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60 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sequel to a Great SNES Game, November 25, 2006
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Over a decade ago, Yoshi's Island on the Super Nintendo was a blast that at the time took the gaming world by storm. It didn't quite have the same impact when it was released for the GBA in 2002, but it still managed to sport some of its originality. We finally get a sequel, and its actually pretty good. It keeps all the good stuff from the previous game and adds in some new quirks. So it isn't exactly the same game. There are indeed some key differences.
In the first Yoshi's Island, Kamek kidnapped Baby Luigi while Baby Mario fell to Yoshi's Island. The Yoshi's rallied together to reunite Mario with his brother. The adventure was long, satisfying and quite a challenge. In the sequel on DS, Kamek is up to his dirty tricks again, but the key difference is that now the Yoshi's are taking care of more than one baby.
A lot of gameplay mechanics from the first one return. As you go through levels Yoshi does pretty much all that he did in the first one. That is to say you can jump and hover briefly, ground pound, make enemies into eggs and throw those eggs, as well as spitting your enemies back out at others. In this aspect Yoshi's Island has not changed at all. In addition to all this, keeping track of the baby on your back is also the same. If Yoshi ever touches an enemy he'll lose the baby off his back and a timer starts to countdown. You have to recover the baby before the timer runs out or else you lose a life. Also like in the first one, stars refill the counter.
There's more that returns. The completion of the game is a spot on match to the first one. As you go through levels you'll see flowers, red coins among the normal ones, and stars that need collecting. Upon completing a level you'll be given a score out of 100. The only way to get 100 is if you collect all the flowers, red coins, and manage to keep your counter completely full by collecting stars. There are always 100 points, and if you manage to score 100 points in every level of a world, you'll unlock a bonus stage... just like in the original.
There is one difference in the gameplay in particular that separates Yoshi's Island DS from the original Super Nintendo version. The fact that there is more than one baby that Yoshi can carry on his back. At first this doesn't sound like much, but it makes a difference in some of Yoshi's abilities. You'll begin the game with Baby Mario and Baby Peach. As you progress however, you'll get more babies--DK, Wario and Boswer. They each allow you to do something different. Mario, for example, let's Yoshi dash while Peach has a parasol. In the end, if you actually want to do everything Yoshi's Island has to offer, you'll have to use all the babies. Some levels cannot be completed unless you've got the right baby to do it. So if you're having trouble getting some items, or you can't access a certain part of the level, it might be because you're not using the right baby.
The best part about Yoshi's Island is that the game as a whole is a challenge. More so than the original. The mechanic of having to switch babies to progress through levels adds a lot of variety to the levels. Having to score 100 points on every level also adds a lot of variety and challenge. Yoshi's Island DS is also fun to play because it doesn't do away with the mechanics that made the first one so good. The boss fights are just as memorable here as they were in the SNES installment.
Its the graphics where Yoshi's Island DS misses a little bit. In all honesty, it doesn't look all that different from the first one on the Super Nintendo. This isn't bad seeing as how the art style is still unique, but it doesn't look that much better than the game we got over ten years ago. It's pretty and all, but if you played the first one to death, you're not really seeing anything new. Most of the enemies look the same as they did before. Along those lines, the game doesn't sound as good as the SNES original. Most of it is actually quite forgettable. The tunes aren't bad or anything. They're just not catchy.
The game also doesn't use the touch screen. All the top screen is used for is so that you can see more of the level. So if you were expecting it to take full advantage of the DS's capabilities, you'll be disappointed. This in no way detracts from the game's value, though.
In the end, Yoshi's Island DS isn't so bad. The game keeps all the aspects of the original game in tact while adding in some new features that make it unique. It's a satisfying game experience overall, even if it does bring back a little too much from the original.
On the positive side
+The gameplay mechanics that worked in the previous game are back
+New additions to the gameplay are welcome; there's quite a bit of variety
+The art style still works for the game...
