Yoshi's Woolly World is a platform game in the Yoshi's Island series for the Wii U, developed by Good-Feel and starring Yoshi. While its gameplay is in line with other entries in the series, it is also considered a spiritual successor to Kirby's Epic Yarn, a spin-off title in the Kirby series that was likewise developed by Good-Feel and to which Woolly World owes its arts-and-crafts aesthetic.
Baby Bowser, up to his nasty tricks again, has ordered Kamek to transform the Yoshis into inanimate Wonder Wool and scatter them across the land. It's up to Yoshi (and Red Yoshi, if you’re playing co-op note ) to journey across gorgeous landscapes made of cloth and yarn and retrieve the Wonder Wool. Several classic elements from Yoshi's previous adventures return, such as Chomp Rocks, Shy Guys, Huffin' Puffins, and clouds that burst open and spill goodies if Yoshi shoots a projectile at them. Instead of turning enemies into eggs, Yoshi can swallow bits of yarn from the environment to turn them into yarn balls. Yarn balls have multiple purposes; they can be used to uncover secrets, "knit" new platforms, and tangle up enemies to expose them for a good jump attack.
In your journey, you’re offered two modes for play: Classic Mode and Mellow Mode. In Classic Mode, you play through yarn-filled worlds as you would a typical platformer, collecting Wonder Wool, beads, and other goodies along the way. Mellow Mode is similar, but allows you to play as Winged Yoshi. Winged Yoshi can indefinitely flutter, allowing casual players to breeze their way through tougher stages. Either mode can be accessed at any time while the game is paused.
The game hit store shelves (and the Wii U eShop) in the second half of 2015, with a Japanese release on July 16th, a North American release on October 16th, a European release on June 26th, and an Australian release on June 25th. Watch the trailer here
. amiibo functionality is also included; the game is compatible with Yoshi's figurines as well as a set of unique plush doll amiibo. Scanning these figures will allow you to create another Yoshi, which acts similarly to a second player. In addition, all other amiibo (except the Pokémon ones) can be scanned in to unlock themed patterns for Yoshi based on that character.
A 3DS version of the game named Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World was announced on September 1, 2016 for release on February 2, 2017. This version includes new exclusive levels with Poochy along with the ability to summon Poochy-Pups to help out in a stage and find hidden secrets. This version also features creating custom designs for Yoshi, and Yoshi Theater which features 30 stop-motion shorts starring Yoshi and his buddy Poochy. The game is also bundled with a new yarn Poochy amiibo. A sequel for Nintendo Switch featuring a more general arts-and-crafts aesthetic, Yoshi's Crafted World, was later announced at E3 2017.
Tropes:
- 2½D: The game uses 3D graphics, but stays on a 2D plane outside of the hub-world.
- Adorable Evil Minions: Everything you can kill in this game is adorable to some extent, thanks to the yarn aesthetic. Even the bosses.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: World 4-S consists of you being chased the entire way by Naval Piranha. Touching its thorns or being eaten results in instant death, so have fun with that.
- All Cloth Unravels: Yoshi can use his tongue to tug on loose threads and radically alter his environment. Inversely, he can use his yarn balls to "knit" additional platforms onto the stage, to climb sheer cliffs for example. Also, tugging on loose threads is how you unravel Burt the Bashful's pants this time.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: The final level, The Wonderful World of Wool, has mini-segments based on every world in the game.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes:
- Collecting all of the Wonder Wool in a stage will unlock a uniquely-patterned Yoshi to play as.
- Using an amiibo will give you a pattern based on the figure that was scanned in, as well, although some amiibonote only give you a generic pattern, Yarn Yoshi wearing an amiibo t-shirt.
- Defeating groups of four bosses in the Boss Tent unlocks a Bronze, Silver and then Gold Yoshi.
- Getting all the Wonder Wool in the Secret Level unlocks a Shiny Platinum Yoshi.
