Yoshi's Island DS

[nekunando]

Having just cleared Yoshi's Island DS this morning, I'm interesting in discovering some other opinions of the game along with those of the SNES original.

 

I never had an opportunity to play Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island back when it was first released, something I had always wanted to put right considering the fact that Super Mario World is one of my absolute favourites and the visuals of Yoshi's Island looked so appealing When I did manage to experience the game, albeit playing the GBA version on my DS Lite a few years ago, I was left horribly disappointed as I found the game to be highly frustrating

 

When given the opportunity to play it again on 3DS, due to Ambassador status, I reluctantly accepted the challenge to play through again in the hope that it may grow on me. It didn't. I can see a lot of good things in there but I always found these aspects outweighed by annoying segments of gameplay and a flutter jump that never felt quite precise enough to be entirely reliable when I needed it to be.

 

Why, then, with these feelings would I even consider picking up the DS sequel? A £9.99 price tag in HMV went some way towards luring me in and I snapped it up a couple of months ago. A kid with his mother standing next to be saw it in my hands and he began to get excited and expressed his desire for Yoshi too The mother asked me where to find it and I pointed out the final remaining copy on the shelf as I gripped my own copy tightly. With glee, they queued behing me to make the same purchase I was making and despite my lingering reluctance, I felt a little happy that a new generation was still excited for some classic Nintendo gaming

 

I got it home.. I opened it up.. I slipped the cartidge into my 3DS.. I prayed (I didn't pray).. and I braced myself for another potentially frustrating ridge. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I got To the game's detriment, it was basically too similar to the original so all the faults I had about the first game were again present.

 

I guess this series isn't quite for me, then, though I'd actually be happy for it to see another release with more fantastic graphics and tweaks that would make it a less frustrating experience. I always thought the Wii would have lent itself well to Yoshi's Island with the ability to point at the screen to fire your eggs with speed and precision.

 

Does anyone have similar views or are you on the other side of the fence where the game, for you, embodies everything great about Nintendo?

[Dcubed]

The DS game is a crime against humanity. It's made by Artoon (a big warning sign right there!) and it's an utter disgrace to the SNES original.

 

The original Yoshi's Island is a masterpiece; YIDS is a pile of smelly, diseased garbage.

[-Dem0-]

I've only played the GBA version of Yoshi's Island. But to this day it's one of my favourite games ever.

I haven't played the DS sequel but the reviews I've read have been very positive.

[Strange Cookie]

It's a good game. Not as good as the original Yoshi's Island, but still a good platformer. I've had loads of fun with it, though you do get the feeling it' indeed isn't Nintendo self who is pulling the strings.

 

If you even have a chance to play the original, do yourself a favour and definitely give it a try. Maybe you can seek out the GBA-version. I assume you don't have the ambassador-program, or you'd have downloaded it by now. I'm currently replaying it as the ambassadors-download.

 

I hope they make the GBA-games available for non-ambassadors. It truely are gems, and it's a shame to have them digitally, but only hand them out to a select few. It's been a year: throw them on Virtual Console already.

[Magnus]

Whew, I was afraid that story would end with you loving Yoshi's Island DS, Nando. :p

 

Out of the ~40 games I own on the DS, Yoshi's Island DS is my second least favorite after Puzzle Quest. It has no redeeming features whatsoever.

 

Well, I guess the graphics aren't bad, but that's only because 90% (probably more) of the sprites are just ripped wholesale from the first game. What few new sprites there are (so, like, all five of them) don't mesh at all with the rest of the game, since apparently no one at Artoon had actually ever played the original Yoshi's Island and they didn't realize that it's a game where the graphics are known for the thick, black outlines.

 

While I loved getting a perfect score in the levels in the first game, there are too many levels in the sequel that are just so frustrating that just getting through them is hard enough. When I got to the last part of a particularly frustrating level and realized that if I somehow managed to make it to the end (and thirty tries later, I still had made absolutely no progress at getting through the segment while collecting the red coins on the way) I'd finish the level with a score of 99 because there was no way to collect any more stars before the end of the level, it was the straw that broke the camel's back and I rushed through the rest of the game and never looked back.

 

(Actually, I went back a couple of years later and still hated it. I was particularly annoyed by how the game has character-specific coins to collect that just disappear forever from the levels once you've collected them once. So when I was replaying levels I was confused at first by how some secret rooms were completely empty for some reason. There's a reason the New Super Mario Bros. games leave ghostly versions of their star coins behind.)

 

Helpful things like those items in the first game that you rarely used but were a lifesaver when you really needed some more eggs to get that flower or two more stars to get a perfect score are missing, leaving you to commit suicide over and over again, only to realize that you've already messed up earlier and it was all for naught. In the original game, there were yellow and orange coins. While not all orange coins were secretly red coins, yellow coins were never red coins, meaning you didn't have to go out of your way to collect them. In the sequel, red coins can hide anywhere, so you'd better make sure to get that one coin in that corner because you wouldn't want to miss a red coin! Whoops, sorry, you've just wasted all of your eggs on collecting a regular coin. Guess you can't get that flower now.

