The last time Nintendo tried something like this, we got Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which didn’t work all that well and was basically a Kirby game in name only. Yoshi’s Woolly World, on the other hand, feels like a true Yoshi sequel. In fact, I’d consider it the successor to the N64’s Yoshi’s Story. The mechanics are almost identical, after all. But where I remember Yoshi’s Story being overly simple and easy, Woolly World is actually challenging at times and makes a good effort to introduce new gimmicks in each level. That combined with the wool theme keeps the game interesting and feeling fresh throughout. Granted, Nintendo didn’t learn from all of their mistakes in Epic Yarn and still included sections where Yoshi transforms into a vehicle. These are dumb, obviously, but aren’t as frequent and aren’t nearly as painful.
The most important part of the game, however, is that the whole thing can be played co-op. I’m such a sucker for co-op that the original Yoshi’s Story would have probably been one of my favorite 64 games had it featured a two-player mode. My wife and I had a great time overcoming obstacles the “co-op way,” though Woolly World starts to suffer from New Super Mario Bros. Wii syndrome where players keep accidentally hindering each other. Every time one of us jumped on a bounce pad, it would drag the other player off the screen, thus killing them (where “kill” means they turn into a flying egg). In that regard, co-op may actually be the harder way to play. But if you’re a fan of 2D platformers, you’ll like this one no matter how you approach it.
