Parents' Guide to Yoshi's Crafted World

It doesn't break through any genre boundaries or wow with new ideas, but this is a thoroughly enjoyable, highly accessible, and absolutely beautiful side-scrolling adventure. Yoshi's Crafted World screams Nintendo quality with its detailed world design, which creates the impression that you're playing with someone's toy box full of hand-crafted creations. And it's not just for show, since you can do fun things with these crafts, such as spinning lightweight rooms around to face a different direction, changing perspective to tackle a course backwards, and knocking down objects made of materials no stronger than cardboard or paper. These actions help foster a sense of depth not normally felt in games with side-scrolling movement, and they force players to think about how to deal with obstacles in fun new ways, such as throwing eggs at suspicious looking things in the foreground or background to see what might happen.

It's also easy without being boring. Fighting enemies and avoiding traps is at times almost laughably easy -- which is great for keeping younger players from growing frustrated -- but combat and skilled traversal aren't the focus. It's more about exploring the world at your own pace and trying to find every little hidden collectible, which ought to appeal to game lovers of any age. Older kids might find the formula growing a little old before they reach the end, but being able to play cooperatively adds another dimension that can make this game a blast. In fact, co-op play makes this game not just for friends and peers, but also brothers and sisters with age gaps, as well as kids and their parents. Yoshi's Crafted World isn't as innovative or challenging as Nintendo's very best side-scrolling adventures, but it's not meant to be. It's simply a lushly detailed, smartly designed, and superbly executed run and jump adventure for players of all ages.