One Reviewer Gave Yoshi's New Game a 10. Another Gave a 6.

A perfect 10 and a 6 out of 10 for the same game, published on the same day. That's where we are with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, the Switch 2 exclusive launching May 21, and the gap between those two scores tells you more about this game than any individual review could.

VGC's Andy Robinson awarded it full marks, calling it "a brilliant, unique 2D platformer" and comparing its open-ended problem-solving to Breath of the Wild. Meanwhile, both IGN and Nintendo Life landed on 6/10, with IGN's Tom Marks describing the game as "the most charming video game bubble wrap you'll ever pop, and not much more." Game Informer split the difference at 7.75, acknowledging the charm but missing the tension of older Yoshi games. After 63 reviews, the Metacritic average sits at 80, making it the highest-scoring Yoshi game since Yoshi's Island DS in 2006.

The core divide is simple: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book isn't really a platformer. Yoshi can't die. There's no finish line. Instead, you explore little biospheres, studying and documenting creatures in a magical encyclopedia called "Mr. E." closer to Princess Peach Showtime! than Yoshi's Island, multiple reviewers made exactly that comparison. COGconnected scored it 9/10, praising the discovery loop after seven hours. IGN felt those discoveries were neat exactly once and then had nowhere to go. I think that split is going to mirror the player reaction almost perfectly: people who want a cozy, low-pressure exploration game will love it, and anyone expecting a Yoshi game with actual teeth will bounce off it hard.

The developer, now confirmed via in-game credits as Good-Feel, has been behind every Yoshi game since Woolly World. They clearly know how to make something charming. Whether charm alone is enough to carry a full game at full price is the question every buyer needs to answer for themselves before Wednesday.