Conservation of the species
Choosing the terms used during the introductory hat of this piece was not a random one: “retrieve”, “reproof” and “reduction” are three of the terms that best capture Good Feel’s work on this porting, which replicates how good it was in the original but also denotes a bit of laziness in not making any substantial changes to the formula, which, if it worked well on Wii U, denounces some lack of 3DS small screens.
But let’s go with the order: there are no significant content additions, since the sixty low levels, replicated in the six worlds already seen on the home console, are identical to the past, with all that follows.
Those who expected some unpublished or at least bonus moves and hidden objects will be disappointed: for this reason, it is difficult to recommend Poochy & Yoshi Woolly World to anyone who has lost it two years ago because they will find nothing here it is worth a second.
Nonetheless, the quality of the original product was such that this version, if taken away from the confrontation with the bulky parent, still offers a very enjoyable gaming experience, even though it is canonical and lacking a level of challenge that can call it that.
There is some good news, but none of them moves the balance or is a added value to the basic game, for example, for the robust single player mode added to the 3DS version of Super Mario Maker.
Before embarking on the gameplay analysis, we add these additions starting with the thirty-one videos, some of which have already been seen, at least in part, as game trailers: each one contains a simple question, correctly responding to the players give us different beads; the videos are unlocked every 24 hours (you do not enjoy the console timer!) and, despite being very tired, they add little to the enjoyability of the title.
Also note a handful of layers dressed in the very cute Poochy, and, in the Super Mario Run style, you are led to the exit by collecting the largest number of objects on the road.
Ideal for short gaming sessions, in which player interaction and control over what’s on the screen are still very limited, on the backdrop of so many products flocking to the smartest smartphone stores.
Closes the picture a way to create your own Yoshi from scratch, customizing colors and shapes, then imitating it and sharing it (Street Pass only, no QR codes) with your friends: delightful, especially for the fiercest fans of the green dinosaur and for the younger, but somewhat inconsistent in the long run.
Who goes slow steady wins
The relaxed and syncopated rhythms that the green dinosaur platforms used to us used to go back to all their splendor, and the basic gaming mechanics are the same views on Wii U: getting all the secret bonuses is still a lot of fun, so how to pull (literally!) the threads of certain layer sections to discover bonus areas, green tubes, and drop-demand points at the most unexpected points.
The level design quality is typical of Nintendo’s first and second party productions, and as such provides hours of carefree and a variety of brilliant finds, often at the limit between two-dimensional platform and puzzle game, which will hardly stutter a smile .
The reverse of the medal, as for the original title, is represented by the chronic lack of challenge ends, ending with limiting the appeal of the product to the eyes of the more navigated players who will be called to squeeze the meningos only if they want to get the maximum percentage of completion in each of the game stages.
The average extension of the latter and the absence of a timer are then matched with the needs of a portable console, often used for gaming sessions that do not exceed ten minutes: shorten some of the paintings and increase, perhaps, the overall number would have made Poochy & Yoshi Woolly World more suited to the new context of reference.
Yoshi’s transformations are back, always capable of adapting to the needs of the moment, the ability to skip the more complicated levels (which will be appreciated especially by young people) and the large number of checkpoints scattered across the stages, which prevent even the less skilled , to repeat sections that go beyond the two or three platforms.
As for secrecy and collectability, we did not even notice differences in boss battles, identical in numbers (two in the world) and in the form of those we had already experienced in the summer of 2015 on Wii U.
The introduction of the opportunity to target using the 3DS gyroscope is well-documented and sufficiently precise, but in fact, its real use is limited to casual gaming sessions (or in comfy environments), because practicality of the process is at least dubious.
Structural limits
The move from Wii U to 3DS could not be painless, and indeed, despite being able to figure out if compared to other titles in the bare bookshelf of Nintendo’s small home, Poochy & Yoshi Woolly World flips in direct confrontation with the gorgeous parent, pointing to a bit uneasy about the six-year life of the portable console and the low power of its hardware.
Beyond the different resolution, the original title shined for the sensation of being able to almost touch the wool on screen with a marvelous tactile look, enjoyable light plays and a general soft texture and animation: on 3DS, Good Feel is managed to keep certain details, but could not help cutting off from the point of view of the shadows as well as that of the fullness of the surface colors and textures.
The end result is good when compared to the computational capabilities of the host hardware, of course, and those who did not have to spend some time in the wicked world of Yoshi on Wii U will not notice that a very cute title that runs at 60 frames per second on New and 30 on standard models, with the ability to activate 3D during game but not during movies released on a daily basis.
Who, however, had glanced at the spectacle offered by the home-made version, will still be disappointed by the rendering on the 3DS screens, which sometimes give the impression of being too small to contain all the action, with the camera slightly too much zoom, which forces some jump in the vacuum too.
If the overall duration is roughly the same as that of the home-based title, we appreciated the widespread compatibility with new amber models, first of all Poochy’s, which will be launched along with the game and which is considered to be one of the tenderest and attractive of the last few months: the advice, for those who could get the bundled version with it, is not to let it run away.