- In the 3DS version, the Stamp Patches are replaced with Pattern Patches, which unlock patterns you can use in the Create-a-Yoshi mode. You can either use them as-is or edit them to your liking when you place them on a Yoshi.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Flowers, Wonder Wool, heart count, and Miiverse Stamps only need to be collected once and stay unlocked for good once you finish a course with them in your possession, making 100% Completion less frustrating. In previous games, all items had to be collected in one run to count for completion. Also, Poochy can even fetch some of the Flowers for you! Good boy!
- Ascended Extra: Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World gives Yoshi's faithful friend top billing.
- Award-Bait Song: The song that plays in the final part of the Wonderful World of Wool is a lyricless example. It starts off soothing, it has "sparkle synth," it shows up at the very end of the game, is feel-goody, and it gets more triumphant near the end.
- Badass Adorable: Yoshi's even more of one than usual, being a crochet doll and all.
- Berserk Button: Don't steal Poochy's strawberry!
- Big Bad: Unsurprisingly, Kamek has returned to cause more trouble for the Yoshis by turning them into spools of yarn so he can construct a new castle for Baby Bowser.
- Big Boo's Haunt: 4-6 and 6-5 take place in a haunted house.
- Black Bead Eyes: Most apparently on Poochy, whose eyes are actually beads.
- Black Eyes of Crazy: The Spooky Yoshi skin, with white irises and black sclera.
- Book Ends: The final area of the final level is an orange field of flowers that looks very similar to the first area from the first level.
- Boss Rush: The Boss Tent, where all bosses are sped up. The bosses can be fought at will, however.
- Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: The "Fall into a pit? No problem!" Power Badge. it makes every pit in the game bounce Yoshi back upwards if he falls into one.
- Bouncy Bubbles: 3-4, Big Montgomery's Bubble Fort. Almost all of the level is full of bubbles, on which you bounce to advance. These bubbles can only be broken with the Shy Guy's knitting stick.
- Brutal Bonus Level: It wouldn't be a Yoshi game without them. In this case, they're the S levels, unlocked by obtaining every flower in each level. None of them have checkpoints.
- 3-S: Woollet Bill's Last Ride. It is an Auto-Scrolling Level in the clouds, where a single Woollet Bill leaves a trail of clouds you must run alongside to reach the end, which moves very fast. In addition you have to watch out for endless hazards and keep a good supply of Yarn Balls to collect the 10 main collectables (5 flowers and 5 wonder wools) of the stage. Fall, get crushed, or accidentally kill the Woollet Bill? You're forced to die and start the entire level over, losing everything you grabbed in your previous run. And like the other secret levels, it has no checkpoints. Good Luck.
- 4-S: Naval Piranha 2: Now It's Personal!: While it may not be as tedious as Woollet Bill's Last Ride since the player doesn't have to worry about killing the only thing allowing them to progress, it's yet another Auto-Scrolling Level, this time with an Advancing Boss of Doom continuously advancing and forcing the player ahead, while there are plenty of Piranha Plants serving as obstacles, with spiky red vines everywhere.
- The crowning achievement of this trope goes to Star-S: Wonderful World of Wool: An All the Worlds Are a Stage Marathon Level with once again not a checkpoint in sight. While the secrets aren't too hard to find (and considering how gargantuan this stage is, you'll very likely want to scoop them all up in your first run), the massive number of Piranha Plants and other instant-kill hazards that infest the stage will make short work of you, even if you equip Double Yoshi or use a power-up patch to make yourself immune to bottomless pits or fire/lava. What's that, Piranha Plants killed you in the World 5 section? Back to the World 1 section!
- The Bus Came Back: Poochy for one, as well as Burt the Bashful and Naval Piranha serving as boss fights (albeit with new attacks).
- Butt-Monkey: Yoshi in the 3DS shorts often gets on the receiving end of several mishaps, such as getting stuck inside a doughnut after trying to go through it.
- Camera Abuse: One of the shorts in the 3DS version has Poochy charge happily towards the player only to smack face-first into the camera and land flat on his back.
