When you think of a 2D platformer, you probably think of tough jumps, power-ups, and a ticking clock — accompanied by the constant threat of a Game Over screen if you fail to adequately manage any of those things. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, the new platformer out May 21 for Nintendo Switch 2, does away with all of that. You can’t die, or even be hurt. There’s no countdown clock, and power-up-like abilities are freely available for you to use at any time. Instead of defeating enemies and conquering a level, you’re learning cool facts about the local wildlife and discovering every nook and cranny of an animal’s habitat.
In less adept hands, a pacifist platformer could easily veer into pedantic and preachy territory. What’s more, eliminating the familiar elements of challenge risks reducing the game’s stakes to zero. But during a two-hour, hands-on demo hosted by Nintendo last week, I soon realized that Yoshi and the Mysterious Book doesn’t fall into either of those traps. Instead, it builds upon the benevolent design ethos displayed in Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Donkey Kong Bananza. The point of the experience is to explore and have fun, rather than get a high score or set a record time. But there are still plenty of challenges and rewards for the curious player along the way.
The story is your typical bare-bones yet adorable Nintendo fare: a smiling mustachioed book wearing a rainbow monocle appears before a group of colorful Yoshi, seeking their help to recover the contents of his pages. His name is Mr. Encyclopedia, but you can call him Mr. E for short. If this sort of whimsy for whimsy’s sake annoys you, it is omnipresent and inescapable in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, so I’d encourage you to go play Crimson Desert or something.
In order to help Mr. E, you need to learn more about all the strange and fanciful creatures that appear on his pages. What are their names? What do they taste like? Do they enjoy being tossed into water, or covered in mud? In order to discover this information, you’ll highlight a creature on the page with your magnifying glass, then jump into a side-scrolling level. Once inside, Yoshi can use all his familiar abilities from the Mario games — traversing long distances with a flutter jump, slurping up critters with his long tongue, and using eggs as projectiles.
The Mysterious Book adds a new skill to Yoshi’s arsenal: the tail flip, which places a nearby creature onto Yoshi’s back and imbues the dino with some of that creature’s traits. For instance, one level is themed around frog-like creatures with loop-shaped heads, who periodically blow bubbles that you can use to ascend higher in the level. Tail-flip one of these guys onto Yoshi’s back, and Yoshi will leave a trail of floating bubbles in his wake, which can then be used to give you a long stream of temporary floating platforms, opening up tons of new exploration possibilities.
Whenever you learn something new about a creature, Mr. E will pop up to explain it. If you’re in the proximity of something waiting to be discovered, he’ll offer a clue about what you’re supposed to do next. The Mysterious Book uses the L button to advance dialogue, since A, B, X, and Y are all assigned to Yoshi’s abilities or jumping. It’s a weird choice, and over the course of my demo, I continually had to remind myself to use L whenever text blocks popped up. (Yes, it’s clearly indicated on-screen every time, but my reflex with text is just to hit A or B.)
Mr. E chirps up several times per level, but thankfully, he’s not quite as grating as Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s yap-happy Talking Flower. Even so, I encountered a couple instances where Nintendo’s in-person demonstrators needed to tell me what to do to close out the level, since Mr. E didn’t offer much detail beyond “something to do right around here.” In one early-game stage, I needed to execute a series of timed jumps off the heads of musical frogs to the beat of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Rhythm isn’t my strong suit, and this seemed to fall squarely into optional bonus activity territory, but nope, turns out its mandatory. Elsewhere, I had to use dandelion fluff to soak up a large amount of water, but struggled to clear the final dregs because I couldn’t get a spore to spawn in just the right place. Eventually it worked, but if I’d been playing unassisted, I might’ve just wandered off to do something else.
Once you figure out the big discovery in a given level — think setting a large creature free, or finding a handful of missing Shy Guys — you’ll be able to return to the chapter screen and investigate some more creatures, or stick around a little longer if there’s still something you want to see in your current location. You’ll also be able to name the creature whose habitat you just explored, or use the default name, and that name will carry through for the rest of your playthrough. (I named the exasperating musical frogs “Jerkface.”)
Despite a slightly odd control scheme and occasionally too-subtle tutorials, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is one to watch for fans of chilled-out platformers as well as parents looking to share their love of games with their kids. I’m excited to see more of these creatures and their adorable habitats — as long as I don’t have to play any more music.
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