Reviewers Got Hands-On With Nintendo's Biggest May 2026 Game

With gamers yearning for a big Nintendo game as the summer months close in, the title to look for on shelves this May is definitely Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. The character that was once just Mario's rideable dinosaur is now an established presence in Nintendo's collection of big names.

Yoshi has a lot of positive momentum right now after his appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Now he'll be carrying the weight of Nintendo's spring games line-up. Journalists all over the internet were given the chance to play the game for the first time as the May 21 release date approaches, and it sounds like longtime fans of Yoshi won't be disappointed.

Alex Perry at Mashable says that the first thing you'll notice about the game is how it wants you to really dig in and appreciate all the small details of the environment. It's not something you'll want to rush through.

"Once you're in a level, the idea is to simply discover as many weird little systemic interactions between creatures and their environments as you can, primarily by either trying to eat them (as Yoshi is wont to do) or by stashing them on Yoshi's saddle and throwing them at different animals or objects. Discovering different types of interactions rewards the player with stars, which can be used to unlock more levels."

GoNintendo.com's Quence says that the game is more about finding creative solutions than the same-old platforming that so many Nintendo franchises focus on.

"The longer you play around, the closer you’ll inevitably get to figuring out what the game wants you to do, but they always managed to make it feel like an organic discovery. One level might task you with locating a group of lost Shy Guys and carrying them back to their home. Another might task you with eliminating a group of aggressive enemies that are terrorizing the neighborhood. None of the levels I experienced used quite the same goal twice."

Steve Watts at GameSpot corroborated what fans have already noticed by taking a single glance at the game: it's one of the most aesthetically beautiful titles on the Switch 2, or any other Nintendo console.

"And I would be remiss not to mention how gorgeous all of this looks. Yoshi and his companions outside the book look the way you've come to expect from Nintendo's animated style. But inside the book, where you spend the majority of your time, there's a lovely colored-pencil aesthetic, with a skipped-frames effect to imitate a pixel-art game, and flourishes like backwards-script writing as if you're seeing through some of the pages."

It's looking like the game is definitely targeted at newer gamers and children, but Nintendo has packed Yoshi and the Mysterious Book full of plenty of ingenuity and novel concepts for the veterans of the genre. As long as you know you're playing a relaxing platformer instead of a high-stress one, this game is going to be a major pre-summer hit on the Switch 2!