Yoshi and the Mysterious Book Reviews
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a charming, storybook-inspired sandbox experiment that trades traditional platforming for a relaxing nature-documentary loop. While imprecise physics, a thin narrative, and backloaded progression tools hinder its replay value, the gorgeous hand-drawn aesthetics and delightful creature interactions make for a rewarding voyage of discovery.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a video game that seems almost difficult to pin down. It has a unique concept: each creature behaves differently and has unique abilities, and Yoshi must discover them without knowing anything. It's brilliant, because it encourages exploration. On the other hand, discovering everything about these creatures leads nowhere. It's as if a potentially great adventure lacks a final goal, and instead settles for being good.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I have no qualm with the low-stakes nature of The Mysterious Book. In fact, some of my favorite games are cozy shop and farm sims. There’s a tremendous market for the genre, but I don’t think I want it in my 2D Nintendo platformers. Where Super Mario Wonder hooked me from the first level, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book told me to temper my expectations. This isn’t a fast-paced platformer, it’s a calm and deliberate exploration; a spotlight for creature design. And that’s fine if you go in with such expectations. Not every platformer needs to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experience. But The Mysterious Book definitely could use a shot of adrenaline here and there.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a delight. It’s perfect for both the young and the young at heart.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a fantastic sandbox game that encourages exploration and experimentation, constantly rewarding curiosity and imagination.
Review in French | Read full review
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book invites players to discover and explore, aiming to open the door to a less experienced audience seeking a smooth, worry-free adventure—something it delivers in spades, even if its non-existent difficulty level is hard to overlook. Even so, despite the occasional soft-locks and the inclusion of a few creatures that aren’t particularly memorable, there is a solid vein of creativity here that continually pumps out new mechanics and is well worth experiencing.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book demonstrates once again why Nintendo remains so adept at creating playful, creative video games. The exploration element gives the familiar Yoshi formula a fresh twist and provides a journey of discovery full of charming puzzles, surprising ideas and clever variety. Whilst playing, I found myself smiling more than once. What’s more, your discoveries later play a role in certain boss battles, which makes the whole thing even more clever. That typical Nintendo magic is everywhere: in the colourful presentation, the smooth gameplay and the constant stream of fun discoveries. The only downside is that the difficulty level is sometimes a bit too low, which means the tension drops off now and then. Nevertheless, this remains a particularly charming and successful Nintendo Switch 2 title, worthy of a review, for anyone who loves exploring, puzzling and pure gaming fun.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
While easy and cozy, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book may not be the challenge we wanted, but it does a great job of expanding lore, letting players use their imagination to explore a wondrous and inventive world within.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is not only an unusual platformer, its experimental nature makes it feel like an entirely new type of experience.
Nintendo's new production has multiple interpretations , all equivalent and all equally respectful of a precise stylistic and gameplay choice capable of encapsulating every different idea put forward.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a totally different experience from past Yoshi games, and that’s pretty much entirely to its benefit. Exploration and experimentation take center stage here, allowing for a riveting and charming platformer that leans more towards the puzzle genre than you might expect. While not every level is a winner, there are far more hits than misses, cementing this game as one of the most unique platformers around.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book innovates on a stagnant franchise by being a really interesting mixture between platforming, puzzle-solving, and zoology cataloguing. Collectathon enthusiasts and cozy gamers will have a blast with this low-stakes experience. It’s super easy but not condescending, adorable to look at (in docked mode, that is), chock-full of content, and best enjoyed in smaller sessions.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is an extremely creative and charismatic experience, relying much more on curiosity and experimentation than on traditional challenges. Its calmer pace and focus on discovery certainly won't appeal to all players, especially those looking for constant action or a more straightforward adventure. Still, for those who buy into its premise from the first few hours, it's an addictive, relaxing game full of personality.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Overall, I’ve had a fantastic time with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. However, it is a game you have to persevere with. Initially, it appears short and underwhelming, and although you never get the mega boss battles or tricky jumping of other Mario franchise platformers, the content does slowly unlock and eventually makes it worthy of the Yoshi brand.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is not the traditional Yoshi platformer some players might expect, but that’s also what makes it interesting. Its cosy exploration, strange creatures, and hidden layers make it a charming adventure that rewards curiosity more than skill.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book isn’t exactly a game, nor does it aim to be one. Instead, it becomes a dynamic lexicon for exploration, experimentation, and interaction with the overall system, changing the look of a Yoshi game.
It's hard not to appreciate the creative courage behind a project like Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Nintendo takes one of its historically more laid-back series and transforms it into something that completely rejects modern platforming conventions, crafting an experience centered on pure fantasy, curiosity, and the joy of discovery.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a captivating game. If the game mechanics of our little dinosaur are the same (eggs, tongue...), the experience is unique and completely different from the usual proposal. No more question of crossing the levels in a classical way, it will be necessary to think about interacting all the creatures of this Mysterius (the book) with its environment to discover all the secrets. Certainly, we are far from a nervous platform game, but we are clearly placed in an excellent family game, focused children (with the help of a “grand-e”) whose main defect remains that it is only played solo.
Review in French | Read full review
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book invites us back to Yoshi's Island with a fresh, fun, and original adventure that will keep us hooked "between its pages" for hours. It’s a game that sets aside the traditional focus on difficulty and reflexes, choosing instead to center on curiosity, investigation, and experimentation—a cocktail that makes it a highly compelling choice and a must-have for our Nintendo library.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book understands that happiness is to be found in simple astonishment, not in perpetual worsening. It invites you to look at, experiment with, and enjoy the little nuances about the environment that most platformers would skip right over.