Game: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
Genre: Platformer, Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch 2
Developer | Publisher: Good-Feel | Nintendo
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 7+
Price: US $59.99 | UK £49.99 | EU € 59,99
Release Date: May 21st, 2026
Review code used, with many thanks to Nintendo Europe.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book was first announced back in September 2025 during the Nintendo Direct. As a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, it promised us an adventure to fill the pages of Mr. E, a talking encyclopedia, with mysterious creatures.
Will Yoshi and the Mysterious Book be a literary masterpiece, a classic adventure of discoveries or will its pages leave us crumpled and dog-eared?
What a Book!
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book starts with a cutscene. Bowser Jr. is exploring Bowser’s Castle and finds the library. Scrambling to the top of a pile of books, he discovers an extraordinarily large tome, filled with amazing creatures. One of which, a magical bird, makes him grab the book, and taking the clown car, goes on a journey to find it.
However, something odd happens when he grabs the magnifying glass attached to the book, and the next thing we see is the clown car crashing to the ground on an island populated with Yoshis. When the Yoshis find the crash site, there is no sign of Bowser Jr., but there is Mister Encyclopedia (or Mr. E for short), the large book Bowser Jr. found in the library.
Mr. E enlists the help of the Yoshis to explore his pages and gather fascinating insights about the incredible creatures mentioned within them. Grabbing the magnifying glass attached to Mr. E, one of the Yoshis is teleported into the colourful pages, and so the adventure of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book begins.
Exploring and Documenting
Playing as a Yoshi (and you can choose which colour and swap between them), you are guided to gather more information about the first creature, a yellow daisy-like flower that walks. There are on-screen tips for moves at appropriate places, but I felt a few more of the simpler moves could have been explained better at the start. I’d managed to get the flower creature to ride on Yoshi’s back before I’d been told about using tail swipes to do so, but without looking at the controller settings, I didn’t know which button would make Yoshi jump. However, there are three different controller button layouts to choose from.
You can make discoveries using standard platforming actions, like jumping around, ground pounding, using ledges to climb higher, or crouching to access new areas, together with Yoshi’s specific moves, like gobbling up creatures, throwing eggs or tail swiping. Without too much effort, Yoshi can make a dozen or more discoveries quite quickly.
Each time you discover something new about the creature, Mr. E will make an explorational note on the page. There were occasions when I thought I had discovered something exciting, but no note was added, and likewise, a note appeared when I really didn’t think I’d uncovered a new fact. But that’s the random nature of Mr. E’s records. Yoshi collects tokens as he bounces around, and these can be exchanged for discovery hints.
The Smiley Flowers make a return in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, with varying numbers hidden within each creature’s habitat. Some searches are key to the level, others are just for fun.
Unlike most platforming games, there is no set finish line or flag pole to reach. Within each creature’s habitat, there is a key discovery, which will open the portal to return. This can be somewhat obscure, but luckily Mr. E gives hints. You might need to make flowers bloom or return the children to their parents, maybe even save the Crazee Dayzees from being eaten or get all the band guys playing together. Each level has a different key discovery.
Thankfully, it’s possible to end the exploration without finding the portal, and you’ll still get rewarded for your efforts. Each discovery earns a star (or more, especially for the key ones). In turn, stars are needed to unlock new chapters.
Once Yoshi escapes the pages, the findings are written up, but not before choosing a name for the creature. If, like me, creating a name is an anxious and time-consuming process, Mr. E will suggest one. Annoyingly, he does do a “Hmm…” on each and every creature, requiring an extra button press, but that’s a small price to pay for getting a (generally) witty name!
Yoshi will discover some familiar Mario universe creatures hidden within Mr. E’s pages. So, if you have always wanted to rename a Shy Guy to Scary Guy, you can. However, you’ll have to limit your creativity to 10 letters.
Progression in Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
In the first part of the game, there are six chapters, and most chapters contain 6 creatures to learn more about (5 in chapter one). I was able to unlock the six chapters without finding each creature in the previous one, which meant I got to the credits, with only half of the encyclopedia completed. This seemed rather unbalanced and slightly disappointing. Although I fully appreciate it’s more common to complete all the creatures within a chapter before moving to the next.
Generally, it took 10 to 15 minutes to uncover the key discovery for each creature, thus making it possible to gather all 35 creatures and ‘finish’ the first part of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book in about six hours.
At the end of each chapter, Yoshi will encounter Bowser Jr. and Kamek, and find out more about his search for the magical bird called the Bewilder Bird. The Bewilder Bird is a great addition to Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, and I wish there were more opportunities to use its transforming abilities.
However, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is far from over. After the six chapters, there are another four, which add new creatures to the compendium or increase the knowledge already gained. You also have the chance to make use of all those Smiley Flowers! Mr. E will craft a random exploration tool to help in your continuing adventure in exchange for 5 Smiley Flowers. To be honest, there aren’t a huge number of them that are really beneficial, but I did unlock a very useful creature discovery progression percentage.
Even after the bonus 4 chapters, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book keep giving. There are two more chapters of challenges and research to carry out, as well as a record sheet and summary story to read. However, I think for a lot of gamers, these more challenging tasks come too late in the game.
Gameplay of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
As I mentioned earlier, the controls could be explained better. However, once known, they are easy to use. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book plays well in both docked and handheld modes, maybe with just a slight dip in performance in the handheld mode, but the text is large enough to read. There is no touchscreen functionality.
The artwork is stunning, reminiscent of the exquisite hand-drawn books of old, and the music complements the action beautifully, and in the latter levels adds drama. In keeping with the theme of a learned book, Mr. E does talk a lot, using some unusual words, and it does disrupt the flow of the game. It would have been great if Mr. E had been fully voiced, rather than just the few noises and character names.
There is no day/night cycle, although some levels are darker in colour and vibe than others. The level shown in the above screenshot is where Yoshi is trapped in an underground tomb-like structure searching for keys to unlock the gate, whilst being hunted down by the red-eyed creature with killer claws. It is the scariest creature to research and could easily frighten young players. Although Yoshi does have a health bar, there is nothing visible (except via an exploration tool), and it doesn’t impact the gameplay. Anytime Yoshi falls off the page or gets caught, he just respawns and carries on.
Unlike most games, you select the player’s profile after you have launched Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Not only does this mean you can see the progress of your shared system users, but you also get to see their created names for creatures. There is only one save slot per user, with no easy way to delete progress.
Conclusion
Overall, I’ve had a fantastic time with Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. However, it is a game you have to persevere with. Initially, it appears short and underwhelming, and although you never get the mega boss battles or tricky jumping of other Mario franchise platformers, the content does slowly unlock and eventually makes it worthy of the Yoshi brand.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot 
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