Yoshi And The Mysterious Book Hands-On Preview
Since the glory days of the Super Nintendo, I’ve longed to play a Yoshi game that won my heart over like Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island once did. That game, to this day is still one of my favourite games of all time, and despite there being some admittedly fun Yoshi titles that have come and gone in the succeeding years, none, from Yoshi’s Story, to Yoshi’s Wooly World have come close to capturing the magic of Yoshi’s Island. Having spent two hours playing the upcoming Yoshi And The Mysterious Book, I felt a bit of magic stirring in my heart once more. It’s not the same magic, this 2026 title is doing a few things differently, but the heart and the soul are there, and just like Yoshi’s feet, my heart is fluttering a bit at the potential of this May release.
Two very different types of magic. (Yoshi’s Island left, Yoshi And The Mysterious Book right)
Nintendo gave us the opportunity to play through two different chapters of Yoshi And The Mysterious Book, the first (The Wildwoods) and the fourth (Settled Valley), though, based on the menus of the game, it looks like there will be as many as six chapters to explore. That might seem brief, and based on the fact that I could complete the two available chapters in the space of the two hours, the golden path may in fact be quite brief, but where The Mysterious Book is clearly shining brightest, is in its many side objectives to complete.
Within each level (each world I played contained five levels), the player has one single primary objective. It’s not made clear what that is though, and so you’ll just spring onto a new page in the book and check out the space. Each page presents the player with a new discovery to make, be it a new enemy or creature type to uncover, and as you begin to learn the quirks tied to this discovery, a range of gameplay options present themselves. As the player begins to experiment with these new systems, you’ll find yourself pushing boundaries of the level, and eventually you will happen upon the completion of the primary objective. In some cases, you might be collecting a range of Shy Guys and bringing them home; in other cases, it’s collecting 3 Smiley Flowers, or maybe it is something a little more abstract. Across the 10+ levels I played, the main goal differed each time.
On top of that main goal are a range of smaller jobs to complete. Many you’ll naturally complete along the way, as you learn the ropes of the level, for clearing out a painful swarm of Bunchabee’s, for changing the Glubbit’s bubble types into heart shapes, or into dense muddy types. Each of these that you complete, like the main objective, contribute stars which go towards an overall tally which, once you’ve earned enough, unlocks the next chapter in the book. Along the way you’ll have run-ins with Bowser Jr and Kamek, which spice things up and add some conflict into the mix. Oh, and Yoshi now has a tail flick ability that essentially flings a creature or item up onto his back to be carried around; that also unlocks a host of other gameplay opportunities as well.
Yoshi And The Mysterious Book is a very family friendly experience. From the mixed media pairing of hand-drawn pencil outlines, and the explosions of watercolour, the game is very easy on the eye, the cuteness level are in overdrive, but atop all of it, is a seeming inability to fail. Yoshi can be knocked over, and inconvenienced, but, seemingly like his appearance in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, he cannot be harmed. Through a sheer force of will, what Yoshi (or the player) wants, Yoshi gets. Players also have the ability to name the discoveries. Earlier I referenced the Glubbit’s and the Bunchabee’s; these are the names given to them by Mr. E (the book you’re exploring), but the player is free to name them whatever they like, and so when I found a dandelion like plant that proliferated everywhere once scattered, you better believe I named my discovery ‘Fuzzy’ like the iconic ‘Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy’ level from Yoshi’s Island.
The two hours that I spent with Yoshi And The Mysterious Book sparked a joy inside me that video games rarely do. There’s a magic to this experience that I’ve not seen in a long time, a creative license that games like Scribblenauts have previously offered (though Yoshi is not to the same extent). The game is only a month away, and I suspect I’ll be counting down every moment until I can be in the boots of T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas once again.
Time Until Launch (May 21, 2026)
