Yoshi's Wooly World (Wii U) Review

 (Originally posted on January, 2016)

(2015, Wii U)

Right from the initial January 2013 footage, Wooly World appeared quite a bit more promising than nearly all previous Yoshi follow-ups, though I long gave up on the idea that anything new in series could surpass the original, all-time classic Yoshi’s Island. As more and more information on the game came to light, it seemed to be shaping up better and better. The agitating reasons (the Wii U’s software drought) behind the delayed American release drained some of my enthusiasm, but over the weeks and months, the praise and positive impressions continued to roll in, reigniting my interest. Wishing to distract myself from the temptation of the enticing (but not yet personally necessary) $300 PlayStation 4, I instead bought Wooly World for about $43 during the Black Friday sales.

Right upon starting the game, the atmosphere sure sucks you in quickly! Kamek is lovably villainous, as are the Yoshis in their adorable state of contentment while dwelling on Craft Island. The in-your-face wool theme isn’t a cheap gimmick at all, as the artists frequently surprise and charm by going all out with their whimsical use of buttons, leather, denim, knitting tools and more. All these elements compose the world and replace pretty much every object, all the way down to lint coming off the stalk of a sunflower and flowing cloth ‘streams’ of water and lava. Easy to notice thanks to the stages’ near-constant 60FPS, there’s a bit of an odd stillness within much of the scenery. This actually works out perfectly, as the moving characters and platforms stand out as magical amongst an appropriate and expectantly tranquil textile world. Every once in a while the game will throw out a neat perspective change that goes beyond the standard 2.5 formula. This works especially well in spicing up the game’s boss fights.

Sounding even better than I expected, the game is full of really nice organic instrumentation, yet still sounds like what you’d expect from a 16-bit style playing videogame. “Yarn Yoshi Takes Shape!” is delightfully annoying. “Bounceabout Woods” is infectious and clap-able as you climb higher and higher up the trees. The mood of “Spongecave Spelunking” is very similar to the catchy elevator music style of Animal Crossing. “Knitty Knotty Windmill Hill” is very uplifting, matching the bliss of floating from one windmill to the next. I loved the Drum & Bass coming out of nowhere when fighting World 6’s boss. “Duplicitous Delve” has the same sort of playful ‘video gamey challenge’ as Super Mario 3D World’s Beep Bop Skyway, but here the computer instrumentation is contrasted by the game’s ever present acoustic guitar. “Yoshi and Cookies” has the same infectiousness as Prince’s Raspberry Beret. Sounding like it belongs in a dystopian anime such as Akira or Bubblegum Crisis, the synth heavy, mysterious “Frozen and Chilled” retains just a bit of playfulness among the stirring excitement to remind you this is still a Yoshi game. The very disorienting yet tranquil “Up Shuttlethread Pass” was able to inoculate me against what many consider the worst level in the game. The funky “Fort Course” is one of the most playful and distinctive tracks in the entire game.

Most of the stages are great fun, but as a whole are not quite as ambitious in design or ideas as their unique looks might have you believe. Still, there are some great ones such as a labyrinth heavily modeled after the original Mario Brothers games, right down to the sound effects. Making your way through a river running down an autumn forest, you’ll have to dodge a giant wool fish that jumps out of the water, taking up a third of the screen! Levels are scattered with many interesting, more-cozy than-claustrophobic caves like those from the first SNES adventure. Some levels have you climbing on cloths in a way not unlike Super Mario World’s metal fencing. There are a few duds too, such as the timing required in the 6-5 ghost house being much more frustrating than genuinely challenging.

My biggest point of dissatisfaction comes down to all the side-content and how it related to the core game. Wooly World asks the player to spend a lot of time in the levels exploring and tracking down several types of items in order for the game’s putois to be most fully appreciated, but the lack of compelling quality/innovation within the levels (for me personally, at least) and somewhat stale controls of Yoshi himself couldn’t keep me there long enough to complete the challenge. While the overall experience is quite good, after toppling the final boss and unlocking just one hidden stage, I was more interested in moving on to a new game rather than spend dozens (?) of more hours collecting everything. It’s not as if I can’t get really into a 2D platformer, as I had no problem unlocking everything in New Super Mario Bros U thanks to its faster and overall more enjoyable mechanics or DKC:TP, which has some of the most gorgeous, livable and best presented stages ever seen in a 2D platformer.

The series’ staple of giant bosses infused with Kamek’s magic don’t quite live up to the fresh sense of spectacle and astonishment in seeing them take up your whole screen for the first time on the SNES 20 years ago, but they’re still well done none the less. One boss basically copies an encounter seen in Goemon’s Great Adventure for the N64. All for the better, as developer Good Feel was founded by ex-Konami employee Etsunobu Ebisu. 4-8’s boss in particular is a really fun and grand take on a longtime foe from the Mushroom Kingdom. I was disappointed that an epic rematch with ‘Rafeal the Raven’ seemed to be looming, yet never delivered. The final boss is rather anti climatic, but sports some really neat lighting effects. Like the other games, there are occasional transforming segments, this time set in their own mini-stages within a level. The motorcycle Yoshi transformation is exceptionally fun, which I wish had more stages.

I got a sense that the whole game was built more around hooking the audience with the craft theme, while secondarily making a strong attempt to emulate Nintendo’s platforming excellence, but just not quite getting there. I played through Wooly World at a slightly rushed pace, which was fun, but to fully appreciate all the charm and details, you really need to devote the time energy to explore every last corner of the stages, which I didn't find myself compelled to do (at my present mood anyway). Outside of the other platformers earlier mentioned, on the Wii U alone I'd rather attempt the tough task of getting platinum on Pikmin 3's mission stages or increase my grades in Bayonetta 1/2 than search for all the flowers/yarn capsules across dozens of stages I like but don’t particularly love. One day I’ll eventually yearn to return to Craft Island, possibly even realizing that I overlooked a lot. Wooly World is perhaps in the same league as Island, but in 2015/16 is lacking in all the then-groundbreaking elements and the sense that it completely encapsulated the best of an entire generation, which helped to make the original game so special to this day. Doing away with the perhaps unfair comparisons to Yoshi’s Island and other Nintendo games, Wooly World is an overall excellent platformer with a beautiful, inspiring presentation and fantastic music. With it’s power-up “badges” and “Mellow Mode” upgrading Yoshi’s flight, the game is perfect for beginners. Whether your stay on Craft Island is a brief vacation or a complete expedition, the game will knit well into any platformer/Yoshi fan’s library.