For any true Nintendo fan—or more specifically, fans of games starring the charismatic Yoshi—it’s easy to see that the green dinosaur’s franchise has always been associated with cozy platforming experiences and irresistibly charming visuals. However, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book shakes up the genre’s usual formula by trading linear running and jumping for a concept deeply focused on exploration, logic, and player curiosity. It’s a game that stands out not for raw difficulty, but for the inventiveness of its systems.

The story is simple and serves as the perfect engine for this new pace. It all begins when Bowser Jr. enters a secret room in his dear father’s castle and finds a stack of books, with an old and imposing tome sitting on top. Upon opening the artifact, the young villain is sucked inside, and the book—which reveals itself to be a living entity named Professor N. Igma (Enigma)—soars across the skies before landing on peaceful Yoshi’s Island. The central conflict takes shape because the Professor has suffered total amnesia, leaving his pages completely blank. To restore this magical ecosystem, Yoshi must enter the book’s pages and journey through chapters divided into biomes—such as dense forests, insect-infested groves, and enigmatic islands—cataloging the native fauna while trying to stop Bowser Jr. and his henchman Kamek from getting their hands on Enigmave, a mysterious magical being of immense power.

The game’s first great strength lies in its art direction. The power of the Switch 2 is used here not in pursuit of photorealism, but to bring one of Nintendo’s most charming aesthetic choices to life. The game blends two techniques: the environments and character models look hand-painted, with rich fresh-paint textures and visible brushstrokes, while character movement and object physics take on a stop-motion-like approach. This combination makes every stage feel like a page from a beautiful illustrated book, brought to life through unique physics and further enhancing Yoshi’s natural charm. Far from being just a visual spectacle, the heart of the adventure lies in its gameplay, which feels like a true biology and scientific observation lesson disguised as entertainment.

After choosing Yoshi’s color—with options ranging from the classic green to shades of pink and blue—the player uses a magnifying glass on the chapter map to select which species they want to investigate. Once inside the level, the map design demands hypothesis testing: progress doesn’t depend on defeating enemies, but on understanding how to interact with them.

The creativity of this interconnected ecosystem is fascinating. Players encounter creatures of every kind imaginable: giant moss-covered monsters; beings that function as skateboards on land and surfboards in water at the same time; and living jets of water that launch Yoshi onto high platforms—and completely change their electrical properties if they come into contact with storm clouds. It’s a genuinely diverse fauna. There’s an admirable logic to the behavior of hopping rabbits and flowers that redraw the geography of the stage. The creature cataloging system also lets players freely rename the species they discover, adding a layer of customization that brings a welcome dose of humor to the game.

• Preview | Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a delightful and adorable surprise

The title offers a rainbow of challenges, giving the game a solid and lengthy difficulty curve. There’s a balance between the accessibility inherent to the brand and puzzles that require genuine—and sustained—attention. If the early interactions are solved with ease, the later levels demand more complex reasoning, especially the exploration that takes place in a kind of underground maze, where a large leaf-covered creature with scythe-like hands hunts the protagonist as he searches for magical keys.

Despite its brilliance, there are moments when the flow of notifications and simultaneous discoveries on screen comes too quickly and piles up too much, creating visual clutter that disrupts appreciation of the scenery. In addition, because it leans so heavily on puzzle-solving, more perceptive players may clear entire ecosystems in just over five minutes. That brisk pace of progression risks making certain pages or specimens feel forgettable, when the game’s own artistic beauty calls for a slower rhythm. The sheer amount of content helps soften the issue, but the sense that some interactions pass by too quickly remains.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book delivers a complete, cohesive, and visually impeccable experience. If there is such a thing as the pinnacle of the “family game” concept, then this may be exactly where major companies should look for inspiration for future titles. It’s a balanced and mechanically rich journey that, by the time the final credits roll, leaves both reader and player certain they’ve witnessed one of Nintendo’s most inspired moments in interactive creativity.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book

21 maio 2026

Puzzle, Aventura

Publisher: Nintendo

Rating: General Audience (G)

Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2

Tested on: Nintendo Switch 2