Yoshi's Woolly World

I gave in and pre-ordered this today. With the amiibo.

I mainly just wanted to justify the amiibo to myself.

I probably won't touch the game.

So reviews are up. David Jenkins' words for GC seems to be on point.

Review here: http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/22/yoshis-woolly-world-review-jurassic-yarn-5257836/

GC wrote:

This is all good fun, and there’s some cleverly hidden secrets throughout the game, but it’s really not that much of diversion from the regular Yoshi platformers. And inevitably Woolly World spends a lot of its time just recreating scenes and enemies from previous titles, from the very familiar looking lava monsters to many of the boss enemies being exactly the same – even if they have to be beaten in new ways.

That doesn’t make the game any less fun, especially if you haven’t played Yoshi’s Island before, but it does seem something of a waste, and reduces the whole wool motif to little more than a visual gimmick. The driving thought behind the game seems to have been ‘How can we make a new Yoshi’s Island game look different?’ rather than, ‘How can we make a new Yoshi game that actually is different?’.

There was an EA indie game at E3 called Unravel, which we’ll preview shortly, which also features a character made of wool. But in that game the wool is actually a key part of the gameplay, rather than just a semi-relevant addition to an already existing set-up.

All that said this is probably the best Yoshi game since Super Mario World 2, although even that’s not saying much considering the poor quality of most of his recent standalone games. Despite borrowing so much from previous titles Woolly World does have new ideas of its own, such as the new use for Huffin’ Puffin chicks – where you get to throw them into the air and create a temporary cloud bridge behind them. The level design also gets increasingly complex and interesting as the game goes on, including some particularly clever misdirection in the haunted house levels.

That's pretty much what I was expecting, really. Given its gameplay moved to being a traditional Yoshi game I couldn't see much scope for Good-Feel doing anything truly unique with the whole yarn thing. Epic Yarn was built as a "Yarn" game -- I'm sure we all remember it was originally called Fluff's Yarn -- and it was refreshing to play something that diverged from the Kirby formula.

I'm sure this is good, but I'll probably pick up Tropical Freeze first I think.

---

Donlan's review for Nintendo Life sister site Eurogamer also raises some good points. It didn't get a "recommended" from them, mainly because Yoshi's Island simply does the job better.

Link here: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-22-yoshis-woolly-world-review_7

Eurogamer wrote:

If any game really explored the quandary Nintendo's in these days, come to think of it, this is probably it: shackled with two audiences, one of whom has forgotten nothing and will demand a strange and contradictory blend of nostalgia and innovation at all times, and one of whom is coming to everything completely cold - but is at least as interested in Minecraft as Mario and rightly so. Ultimately, even those 7-year-olds would probably be better served by just tracking down the original Yoshi's Island, on one of the many platforms that preserves it. The level design's better, although Woolly World, granted, has a nice mixture of straight-ahead left-to-rights and more complex, dungeony areas, even mixing in a few palate cleansers where Yoshi transforms into a plane, into an umbrella, into a giant, to great effect.

Tellingly, I think the graphical approach is better, too. For all Woolly World's cuddly invention, there was such imagination and range in the spritework of the original, a real energy coming from this spot it found itself in historically, navigating a technological landscape that was slowly starting to shift from 2D to 3D.

I can see where he's coming from with those two paragraphs. When watching some of the new trailers that Balladeer posted up, the new power badges and the selling point to "play it your way" made me feel a little uncomfortable about how they've been trying to balance the game for two audiences. I can see his point about the yarn leading to weaker visual feedback as well -- I could feel that when watching the video footage a few weeks ago.

Don't care, going to enjoy it anyway, la la la.  (sticks fingers in ears)

EDIT: Nintendo World likes it!

There are two things I take from fronky's post there... a), it's still not as good as Yoshi's Island, which is utterly expected, and b), fronky's not got Tropical Freeze yet.

Yeah, this all sounds like what I've heard, and, yep, I'm not going to learn either. I want my Cute Generator!

Tbh I really don't care about the reviews for this game I just want my fill of cuteness.

For some reason, I thought at E3 it said this was coming in September so when the money left my bank account yesterday it was a bit of a shock...

It probably did - America's going to have to wait until Oct., I think.

Hopefully should get it today. I want my adorable Yoshiibo! And the game, I suppose.

My copy came while I was at work. The amiibo is very cute. I'm looking forward to seeing this properly next week, probably mixing it in with Dark Souls whenever that gets too hard or miserable.

OH MY GOD THIS GAME IS ADORABLE!!!! 11 OUT OF 10 BEST GAME EVER!

Slight overexaggeration, maybe, but I can't get over how sweet the whole thing looks. It could play like Yoshi's Universal Gravitation for all I care. Fortunately it doesn't - Ganonyoshi took down three levels this evening, and they were harmless platforming fun with some moments that made me go "EEEEEEEEEEE!" You'll never forget your first flower.