+The game sounds good
+The levels are great
+The game is a challenge
+It's a lot of fun with a lot of replay value
+Tons of secrets to unlock
On the negative side
-For some gamers it's too much of the same thing
-Forgettable Soundtrack
-Not that much better looking than the original SNES title
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yoshi's Island DS, December 12, 2006
A Kid's Review
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Many people feel that the original Yoshi's Island is one of the best platformers ever made (if not the best). After all, it was a fun Mario-style game with an interesting mix of gameplay ideas. Its charming crayon-inspired visual style was also unlike anything else we'd seen up to that point. For the sequel, Nintendo and Artoon clearly wanted to keep everything that people loved about the original game intact. Besides the obvious uptick in audio-visual quality that is afforded by the Nintendo DS, Yoshi's Island DS pretty much looks, sounds, and plays just like its predecessor. There is one significant improvement that the sequel introduces: You can now plop different babies onto Yoshi's back and take advantage of the unique abilities that each diapered tot has to offer. It sounds like such a modest change, yet it totally kicks the sequel's replay value into the stratosphere. The different tykes give you more ways to frustrate enemies and more ways to interact with the environment. And, because certain babies can access spots that others can't, you're always discovering new items and secrets each time you go through a level. Thanks to this one key upgrade, Yoshi's Island DS manages to duplicate the look and feel of its predecessor yet seem fresh and new at the same time. It also accomplishes this without mucking up any of the things that made the original so great in the first place.
This new game picks up where the previous one left off. The evil wizard, Kamek, having already been thwarted once by those insufferable Yoshis, kidnaps Baby Mario and Baby Luigi a second time, along with all of the other babies in the world. Unfortunately for Kamek, a mishap between one of his minions and a stork frees a handful of babies, depositing Baby Mario and Baby Peach smack dab in the middle of the Yoshi village again. The stork informs the Yoshis that Kamek is up to his old tricks. As they did the first time, the colorful dinosaurs decide to take turns hauling the babies to Kamek's castle so that they can put the smack down and free the captive kiddies. It's a hokey story, but it's cute. It also provides sufficient justification for why you can now swap babies at the various stork stops that are situated within each level.
At its heart, Yoshi's Island DS is a run-and-jump platformer that is similar to Mario's own adventures. The underlying gameplay involves making your way to the exit on the other side of the level, jumping across gaps and pouncing on small enemies. The 50 different levels scattered across the game's five worlds are lengthy, intricate, and visually interesting. You can also look forward to fighting a gigantic boss in the middle of and at the end of each world. Yoshi has quite a unique set of abilities. He can run and jump, of course, and you can make him perform a ground pound by pressing down on the control pad after a jump. You can also make him flutter short distances by keeping the jump button pressed. One way to get rid of enemies is to land on their backs. Or you can make the tiny dino stick out his tongue and drag an enemy into his mouth. From there, you have the option of spitting the creature back out, either at another enemy or at a switch. Or you can make the dino swallow the enemy and turn it into an egg. Eggs are useful little projectiles that you can launch at enemies or bounce off of walls to grab items and activate switches that you otherwise couldn't reach. On top of all that, there are items in certain levels that transform Yoshi into vehicles, such as a snub-nosed helicopter, a mole-shaped drilling machine, or a cute, blue submarine.
Throughout the game, Yoshi is constantly carrying one of the baby Nintendo characters on his back. In the first game, this meant that you'd lose a life if Baby Mario was knocked off Yoshi's back and not retrieved before timer ran out. In the sequel, there are five different babies to swap among, and each baby gives Yoshi an extra subset of abilities. You start the game with Baby Mario and Baby Peach, but it isn't long before Baby Donkey Kong, Baby Wario, and Baby Bowser are added to the cast. Baby Mario can make invisible "M" blocks appear and gives Yoshi the ability to dash. Baby Peach can use her parasol to send her and Yoshi flying on a gust of wind. Baby DK can grab onto dangling vines and swing across ropes. Baby Wario can use his magnet to grab coins, as well as drag metallic boxes and platforms around. Baby Bowser can spit fire to defeat enemies and melt ice. Each baby also changes how Yoshi's egg projectiles work. For example, eggs fired with Mario on the dino's back will ricochet off walls. Those launched with DK in tow, however, will explode like bombs when they hit something.
Most levels are designed so that you have to switch babies at least a couple of times to reach the exit. Many levels have optional spots where you can pick up some extra coins or stars by using a specific baby to access an out-of-the-way spot. You'll also discover many secrets simply by going back through a level with a baby you haven't brought before. A greater emphasis on exploration is what all of the different babies really bring to Yoshi's Island DS, which wasn't evident in the original game. The original Yoshi's Island had some sweet level designs that were oriented around Yoshi's main abilities, but only a few actually made you work to get all of the flowers and bonus coins. In Yoshi's Island DS, you have to swap babies frequently to collect all of the flowers and coins that are necessary to earn a high grade for each level. At the same time, the levels in Yoshi's Island DS are at least twice the size of those in the original game. They're also absolutely massive compared to the short levels included in New Super Mario Bros.
