Opinionated Logan: Yoshi’s Woolly World

The first thing my son and I did when we received our copy of Yoshi’s Woolly World from Nintendo for review was unbox the blue and pink yarn Yoshi amiibos that we purchased from Best Buy here in Canada. His impressions of the the amiibo (transcribed from audio recording):

These are so cool! All amiibo should be made out of yarn. Can we get some more of these?

Logan’s right. The Yarn Yoshi amiibos are very, VERY cool. The details in the amiibo mimics the detail Nintendo put into the game. So what did Logan think of Yoshi’s Woolly World? Well, his opinions were mixed, and all come after completing World 1 on the easiest difficulty.

Logan’s first complaint was that the Game Pad was too big for him to handle. This was easily fixed by giving him the wiimote controller. After figuring out that he needed to tilt the wiimote in order to aim his balls of yarn, it was smooth sailing going forward, at least control wise. His biggest issue through the first few levels was his inability to understand which characters he could eat, and which he couldn’t. Obviously, Shy Guys make the perfect balls of yarn to use as ammo, but he was (surprisingly, and very vocally) disappointed that the piranha plants could not be turned into large Yarn balls. He felt this was the perfect opportunity to provide players with more larger, balls of yarn.

Logan was blown away by how the game was presented. In fact, within the past few week his Christmas list to Santa has grown with the following items: Mega Yarn Yoshi, yarn eggs, yarn Yoshi’s, Yarn Shy Guys…and the list goes on. If it appears in Yoshi’s Woolly World and looks remotely interesting, Logan is asking for it.

Even on the easiest difficulty, Logan was having his fair share of struggles. His biggest issue was timing. The final level on World 1 requires players to jump across swinging balls of yarn, and after failing MANY times, I finally had to complete this portion of the level for him. While Yoshi’s Woolly World is fun for the whole family, it probably isn’t something you will leave your 6 year old alone with themselves. Even if he can complete 95% of a level, the final 5% generally infuriated him.

Getting all the collectibles in a level was also a point of frustration, even for myself. Collecting all the flowers, all the balls of yarn, all the stamps, and finishing with full health is a tall task for anyone. The only collectibles Logan ever cared about, however, where the balls of yarn.  When he managed to get them all, he was very excited to see what Yoshi he had unlocked. When he couldn’t get them all, it was almost complete devastation. He wanted the Yoshi’s. and so did I.

Yoshi is my favorite Mario Kingdom character, hands down. While I would never leave Logan alone with this game because of the moments of increased difficulty, it is something we really enjoy playing together. Never in multiplayer, mind you, as that just creates frustration for myself. But allowing him to play most of the levels on his own brings be great satisfaction. After all, passing on a love of video games to my child is important to me, and games like Yoshi’s Woolly World really help.