Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World|Nintendo 3Ds | No More Beta Reviews

Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World is a charming and exciting Wii U port for the Nintendo 3DS. Join Poochy and Yoshi as they help rescue their Yoshi pals from Kamek in 6 lively and cute worlds.

With the world crafted out of yarn and stitched up fabric, Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World on the 3DS makes for a very fun and addicting game.

Akin to Kirby’s Epic Yarn and somewhat of a spiritual successor to Yoshi’s Island, albeit with Mario absent, this Wii U port delivers familiar gameplay, great music and adorable graphics with a splash of story thrown in for good measure.

With it’s light plot, Yoshi’s Woolly World starts off with Kamek transforming multiple Yoshi’s into little adorable yarn bundles, scattered throughout six worlds and it’s up to Yoshi to rescue them.

Gameplay will feel familiar to those who’ve played Yoshi’s Island back in the day, with Yoshi sucking up enemies, creating yarn balls, using the downward stomp and mid-air flutter. Environmental elements add to the gameplay in small but very creative ways: blocks in your way have a piece of yarn sticking out to pull, Chain Chomps can be hit with a ball to turn them into a boulders, allowing you to use them to access previously blocked paths and sections can be crumbled like an accordion to reveal a hidden path. This adds to the already vivid world but where it falls a bit, is certain hidden sections just go transparent, breaking the playful visual and instead of having something creative such as the foreground unravel like a knitted section or yarn collapsing.

Items are a staple for Yoshi games but Woolly World gives you an incentive to collect them all. Beads can be spent on Power Badges that give you added support like having Poochy in every level, recovering from bottomless pits and use items that give Yoshi different abilities. Collecting all flowers in a level gives you a chance at a bonus end level and getting all of them in a world opens up a secret level at the end. But my favorite has to be the Yarn Bundles. Finding them all in a level unlocks a different yarn skin for Yoshi, adding to the already colorful world.

The game has two modes: Classic and Mellow, the latter geared towards more casual gamers and children. In mellow mode, Yoshi gains wings to fly indefinitely and has Poochy Pups accompany him, replacing the yarn balls you get from enemies and can be thrown. These cute and adorable pups sniff out hidden items, paths and even protect Yoshi from enemies. This opens up the game to a wider audience by making it more accessible but still allowing players to play it in Classic mode.

Unlike Mellow mode where Poochy Pups accompany Yoshi each level, Poochy himself is underutilized, only being included in handful of levels unless you spend your beads on Power Badges every level. Being the first name on the title, Nintendo could’ve used him in a more creative way, giving gamers an excuse to replay this port. Even so, the player doesn’t fully take control of Poochy; he’s more like a sidekick, getting over and under obstacles which leaves you unfulfilled. 

However, in Poochy Dash, the player takes control of the cuddly pup in a endless runner type game. You control Poochy as he runs through levels, collecting as many beads as he can and finding his Poochy Pups along the way. It’s an added bonus and a nice break from the main game, adding a competitive feel.

Yoshi’s Hut and Yoshi Theater are two more bonuses to this port. In Yoshi’s Hut, you can customize your look by decorating Yoshi with different patches you’ve collected and drawing designs directly on him. There’s easy mode that does a great job for beginners and expert, where you’re in control of each part of Yoshi. I comfortably stayed in easy mode myself.

Yoshi’s Theater brings 31 stop-motion animated shorts, unlocking one each day after the last one has been watched. Although this doesn’t impact gameplay directly, it does add some bonus content to enjoy while taking a break from gaming.

Overall, gameplay is what to be expected from a Yoshi’s Island successor: Great platforming, fun mechanics and its lively, inventive visuals bring Yoshi’s Woolly World alive on the 3DS. Yoshi’s Hut and Poochy Dash add an already solid game and collecting all the Yarn Bundles in each level gives it that “just right” replayability. Throw in a charming soundtrack , Poochy and his pups and you get a solid Nintendo title even with it’s few shortcomings

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