Surprise! Among a number of other announcements at the latest Nintendo Direct, you’re also getting something you can play right now - a wonderful single level slice of the upcoming Switch title, Yoshi’s Crafted World. The game, which exists almost as an evolution of Yoshi’s Woolly World that released on Wii U, and later on 3DS, is all about Yoshi exploring little dioramas made entirely out of paper, old food packaging and more. A bit like if you tried to make a game from a Blue Peter TV show back in the ‘90s. But the quirk is that throughout the game, you’ll be able to explore each level from the front, aka the neatly presented version, but then again from the reverse, like getting a look at the behind the scenes version where everything is held up by duct tape, or being held up on a stick by a surprisingly willing Shy Guys.
Of course, because it’s Yoshi, and its Nintendo, it oozes charm, and from what we’ve seen so far, it’s going to be an adorable little adventure across a brand new papery world. Wait, does that mean Yoshi’s permanently on the cusp of getting a paper cut on his tongue with all the licking action? Ouch.
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Anyway, back to the game. The Yoshi’s Crafted World demo will offer players one level, entitled Rail-Yard Run. As is always the case with a demo, it’s intended to give you a flavour of exactly what you can expect to play in the main game when it comes out on March 29. It centres around a little toy train, made from reused soft drink cans, cardboard and such sickly cuteness that I’m lapping it up like a cat. The aim of the level is basically to make your way through it from one end to the other, but as its a Yoshi game there are few challenges to take into consideration too. There are five smiley flowers to collect, 20 red coins (hidden within the classic gold coins).
The most important thing to remember is that pretty much everything is interactive, and can therefore be smacked with a well-aimed egg. Yoshi can now aim both into the foreground and background of each level, meaning almost nothing is out of reach (unless you need to solve some kind of puzzle to access it). There are plenty of tucked away areas, little platforming sections to figure out and Shy Guys to gobble up even in this one level alone. It takes about 10 minutes to complete if you get every coin, flower and hidden area, meaning it’s a good chuck of content to tease you into falling for the full game next month.
Plus, once you've finished the front side of the level, you'll automatically get transported to the rear side to see what's going on back there. Plus, you can play it two player, and try out the two different modes - classic and mellow. Heck, there's even a souvenir mode chucked in too. Don't you feel spoiled?
However, it is available to download now, for free via the Nintendo Switch eShop, so give it a download and let us know what you think in the comments below.
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