I recently had the chance to preview Yoshi and the Mysterious Book at Nintendo’s office in Windsor, splitting my time across two 45-minute sessions that offered a surprisingly deep dive into what at first looks like a gentle, kid-friendly adventure.
The setup is simple but clever. You play as Yoshi, choosing from a selection of different colors, and quite literally dive into the pages of a mysterious book. The book is called “Mister Encyclopedia” or Mr. E for short, and each chapter represents a new collection of illustrated pages filled with strange, living doodles waiting to be studied.
Chapter 1: Introducing the Mysterious Book
The first session covered the very beginning of the game, taking us through Chapter 1. Early on, Mr. E encourages you to focus on your creature studies, which form the backbone of the gameplay.
Using Mr. E’s magnifying glass, you closely examine the page artwork to uncover mysterious creatures hidden within the illustrations. As you progress, the artwork subtly shifts and expands, revealing even more beings to discover. Each creature can be inspected, essentially forming the individual “levels” of the game.
Each creature’s "level" has a main objective, but there are also plenty of optional information and discoveries to gather along the way, functioning almost like side quests for players who love going for 100% completion.
Once you finish the primary objective, all the data you’ve collected is documented in the book, and then you can either name your discovery yourself or let Mr. E suggest a name, which was usually something pun-filled.
The whole experience here felt very cozy, with a “storybook field research” theme that fits perfectly with the idea that you’re literally writing an encyclopedia as you go.
Within each level, Yoshi’s classic abilities return alongside a few new twists. You can:
- Jump, including his signature flutter glide, by holding the button
- Use the long tongue to swallow creatures, with most turning into throwable eggs
- Swipe with his tail to flick certain creatures or objects onto his back
What’s smart is how these mechanics are introduced gradually. Early creatures focus on one ability at a time, but later chapters begin combining them in more intricate ways.
Midway through Chapter 1, I ran into Kamek lurking within the book’s pages. His presence is subtle at first, but it quickly becomes clear that something more sinister is happening beneath Mr. E’s surface. By Chapter 4 (more on that below), Bowser Jr. enters the picture, raising the stakes.
Chapter 4: Jumping Ahead in the Story
For the second session, we were dropped straight into Chapter 4, where many more creatures and mysterious entities had already been documented.
The pages here were much busier. This is also where familiar Shy Guys made their appearance, with the main objective in the section I played centered on rescuing them and returning them home.
The escalation led to a boss encounter with Kamek and Bowser Jr. near the end of the session. The battle took place against their flying ship, with Yoshi fighting back while riding on the back of a large creature with a drill-like snout.
It was more challenging than I expected, requiring careful use of the drill-snouted creature’s abilities while managing its erratic movements.
Visuals: A Hand-Drawn World That Feels Like a Book
Visually, the game impressed me.
The hand-drawn art style is soft, cozy, and almost homey, like stepping into an illustrated children’s book. The concept makes perfect sense given the setting. After all, you’re inside the pages of a book.
Hand-drawn aesthetics can sometimes look fuzzy or lack clarity, but that wasn’t an issue here. Everything had texture and depth, with crisp details that avoided any blurry, sketch-like problems.
This art style will likely appeal to both kids, drawn in by the bright colors and Yoshi’s cuteness, and adults who enjoy a cozy, straightforward Mario-based adventure.
Who Is This Game For?
Before the hands-on session began, Nintendo presented a short introductory slideshow. The messaging was clear: this game is aimed primarily at elementary school children. Early slides showcasing the wide range of Yoshi merchandise and toys reinforced that positioning.
Based on my time with it, this is undeniably a kids-first title. But, and this is important, it’s not just for kids.
Each chapter and "level" features a puzzle-driven design that surprised me with its complexity at times. While there are enemies that can damage you, I didn’t experience a traditional “death” during my sessions. Instead, the challenge comes from understanding each page’s logic and interacting with creatures in the correct sequence to complete the objective fully.
One example of the game’s depth is the length of one of my early recordings. The second and third levels I played in Chapter 1 totaled more than 26 minutes of gameplay (recorded). For an adult player, this felt like a long time, and I didn’t even finish the third section because I wanted to experience the rest of Chapter 1 before time ran out.
That third level, however, ended up being the most frustrating part of my preview...
When Puzzles Become Problems
This particular section featured large, singing bird-frog-like creatures with beaks you could jump on the heads of. Collectible chilies could be fed to them, causing them to leap and move. That's all well and good, but the problem in this area was that the objective wasn’t clearly communicated.
I found myself stuck, unsure of what the game expected me to accomplish near the end. Meanwhile, the constant singing sound effect gradually became grating.
While experimenting, I accidentally made things worse. A chili I knocked from a tall tree fell and was eaten by one of the creatures below without me realizing it. Later, I needed that larger singing creature to jump higher so I could access another area, but it had moved and gotten stuck in a hole I couldn’t get it out of. In effect, I had broken the level...
When I asked a Nintendo staff member for help (who initially thought I wasn’t actually stuck), the suggestion was to restart that section entirely. Maybe I just got unlucky, and perhaps there was another solution. But in the moment, it felt like this possibility hadn't been considered.
It’s possible I missed something obvious. Still, in that moment, it was frustrating. I felt unclear about the objective and unsure how to progress, though that could all be on me. And, in the larger scheme of things, this was one small hiccup in what was otherwise a very enjoyable preview.
A New Chapter for Yoshi
The last Yoshi game, Yoshi’s Crafted World, launched in 2019, so the character was due for a refresh for a new generation of players. Fortunately, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book feels like it does the character justice.
What stood out most during my time with the game was how relaxed everything felt, especially in the early stages. That works well because the goal isn’t to rush through each level — it’s to document the world within Mr. E’s pages. Naming discoveries adds a sense of ownership, and Mr. E serves as a strong narrative anchor throughout.
The growing involvement of Kamek and Bowser Jr. hints at a larger story unfolding across the chapters, suggesting the mystery goes deeper than simple creature cataloging. And yes, the game is clearly designed with children in mind. But its puzzle depth, layered interactions, and occasional head-scratching moments suggest older players won’t breeze through it effortlessly.
If anything, my preview showed that beneath its soft, hand-drawn exterior lies a surprisingly intricate little adventure that invites curiosity just as much as it rewards it. And sometimes, that curiosity might even leave you stuck listening to singing bird-frogs for 20 minutes straight.
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