REVIEW: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book

Nintendo has built a long legacy with the Yoshi series, and whenever a new entry lands, expectations tend to run high. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, an exclusive title for the Nintendo Switch 2, was announced during the September 2025 Nintendo Direct and released in May 2026.

Right from its reveal, it was clear this wasn’t going to be a traditional Yoshi game, and that’s something worth knowing before you go anywhere near it. Go in with the right expectations and there’s a lot to enjoy here.

Story

The premise here is straightforward enough. One day, a talking encyclopaedia named Mister Encyclopedia, or “Mr. E” for short, falls from the sky onto the island where the Yoshis live.

His pages have been wiped blank, and it’s up to Yoshi to dive inside and help restore his information by discovering and interacting with the various creatures that inhabit his chapters. It’s a gentle, lighthearted setup that suits the game’s overall tone well.

Bowser Jr. and Kamek also turn up, because of course they do. The two are searching for a rare creature of their own within Mr. E’s pages. Their presence adds a familiar thread of mischief to the adventure without overcomplicating things.

The story isn’t trying to be anything deeper than a charming children’s storybook, and on that level it works nicely. It gives the exploration a sense of purpose and keeps things moving at a pleasant pace throughout.

Gameplay

This is where Yoshi and the Mysterious Book makes its big departure from series tradition, and it’s the aspect most likely to either win you over or surprise you. Rather than the 2D side-scrolling platforming action the Yoshi series is known for, this is primarily a discovery and exploration game.

The goal in each chapter isn’t to reach a finish line. It’s to interact with the creatures in each world, figure out how they behave, and log your findings to refill Mr. E’s pages. It’s a different approach, but once it clicks, it’s genuinely enjoyable.

Yoshi retains his classic moveset. You can jump on creatures, lick them with your tongue, turn them into eggs, carry them on your back, or simply observe how they go about their business. Each creature reacts differently depending on what you do, and uncovering these interactions earns you discovery points.

Smaller finds are worth one star, bigger ones worth three, which unlock the next chapters. Mr. E contains 12 chapters in total: six main chapters, four post-game additions, and two secret chapters unlocked after that, giving the game a decent amount of content to work through.

The structure is deliberately relaxed. Enemies can’t damage you, there are no lives, no fail states, and no real time pressure. The controls are responsive and intuitive, and the game is designed so that almost anything you want to try, you can.

For younger players or anyone after a low-stress experience, this is a real strength. Later chapters do introduce more complexity, with cross-creature interactions becoming less telegraphed and some discoveries requiring you to backtrack with newly acquired knowledge. The game offers hints when you’re stuck, which keeps the experience enjoyable rather than frustrating. There’s more going on beneath the surface than the opening hours might suggest.

Visuals

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book goes for a picture-book aesthetic, with environments styled to look like illustrated pages from a storybook.

Characters move at a deliberately low frame rate to reinforce that hand-drawn illustration feel, and it comes together in a genuinely charming way. The environments are colourful and detailed, with distinct biomes that each have their own visual identity and personality.

The game looks best in docked mode, where the art style really gets a chance to shine. Handheld mode is a little softer, though it’s perfectly playable and still captures the storybook charm well enough. The soundtrack is a consistent highlight throughout.

The music is light and whimsical without being grating, fitting the laid-back pace of the game perfectly. Yoshi’s trademark sound effects, the little vocal noises and “mlems”, are as endearing as ever, and the individual creatures each have their own distinctive sounds that add a lot of warmth and character to the world.

Conclusion

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be, and it delivers on that vision with confidence. It’s a relaxed, curiosity-driven experience built around discovery rather than challenge, and for the right player it has genuine appeal.

The creature interactions are inventive, the atmosphere is warm and inviting, and there’s more mechanical depth tucked away in the later chapters than the opening hours suggest. It’s landed with a Metacritic score of around 81, which feels like a fair reflection of where it sits: a well-crafted game that’s well worth your time if you approach it on its own terms.

This isn’t a game chasing the same audience as Yoshi’s Island or Crafted World, and it’s better for not trying to be. Taken for what it is, a gentle, imaginative adventure about curiosity and exploration aimed squarely at families and younger players, it’s one of the more charming titles available on the Switch 2 right now.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book Pricing & Availability

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is available now for €59.99 from Smyths Toys in both physical and digital formats, or as a digital code directly from the Nintendo eShop, also priced at €59.99. The game is also available from other major retailers including Currys and Very.ie.