I've been replaying Yoshi's Island, so I'm out, but I'm pleasantly surprised by some of the levels in this, from what I've watched online. My only disappointment comes from how it resorts to the "modern" way of hiding some of its collectibles, that is, behind invisible walls.

Like DKC and Rayman Origins/Legends, there are tell-tale signs to nudge you through the, er, invisibleness, but it all feels a bit automated, you don't really have to *think* or do anything really clever to get the goodies.

ZeroJones wrote:

There are two things I take from fronky's post there... a), it's still not as good as Yoshi's Island, which is utterly expected, and b), fronky's not got Tropical Freeze yet.

I was a bit fatigued from platformers after 3D World. I still really want Tropical Freeze for the soundtrack alone, but I just haven't felt up for it.

D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw! Etc.

My only worry is that, having only finished to 1-3 so far, I've already stopped noticing the aesthetic and started concentrating like when I was 100%ing Yoshi's Island.

But I really like:

I've come across one flower behind an invisible wall, and indeed seen people on Miiverse complaining that they couldn't find it. But in Yoshi games, I'll try and cram Yoshi anywhere he'll fit (Takei.gif), because odds are there's a winged cloud there if nothing else.

I'm only up to world 1-5 and that was after doing 1-4 a few times trying to find that last flower we missed somehow

Balladeer wrote:

I've come across one flower behind an invisible wall, and indeed seen people on Miiverse complaining that they couldn't find it.  But in Yoshi games, I'll try and cram Yoshi anywhere he'll fit (Takei.gif), because odds are there's a winged cloud there if nothing else.

Good point, actually. On Yoshi's Island I still explore every nook and cranny, so this probably fits with the tone of the game. I do feel the number of collectibles is a bit overwhelming though -- that's actually part of the reason I didn't get Tropical Freeze. When I played it on another friend's Wii U, it felt like hard work. I blame my pride, I never like rushing through platformers or missing trinkets.

One thing I have found irritating throughout the Yoshi series is how jumping into a random empty space, sometimes almost entirely untelegraphed, will make a winged cloud appear. That's not detective work, that's just jumping around until you find something!

Still, I much prefer the ability to get everything on multiple playthroughs. YI's scoring system annoyed the heck out of me. In fact, (whisper it) I'm enjoying this more than I ever enjoyed YI thus far.

An hour or so ago I felt the pull of the wool. After a couple of levels only, admittedly, I am very happy. It looks grand and though it feels a little loose, it's very fun. My main? Dark Pitoshi.

I needed help for the first time today. 2-7, the pyramid level, couldn't find one of the yarns. Bloody invisible clouds and nonsense.

ZeroJones wrote:

My main? Dark Pitoshi.

The edgiest of all Yoshi.

JayMoyles wrote:

ZeroJones wrote:

My main? Dark Pitoshi.

The edgiest of all Yoshi.

No-one quite knows whose side he's on - and he's so full of sass!

Surely the edgiest of Yoshi should be Marth or Link?

My YWW experience so far:

Level by level:

Yup, I just had one of those today. Went back through the level and found it, though. This game is bad for my completionist habits, as I force myself to find every bloody thing before pressing on. Still not as bad as the original YI, where you had to get everything in one go.

Oh, and in 3-5 (the very last level I played, where Yoshi shows off what a dreadful babysitter it is), there are a few truly evil collectables that I managed to miss completely, twice. Had to go back through the entire level to find them.

I can't be the only one playing this, surely?  It's so cute! Also, just when I felt that the game was starting to get a bit formulaic (end of world 3), it threw a couple of brilliant new ideas my way.  

Now, I'm not saying that Sky Pop Yoshi is the best thing in gaming ever, no.  That would be exaggerating.  It's not in a 3D world.  I'm only saying it's in the top 5.

World 3-S spoiler:

fronkhead wrote:

I'm not really excited about this, but I'm sure it'll be good, it's just again toiling in the shadow of the 1995 original. Kirby's Epic Yarn was great because Good-Feel were making something almost entirely new, whereas this is trying hard to be a Yoshi game. Looks promising from the Direct footage, though this hands-on doesn't sound too promising: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-28-what-lies-beneath-the-charming-exterior-of-yoshis-woolly-world

But the sections where I was really left bemused was when the way forward was hidden behind scenery without any obvious clue where to look, and only by trial and error did I find the main path. Such hidden areas are fine for secrets or collectibles, but when jumping against random walls is needed to finish a level, something isn't quite right.

:/ Hoping they get the flow of discovery right, I really enjoyed unravelling (ahem) Yoshi's Island's levels.

I've only had a couple of hours with the game, but this more or less sums up my early-ish impressions of Woolly World. I'm having good fun with it, but for me, thus far its lacked even a superficial impact, because it's very much predated by Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Island DS and, unfortunately, Kirby's Epic Yarn.