Yoshi and the Mysterious Book review – Adorable discoveries await

How can you not love Yoshi? The adorable green dinosaur has been a staple in Nintendo games since way back in 1990, and he's even made his way to the big screen this year. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book feels like a game that's trying to capitalize on Yoshi's mainstream silver screen fame, introducing a whole new generation of young gamers to his cuteness and unique platforming. Thankfully, it's been crafted with care in a way that makes it a total joy to play, even if it's a bit too easy and not very long.Story time Screenshot by Destructoid When a talking book named Mister E. (short for Mr. Encyclopedia) crash-lands on Yoshi's Island, it's up to all of the Yoshis to come together and solve a mystery within its pages by 2D-platforming through multiple chapters and environments. Bowser Jr. and Kamek are up to no good once again, looking for something powerful and unique inside the book, constantly getting into trouble and causing hijinks that the Yoshis need to solve, driving the plot forward. But really, it's all about the Mysterious Book and helping Mr. E learn and remember all about the flora and fauna found in its multiple biomes. And that's where all of the fun in this game can be found: discovery and curiosity. Throughout the book's stop motion-like animated pages are all sorts of goofy animals and plants that Yoshi (you can swap out to any other color variant in between levels) interacts with to learn about them: licking and eating them, jumping on them, or tossing them onto its back to take them for a ride. Using the creatures' unique abilities and combining them with different living things helps Yoshi complete each level, filling up the pages with information like you would find in an encyclopedia. Every plant or animal you find feels like a puzzle piece in the grand scheme of finishing the game. The whimsical creatures within include a spider whose web you can use to reach high points, a jellyfish that absorbs water so you can jump on it and shoot into the air like a spout, or a bird that's shaped like an umbrella so you can glide around the area. And the cutest part is, once you've "researched" the creature enough, you can give it its own unique name (or let Mr. E do it for you). A lot of the names are funnily Pokémon-like, such as Bunchabee (a bunch of bees) or Croakaoke (a frog that sings), and I got quite a few chuckles out of the myriad puns. Each unique discovery for every creature rewards stars that are used to progress through the stages, with a clear goal given. These stars are quite easy to find, but the same can't be said for the yellow flowers, found in each level, that are eventually used to unlock HUD upgrades. Screenshot by Destructoid New creature discoveries pop up again in later levels, so keeping that knowledge of what each creature can or can't do will help you solve each stage. And thankfully, you can open Mr. E's pages at any time to go back for a reminder whenever you need to.A real page-turner Screenshot by Destructoid Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a very basic platformer at its heart, and there's not much challenge to be found other than using the creatures and environment to solve puzzle-like obstacles to reach each level's end goal, which ranges from finding all creatures, reaching a high point, or watering flowers. There's a good amount of variety within each level, even if the gameplay is same-y. There are several boss fights throughout the game, but there's no fail state. If Yoshi takes damage or falls off a ledge, they will simply shake it off or quickly respawn with no punishment at all. This takes away from some of the stakes and also reinforces the game's assumed goal of being family-friendly. Mr. E is omnipresent throughout the game, commenting on what's happening, but thankfully, he doesn't backseat-game too much. You can press the L button at any time for a hint from him if you get stuck, but it's not oppressive. I didn't need to do so all that often, since a lot of the "puzzle solving" and "research" within the pages can be found rather easily or even by accident, just by running around and licking, jumping, tail-whipping, or butt-slamming the creatures or their environment. Like other Nintendo games in this generation, the Mysterious Book gets better the further Yoshi progresses, opening everything up a bit more and allowing for some more fun climactic moments towards the end, especially when visiting previous levels to interact with creatures you've discovered since completing them. Image via Nintendo Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is also a short-ish game, with the full story taking around 10 hours to finish, but there's plenty of collectibles to find for completionists who want to 100 percent everything. When the credits rolled, I felt quite delighted with my time in the Mysterious Book. It was simple and short, but Yoshi's cuteness and some unique gameplay mechanics sprinkled throughout the pages via funny-looking creatures made every minute quite ente

May 19, 2026 - 21:35

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book review – Adorable discoveries await

How can you not love Yoshi? The adorable green dinosaur has been a staple in Nintendo games since way back in 1990, and he's even made his way to the big screen this year.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book feels like a game that's trying to capitalize on Yoshi's mainstream silver screen fame, introducing a whole new generation of young gamers to his cuteness and unique platforming. Thankfully, it's been crafted with care in a way that makes it a total joy to play, even if it's a bit too easy and not very long.

