One-Hit Wonders: Unique Set Pieces in Yoshi’s Woolly World
I imagine most kids who sat down with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island in 1995 were startled to find that it was nothing at all like it’s predecessor - another Mario sequel screwjob, a la Super Mario Bros. 2. Unlike the latter non-sequel, however, I was nonetheless enthralled by Yoshi’s Island’s strange game, with its surreal Yoshis, bizarre enemies, and absurd crayon-drawings of levels. Beyond that, though, it did share one crucial piece of DNA with Super Mario World: unique level design. Both games featured levels with unique features, whether it be the dolphin platforming of Mario World’s Vanilla Secret 3 or the psychedelics of Yoshi’s Island Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy. Let us not fail to mention Yoshi’s Island’s truly bananas boss battles either.
The same DNA exists in Yoshi’s Woolly World. Crayons may be replaced with yarn, but the bold willingness to feature a single mechanic for a single stage remains - and what a joy it remains.
One of the most basic concepts in game design is the slow introduction of the game’s mechanics, teaching the player its rules as the stakes get progressively higher, teaching the player to master the mechanic over time. Most games do this, but few are so bold as Yoshi’s Woolly World, who plays out that entire cycle of introduction-repetition-mastery over the course of a single stage, often with mechanics that do not repeat themselves anywhere else in the game. In fact, there are only a handful of mechanics to master in Yoshi’s Woolly World’s six worlds: jumping, fluttering, eating enemies, and shooting eggs (yarn balls). Everything beyond that is pure level design.
A simple tour through the game’s final world demonstrates this: one stage of swinging spider webs (made of simple rope), enemies that turn into platforms when struck (angry stitched suns with literal beady eyes), zippers that trail flame along their tracks (actual zippers), neon-lit ghosts that turn into yarn balls if struck while you face away (covering them in yarn), and a level made up almost entirely of velcro (to which woolly Yoshi sticks quite nicely).
What makes these little tricks even more delightful is the careful way in which they are done within the game’s visual premise: everything is made out of material you would find in a crafts store. There is a boldness to this design, particularly when those materials are exhausted after a single stage, never to re-appear. One level features cotton birds that you fling about, creating platforms in the process. It’s such a wonderful idea (if not a little terrifying brush with genocide), as developer Good Feel simply on with its ideas in later stages, never once returning to that well.
On the downside, however, Woolly World’s constantly changing rules means you never quite get the satisfaction of feeling very clever. As delighted as I was to find totally new ideas still being introduced in the final world, I was also a bit disappointed. I kept having the sensation that I was still learning the games’ rules, even as I was approaching that stage of the game’s arc where I should be pushing myself.
It doesn’t quite make for a flat skill curve, though. Indeed, being able to handle some of the more inventive ideas did require us to understand those core concepts - can I hit the angry sun-cloth and make it a platform while fluttering in midair? - but that expression is limited.
The less said about Bowser’s master plan to create a castle from the flesh of woolly Yoshis, the better.