Review: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book Encourages Experimentation and Exploration

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book both is and isn’t what I expected it to be, but I’m still delighted by the results. It’s absolutely a low-pressure platformer with novel characters. However, it also feels like a bit of a puzzle, with players encouraged to pore over every page. This is unquestionably a special game, and one that both feels new and like a typical type of Yoshi title. It’s one of the more creative non-traditional platformers I’ve ever played.

Recommended Videos

Though this is a Yoshi game, things kick off when Bowser Jr finds an odd book in his father’s library. After reading about some creatures in it, he heads off in his Clown Car in search of one of them. However, this leads to him inadvertently getting sucked into it, the vehicle crashing, and the Yoshis all finding the book left behind. It’s then that the book wakes up and  introduces itself as Mister Encyclopedia. (Mr. E for short.) It explains that it chronicles different creatures in its pages, but can’t actually read itself. Since that information is gone, it asks if the Yoshis would like to read through and investigate the creatures it chronicled to recover the discoveries.

Rather than a typical stage and world structure, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book adopts a structure that ties in with the book theme. Each chapter is associated with a different biome, and the levels are entries for each entity. We use Mr. E’s monocle as a magnifying glass to read, then teleport into, the book to get firsthand experience with the characters inside. Some are friendly! Others don’t seem to pay the Yoshi much mind. (You can choose which color character you control, so it isn’t always Super Mario staple Yoshi.) There are hostile ones too! Rather than the goal being to get through an entire stage, it’s to trigger certain reactions or happen upon different discoveries via interactions with the beings in the book to fill up the article associated with each one. 

It’s that experimentation that makes Yoshi and the Mysterious Book so fascinating, since the ways of acquiring information aren’t always obvious. Yes, Yoshi licking the folks he encounter is always one of the first things on the to-do list, as are things like trying to pop them on the back for a ride or ground pound them. But other situations can involve leading characters somewhere, forcing them into certain encounters, pairing them up with other established creatures, and going through certain situations. These gives you entries that can be worth a certain number of stars and fill up their section, with said stars being put toward the hallmarks needed to unlock new Chapters in the Table of Contents so you can learn and unlock more. Getting the three-star discovery in an area unlocks a portal to hop out, but you can also head to the in-game menu and choose to leave it at any time. 

Go Ad-Free With Siliconera+View the site with no ads, be able to provide direct feedback about what we cover, and be automatically entered into our monthly PC game giveaway.Join Siliconera+

What ends up making it feel even more special is the way in which Yoshi and the Mysterious Book grows. There’s a lot of depth to it. In each Chapter biome, there will typically be one or two creatures immediately accessible. Others won’t show up until you start to chronicle those other characters. Once they do appear, their emergence might add more encounters or options to existing stages, making it worth revisiting those locations for more details. There are constant excuses to pop back and revisit. And, since there is a hint system tied to stars we’ve collected and a living ink blot creature that nudges you toward beings you should revisit for new insights that open up additional things, it also feels like it is impossible to get lost or overlook anything truly important. 

I also didn’t expect the narrative to be woven in so well, considering this does feel more like an adventure where the goal is to learn about creatures. It is woven into everything in a natural way. At the same time, when Yoshi does encounter Bowser Jr and Kamek the execution provides opportunities to learn more about the character that is the “star” of that Yoshi and the Mysterious Book level. It’s not only advancing the story. It’s introducing a new puzzle and chance to learn. 

Another thing I loved is how the way it is all handled means you can unlock so much so early on, allowing you to approach the additional Chapters in the way you’d like. Now, when I went into it, I decided I want to max out as much of the first biome and its critters as I could. As a result, but the time I was done, I had actually unlocked the second, third, and fourth due to the number of stars accumulated. So I could then hop around and prioritize investigating creatures I found most interesting or cutest, which felt like a really fun and unexpected way to play. 

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is not only an unusual platformer, its experimental nature can make it feel like an entirely new type of experience. I’m delighted by the idea of popping in and out of levels to investigate new finds about creatures and learning about what to expect from them based on an array of interactions. Especially since each case feels quite different from the other, turning every character into a puzzle to solve. It feels like a casual, relaxed sort of safari. 

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book will come to the Switch 2 on May 21, 2026. 

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is not only an unusual platformer, its experimental nature makes it feel like an entirely new type of experience. Switch 2 version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.