Yoshi and the Mysterious Book started out on Nintendo Switch 1
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book team details game’s development, started out on Nintendo Switch 1
Posted on July 24, 2026 by Brian(@NE_Brian)
in News, Switch 2
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is on Nintendo Switch 2, but that wasn’t always the plan. In a new developer interview, it was revealed that the project started out on the original Nintendo Switch.
Something else shared in the interview is that Takashi Tezuka was initially on board. However, he eventually focused solely on the development of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which led Hisashi Nogami to take over as producer.
The latest information comes from associate producer Nobuo Matsumiya, senior producer Etsunobu Ebisu, director Masahiro Yamamoto, and Nogami. The group was speaking in the latest issue of Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream.
Our translation of the excerpt is as follows:
… As for Matsumiya-san, Ebisu-san from Good Feel, and Yamamoto-san, the last time we spoke was about Crafted World in 2019. Who made contact first to start up development this time?
Matsumiya: It was from Nintendo’s side. It seemed to be about time to make the next Yoshi game, and we had made two games together with Good Feel already, so we reached out to ask them to please help us with the next one.
Ebisu: Yes, then we spoke to Tezuka-san and Matsumiya-san about a lot of things.
Did development begin with the Switch 2 in mind?
Ebisu: We started developing for the [original] Switch at first. Receiving word that the Switch 2 was going to be released, we changed course midway. If we were going to release a game, we thought to develop it for the latest hardware.
Was the Encyclopedia already included into the plans at the start of development?
Nogami: It was not. What we had early on were the actions Yoshi would use repeatedly during gameplay, things like that.
Yamamoto: Yes. We had made Wooly World and Crafted World thus far, and for both titles we thought about Yoshi’s moves based on the motifs. Using strings of wool, or handicrafts. But with this, our starting point was thinking about what Yoshi was as an entity.
Matsumiya: While planning with Yamamoto-san and Tezuka-san, for example, unlike the Super Mario Bros. series, there is no time limit in the Yoshi series, and emphasis is placed on being able to enjoy exploration, and such. We spent some time fine-tuning what a Yoshi game should really be.
Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is out now on Nintendo Switch 2. This week, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that the game came about because of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. You can read more about that here.
Translation provided by SatsumaFS and Simon Griffin on behalf of Nintendo Everything.
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