I stare into my overgrown backyard lately, and I see a chonky little critter sitting in the tall grass. Squirrel? No, but we also have those. Rabbit? No, but we have those, too. It sits up. It’s a groundhog. Never had one of those before. I peer at it. What do I need to know about how it lives?
This is what it feels like to play Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, Nintendo’s latest exclusive for the Switch 2. Mario’s dinosaur steed/sidekick pops up from time to time in unique standalone adventures, sometimes in papercraft form, sometimes yarn-like, sometimes in puzzles, sometimes in platformers. After playing for a week, I’ve found a lovely odd charm in this one. It’s the latest in a line of cozy games that Nintendo’s made in 2026, following Pokemon Pokopia and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream.
Like a lot of Nintendo games, the $60 price feels too high for what this is. But the more I played, the more I learned to love what I was experiencing. I think it’s because I like strange creatures, mystery and the unknown. I loved compendia of imaginary creatures as a kid, like The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, or the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual, and as a grown-up, strange art books like Codex Seraphinianus, full of impossible life forms.
The idea in this Yoshi game is that you fall into a talking book, which acts as a repository for habitats where unidentified creatures live. It’s like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but Nintendo-style. Each puzzle-like level has you learn about one particular creature, figure out what it does, and then find out your objective and complete it.
The objective is a mystery. It could be making a large pink thing come out of a bubbling pool, or collecting tiny surfboard-like babies of the surfboard-like thing you ride across waves or… I’ll tell you no more. Not knowing is the thing.
What is this critter?
Super Mario Bros. Wonder also dealt in unexpected whimsy, introducing new creatures with unknown abilities and Wonder Seeds that turned levels upside down. The problem with whimsy is that, once experienced, the surprise won’t necessarily return next time. Unwrapping the surprises in each level feels finite, although extra challenges emerge over time and creatures cross-pollinate in a sense to other habitats. There is a larger overarching story involving villainous offspring Bowser Jr., but again, I’ll say no more.
I think younger kids would like this game, but its puzzle-solving opaqueness in each level might also frustrate them. I love it, but I found some challenges hard or unclear, even with unlockable hints you can purchase with tokens you collect in each level. You can collect flowers, too, little extra bragging right things like in many Nintendo games.
The side-scrolling levels are all pretty contained, not that big. You can come back to them over time and solve bits, chipping away, unlocking discoveries that get written down in the mysterious talking book you’re inside. The hand-drawn style of the art and the almost stop-motion style of the character animation are beautiful. I started to enjoy thumbing through the book, looking at the dozens of characters documented there over time. Like Pokemon, you gotta collect (or observe) them all.
What is this critter? (You’ll find out.)
You can’t die in this game, or get injured, which actually comforted me. Again, it’s a cozy experience. It’s a game of discoveries. I love that each level is truly its own set of objectives and play techniques, bringing ideas familiar from other Nintendo games in ways you might not guess right away. Bubble-blowing frogs who let you jump high in the air, parasol birds, and… OK, really, I won’t say more. And, by the way, this is a single-player journey.
It definitely ranks below Super Mario Wonder (which got its own Switch 2 multiplayer expansion recently) for me, but it’s well worth it if you’re into a fun set of platform puzzles and a whole lot of Yoshi. He jumps and shoots eggs just like you’d expect, making this feel like an authentic return to form. I don’t really want it to end, which is a sign it’s won me over.
It’s made me think of that groundhog in my yard in a whole new way. The world is strange and full of mystery, and this game has a generous touch of that curious spirit, too.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
