own identities and time-tested formats decades ago. Yoshi’s road has been a little more unpredictable, but with this entry it’s found an approach that feels all its own. – Dan Ryckert