 

At least they added multiple characters, but that's just a great way to overcomplicate what's supposed to be a simple platformer. Every time I had to run all the way back and switch to Peach just to collect a red coin and then all the way back again to switch to Mario so I could collect another red coin, I died a little inside. The game went from being about the platforming and the action to being about boring puzzles and running back and forth a lot. Things like how only Mario can run and how only Peach's eggs bounce just serve to make the game even more annoying to play.

 

The parts of the gameplay that aren't focused around the world's worst character-switching mechanic just feel like a retread of the first game. And I'd rather just play that instead of this abomination.

 

On the plus side, I actually laughed out loud at how terrible the Bowser sprite is in this game, so there's that, I guess. It looks like something a fourteen-year-old made for his sprite comic.

 

There's a reason Nintendo dropped the 2 from the name.

[Ville]

@Magnus Good breakdown there. Sounds like a real crapfest, guess there's no reason to buy this then...

[nekunando]

On the plus side, I actually laughed out loud at how terrible the Bowser sprite is in this game..

 

You weren't the only one I couldn't believe how out of place it looked in comparison to the rest of the game..

Edited July 28, 2012 by nekunando

[tapedeck]

The original game was and still is stunning. Loved the re-release on the GBA even with the crap touch Fuzzy get Dizzy integration (SNES Mode7 GFX ruled) and the washed out GBA colours were yuck. I was keen on the DS version due to adoring the original and picked it up even though the reviews weren't overly glowing. Unfortunately it was about as well-tuned as an X-Factor triallist.

It was also ridiculously hard and cheaply so. The extra babies could have injected some magic into the title but they just came across as a cheap way to integrate some ideas into the game.

 

It was a shame but I should have learnt from Yoshi's Story that Nintendo were done with the original title's mechanics...

[daftada]

The original Yoshi's Island is one of my favourite games ever. The incredible presentation, clever level design, constant sense of challenge and achievement, and a seemingly never-ending stream of amazing gameplay ideas mean, for me, it still stands up to modern games. The bosses are also among my all-time faves - how many games have had such ingenious examples for bosses as the likes of Sluggy the Unshaven, Tap-Tap the red-nose (or red-nose the tap-tap, I can never remember his name!), Raphael the Raven, and the two Baby Bowser fights. Only Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country 3 got close the YI's ensemble of bosses.

 

Sadly, I had to sell my mint copy of the rare Player's Guide special edition a few years ago (along with nearly my entire gaming collection) when I was completely broke. I've got a Japanese copy sitting next to me, but it's not quite as awesome as my original (even if the box art is funkier). I bought the GBA one, and have been replaying the ambassador download but it's not quite the same. I think something has been lost in translation in the switch to the smaller GBA screen. I wish Nintendo released the SNES original on the VC so people could savour it on a bigger screen with less cramped controls.

[Rummy]

What are your gripes with the first game, Nando? Also, it has to be commended that despite having a dislike you actually still soldiered through the games and gave them a chance, just a shame it wasn't for you

 

(personally I love Yoshi's Island, YI-2 was a bit wank compared and I think I gave up halfway through)

[nekunando]

What are your gripes with the first game, Nando?

 

I have several complaints that basically apply to both Yoshi's Island games..

 

When playing, I often felt that many of the stages were too long and that some 'Middle Rings' were frustratingly far apart. This was particularly annoying when you had slogged your way through a difficult section only to end up dying and having to repeat it all again. I don't have a problem with games beind challenging, but sometimes it felt very unfair

 

This was one of the reasons I never felt any desire to go back through the levels in order to collect everything, though the hidden red coins played their part too. I didn't like that you had to hunt down every last coin in each level in the hope that there would be a red coin lurking. Having to collect the little stars could be frustrating too as they would explode out in different directions and you never had much time to nab them all before they'd disappear.. either that or they'd reach places that you couldn't or you'd hit an enemy when rushing around to grab them and therefore make the endeavour pointless.

 

That basically leads me to my next complaint.. Baby Mario There are times when you'll lose him.. then grab him only to lose him again almost instantly. When that happens a few times in a row and the timer is couting down, the anger levels can increase to suicidal levels And then, of course, there's the crying you have to endure

 

In addition, I've never been a huge fan of Yoshi's flutter jump as, to me, it never feels completely reliable and it would sometimes fail to work as I wanted it to when I needed it most. With FLUDD in Super Mario Sunshine and the Spin Jump in Super Mario Galaxy I always felt that I knew exactly what I was going to get from it and that they would always work as planned. I never felt comfortable with the flutter jump and this was emphasized in the little competitions in Yoshi's Island that challenged you to see how far you could flutter. I'd nail it a few times and then the next time I'd press the button it wouldn't register and I'd drop like a stone

 

Then there's a minor issue but one that is, nevertheless, tiresome. I hated the parts of certain stages where there were little hollowed out sections of the scenery where you would basically go inside the cave and the foreground would disappear so that you could see inside. It doesn't sound like much of a complaint until you factor in that everything stops for a couple of seconds every time you enter and exit. There are a couple of segments where this is of particular annoyance with repeated stopping and starting.