- Celebrity Paradox: In the 3DS version, the last short involves Yoshi and Poochy opening up a 3DS that runs Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World on it.
- Checkpoint Starvation: None of the Secret levels have any checkpoints. If you die in one after grabbing some goodies without finishing the level, you have to do it all over again.
- Console Cameo:
- The Wonder Wool in the six secret stages unlock Yoshi themed after Nintendo's consoles in descending order, starting with a pattern themed after the Wii U and ending with a pattern themed after the Nintendo Entertainment System.
- The 3DS version has the same console (Along with New 3DS and 2DS models) appear in some of the stop-motion shorts.
- Continuity Nod:
- World 6-6 is called "Feel Fuzzy, Get Clingy", a pretty obvious reference to the infamous Yoshi's Island level, "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy".
- Naval Piranha returns as the boss of World 4-8, and its castle stage bears many similarities to 3-8 from the original game. You can even throw a yarn ball at it before the fight begins like in the original game, though this won't kill it prematurely.
- While references to Yoshi's Island DS are incredibly scarce, one of the possible bonus levels includes Bouncies from that game.
- Co-Op Multiplayer: Supported with up to two players; both players can eat and turn one another into balls of yarn. You can actually toss your partner in any direction to help them reach hidden areas, but it also lends itself to griefing. The functionality is replicated with Yoshi amiibo, which lets you control two Yoshi's simultaneously.
- Cruelty Is the Only Option: 3-5: Fluffin' Puffin Babysitting has this in spades. The central mechanic of the level and the only way to traverse it revolves around picking up and throwing small baby puffins that leave behind cloud trails that you can walk across. You get the baby puffins by stealing them from a nest or even worse, killing a mother puffin who's leading her children across the level. Averted in the 3DS version wherein the Poochy Pups leave behind the cloud trails that the baby Fluffin' Puffins do and you can go through the level without killing a mother Fluffin' Puffin!
- Cumulonemesis: The Fluffy Phantoms are enemy clouds that blow gusts of wind at Yoshi. While they can make Yoshi's carpets fly, they often try to blow him towards Bottomless Pits...
- A Day in the Limelight: Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World is this for Poochy.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Like Rayman Origins, you just respawn at the last checkpoint after dying. Though if you do die, any collectables you acquired since hitting a checkpoint is taken from your inventory and placed back on the stage for you to collect all over again. And in the Secret levels, there are no checkpoints.
- Death Mountain: World 6, as per tradition.
- Early-Bird Cameo: A stage based off this game is featured in the earlier release Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
- Easter Egg: Naval Piranha returns, and you can pull off the same "quick-kill" trick from the original Yoshi's Island. However, since Piranha Plants cannot be defeated by yarn balls, all it does is slightly alter the preceding cutscene.
- Excuse Plot: No grand setup here. Kamek just says "Hey, li'l Yoshis, I need to turn you all into yarn!" and then you're off to the races. That said, however, the reason why Baby Bowser needed Kamek to do that is quite scary.
- Extreme Omnivore: Yoshi, naturally.
- Feed It a Bomb: How you deal with Naval Piranha this time around.
- Goomba Stomp: This ability returns from the main Yoshi series. Interestingly enough, Piranha Plants are now susceptible to this, as long as Yoshi tangles them up in yarn first.
- Gimmick Level:
- 2-S involves solving puzzles, sometimes by manipulating enemy behavior, instead of a straightforward romp through the level.
- 4-5 and 5-S have Yoshi cling on curtains that zoom along tracks zip-line style.
- 4-6 features curtains that reveal otherwise intangible blocks when the curtains pass over them. They also turn enemies into invincible horrors while in their field.
- 6-6 features Velcro-covered conveyor belts that Yoshi sticks to.
- Green Hill Zone: World 1.
