- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release Date: May 21, 2026
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May 19, 2026Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a game that screams exploration, manipulation, and discovery. A revolution capable of doing for 2D platformers and adventures what Breath of the Wild did for open worlds. It is, in short, the Nintendo Switch 2 gem you didn't know you needed. [Recommended]
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May 19, 2026My instinct is to say that I hope to see these ideas fully realized in a more traditional Yoshi game, but I’m not sure if that would be the right solution. Turn Yoshi and the Mysterious Book into a proper platformer where you need to use creatures’ powers to solve your way through levels, and you basically have a Kirby game. What makes this unique is how contained it is, even if that’s what holds it back too. It’s as if you’ve been tossed into the whimsical playtesting lab Nintendo uses to poke and prod at every creature it designs for a new game — more of an extension of Super Mario Maker’s creative freedom than Super Mario Bros. Wonder’s meticulously designed platforming. If anything, a sequel could stand to drop the level-based structure entirely in favor of a true sandbox full of critters to be experimented on. The idea never fully hatches, but I can appreciate the playful concept it’s flutter-jumping towards with great effort. It doesn’t capture that timeless joy of experiencing World 1-1 for the first time, but it at least helps you understand how Nintendo engineers those magical moments.
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May 19, 2026Like the original Yoshi’s Island on the SNES, it’s a game that takes the traditional Super Mario formula as its starting point, but reimagines it into something that ultimately feels completely different. Even in a genre that has been around for decades, Nintendo somehow keeps finding ways to surprise.