You asked for it, you
got it. Coming at you hot off the press the highly requested Yoshi's Crafted World
Review. Personally, I adored Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story. I remember
when the N64 title was coming out and Nintendo had Yoshis you could take care
of! Nintendo bring this back please!
Today is going to be what I
call a Fast Cast Review. These are reviews for games
that I've spent less than 10 hours on.
- Story
- Game-play
- Pros / Cons
- Overall
- Final Thoughts
Story
The story for Crafted World is straight
forward. Bowser Jr and Kamek were after the Dream Stones that the Yoshi had.
One way or another the gems are scattered across the world and its race against
time to collect the gems before Bowser Jr.
I really appreciate the comic relief
and not over the top story that comes with Yoshi games. They're always very
simple to understand with nothing too over complicated to muck up the plot like
certain titles. I'm looking at YOU Kingdom Hearts "Time Travel".
Game-play
Those familiar with Yoshi games of
old, rejoice. For there is a control option to return to the scheme your muscle
memory remembers. This was my preferred method and the only one I used while
playing Crafted world. Staying very traditional to the previous Yoshi
titles of this kind Yoshi can eat baddies, turn them into eggs and use them as
ranged throwing weapons. Perfect for popping clouds, smashing an enemy,
or reaching coins and secrets in the background.
Every map is very straight forward
with a Left to Right design with a little deviation along the way. You'll
collect flowers, red coins, and try to finish the level with max health all in
effort to get additional flowers which help progress from one area to
another. After some time, you will unlock additional replay ability such
as playing the level in reverse and looking for lost doggos or going on a
scavenger hunt. Doing these will net you more flowers.
One of the features I really enjoyed
for this game was the costumes! I had no desire to use them, but I had a lot of
fun trying to collect them all. It's easy to do so. Essentially get
enough coins and insert them into a machine and out pops a Yoshi egg.
Green eggs are "normal" drops, red egg are "Rare" drops,
and gold are the "Legendary" drops. After a world or two you’ll
be given the option to choose your own path. I really enjoyed this
concept and thought it would bring some good immersion to the title as I really
enjoy choosing my destinations.
Pros
/ Cons
Pros:
- Easy Controls
- Great Art Direction
- Creative and Unique Art Direction
- Good Soundtrack
- Challenging
Cons:
- Overly Simplistic
- Overly Available Extra Missions
There was a lot to enjoy about
Crafted World! I was a BIG fan of the art direction. Not just the
direction alone though. So many of these maps and even the world map was so
creative! From Paper plate fish to a paper craft Yoshi Mech. The game
takes such easy ideas and incorporates them in a unique and fun way to
play. I will never forget using Magnets to complete a couple of the
levels and how cool I thought that was. I even tried using the magnets to find
secrets and get on top of the level. It was a very cool idea!
But one con for me is that the game
couldn't hold my attention for more than a few hours. Part of that could
be that I was renting this title and had Monster Hunter waiting for me, but
part of it was that some of the game play did lose my interest over time.
The over availability of missions was a big thing. Once you unlock the
reverse map option and scavenger hunts these become available almost
immediately after every single level. Having immediate access to these
kinds of turned me off to it. For me it made it feel like these were notches on
a to do list that I didn't want to do. But that's just me! A different
player might not feel that way.
Overall
I have a lot of good things to say
about Crafted World. The music, easy controls, control options, and
incredible art direction are all things I adore about this title. I have
my few negatives, but I feel those may very exclusively belong to me.
Personally, I am glad that I rented this vs buying it for $60 because it
couldn't keep my attention past a few hours. But those hours that it did were a
lot of fun and enjoyable!
Final
Thoughts
I look at a lot of things when
reviewing a title and I'm not the kind of reviewer to bash something, even if
it wasn't for me. Yoshi's Crafted World provided a nice relaxing escape from
life and more aggressive gaming, which is exactly what I was looking for.
Don't let that fool you though because some of those levels get very
challenging and if your shooting for 100% you have your work cut out for you!
Series Fans: If you loved Island and
Story the core game play is very similar! But the story might be lacking for
you as it was for me.
Genre Fans: If you're big into
collectathons and going for 100% this title will give you plenty of challenge.
New Fans: If you're brand new to
this series I recommend downloading the demo on the Nintendo eShop before purchasing
and finish the entire thing. That will give you a good idea of what you
can expect for the entire game.
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