Yoshi’s Island is a perennial favourite around these parts, and what I believe to be one of the most well-crafted television games ever made. My big secret? I’ve never ever 100%ed it.
“But Ryan! You always 100% games!”
Silly rabbit, not always. But yes, usually I will go out of my way to collect all the doodads or complete all the challenges in a game that I really like. Sometimes even in a game I don’t really like, just to prove my dominance over it. Kind of like hate sex.
Anyway, the point is that I’ve never really felt like getting all the collectibles in Yoshi’s Island (or its sequels) was really worth the effort. For one, it’s incredibly difficult; some of those kajiggers are really well-hidden. Secondly, you have to collect everything and clear the stage with full health in a single run, which is just bonkers after world one. Also, it doesn’t really do much for you, outside of a little fanfare. I mean, sure, you unlock a bonus level if you 100% every stage in a world, but those bonus levels are concentrated evil. Kind of like the game is hate sexing you.
Yoshi’s Woolly World is a little bit different. The collectibles can still be an absolute pain to gather, but this game takes it easy on you. Each collectible can be completed independently, you don’t have to get everything in one run, which takes off a ton of the pressure. That means that on harder stages, you can focus on just getting through with full life and not have to search for all the secrets at the same time. Or you can just go back and grab that one thing you missed, and not have to pick up the other hundred things you all ready got for full marks.
More importantly, every collectible does something for you. Well, completing a stage with full life is still just for bragging rights, but the rest hand out goodies on a semi-regular basis.
The flowers, of which there are five in every stage, are the only key to unlocking the bonus stages this time around. You still have to find every flower in the world, but it’s only the flowers that count toward the bonus stage.
The yarn skeins come in sets of five as well, and they will reassemble a new Yoshi for you to play as. These prizes are handed out more liberally, with one unlockable Yoshi in each stage. It’s kind of a fun game to guess what kind of pattern you’re going to get as you collect skeins, as they’re coloured to match the Yoshi that is unlocked in each stage.
Stamp patches are the hardest to get because there are a whopping twenty in each stage, and they’re collected from normal-looking beads that are randomly mixed in with all the other beads (just like the red coins in previous games). For every so many (80, I think?) stamp patches you find, you’re given a new set of five Miiverse stamps. These are perhaps the least desirable prizes, but they’re still something.
Also, there’s a badge that you get later on that highlights all the secrets in a stage. It makes invisible clouds visible, makes false walls glow, and puts a radar pulse on beads that contain stamp patches. It’s a little pricy, but if you save all your beads until the end of the game, you’ll probably be in good shape to buy it for a replay of every stage that you didn’t clear out on the first go.
I still haven’t even finished the game, and I’m not completely certain that I will go back for 100%, but Yoshi’s Woolly World surely makes the strongest case for convincing me to do so. It also helps that the game is a joy to play, and an absolute delight for the ears and eyes as well.
