I was tempted to title this post "A Not-Great Yoshi Game" or "A Yoshi Game I Didn't Like", but both of those would be inserting my own preferences into what is, objectively, a decent game (it does have an 80 on Metacritic).

But Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is the first Yoshi game (probably since Yoshi's Story on the N64) that I didn't really enjoy.

In this case, I think I've become that kind of person that knows what he wants from a Yoshi game, and this didn't live up to that. Or at least, the type of games that I like to play.

I've enjoyed previous Yoshi games immensely (Woolly World is the standout in the series, IMO). But, they've previously mostly followed a general platformer level-based design, with various collectibles, challenges, and achievements along the way.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book doesn't really do that. The 'achievements' and finishing a level isn't about making it to the end like a traditional platformer, but more about the experimentation and discovery of combining Yoshi and his abilities with the various flora and fauna that inhabit each level.

Trying to discover what to do with a level's creatures was a mostly frustrating experience for me. I'm not really the type of gamer to just randomly experiment with things just to see if they do anything. For myself, the discovery of working something out through random experimentation doesn't really overcome the frustration of nothing happening when you try the incorrect thing. This game (at least the non-compulsory achievements) is less about actual puzzle solving, and more about random experimentation.

So despite the Yoshis being adorable, the main game mechanic of Mysterious Book never clicked with me, and I was left just wanting the traditional platformer challenge I was hoping there'd be more of.

It took me a while to get the motivation to actually finish the main story of the game, so I don't think I'll be 100% completing it like I've done with every other Yoshi game.

I suppose what I really want is a 4K re-release of Woolly World.