- Yoshi's Woolly World Review
- Yoshis Wooly World Zombey
- Yoshi's Woolly World Zombie Costume
- Yoshi's Woolly World Zombie 2
Woolly World is more than an attempt to find a magic that was lost; it is a title that carries the qualities of the best Nintendo classics
World 2 is the second world in Yoshi's Woolly World and Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World. It is a desert themed world. This world has nine levels: eight compulsory, and one optional special level unlocked after collecting all 40 Smiley Flowers for the world. Completing this world unlocks World 3.
As a whole, the story of the Yoshi franchise has been a constant search for an elusive nirvana that had, once upon a time, been found, but that seemed to have been irremediably lost somewhere a long the way; as if its developers had forgotten to write down a map leading to its location. Yoshi’s Island, the sequel to Super Mario World, had given the Yoshi-led line of platformers an incredible start, but what followed was a chain of titles whose highest points merely hinted at the greatness that had once been unearthed. The characters, the setting, the art style, and the mechanics were always there; the level design ingenuity, though, was nowhere to be found.
Yoshi’s Woolly World arrives to drastically alter that scenario, for it catapults the green dinosaur’s franchise to a level of awe-inducing quality it had not known for quite a while. The franchise’s first home console entry in eighteen years is, unquestionably, its brightest installment in two decades. It is an assessment that might not carry much weight considering the pile of average software that separates it from the series’ crayon-infused Super Nintendo inception, so its prowess is perhaps best summed up by declaring it is a title that often dares to be as good as Yoshi’s Island.
The core influence behind Yoshi’s Woolly World is blatant; it is a continuation of Nintendo’s adorable experiment of altering some of its properties by visually covering them in cloth and using that artistic twist as a trampoline for gameplay inventiveness. A spiritual successor to the first output of that exercise, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Woolly World comes off as a more confident and fully realized effort than the already great Wii sidescroller.
While the Kirby franchise had to adapt itself to the fabric-centered mechanics introduced in Epic Yarn by, for instance, taking away the character’s signature power-stealing skill; Yoshi, who goes after Kamek after he kidnaps his other dinosaur buddies, covers himself and the world in which he inhabits in fluffy wool and naturally thrives in that environment.
All of the core elements make the cut, and their integration with the stunning art style is seamless: the character’s tongue becomes a powerful tool to unravel pieces of the scenario that need to be dismantled, and his egg-throwing ability now launches balls of yarn that take down weaker foes, temporarily bind stronger enemies, and frequently reconstruct pieces of the environment that are not fully sewn.
The needles, yarn, wool, buttons, and stitches, then, go far beyond serving as eye candy. The astonishing beauty that is projected across the screen during each of the adventure’s minutes is certainly noteworthy. Joined by the high-definition visuals of the Wii U, the unbelievable creativity and attention to detail employed both on the settings and on the character design, which are all finely crafted with the use of a wide assortment of crochet assets, is enough to make Woolly World safely rank among the best looking games of all time.
Moreover, even though Woolly World is guilty of falling into the overly predictable Mario pattern of world themes – starting in a meadow, heading into a desert, a forest, and so on – its art style ends up lending the game a great deal of flexibility, as it is able to explore unique palettes within the domain of each setting. Additionally, there is so much freshness being exhaled by its visual design that its artistic direction never comes even remotely close to being formulaic. Despite all of those aesthetic benefits, though, Woolly World’s visual knitting yields its greatest and most valuable results on the gameplay department.
Through curtains, scraps, scarves, and other cloth-related quirks, Yoshi’s Woolly World is able to positively surprise players with most of its fifty-five levels. Some of them gravitate around obstacles that could have been pulled off without the title’s unique thematic; most, though, ride the idiosyncrasies of the game’s universe, and that is precisely when the game tends to be at its best.
Sometimes, things can be as simple as throwing a ball of yarn at incomplete structures to make them materialize, giving some portions of the game a pleasant satisfying feeling of restoration; in other instances, the inventiveness reaches grand heights through Chomps that can become rolling balls, Boos that turn into floating balloons, velcrum treadmills, knitting spiders, magic carpets, sliding curtains, and uncountable extra cases of level design brilliancy.
True to its kid-friendly aura, Woolly World’s level of challenge is tame. Many of the stages in the first two of its six worlds can be walked through without much trouble; from that point onwards, there is a noticeable difficulty spike that, while not reaching any extremely elevated level, will certainly make experienced gamers happy. Both youngsters and veterans will be pleased to know its levels have a sober amount of checkpoints that are placed decently far from one another, stopping the game from ever being frustrating even on the apex of its challenges.
To those that want to go beyond simply clearing the game, Woolly World – much like Yoshi’s Island and most of the games that followed – features a large amount of collectibles. For starters, five flowers and five wonder wools lie hidden in each stage. The motivation for collecting those goes far beyond pure completion, for while the gathering of all flowers in a specific world unlocks an extra stage that tends to be specially difficult; the joining of five wonder wools from any stage represents the rescuing of a kidnapped Yoshi, hence unlocking a brand new colorful character model for use.
