Nintendo keeps finding new ways to reinvent platformers

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Entertainment EntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Entertainment Gaming GamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All Gaming Games Review Games ReviewPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

FollowSee All Games ReviewNintendo keeps finding new ways to reinvent platformersYoshi and the Mysterious Book shows that Nintendo is at its best when it’s trying something new. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book shows that Nintendo is at its best when it’s trying something new. by Andrew Webster Andrew WebsterSenior entertainment editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.

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FollowSee All by Andrew WebsterMay 19, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC Image: Nintendo Andrew Webster Andrew WebsterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. FollowSee All by Andrew Webster is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

In most platforming games, you’re fighting against the world around you. You’re trying to beat a level, nail a seemingly impossible series of jumps, or defeat a powerful boss. But even though Yoshi and the Mysterious Book uses familiar gameplay — you traverse the world by jumping, climbing, and, uh, eating — it reframes your goal to focus on exploration instead of competition.

And in doing so it reimagines the classic side-scrolling platformer as something that feels refreshingly new: laid-back, playful, and bursting with ideas. The new Yoshi game looks like a storybook, and that’s because it takes place inside of one. Early on you meet a sentient book named Mr.

Industry Implications

E who has a slight memory problem: He can’t remember much of what exists on his pages. So, as Yoshi, your goal is to venture inside his pages and learn about each creature that dwells within. It’s sort of like a Mushroom Kingdom version of a zoological study.

Right away the game’s structure feels distinct from other Mario games. You aren’t going through a series of levels that need to be beaten, but rather venturing into a series of habitats that have to be explored. In each chapter, you run a magnifying glass over a moving image in search of creatures.

Once you find one, you hop into their habitat to discover more. RelatedHow Nintendo made Super Mario Bros. Wonder so weirdShigeru Miyamoto is working with his hands againWhile the setup is unique, at its most basic, Mysterious Book is a traditional side-scrolling platformer.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.