Story time

Screenshot by Destructoid When a talking book named Mister E. (short for Mr. Encyclopedia) crash-lands on Yoshi's Island, it's up to all of the Yoshis to come together and solve a mystery within its pages by 2D-platforming through multiple chapters and environments.

Bowser Jr. and Kamek are up to no good once again, looking for something powerful and unique inside the book, constantly getting into trouble and causing hijinks that the Yoshis need to solve, driving the plot forward. But really, it's all about the Mysterious Book and helping Mr. E learn and remember all about the flora and fauna found in its multiple biomes. And that's where all of the fun in this game can be found: discovery and curiosity.

Throughout the book's stop motion-like animated pages are all sorts of goofy animals and plants that Yoshi (you can swap out to any other color variant in between levels) interacts with to learn about them: licking and eating them, jumping on them, or tossing them onto its back to take them for a ride. Using the creatures' unique abilities and combining them with different living things helps Yoshi complete each level, filling up the pages with information like you would find in an encyclopedia. Every plant or animal you find feels like a puzzle piece in the grand scheme of finishing the game.

The whimsical creatures within include a spider whose web you can use to reach high points, a jellyfish that absorbs water so you can jump on it and shoot into the air like a spout, or a bird that's shaped like an umbrella so you can glide around the area. And the cutest part is, once you've "researched" the creature enough, you can give it its own unique name (or let Mr. E do it for you). A lot of the names are funnily Pokémon-like, such as Bunchabee (a bunch of bees) or Croakaoke (a frog that sings), and I got quite a few chuckles out of the myriad puns.

Each unique discovery for every creature rewards stars that are used to progress through the stages, with a clear goal given. These stars are quite easy to find, but the same can't be said for the yellow flowers, found in each level, that are eventually used to unlock HUD upgrades.

Screenshot by Destructoid New creature discoveries pop up again in later levels, so keeping that knowledge of what each creature can or can't do will help you solve each stage. And thankfully, you can open Mr. E's pages at any time to go back for a reminder whenever you need to.

A real page-turner

Screenshot by Destructoid Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a very basic platformer at its heart, and there's not much challenge to be found other than using the creatures and environment to solve puzzle-like obstacles to reach each level's end goal, which ranges from finding all creatures, reaching a high point, or watering flowers. There's a good amount of variety within each level, even if the gameplay is same-y.

There are several boss fights throughout the game, but there's no fail state. If Yoshi takes damage or falls off a ledge, they will simply shake it off or quickly respawn with no punishment at all. This takes away from some of the stakes and also reinforces the game's assumed goal of being family-friendly.

Mr. E is omnipresent throughout the game, commenting on what's happening, but thankfully, he doesn't backseat-game too much. You can press the L button at any time for a hint from him if you get stuck, but it's not oppressive. I didn't need to do so all that often, since a lot of the "puzzle solving" and "research" within the pages can be found rather easily or even by accident, just by running around and licking, jumping, tail-whipping, or butt-slamming the creatures or their environment.

Like other Nintendo games in this generation, the Mysterious Book gets better the further Yoshi progresses, opening everything up a bit more and allowing for some more fun climactic moments towards the end, especially when visiting previous levels to interact with creatures you've discovered since completing them.

Image via Nintendo Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is also a short-ish game, with the full story taking around 10 hours to finish, but there's plenty of collectibles to find for completionists who want to 100 percent everything.

When the credits rolled, I felt quite delighted with my time in the Mysterious Book. It was simple and short, but Yoshi's cuteness and some unique gameplay mechanics sprinkled throughout the pages via funny-looking creatures made every minute quite entertaining.

The post Yoshi and the Mysterious Book review – Adorable discoveries await appeared first on Destructoid.

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