If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: I am not a completionist. It’s true that I like to play a game till I feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth, but rarely has that translated into garnering a game’s every last item/armor/achievement/trophy/quest/etc. With some games, like with Red Dead Redemption and South Park: The Stick of Truth, I’ll return to them every now and again to fetch a little extra something or finish a sidequest, but that has more to do with the enjoyment that comes from being in a particular game world than it does with completing it. Usually, by the time I finish with any given game’s main story, I’m ready to move onto the next game.

So why then and I utterly compelled to get ALL THE THINGS in Yoshi’s Woolly World?

It’s all a matter of rewards. With the big reward being that grand dinosaur with the mega-tongue…Yoshi.

Though I was fairly determined to get Yoshi’s Woolly World as soon as I knew it was going to be a real game, the perpetual skeptic in me still wanted to wait until its initial reviews were out to know for certain that it was going light up my life. The rainbows and flowers emanating from my Twitter feed from the moment of its U. S. release (October 16) were all I needed. I picked up the game this past weekend, and happily took a break from the grim and grittyrealities of Tomb Raider to visit a place a little more colorful.

Folks. I’m not even out of the first world yet, and already I’m completely in love. Yoshi’s Woolly World has me wrapped…no knitted around its little finger.

Some basic gameplay SPOILERS follow!

While it’s much too early for me to really call fair or foul on the game in truth, the experience of Yoshi’s Woolly World is very similar to that of Yoshi’s Island. Substitute a pixel-flavored environment with one that’s uber-gorgeous, tactile, and comfy, and switch out balls of yarn for eggs, and you’ve got Yoshi’s Woolly World. But the main difference between the two is that not only do you have to save Yoshi’s friends, but you also much knit them back together. And that means finding a set of yarn skeins in each world. Locate all of them, and at the end of the level, you’re rewarded with a brand new, knitted Yoshi or one flavor or another. (Seriously…flavors. One of the early Yoshies is called Hot Cocoa Yoshi – yum!) And that is what’s got the teensy completionist part of my gamer heart all excited. Because once I got my first new Yoshi, I played the next world with him. And then I did the same in the third world with a third new Yoshi. I’ve started a trend and I can’t stop it. I simply can’t! I MUST play each new level with a new Yoshi!! Don’t you understand?!

I MUST!!!!!

Ahem.

And that’s why I usually quell any thoughts of completionism when I start a game, because once it takes hold, it can turn into a downright monster. You see, since it’s now imperative that I get ALL the yarn skeins in every level, I might as well search for ALL the special flowers in each level. And because I’m searching anyway, I might as well get ALL the stamp coins (so that I can get more stamps, duh) in each level as well. And then, because I’m already going to such lengths, why not at least TRY to end each level with a full set of life hearts. Because it just MAKES SENSE, that’s why!!

Though, in all seriousness, the atmosphere of Yoshi’s Woolly World is so brilliant and beautiful, that I don’t mind going back into each world several times to find every last secret. It’s like the best Easter egg hunt in the entire world. And at the end of it, I will have a collection of Yoshies, which is, like, soooo much better than a collection of eggs.

What’s your attitude towards completionism? Do you aim for 100% with each and every game, or does the need only strike you with certain games, if at all?