Systems: Nintendo 3DS*
Release Date: January 19, 2017
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Good-Feel
Time Spent: 25 Hours, 10 Minutes Oh my god. I absolutely loved the visual aesthetic and how the Yoshi series has taken on a children's arts and crafts approach through a lot of the entries in this franchise, but holy shit this game felt like a chore to get through.
The actual mechanics I was perfectly fine with and I did like a lot of what was in the game as far as content goes, but the level design, I think is just something that I'm going to have to come to terms with, in that I am not a fan. I already talked a lot about this in my First Impressions of the game back in July of last year, and most of what I said still holds true now that I've finished the game. And by "finished" I mean that I defeated Bowser Jr. and Kamek in level 6-8 King Bowser's Castle, not that I finished all of the optional side quests like the Poochy Gold Rush stages, the optional Smiley Flower stages (by collecting all of the Smiley Flowers from every level in each world), or collecting all of the Wonder Wool in each stage. Oh, or collecting all of the optional sticker sheets to, I think, customize the colors and patterns on your customizable Yoshi.
As I previously mentioned back in July, my biggest problem with this game was that the levels felt too long. Sometimes spending just under 20 minutes on an initial run, only to finish with two Smiley Flowers missing, two Wonder Wool missing, five Pencil Patches missing, and having 5/20 hearts. Sure it could only take you just under five minutes if you already know where everything is. I know about the "See Hidden Items" badge and I will get to badges later, but even with that badge equipped, it only shows items hidden on screen, not items hidden in non-visible locations, so it's helpful, but not a 'show everything, everywhere" function. So the thought of replaying each level multiple times while focusing on one or two of the four different collectibles in each stage was not at all enticing. Yes, some stages were legitimately fun to play through and I did replay a couple of stages, but more often than not, once I finished a stage, that was the last time I played it. By the time I reached the end of a stage, I was ready to be done and didn't want to play anymore; which is probably why I picked up the game on 37 different occasions to play through 49 individual levels (not including Poochy Gold Rush stages and including only the first Smiley Flower stage). I have a handful of other gripes such as the frequency and location of checkpoints or what felt like the over-sensitivity on the 3DS joystick with its predilection to have Yoshi do a ground pound at the joystick's slightest downward turn, usually while I was hovering over a pit. But I'm sure that a lot of that could have been corrected if I played more frequently than for 20 minutes a time every couple of days for every couple of weeks. Git gud Yoshi!
I also loved the optional badges that you could use to augment/modify how you played the level. Badges were earned as you went through the game and used gems (in-game currency) to buy for use in a single stage. There were times when the game would announce that all badges would be free. When they first became available, I didn't want to use them on my first run-through of a stage, instead wanting to play through without any sort of help because of pride or something. By about halfway through Level 2-6 ("Lava Scarves and Red-Hot Blarggs"), I decided that I was going to use whatever badges I felt would be most beneficial. For this stage in particular, I obviously chose the "Immunity to fire and lava!" because if I was going to play through a level full of flowing lava scarves one time, it was going to be with an immunity to anything knitted in red and orange woolly yarn. Once it became available, I usually used the "See hidden items!" badge, again because I didn't want to have to replay stages over and over again looking for Patches/Wool/Flowers. I don't recall ever using most of the other patches like "Grab items with Yoshi's tongue" or any of the "All you can eat" watermelons, and I never used the badge to completely bypass a level, because what was the point?
One other thing that impressed me about the game was the music. There was a lot of music in this game that was only used in one stage, such as "A Little Light Snowfall" which is a heck of a piece to have been used as a one-off; granted in two games though. But the quality of the music throughout the game was full of cheerful and appropriately themed songs for their respective stages. Don't be surprised if we end up featuring more music from this game in the future.
Even though I didn't play a lot of them to their fullest extent, the mini-games. I think I just like how many there were, the different types there were (including the stop-motion shorts), and that they were completely optional. It really felt that Good-Feel developed a game that a parent could give their kid to play for months and not just be done within an afternoon. Even the Scrapbook Theater which includes 31 Yoshi Theater videos and an observational quiz that can only be unlocked once every 24 hours, an animated bestiary, and a list of all of the songs you've heard in the game; of the 65 available songs, I apparently am missing nine songs from somewhere. I love that there's a Mellow Mode, which adds wings to Yoshi and that essentially keeps him hovering at the same height as long as you hold down the jump button. It also adds the use of Poochy's pups that double as throwable yarn balls, point-out collectibles (both visible and hidden), and will attack enemies for you. It's an optional accessibility option for less experienced players and while I never used it, I love that it's an option.
That being said, I did take it as the game being very condescending when it would ask if I wanted to play in Mellow Mode after I died three times in a stage.
On the harder side of things, I did collect all of the Smiley Flowers in the first world to find out what the stage was that required you to find all of the Smiley Flowers in an entire world. What I was greeted with was a punishing and difficult stage without any checkpoints that just dared the joystick to make the slightest hint of a downward motion. I did finish the stage, but decided that I didn't want to have to deal with any additional stages in a similar vein, no matter how potentially accomplished I might have felt afterward.
As you have likely gathered by now, I have mixed feelings about Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World. Had the stages been half as long as they were, I would probably enjoy this game a lot more and I would definitely be more driven to try and find more of the collectibles on subsequent attempts. As it stands, with very few exceptions, I find that I'm a one-and-done when it comes to these levels. I may revisit this title if the 3DS is still functioning when The Squire is old enough to play, so maybe in three years? Until then, it'll join the rest of my physical 3DS games collection.
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