Yoshi’s Woolly World

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JaySevenZero
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Yoshi’s Woolly World

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can leave your thoughts regarding Yoshi’s Woolly World for possible inclusion in the podcast when it's recorded.
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: 309: Yoshi’s Woolly World

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

One obvious comparison that came to mind when playing Yoshi's Woolly World, at least purely on an aesthetic level, is Little Big Planet. And it made me wish that Little Big Planet had the same level of polish to it's mechanics. In fact, if Little Big Planet had Yoshi's Woolly World's platforming, it would go from a interesting experiment that didn't quite gel, to a really great game.

The only other comparison I'll draw is that both games exist purely to be charming and inviting. They're not aiming to be the most challenging and hardcore platforming games in the history of platforming games. They are both colourful, friendly, and bright little corners of the world, somewhere pleasant to escape to.

Of course, to be fair, Yoshi's Woolly World does not have level-creation, so its has the freedom to focus those mechanics more. And most of the game is tight, with just the right amount of challenge to relax to. In the spirit of other Mario/Yoshi games, you can choose to ignore all the extra collectables and just breeze though from start to finish. Or you can collect all the yarns on all levels and unlock some much tougher levels that will really test your platforming skills.

I am also a bit forgiving, as clearly Yoshi's Woolly World is not really aimed at the middle-aged men demographic. I personally found the game a bit on the easy side, but then for younger gamers this would be quite a treat.

For me, the best way to describe my personal feelings towards Yoshi's Woolly World is that, in my home, I have a Mega Yarn Yoshi Amiibo, plus the three variations of regular sized Woolly Yoshi's (Green, blue and pink) forever starring out blankly from the shelves they live on. And I'll be damned if I don't find them incredibly cute and charming, and it makes my home a more pleasant place to be. And the game feels kind of the same: safe, pleasant and comforting.

To put it in Yoshi terms: more yum than bum.
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Richard
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Re: Our next podcast recording (4.3.18) - 309: Yoshi’s Woolly World

Post by Richard »

Three word review:

Waiting for Switch.
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Suits
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Re: Our next podcast recording (4.3.18) - 309: Yoshi’s Woolly World

Post by Suits »

I’m currently in the process of moving and have almost all of my gaming stuff packed up, while I tried to put some words down for this podcast from recollection alone, I just couldn’t not dip back into the game to check my progress, so located my Wii U, unpacked it and fired it up again.



This was the game that was still in my Wii U, hooked up to my TV, when my Switch was delivered last April.

I picked this up a few months after launch and quickly got through the first few worlds until I lost gusto. I can’t remember exactly what it was but I stopped playing it for some reason, then came back to it about a year later and that’s when I really clicked with it.

I finished the story and began going back to the world and mopping up all of the extras – as you generally do. I will also admit, to using the bonus stamps. Some of the later levels and especially the bonus stages, where the screen is on an auto scroll, are tricky enough to get through anyway, let along guessing where some of the hidden items are.

At this point, I also switched to the Hasty control scheme and one that I tried to encourage new players to use from the start but also soon realised that it may be too much for someone new to the game and gave me an understanding of why it would be such a clear option in the menu.

It also made me spend a moment thinking about the attention that the game must have had once it was completed, regards the badges system and the speedier control system. Something that made me appreciate it more I think.

I didn’t mess with the Boss Rush mode, or even unlock the final Special level (ALL THE SUNFLOWERS :o ), as I just ran out of time as the Switch and Zelda was coming through the door.

I’d be lying if I said a part of me wasn’t wishing for a Switch YWW port but with the 3DS version available and a new Yoshi game coming this year hopefully, I find that very unlikely.

The game looks beautiful, a real stop you in your tracks game, that I think made the Wii U stand next to its more powerful cousins and still put in a good performance. I enjoyed the clever design aspects of in the material that created the world.

The buttons, pins, creases, felt, wool and the clear plastic bits and bobs really all came together and gave the game such a good aesthetic, quite a few times I’d call my wife in to look at the imagination used to create the levels, they didn’t look close to what they were supposed to be, they nailed it.

It’s not a realistic look, although it is in a way but it’s a fun, toybox sort of look that just fits so well into the Nintendo mould and something that they pull off very well I think. Even the YWW track on Mario Kart 8 makes me smile, as it makes me think back to the Wii U game fondly.

Performance wise, I can’t remember any sort of dropped frames or performance issues, which while I appreciate the game isn’t exactly shooting for the stars in terms of output, it’s worth noting that it ran like a game should run on release and looked fantastic.

I enjoyed the gameplay of this, it has a level of platforming, exploration and fulfilment that I personally find it hard to discover or get into nowadays. I also felt that the draw of unlocking Yoshi’s, to then play as, a perfect reward for spending a bot longer on a level to search for the yarn balls. In that regard it, felt more satisfying than say collecting all the Yoshi Coins in Super Mario Advance 2. It felt more purposeful and I suppose, if you’re going for a true completion, redemption – in rescuing all the Yoshi’s. (Some of those Yoshi designs looked incredible too – the Wii U one in particular).

The ability to float, throw eggs, and use your tongue gives a good variation to the platforming I think, allowing developers to place things in and out of reach depending on the competence of the player. I’d not go as far to say that that lessons learnt in the later worlds help with collection things in the early worlds if you go back, it’s not like that per say but you will certainly be a more competent and adapt yarn, flower and gem hunter.

While the tongue grabs and the yarn throwing is OK, I really enjoyed the floating in this one and it seemed much more refined than in previous Yoshi games, or rather it felt more considered when designing the levels. Some of the bonus stages are built around this mechanic completely, so if you’re not a fan, or not confident with it – you’ll struggle. It felt, challenging but fair in these instances and what started out as an impossible level, I had soon 100%’d. Proper video game satisfaction for me – excellent stuff.

