Yoshi's Crafted World: an epic yarn for Switch?

On the face of it, Yoshi's Crafted World may not seem like the kind of game we usually cover on Digital Foundry, but there's actually a lot of interesting things happening here from a technical standpoint. Foremost amongst them is that a Nintendo first-party title is coming based on the ubiquitous Unreal Engine 4 middleware. We know that Epic's engine can produce some fantastic visuals, but is it a good match for Nintendo's unique style of presentation, not to mention the 60 frames per second performance typically associated with most first-party Nintendo releases? The answers are pleasantly surprising.

In checking out Yoshi's Crafted World, we had access to the playable demo available to all Switch users now - along with an extended version, with additional stages. Following in the footsteps of Nintendo's yarn-themed games also created by developer Good-Feel, Yoshi's Crafted World relies on everyday objects and materials used to build stages, with the new game delivering a presentation that's a perfect continuation of the series' stylised approach.

What I like about the visuals is how the developers have integrated many of Unreal's features into the mix, which complement and can even enhance the series' signature style. This includes an offline approach to global illumination - which means that light bounce can be observed in certain scenes. This plus the materials created by the artists results in something that feels almost tangible at points. Modern rendering and materials are a perfect fit for a game like this, which tries to simulate real-world objects and materials. The game also makes use of an aggressive depth of field effect designed to lend the action a tilt-shift appearance.

Read more