Yoshi's First Game in 7 Years Ditches Finish Lines

Seven years. That's how long it's been since Yoshi headlined his own game, with 2019's Crafted World being the last time Nintendo's green dinosaur got top billing. Now, based on hands-on previews that went live today ahead of the May 21 launch on Nintendo Switch 2, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book isn't just a comeback; it's a complete rethink of what a Yoshi game even is.

The biggest change: there are no finish lines. According to multiple preview outlets who played the game, levels aren't completed by running from left to right and hitting a goal. Instead, each stage drops Yoshi into a creature's habitat, and the objective is to figure out what that creature does. Eat it, jump on it, throw things at it, feed it a chilli pepper, toss it into lava. The game is built around discovery and experimentation rather than traditional platforming progression. I love this. After years of Yoshi games that felt like gentler, less interesting Mario levels, giving the series its own mechanical identity is exactly the kind of creative swing Nintendo needed to make.

The setup involves a sentient encyclopedia called Mr. E (short for Mr. Encyclopedia, and yes, that's charming) who falls from the sky after Bowser Jr. drops him. His pages are full of mysterious creatures, and the Yoshis agree to explore his chapters and catalogue everything they find. As you uncover a creature's traits, your findings are scribbled directly onto the level scenery. Once you've learned enough, you earn the right to name the creature yourself.

Creatures That Change the Rules

What's caught my attention most from these previews is the systemic depth. Previews describe feeding a small Nep-Enut and throwing it into water to make it grow full-sized, then using it as a platform. Bouncy creatures called Glubbits can be fed chillies to make their bubbles turn spiky, opening up new traversal options. Creatures from earlier chapters migrate into later levels, creating new interactions you couldn't have predicted. VGC's preview draws a direct comparison to the player freedom philosophy Nintendo adopted after Breath of the Wild, calling it "Yoshi's own Great Plateau moment." That's a big claim, but the systemic puzzle-solving described across previews backs it up more than I expected.

Visually, the game uses a coloured-pencil aesthetic that nods back to Yoshi's Island's hand-drawn look. Nintendo Life's preview notes that colour fades at the edges of levels as if the page hasn't been fully inked yet. GamesRadar's preview was slightly less impressed, comparing the look to a watercolour filter rather than a truly bespoke art style, though they came away convinced by the gameplay regardless.

The difficulty question is interesting. IGN's preview describes the game as extremely forgiving: Yoshi can't lose health, eaten objects respawn, and failed platforming challenges simply restart. That's clearly aimed at younger players. But Nintendo Life and VGC both report getting stumped by later puzzles, with multiple solution paths that reward creative thinking. Nintendo apparently told press the game targets both kids and experienced players, and from what's been described, that balance sounds more convincing than Crafted World ever managed.

I'm more interested in this than I've been in a Yoshi game since the SNES original. Giving the series a discovery-based identity instead of just being "easy Mario" is a decision that could finally justify Yoshi having his own franchise. The game launches May 21 exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.