Summary
Good-Feel was established by Etsunobu Ebisu, a former Konami employee, in 2005 and spent the first couple of years developing education-based games for the Nintendo DS. In 2008, Good-Feel shifted its focus to the home console market and began collaborating with Nintendo to bring some of its most iconic characters to the screen with new designs and concepts.
Since the Wii era, Good-Feel hasbuilt a reputation for developing cozy gamesthat almost look like they were handmade with household items, knitted with wool, or sown together with yarn. While the aesthetics are always adorable, some Good-Feel games are certainly better than others regarding gameplay and longevity.
Platforms
Nintendo DSi
Despite Good-Feel mostly walking away from the Nintendo DS after Wario Land: Shake It launched on the Wii, the company still had one more idea for the handheld. Looksley’s Line-Up was a DSiWare game - smaller titles and applications for the system - that required you to move your console around tofind hidden objects in diorama-like stages.
It was a unique concept at the time, but the technology didn’t always cooperate with you, which made the game more frustrating than it should be. Still, Looksley’s Line-up is one of the few Good-Feel games that doesn’t star a Nintendo character, and it would be interesting to see what the developer could do with a possible remake or sequel.
Nintendo 3DS
Between its bigger titles, Good-Feel stayed busy developing new software for one of the best features on the 3DS, StreetPass. Whenever you traveled with the console in sleep mode, you could meet Mii’s from players around the world and use them for a variety of casual experiences, like Puzzle Swap and Find Mii.
Good-Feel ultimately developed four titles for StreetPass - Mii Force, Battleground Z, Slot Car Rivals, and Market Crashers. Each one was unique, from a side-scrolling shooter to a Wall Street simulator, but Battleground Z was above and beyond the best of the bunch. It was a beat ‘em up style game that used recruited Mii’s to take down hoards of zombies.
Nintendo Switch, PC
Nearly a decade after Looksley’s Line-Up, Good-Feel finally developed and published a new original game, Monkey Barrels. While the studio is known for creating cute platformers, Monkey Barrels is a twin-stick shooter with explosive visuals and action-packed gameplay.
As exciting as it is to see the developer stretch outside of Nintendo’s colorful worlds, the final product is missing some core features that prevent it from being great. It’s fun for a bit, and there are plenty of weapons and gadgets to unlock, but it fails to do anything special to make you want to return to it after a couple of hours.
Unlike Mario, Yoshi, and even Luigi, Princess Peach rarely has time to shine on her own. While she did star in Super Princess Peach for the Nintendo DS, the game is expensive, hard to find, and not particularly great. Though youcould play as her in party games like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros., most fans agreed that the Princess deserved another chance in the spotlight.
The wish was finally granted with Princess Peach: Showtime for the Nintendo Switch. After attending a theater on her own,Princess Peach must take on a variety of roles, like a swordfighter, detective, and more, to save the day and defeat the Sour Bunch. The costumes are all interesting, but the lackluster story and inconsistent settings make Showtime more forgettable than most Good-Feel games.
Good-Feel rarely develops sequels for its games, - not including the 3DS ports of Epic Yarn and Woolly World - so it was exciting when the company announced another Yoshi game for the Nintendo Switch. Instead of using the soft and fluffy aesthetic from the previous title, Crafted World looks like it was made from odds and ends you’d find around the house like paper clips, pencils, and more.
Yoshi’s Crafted World is full of creative stages, fantastic music, and fun boss fights, making itone of the best cooperative platformers on the console. As fun as it can be, it feels like a downgrade from its predecessor. The game uses familiar staples of the series a bit too much, which makes the experience feel familiar even on your first playthrough.
Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS
Kirby’s Epic Yarn feels like the true beginning of Good-Feel discovering its niche of creating games with unique visuals. With yarn as the premise for both the narrative and design, the developer crafted a colorful adventure that strips Kirby of his usual powers and replaces them with something new and fascinating. To improve the experience, you can play with a friend with a second controller.
Each level in Epic Yarn is creative, memorable, and full of well-hidden collectibles that give you an excellent excuse to replay them over and over again. You can use beads found during the journey to customize Kirby’s apartment in the main hub, a fun feature that allows you to decorate however you like. A port of Epic Yarn launched on the 3DS in 2019 and was officially Nintendo’s final game for the console.
Nintendo Wii
Wario Land: Shake It was the first game Good-Feel developed for Nintendo and a home console, and it immediately proved that it was capable of creating something more entertaining than education-based software. With a gorgeous art style, exciting gameplay, and a sense of humor, Wario Land: Shake Itbecame an instant classic for the Nintendo Wiiand put Good-Feel on the radar.
It had been almost seven years since the last Wario Land title for the Game Boy Advance, so Good-Feel faced the difficult problem of adapting a fan-favorite series to unfamiliar hardware. While the excessive motion controls are a bit much by today’s standards, Shake It is still a phenomenal game that deserves a sequel sooner rather than later.
Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS
After working on a couple of titles with Nintendo, Good-Feel finally perfected its formula with Yoshi’s Woolly World for the Wii U. Its unique visuals are timeless and truly make you feel like you’re living in a world knitted with love and compassion. When the Yoshi series was growing stale after a couple of disappointing 3DS titles, Woolly World revitalized the things that made fans fall in love with Yoshi’s Island for the Super Nintendo.
Every single level feels utterly unique and utilizes new ideas and concepts to their maximum potential before they grow stale. The soundtrack is irresistibly catchy and might linger with you for years after beating the game in the best ways possible. The ability to change Yoshi’s appearance with a variety of different designs is just the cherry on top of Good-Feel’s colorful masterpiece.