The level design is also very fun, with a lot of verticality, exploration, splitting paths and jumping. Some of the fortresses and castles offer up additional challenges, while the bonus stages are bizarre !! Some of later castles had me thinking hard about things, they gave a nice change up to the usual gameplay style, although to be honest, I never really got tired of it anyway. One level on note I think, is 2-2 Duplicitous Delve ( I had to look that up), which had a series of doors that would switch you from aspects view of a house, front and back if you like, you used this to see clues about where to go next to unlock the doors or to sniff out collectables. I remember enjoying this a lot and when I saw the new Yoshi game at E3 last year for the Switch, it gave me feelings of that level, which is a good sign I think.

King Bowsers’ Castle was also very good and I had an inkling about what the Yarn Yoshi would be, so made sure to find that one – I wasn’t disappointed !!

To a point, I’d say that the majority of the challenge and fun I had with this game came in the hidden/unlockable levels, once you start to mop up the items. Driven on by the joy of unlocking the Yoshi’s that you are rewarded with when you find the yarn balls on each level, it became a bit of a quiz between my wife and I about guessing what Yoshi you’d get once you’d accomplished it. More often than not it would take me half an hour to find all the yarns on the later levels, which would set it up for a quick Yoshi run. Like I mentioned earlier it became a bit of a ritual, playing YWW for half an hour or so of an evening.

I genuinely think that this is a very well made, thought out game and that opinion on it will differ from person to person. This started out as a pretty, palette cleansing game that soon turned into a quick hour game, that turned into a hard platformer collect-athon, that turned into a game that I very much enjoyed.

I try not to big this up to too many or people, or even recommend it, for fear of people feeling let down by it. However, if I hear someone is thinking about playing it, or about to play it, I love talking to them as I enjoyed it so much.



This feels sooooo satisfying to look at :lol: :lol: :lol: .

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Jobobonobo
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Re: Our next podcast recording (4.3.18) - 309: Yoshi’s Woolly World

Post by Jobobonobo »

This is the most charming thing I have seen from Nintendo in quite some time. Who knew combining the gameplay of Yoshi’s Island with the aesthetic of Kirby’s Epic Yarn would work out so well? The level design is top notch and collecting everything is legitimately quite challenging; this is a far cry from the cake walk that was Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Since I played the 3DS version I got to try out the Poochy courses which I was absolutely glued to. Whenever I unlocked one, I would not proceed in the main game until I 100% those runner levels. The graphics are gorgeous even on my 3DS screen and the soundtrack was a real delight with a lot of tunes refusing to leave my head. For me, this game shows that Feel Good Games can produce a challenging but fair platformer alongside the beautiful visuals that we know they are capable of. This combination proves Wooly World to be a worthy successor to Yoshi’s Island.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (4.3.18) - 309: Yoshi’s Woolly World

Post by Simonsloth »

The main difficulty with offering my views on this game are that I am clearly not the target demographic. So I have offered my opinion then that of my 3 year old son.

Personally I found playing the single player mode a relatively dull experience. It takes too long to introduce new challenges or mechanics and I couldn’t help comparing it unfavourably to littlebigplanet. It is similarly charming visually but in terms of sheer inventiveness it doesn’t even come close. In its favour Yoshi has superior actual platforming with more tight control over your movement and is actually less “woolly”. I agree with previous posts that a hybrid of these two games with yoshi’s movement and sackboy’s levels would be fantastic.

My son on the other hand thinks it’s brilliant. He calls it yoshi’s “willy” world so often i chuckle when I hear anyone talk about this game and have to think hard to remember it’s actual name. My son is 3 so poo, wee and willy are his go to words for guaranteed laughs. We giggled a lot through this game whilst we played co-operative 2 player mode and I must applaud the designers because this is the first game we’ve played together and finished.

The game seems to want to do everything in its power to help you finish it. The level skip badges which are very cheap to buy allow you to bypass whole levels including end of world bosses. There are shiny eggs which grant invulnerability if you fail a section too many times. The easy mode lets you fly through the entire level avoiding most of the platforming and enemies. We ignored most of the sunflowers, yarn balls and other treats and simply flew around laughing. Unlike littlebigplanet which penalises the team if one player fails (making playing with my son impossible) this does not.

There are other co-operative games around but often they focus on shooting, destruction and a negative message. Yoshi’s woolly world is none of those things. It is a positive, charming and woolly hug which was boring for “me” but a delightful memory making experience for “us”
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Re: Our next podcast recording (4.3.18) - 309: Yoshi’s Woolly World

Post by RCheeze »

Leon used a phrase some months ago to describe the Flashback remake as having "off-the-shelf" graphics, as in 2.5D polygon visuals that are pretty standard these days. I bring this up to point out that I have found myself disillusioned in recent years with not only 3D games, but the glut of 2.5D games that we've seen proliferate the market in the era of HD gaming. Regardless of how good a game is, the visual style has become boring, in my opinion.

What does this have to do with Yoshi's Woolly World? Well, this game is the exception. On its face, Woolly World is a pretty standard Yoshi game whose platformer elements are clearly rooted in the Mario series, and whose gameplay and mechanics clearly brandish that Nintendo seal of quality. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay, I have to say the graphics and visual style is really what kept me so hooked to it. The yarn aesthetics, colors and variety of worlds kept me hooked playing it throughout the course of a few weeks. Woolly World carries a charm and a sense of pure enjoyment, the likes of which I haven't really experienced among recent 2.5D platformers (even ones coming from Nintendo). So, ironically, the 2.5D visual aesthetic that I've come to dislike in recent years is really the draw that kept me glued to this game until the final boss.

I cannot recommend Yoshi's Woolly World enough.
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