Yoshi's Woolly World

   For once living in England actually means that something has come out here before North America. Anyone reading this from over there will still be waiting until October until this game lands over there, but here in Europe, and indeed most of the rest of the world the game has already been out a few weeks. Of course there is the issue that barely anyone actually owns a Wii U, but I'm choosing to ignore that and go on about this game anyway.
   First things first, this is the most stylish looking game I've ever played. The Wii U may not be the most powerful system out there but just as always Nintendo gets the best out of its machines and the wool effect is stunning. The way the game looks, the little animations from when you gobble up enemies, the way lava is made out of wool and every little thing in the game is stylised in wool, it's not just that things in the game are made of wool, it's that the game IS wool.

   For me though, it hasn't fully captured style down though because I found the music pretty disappointing. As someone who grew up playing 8/16 bit platfromers (albeit Sega) I love the music that goes with these style of games and normally the more modern 2D platformers, be they indie games or bigger budget games (like Mario) the music is normally nailed on and awesome. What I'm obviously building to here is that I found the music boring in this. It wasn't cheery or threatening or iconic. It was just there and frankly about 1/3 of the way through the game I muted it and listened to other stuff instead. The music in 2D platformers is commonly one of my favourite things in them and can turn what is frankly a mediocre game in to something I'll happily play just to listen to the soundtrack, but unfortunately not here.
   So, I'll cover the basic story. Everything is wool for some reason and Kamak comes to Yoshi's island and murders a load of Yoshi's to collect their wool for some never explained evil scheme. But the remaining few Yoshi's aren't happy, obvs, so chase him down to get the wool back (I do wonder though, why Kamak doesn't collect the wool from inanimate environments so he doesn't have to do any murdering, nor will he be chased down).
   The actual game then I guess. To be honest, by the time I'd finished world 2, I was ready to give up. It was slow and gimmicky constantly and I had lost interest. If it wasn't for this blog I wanted to write that literally dozen of people read then I may have given up. I pushed on though and was glad. They took a long time to introduce many of the systems to you, but by the time you get to world 4 the game is fantastic. The challenge picks up and the feeling of reward grows massively. The feeling you have when you complete a well crafted  level of a 2D platformer has always been special to me and the last 20+ levels of this game all gave me that feeling.
   I normally hate boss battles in anything, it's always felt to me like a hold on from a time of arcades where they were desperately after your 20p's, or a way to artificially make a game seem harder than it is. Sure, I get that games like Dark Souls do just bosses and people like that, but then you just have to think of Deus Ex: Human Revolution to see the opposite side, and that's the side I stand on. But here they are some of the best I've played. They have the classic Mario 3 hit boss style, but with each hit the movements and attacks slightly change and become more difficult, but as long as you're paying attention you can get them without a sense of the game screwing you over as I so often feel with Bosses. The one thing I'd like to say though is that maybe Kamak should change his name to Rita Repulsa as he's constantly making his monsters grow.

      There is plenty more to go back and collect too, hidden balls of yarn and sunflowers to unlock different coloured Yoshi's and secret levels if you can be bothered (I can't). There are helpful 'badges' you can buy on levels that are proving too difficult for you, such as not hurt by fire, run faster, magnetic pick ups and many more that you pay for with the gems you collect in game, and are occasionally given handily for free. Can't say I ever needed them, but I did use them when free, why not? (was very easy then though).
   As long as you've got the patience to slog through the slow start to the game, then this becomes a very good game and well worth a play (provided you like 2D platformers (frankly if you don't then you're wrong)). It looks so stunning it's untrue as well, but I do wonder If Yarny will out do it though (although it has a slightly different style).