 

With Yoshi's Island, I find it to be a game that is probably the most beautiful Mario game ever created but with gameplay that doesn't quite match up unfortunately. If I could have had a proper Super Mario World 2 with those visuals, I'd have been much happier, though I do appreciate that they tried to take the platforming genre somewhere different with Yoshi's Island..

Edited July 29, 2012 by nekunando

[Magnus]

It kind of just sounds like you suck at the game, Nando. :p

[Ville]

Nando, you weirdo. First you diss Monster Hunter, and now Yoshi's Island? Goddamnit man... : o : D

 

Anyway, personally I thought YI was almost perfect a game when it first came out. Visuals? Awesome. Music? Catchy as hell. Gameplay? Pixel-perfectly tight. Challenge and replay value? Just right, i.e. content for both the casual and hc crowd. Probably feels somewhat different for those who play it now for the first time, but back in the day...it was one ass-kicker of a game.

 

So, if YI DS is pretty much crap, where is the real, quality sequel to this game? Nintendooo...you're not leaving this series to die in the dust as well, are you? : o

Edited July 30, 2012 by Ville

[Rummy]

I have several complaints that basically apply to both Yoshi's Island games..

 

When playing, I often felt that many of the stages were too long and that some 'Middle Rings' were frustratingly far apart. This was particularly annoying when you had slogged your way through a difficult section only to end up dying and having to repeat it all again. I don't have a problem with games beind challenging, but sometimes it felt very unfair

 

This was one of the reasons I never felt any desire to go back through the levels in order to collect everything, though the hidden red coins played their part too. I didn't like that you had to hunt down every last coin in each level in the hope that there would be a red coin lurking. Having to collect the little stars could be frustrating too as they would explode out in different directions and you never had much time to nab them all before they'd disappear.. either that or they'd reach places that you couldn't or you'd hit an enemy when rushing around to grab them and therefore make the endeavour pointless.

 

That basically leads me to my next complaint.. Baby Mario There are times when you'll lose him.. then grab him only to lose him again almost instantly. When that happens a few times in a row and the timer is couting down, the anger levels can increase to suicidal levels And then, of course, there's the crying you have to endure

 

In addition, I've never been a huge fan of Yoshi's flutter jump as, to me, it never feels completely reliable and it would sometimes fail to work as I wanted it to when I needed it most. With FLUDD in Super Mario Sunshine and the Spin Jump in Super Mario Galaxy I always felt that I knew exactly what I was going to get from it and that they would always work as planned. I never felt comfortable with the flutter jump and this was emphasized in the little competitions in Yoshi's Island that challenged you to see how far you could flutter. I'd nail it a few times and then the next time I'd press the button it wouldn't register and I'd drop like a stone

 

Then there's a minor issue but one that is, nevertheless, tiresome. I hated the parts of certain stages where there were little hollowed out sections of the scenery where you would basically go inside the cave and the foreground would disappear so that you could see inside. It doesn't sound like much of a complaint until you factor in that everything stops for a couple of seconds every time you enter and exit. There are a couple of segments where this is of particular annoyance with repeated stopping and starting.

 

With Yoshi's Island, I find it to be a game that is probably the most beautiful Mario game ever created but with gameplay that doesn't quite match up unfortunately. If I could have had a proper Super Mario World 2 with those visuals, I'd have been much happier, though I do appreciate that they tried to take the platforming genre somewhere different with Yoshi's Island..

 

Well, being that I love this game, I am of course going to say I think you're nitpicking :p

 

Though actually, all well presented criticisms, and I would say fair, though I don't share the sentiments. The minor pause in field changey thingy is something I guess did bug me, though I didn't really realise it until you mentioned it.

 

The flutter-jump did take some getting used to, but I felt after a while I had the timing down and could do it consistently. As for the collectables, I felt it certainly gave some decent replayability, even if it DID mean hunting down every single coin in the stage, I found it fun! The loss of baby mario/crying is very true, but again just something that I felt helped the challenge. Overall, most of the things you mentioned I think help to make it a challenging game whilst letting it appeal to the less hardcore, though thinking about it now(I haven't played for ages) I wouldn't even say it's that hard of a game?

 

 

All this talk is really making me want to play it again. Brilliant visuals, sound, gameplay, everything! Music really made this game too. Story wasn't too bad either, given it's a mario game.

[tapedeck]

 

...And then, of course, there's the crying you have to endure ...

 

I remember reading an interview with Howard Lincoln who mentioned that when employees were testing the game baby Mario didn't originally cry when you got hit.

Because of this, players would just leave baby Mario floating in the bubble longer. They went back to the drawing board and consciously added the crying effect in to make sure players would go mental and go after baby Mario instantly.

 

Genius.