For decades, Nintendo has been cultivating several strong brands, something different for each of them. They target a slightly different target audience, offer different gameplay, and are also visually differently stylized to highlight their differences graphically. Yoshi has quite a unique place among all of them. He started out as Mario's companion and it took a long time to see his own series. And when he got to it, his game is technically different in some way, but in one thing he is still the same.

Thus, the visual tone is tuned into the darkness of manual work. Already Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island looked drawn in 1995, Yoshi's Story brought worlds made of different materials, and if we move on to the present, Yoshi's Woolly World seemed like a whole game of wool. Now here is Yoshi's Crafted World and once again in Nintendo you have worked to make it feel like you are returning to your childhood and all its happening is happening right in front of you on your desk with the things that are there, whether they are paper, cardboard, or anything else. And again it worked great.

The game incorporates the identity of its predecessors, but builds its own. Of course, there must be no reference to wooly and cartoon worlds, and the mechanisms associated with them. So if you pull a short woolen string somewhere, it is possible that something will unravel somewhere. But it is only one level in one part of the world. There is much more, each level is its own world with a unique identity. Enemies are even office supplies that come alive and go your throat. All in all, there is a huge amount of ideas that make your imagination come alive in front of you, along with music that fits like an ass.

But there is one thing that Nintendo did not work out so well and when I am at the visual I have to mention it. I'm not quite sure, but the new Yoshi is probably the first 1st party of Nintendo running on Unreal Engine 4 and it seems they haven't learned how to work with the engine themselves. While the game looks good, it also uses dynamic resolution in both modes, which often drops quite low. With this look of the world, it is starting to hinder. The game runs locked at 60fps, although it might not need it. I do not consider this decision to be happy and if they wanted to achieve this effect so badly, they could at least give players a choice of fashion with a lower resolution at 60fps and a higher resolution at 30 fps.

It is no surprise that the story of the game fits precisely into the years of run-in rails of such platformers, so it is actually just to diversify and to set it all in motion. A group of Yoshi enjoys it happily in their hand-crafted world, to which all its magic power lends a sunstone made of five gems. For this magical power, however, begins to slap Bowser Jr., assisted by the wizard Kamek. There will be a battle that results in the destruction of the sunstone, and the gems from it spill all over the world. Now it's up to you to get to the gems rather than a bad dynamic duo. You choose your color Yoshi and go on the road.

In front of you is a really rich world, which is also quite large. It consists of different "islets" on which are scattered levels. Somewhere less, somewhere else, but there are more than 40 in total, and you will gradually go through about 20 such "islets", each of which is carried on a topic, whether in terms of environment or its design. Remarkably, how many children's fantasies have been crammed into these levels, as you will go through all of them and get into space in a cardboard rocket. There are water worlds, Japanese inspired levels, jungle, ice island and many more

The big advantage of Yoshi's Crafted World is the wide accessibility of the game to a diverse audience. After all, this series has always been directed towards smaller players compared to Mario or Donkey Kong. Not only stylization, but also gameplay is aimed at children and can be a good gateway to the world of games. But it goes even further by offering two levels of difficulty. One is the basic one where you have your lives, Yoshi can bear quite a lot and can also temporarily sail to jump higher and further. but then there is also a simplified regime, in which Yoshi has extra wings, so that he can flush where it might be a problem.

So if you have Sekira behind and need a break from frequent dying, the new Yoshi is a game that will give you that. If you already have children and want to play with them, even then Yoshi can do well by offering local two-player cooperation on a single console, which is customized to control. If the other player can't handle it, the first player can always “eat” it and carry it in the mouth for a while, or even use it as a projectile to fight enemies or collect inaccessible items.

Overall, however, I feel that the game is more demanding than the predecessor in certain aspects, but only if you want to make it more demanding. It is still nothing that cannot be passed, but here and there you will repeat some levels. They are full of things you can collect to achieve 100% in each. On the one hand, they are the flowers that are the basic collectible item in the game, which also moves you further, since you always have to "pay the entrance fee" when you switch to a new island. But you are also collecting other things, and here and there you will miss some of it, whether it is so hidden that you will not find it at first sight. This is complemented by challenges that actively encourage you to play the level again and find something specific there, such as Poochy

In essence, the new Yoshi is a classic 2.5D platform, but in this new incarnation it uses the third dimension more and you often find passages where you are primarily moving in the depth of the picture, or you are in charge of some action. Yoshi is running, jumping, devouring enemies and turning them into eggs that he can throw. This is how you fight, but also interact with objects, triggering switches and collecting things that are beyond your reach, for example in the case of lightning puzzles for which you only have a short time limit. This is a scheme you already know from previous games and it is a pity that the authors did not attempt to innovate significantly compared to the woolly predecessor.

However, some variations can be found here along the main line. These are bosses, for example, which you would definitely want more, as the battles with them are really imaginative, albeit classically, in terms of genre rules. But it's always an animated paper / cardboard / plastic thing that goes around your neck. The cosmetic items you acquire or unlock and can be used as costumes for Yoshi are also varied. It is a pity that the authors could not put these things more in the foreground to motivate players. You can go through the game without even remembering to change your skin. The same goes for unlocked music and game scenes. Even though the music is catchy, it is stitched somewhere in the menu, so you won't just play it.

Yoshi's Crafted World does not have big mistakes, but is still not entitled to a higher rating. It is still a quality, entertaining and catchy game that entertains both the smaller and the bigger, and in addition to the cooperation, but besides the visual it is quite similar to its older sibling who came out on Wii U. Moreover, the older ones fly through it quite quickly. It may take you some 7 hours (even if you have only 70% on your account), which is probably a little. Personally, however, I have the biggest problem with its technical processing, which I think should still be updated with an update to give players a choice of what visual experience they will get from the game