Genre: 2d platformer
Developer: Good-Feel
Publisher: Nintendo

Yoshi's Woolly World is yet another LittleBigPlanet-like take on material design principles in the realm of polygonal video games. It's neat seeing classic Super Mario Bros. enemies, such as Lakitu, in yarn form, but hasn't the planet Earth already seen enough platformers with trite food-themed levels and the lot?

The game opens up with an accoustic guitar song that is so generic it sounds like it came from one of those dime-a-dozen iPhone microtransaction sweat shops. In fact, most of the music-- save for maybe two tunes-- is totally lacking in any sort of character. Over the top, the player has Yoshi's constant and grating "holding the jump button" constipated sound.

This title lifts all of its mechanics straight from the Super Nintendo's "Super Mario World 2", right down to its level designs, which focus their design more on drearily collecting jewels and smiley faces from predictable hiding places than engaging platforming. To be fair, some of the stages are a bit more clever and feature re-visitable rooms, and Yoshi's physics are predictable and easy to manage.

The biggest problem with Yoshi's Woolly World aren't its often boring stages, usually terrible music, or "not this again" aesthetic-- but, rather, its utter conservatism; not a single risk was taken with any aspect of this game's design, and even in an era of outrageously timid game composition, there just isn't anything to get excited about.