- Guide Dang It!: Each level has thirty key collectables: 5 Smiley Flowers, 5 Wonder Wools, and 20 Miiverse Stamps. Some are placed inside well-hidden Winged Clouds that require the player to touch its location with either themselves or a ball of yarn (either spat or thrown) to reveal its location, while others require solving puzzles, pushing walls, or phasing through fake walls New Super Mario Bros. Wii style. The Miiverse Stamps aren't helped by looking almost identical to regular gems.
- Hailfire Peaks: World 2 is a Shifting Sand Land, but also has Lethal Lava Land elements.
- Helpful Mook: The Snoot enemies spit buttons that you can bounce off of. Certain Wonder Wools/Smiley Flowers are in locations that require you to bounce off Snoot's buttons to reach.
- Human Resources: The entire reason the Yoshis were turned to yarn was so Baby Bowser could use them as building materials for a new castle. Yoshi can do the same to create new platforms, warp pipes, and presents.
- Idle Animation: As with other Yoshi games, Yoshi has various animations if you let him stand still for a bit. This time, Poochy gets in on it, too: He'll sit down and spin in place occasionally. Yoshi's idle stance will change to a sad, worn-down expression if he's on his last hit point, and he'll be quivering and looking around nervously if he's in one of the game's Big Boo's Haunt levels.
- Jungle Japes: Most of World 4
- Last Chance Hit Point: Yoshi has one, shown by a cracked, flashing heart that remains after the life meter vanishes.
- Level Ate: The first level of World 3.
- Life Meter: Unlike Kirby's Epic Yarn, the Yoshis can take damage and die here, though Death Is a Slap on the Wrist.
- Literally Shattered Lives: A unique version of this pops up in the game: Kamek uses his magic to break the majority of the Yoshi population into Wonder Wool, with each Yoshi being broken into 5 pieces. They can be restored after gathering the 5 respective pieces of Wonder Wool in each level. Many enemies also fall apart into loose string when defeated.
- Mercy Mode: In Mellow Mode, you play as a Yoshi equipped with New Island's Flutter Wings. Yoshi also starts out with a full 20 hearts, and heart-giving clouds release ten hearts instead of five. Additionally, dying enough times with these wings will prompt a rainbow egg to fly in the instant Yoshi respawns; touching it gives permanent invincibility to enemy damage. However, you can still die due to the effects of spikes, bottomless pits, being crushed in any manner, and you can still be knocked-back. Lest we forget the Power Badges, such as immunity to lava and fire or damage, which can snap the difficulty of stages regarding those hazards in half.
- As if the game wasn't easy enough for a player already, in the 3DS's version of Mellow Mode, you are given 3 Poochy-Pups that tell you where secrets are located, and can be used as ammunition in place of yarn balls and come back to you like a homing pigeon after being thrown. They can also take out enemies.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Scanning in a regular Yoshi amiibo unlocks a plastic, glossy Yoshi costume◊. It really sticks out compared to the yarn-knitted style of the rest of the game.
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: Parodied with World 4-S, titled "Naval Piranha 2: Now It's Personal!"
- Palette Swap: All of the unlockable patterns are functionally identical, and vary solely in color and texture.
- Pivotal Boss: One phase of the final boss takes place on a turret of Bowser's castle, with Baby Bowser in the middle and Yoshi running aroung the edge.
- Precious Puppy: Besides Poochy, who even appears on the cover, there’s also Bunson the Hot Dog, who's at least ten times larger than Yoshi himself but still a puppy.
- Projectile Pocketing: Yarn balls can be used to collect gems and flowers.
- Recurring Boss: Both Big Montgomery and Knot-Wing the Koopa appear as bosses three times each, with the former being found in every odd-numbered world, and the latter in every even-numbered world.
- Retaliation Mode:
- Big Montgomery throws a spike ball when hit in his first boss fight, performs a shockwave ground-pound in his second fight, and stands at the top of a snowbank while commanding some regular Monty Moles to roll down and turn into snowballs in his third fight, eventually doing so himself.
- Knot-Wing the Koopa retreats into his shell and ricochets around the arena in his first fight, spins around on the water and breaks all the platforms by making several waves in his second, and launches a salvo of Bullet Bills in his third fight.