Going after the flowers and wonder wools transforms even the most basic stages into meticulous exploration affairs, as those are frequently either well-hidden or located in places that require a great deal of skill to be reached. Therefore, aiming for that goal is enough to turn even the game’s first level into a twenty-minute affair, a rate of time that grows even bigger if players chase the title’s other two full-completion requirements: twenty special hidden beads in each stage and clearing all courses with full health.
Although the collectibles are undeniably alluring, they also present one of the game’s few glaring flaws; one that was inherited directly from its highly-regarded Super Nintendo predecessor. From time to time (though frequently enough to be detracting), flowers, wools, and beads will only be found if Yoshi happens to walk by the precise point in which an invisible cloud or pipe is hidden, prompting it to show up. Most are so randomly placed that only sheer luck or the obsessive exploration of every corner of the stage will uncover them. That occasional arbitrary placement displays a slight degree of laziness that heavily contrasts with Woolly World’s almost invariable cleverness.
The game’s second, and final, big issue is related to its boss battles. Most, if not all, are positively smart, as they even make use of a tridimensional perspective to extend the might and unpredictability of the enemies’ attacks. Sadly, all of them suffer from being a bit on the easy size. Furthermore, despite the fact that the final battles in each world are always unique, the mid-point struggles recycle the same two bosses – albeit in altered versions – three times each, a move that is, once more, not compatible with the software’s overall high creativity.
Those missteps, however, are almost completely negligible under the blinding bright light emitted by everything else Yoshi’s Woolly World does right. The first Yoshi game worthy of being put in the same category as Yoshi’s Island is a satisfying journey whose impressively elevated degree of inventiveness is guided by its cloth-inspired visual elements, which – more than lending the game an astonishing aesthetic – inspire its gameplay to take flights towards some rather surprising grounds. Woolly World, as a consequence, surfaces as more than an attempt to recreate a magic that was somehow lost twenty years before its release; it appears as the reestablishment of a beloved franchise and as a title that carries all qualities present in the most remarkable Nintendo classics.
Final Score: 9 – Phenomenal
Twelve frames for a single second
To produce stop-motion animation, you position models by hand, take a photo, move them a bit, take another photo, and so on. You have to keep track of how Yoshi and the objects around him should be moving as you photograph frame by frame, so it’s a pretty painstaking process.
12 photos are needed to create one second’s worth of animation. Put the above photos together and what do you get?
Behind the scenes
Let’s take a look at what happens during the animation process. This is the set where the animation takes place. With all the tools and equipment around, it gets kind of cluttered.
If you look closely at the photos, you’ll see that Yoshi and his pals are held in place by metal clamps. These are called “rigs,” and they’re used to keep objects in the positions they need to be.
Yoshi's Woolly World Review
The many faces of Yoshi
During the shorts, you may have noticed how Yoshi has all sorts of different facial expressions. How do they do that?
Here are some of the parts used for Yoshi’s eyes. These can be switched in-between frames to let Yoshi blink, change expressions, and more.
The Yoshi featured in the shorts looks a lot like the Yarn Yoshi amiibo figure, but it’s actually a little different.
See how the arms and legs are longer? Plus, there are metal joints embedded inside the stop-motion Yoshi model, which makes it stiff and heavy. Thanks to these joints, the animators are able to make Yoshi hold poses and move with precision.
Yoshis Wooly World Zombey
Photographing frames, rigs and all
Check out the difference between the original photos and the versions used in the animation. The rigs used to keep things in place stay in the shot and are then edited out later. That’s right – stop motion may seem like an old-fashioned method of animation, but it actually involve some pretty state-of-the-art image editing.
Here’s a behind the scenes clip we got our hands on to show you what the animation looked like during production.
A message from the production team
Here’s a message from Mr. Minegishi at dwarf, the animation studio, who lent his expertise to producing these animations:
“Stop motion Yoshi acts in his own special way, a way that’s different to the Yoshi you typically see in games. We hope that players will enjoy seeing Yoshi in a brand new light.”
In-game features
The game contains 30 different animated shorts. Each day you can watch a new one, so you’ll probably want to try to play at least once a day. You’ll also get quizzed on the movies you watch. You can try to answer the questions correctly to get Beads that are sure to help Yoshi along the way!
The lovable Poochy, who appears in the shorts, will also be getting his very own amiibo figure (sold separately or as part of a special bundle with Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World). It doesn’t move like Poochy does in the animated videos, but by scanning it at any time during a course you can call Poochy to your side, letting you continue the adventure with a faithful companion.
So if you ever need a little break from platforming in Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World, you can check out the stop-motion animated shorts! You can check out some of the videos and learn more about the game at the official Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World website.
Yoshi's Woolly World Zombie Costume
Figures shown not actual size. Visit nintendo.com/amiibo for details on amiibo functionality.
Yoshi's Woolly World Zombie 2
ESRB Rating: Everyone with Mild Cartoon Violence