Review: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book Is a Lovely Game That Rewards Your (And Your Kid's) Patience

More puzzler than platformer, Yoshi returns in a game whose difficulty is entirely down to how much you want to poke, prod, and unearth its wonderful mysteries.

There are times where my children want to play a video game on their own, like the way my nine-year-old keeps asking to borrow my Switch 2 to play Tomodachi Life. There are times they want to play games with one another, like role-playing in Roblox.

One of my favorite dynamics is when they want to observe me playing a game and make suggestions on what would happen next, what character’s names should be, etc.

That’s the rhythm we’ve fallen into lately with the surprisingly delightful Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, a new Switch 2 game that’s ultimately far more (in a good way!) puzzler than platformer. Sure, you’re still jumping quite a bit, but this is a game without death. If you fall in a pit, there are no consequences. Which isn’t to suggest Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is without difficulty, challenge, or nuance! It’s quite the opposite. Instead, what the game asks of you is a deep well of curiosity and patience.

Onto my review…

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Yoshi and Mysterious Book

• Platform: Switch 2 (No support for Switch 1)

• Rating: E

• Price: $49.99 (Digital) / $59.99 (Physical)

• Players: 1

• GameShare Compatible? Yes

• Good For Kids? Yes

• Difficulty Modifiers: A very good hint system

As the title suggests, Yoshi’s on a new adventure with a “mysterious book” named Mr. E, whose pages contain access to a litany of odd creatures. Yoshi’s asked to play a detective, trying to decipher the patterns, behaviors, and secrets of those within.

The game is divided into chapters, with different “levels,” or areas of exploration, contained within. Each level focuses on a single creature that, at the start, you’ll know nothing about. There are no goombas here! It’s your job to hop in and…mess around.

What happens if you use Yoshi’s tongue to eat them? What happens if you toss them in the water? What happens if you butt stomp them? What happens if you feed them an apple? What happens if…? Each time you discover a new characteristic, it’s literally marked on the level, as a form of visible achievement. And it sticks around forever, too, so if you sweep through an area again, you’re reminded of past achievements.

Some humorous examples from my own time with the game:

• “Easily dazed when bopped.”

• “Tastes a little sweet.”

• “Sings when stepped upon.”

• “Sudsy sleepers nap underground.”

These are not the “traditional” goals of a video game. The levels don’t have end screens! You bump into a part that is no longer drawn and are stopped in place.

The real pleasure in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book comes from stumbling into the unknown, recklessly and mischievously. Like most Nintendo games, it doesn’t have traditional difficulty options, nor extensive accessibility features that, in turn, allow you to tweak the game’s challenge curve. (This is me, once gain, pounding the table for either voice acting or voice over support, because it frustrates my six-year-old that she can’t tell what’s going on while we play. ) Because you are not required to “do” all that much to move from one area to the next, that becomes the game’s “easy” mode.

There is also, thankfully, a very good “hint” system that has two layers. One, a small hint on what to do next. Then, a very specific hint on what to do next. You unlock these using the coins you collect while exploring, but I always had more than enough.

Much of your time are moments below, where you stumble into “oh, you can do this”:

(In case it’s not clear, the little fluffy creatures are “drinking” the water.)

Or you can pursue legitimately stressful sequences combining puzzle and platforming:

(Yoshi’s iconic fluttering makes navigating platforming stressful in its own right!)

Early on, you’re constantly rewarded for discovering things that often feel entirely driven by chaotic accidents and happenstance. You might not have meant to drop a creature into a hole, triggering a random series of events, but it turns out that was something for you to discover. At times, it’s not immediately clear why the game is congratulating you for something, which over time can give a sense of detachment from what’s happening onscreen. There’s a main goal in each area—like getting three big flowers to bloom—that prompts the game to ask if you’d like to leave and move on.

Again, this is where the game is offering an “easy” mode. How deep do you want to dig? When I played with my kids, we would quickly whisk off to the next area to see what weird stuff was on the other side. Later, at night, I’d come back for its secrets.

When you choose to move on, there’s an important task for Yoshi: naming the creature! This, as you might imagine, is where my children came in. Please meet…

Peekoo, as named by my nine-year-old:

Baba, as named by my six-year-old:

And Pokoloko, as named (again) by my nine-year-old:

There’s many more, but you get the idea.

It is, indeed, a strange game. I’ve never really played anything like it from Nintendo.

But in the hours I’ve spent with it, solo and with my kids, I’ve smiled a lot. It’s a joy to hop into a blank page and ask my kids for ideas on what we could try. And because each individual page has dozens of mini goals, just goofing around is going to unearth some reward. But if you want to eventually find all the mysteries, and if you want to track down all the collectible flowers, you will have to put your big adult brain to use.

(Some of them are really tricky…well, for me at least. I am not a puzzle master, and I eventually had to concede defeat on some objectives, knowing I’d require a guide.)

Like Kirby, Nintendo has used Yoshi to experiment, and Yoshi and Mysterious Book falls neatly in the tradition of the character’s spin-off origins with Yoshi’s Island, through Yoshi’s Wooly/Crafted World. Some experiments work better than others.

This, thankfully, is an excellent one.

No reviews from my kids this time around. They were mostly on the sideline here. It’s also not a complete review—I only finished the first few chapters. If I have any longterm concern, it’s that the game’s charm could diminish over many, many hours.

Have a story idea? Want to share a tip? Got a funny parenting story? Drop Patrick an email.

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Also:

• I’m a little surprised this is a Switch 2 exclusive. I can’t speak to what’s running under the hood, but it’s too bad people who only own a Switch 1 will miss out.

• The game grew on me over time. Again, puzzle games are hit or mess with me; I loathe leaving a collectible behind, but there’s a truly great hint system in here.

• Separately, my daughter is now obsessed with an old 3DS of mine. I’ll be writing about this later, but thankfully, she was smart and picked my Majora’s Mask 3DS.