- Burt the Bashful calls in several regular Burts to stack himself on top of when hit.
- Bunson the Hot Dog jumps onto a platform in the background and breathes a sweeping stream of fire once damaged.
- Miss Cluck the Insincere attempts to draw Yoshi in with a tornado, along with several spiked balls, after she switches to her next armor.
- Naval Piranha coils his vines around the pipe the battle takes place on, then sweeps them around.
- Snifberg the Unfeeling summons several spiked ice balls and sends them down the stairs in the background of the arena.
- Baby Bowser breathes several fire streams from the background, then enlists Kamek's magic to make a giant lava blob.
- Giant Baby Bowser throws several giant yarn balls onto the arena after two of his yarn rolls have been broken.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter:
- Yoshi himself becomes this due to his woolly redesign. Just check out his yarn amiibo!◊ The alternate patterns have the potential to make Yoshi even cuter, as well.
- Poochy is also at his cutest in this game, complete with beady little eyes.
- The mini versions of Bunson the Hot Dog are deadly but also possibly the most adorable enemy in the game.
- There's a type of enemy that is literally a round baby chick, who groups with others to disguise themselves as a (still cute) large chicken head. A enlarged one is the 3rd boss, Miss Cluck the Insincere, and it's still adorable.
- Yoshi himself becomes this due to his woolly redesign. Just check out his yarn amiibo!
- Running Gag: Once again, Burt the Bashful is a boss, and he's once again beaten by removing his pants.
- Scenery Porn: Definitely one of the most visually gorgeous Nintendo games to date, as it expands on the Kirby's Epic Yarn art style by adding a dynamic camera and fully rendered 3D environments. Even the Nintendo 3DS version looks gorgeous, especially with it's clever use of 3D foreground objects in certain stages. The improved hardware power of the Wii U definitely helps.
- Shifting Sand Land: Most of World 2.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Most of World 5
- Shout-Out:
- Yoshi's biplane transformation is named the Sky Pop.
- The sound effect used when Yoshi ground-pounds a boss is the same exact one used when Wario damaged a boss in Wario Land: Shake It!. Fitting, as both games were developed by Good-Feel.
- One level is named "Rollin' Down The River"
- One of the shorts in the 3DS version has Yoshi and Poochy play the original Super Mario Bros. on a New 3DS, according to the sound effects. They somehow manage to get a Game Over on the first stage after already collecting a 1-Up.
- Snowy Sleigh Bells: Both A Little Light Snowfall and the frozen World 5's map theme both are rythmed by jingle bells.
- Surprisingly Creepy Moment: Turns out the reason why Baby Bowser had Kamek turn most of the Yoshis into Wonder Wool was so he could use that Wonder Wool to make a brand new castle. That's basically building something out of human bodies!.
- Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The logo is made out of wool to represent the game's focus on environments made of wool and other cloth.
- Timed Mission: The transformation sequences. Let the timer run out and you're booted back to the entrance to try again, with any Wools/Flowers/Miiverse Stamps you may have collected being placed back.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: The Sky Pop Yoshi segments in 3-7 and 6-7.
- The Unfought: Kamek, as usual. At least not directly, but he will assist some of Baby Bowser's attacks in the final battle. He also swoops in for aerial attacks in World 6-7, and this time you can smack him off his broom if you so desire.
- Variable Mix: Snifberg the Unfeeling's battle music is comprised of small snippets that play depending on his current actions or state of vulnerability.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can make life miserable for your partner during co-op, such as swallowing your teammate and then spitting them into a Bottomless Pit.
- Wheel o' Feet: Yoshi’s feet literally turn into little wheels when he runs (and into a propeller when he hovers, like an upside-down Snoopy). This is also reminiscent of Kirby's Epic Yarn, as Kirby transforms into a car if he runs.
- Windmill Scenery: You can hazard a wild guess on what profusely appear in the level entitled "Knitty-Knotty Windmill Hill".
