Yoshi and the Mysterious Book preview: Charming fun, but lacking something

It's been seven years since gaming's favourite green dinosaur last graced our consoles with Crafted World, but Yoshi is finally back in his latest adventure, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book.

I recently popped over to Nintendo UK HQ for a hands-on preview of this latest instalment, and while I certainly came away feeling good about it, I can't help but feel that I wanted more.

Mysterious Book's gameplay and story centres around, well, a mysterious book. Mr E, as he is known, is a living encyclopaedia filled with information of various weird and wonderful creatures.

Yoshi is tasked with entering the pages of Mr E to interact with these creatures, learning all you can about them and recording the info on Mr E's pages.

For example, the first such creature is a flower-like creature – incidentally, all creatures are named by the player, or given a set name if you can't really be bothered.

In the pages of Mr E, Yoshi can do all sorts of things to and with this creature, such as bringing it near buds to make flowers bloom, hitting it with eggs, getting it muddy or washing it in water.

Almost every interaction you have with this creature, of which there are plenty, is recorded on the pages of Mr E, with each level culminating in one major discovery.

The first few levels I played took me through roughly the first 45 minutes or so of the game, and it would be a lie to say that I was particularly captivated.

But to its credit, this was very much a tutorial of sorts, and the further I got, the more interesting, and at times even head-scratching it became to find out the last few interactions.

After finishing up this section, we were skipped ahead to a section later on in the game, and this is where Mysterious Book's premise really comes into its own.

As you discover more and more creatures, they will start appearing on other pages in the book. The flower creatures from before, along with the others I found in the opening area, now appeared once more.

This time, however, they can be used to interact with the new creatures you've discovered, and vice versa, ramping up the complexity and potential interactions up severalfold.

This is where Mysterious Book really began to draw me in. Whereas previously, completing every page of the book was more of a formality to get done, some of these later levels offered up some rather ingenious little interactions to discover.

Combine that with the fact that these levels began to require a bit more skill to complete, via platforming challenges and the like, and it felt like we were finally on a bit of a roll.

Such is the curse of a preview that my limited time with the game forced me to repeatedly leave levels unfinished so I could see everything that was on offer, because I would have happily sat and seen every one of those later levels to completion.

Now, there are two things that I think should be made very clear about Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, so as to avoid disappointment.

Firstly, this is not a Yoshi platformer in the traditional sense. If you were hoping for Yoshi's Island, then I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, as this is more of a collectathon masquerading as a platformer than an out-and-out one.

Secondly, this is a game that very obviously aimed at, or at the very least considerate of children.

It's hardly a surprise. Given his more prominent appearance in the recent Super Mario Galaxy Movie, it seems Nintendo is keen on bringing Yoshi back into the limelight, capitalising on his popularity with merchandise, crossovers, and of course, games.

As such, Mysterious Book is a game that, while adults can and will enjoy, is made with children in mind, and is therefore not really going to pose any real kind of challenge, if that's what you were hoping for.

Even in the case of more difficult to discover secrets in the game, there are a wealth of hints available that you can use to point you in the right direction.

In that sense, Mysterious Book looks to be a game that would be ideal for a parent and child to play together.

What I am less sure of, is whether this game is perhaps too simplified for an older audience.

Regardless, for anyone who plays this game – child or not – I am almost certain that they will get something well worth playing.

From the beautiful, pencil-shaded art-style to the wealth of creative mechanics to discover, Yoshi and the Mysterious book gleams with the quality and care we have come to expect of Nintendo's first-party titles.

For me, there is no question that this will be a quality game. I just hope that when I see the full thing, there will be a bit more substance to back up that style.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book launches on 21 May 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2.

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