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Kirby's Epic Yarn didn't blow me away, but I definitely had fun playing it. Thankfully, Good-Feel's Yoshi based follow up feels real good, and improves on Kirby's simpler aspects.
Yoshi's Woolly World is a platformer where the entire world is made out of yarn, similar to Kirby's Epic Yarn. However, unlike Nintendo's previous stringy platformer, Yoshi and his enemies look more like beanie babies and not just silhouettes made of of a few strings. Yoshi's new game plays more like a traditional Yoshi game, too. I guess this shouldn't be surprising, since it has Yoshi's name in the title, but this detail does flesh out the gameplay in some welcome ways. Like usual, Mario's saddled dinosaur can swallow up enemies and certain environmental objects and turn them into yarn balls. Player will be able to throw these balls and wrap up certain enemies or destroy objects in the environment.
During my demo at E3, associate editor Kyle Hilliard and I tested out the co-op. You can tongue your friend and even swallow them to turn them into a yarn egg, which can be thrown at enemies or to reach far away areas. Kyle might not have liked it, but that's the cycle of life. Yoshi's Woolly World is slightly more challenging than Kirby's Epic Yarn, since you have a life bar and can technically "die," but the game still isn't crazy hard. Players will likely have the most fun by exploring the environments and collecting hidden flowers and spools of yarn. At the end of each level, players are judged on their performance based on the number of gems they collected.
There isn't much else to say about Yoshi's Woolly World, but in classic Nintendo fashion the controls are solid and the visuals are adorable. Parts of the game looks so much like a real craft project that I was almost convinced they were real, but when I reached out to touch them my hand hit the TV glass and the Nintendo representative started to laugh at me. My hand almost hit his face next, but I was so charmed with Yoshi's Woolly World that I didn't want to cause a commotion.
I can firmly confirm that Yoshi's Woolly World is a video game and not a yarn diorama that Nintendo installed at the show. It's also a fun platformer that will be sure to appease platforming fans who are happy with a more relaxed experience.
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