Another interesting thing about Yoshi's Island DS is that it can be a very easy game or an extremely difficult game, depending on what you attempt to accomplish during your time with it. It isn't challenging in the traditional sense. In fact, falling into a bottomless pit or lava bed is about the only way to lose a life outright. Whenever you do make contact with an enemy, Yoshi will merely be stunned for a second, and the baby he's carrying will fly off of his back crying. The baby will then float around in an energy bubble while a timer ticks down. If you don't retrieve the tot before the timer expires, then you'll lose a life. This generally isn't a problem because the timer is fairly generous. Although it isn't difficult to get through the levels, it is difficult to collect all of the stars, red coins, character coins, and flowers scattered throughout each of them. These items contribute to a grade that you're given at the end of each level. You need perfect grades in all of the game's main levels to unlock all of the bonus levels and to see the extended ending sequence. That's no easy undertaking. You lose stars when a baby is knocked lose; character coins can only be grabbed by the character printed on them; and some red coins and flowers are only on the screen for a few seconds before they float away. Getting all of these items in one pass through a level requires a fair amount of practice. So for the completist, Yoshi's Island DS can be very challenging indeed.
How long the game lasts is really up to you. Each of the game's five worlds has eight main levels. If you just want to rush through and beat Kamek, the whole process can be done in about eight hours or so. You may find yourself wanting to replay some of the more enjoyable levels and discover that each world also has a bonus level, which becomes available after you finish the game the first time. Completists will no doubt want to collect all of the stars, coins, and flowers in each world to unlock the secret 10th level and witness the extended ending sequence. That endeavor can easily consume 20 or 30 hours of time. You can also check out all of the creatures that you've encountered in an island museum. And there's a minigame menu, which lets you play the five minigames from the normal game in easy and hard variations. About the only thing that is not included is any sort of multiplayer mode. That's a mild shame, but there's certainly more than enough single player stuff here to keep you occupied for a long time.
No matter how long you play Yoshi's Island DS, your eyes and ears will probably be satisfied the entire time. Many people fell in love with the original game's unique audio-visual style. The levels and characters looked like they were drawn with crayons and felt markers. The music and sound effects also tickled the listener's ear with flutes, xylophones, animal noises, and other whimsical jangles that were not typically heard in video games. Yoshi's Island DS basically looks and sounds just like the first game, although the system's horsepower has been used to beef up certain technical aspects. You'll run into larger versions of some enemies; the transparency effect used to animate the water looks much nicer; and cute little environmental touches, such as bouncing plants and passing clouds, are more plentiful. The game doesn't make use of the system's touch-sensitive features or do anything special regarding the two screens. Outside of a cool transition effect and a couple of boss encounters, the extra screen is primarily just used to let you see more of the surrounding environment.
Some sticklers may complain that the charcoal and crayon-style graphics in Yoshi's Island DS look a little cleaner than they did in the original game. Specifically, the backgrounds aren't as cluttered, and the black outlines aren't as thick. Depending on your personal preference, this is a stylistic change that you'll either love or hate. The same can be said about the kindler, gentler music that is featured in the game's soundtrack. It's the same tropical sort of stuff that was in the...
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stupendous Fun Factor Fun!!!, December 28, 2006
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
Wow! They did it again! Nintendo has made the funnest game I've ever played on the GBA SP, called Yoshi's Island (I never played the SNES version, but I hear it was a doozy!). And now they come out with the DS variety, with some touch and balance for good measure. I really love this game. The whole concept. The fact that you can never "die" the way you do in the Mario games. (Run into a baddie as small Mario, and you instantly die.)
No, here you just lose your baby for a few seconds, and if you don't capture him/her soon enough, it's curtains!
Nintendo has added lots of creativity to this new effort, including new monsters, new bosses, and new skill sets to get from one level to the next. I see lots of reviews saying its more of the same. I guess so. But isn't that the story with most sequels? Even movies! So, why not bring back the most fun and exciting parts of the game that we all remember was so much fun. And don't we have a totally new "audience" of gamers. Gamers start young, my son is only 5. While he did play the original (when he was around 3) on the GBA SP (well original if you were born 10+ years after the life of the SNES), there are probably literally 1000's of new fresh gamers this game will appeal to.
As Yoshi's Island is my absolute favorite game of all time, I was a "no-brainer" as a potential customer of this one. Well, it was a "no-brainer." I happen to have some brains, as I love this game!
I would recommend any DS owner, or gift giver to pick this one up. I can't quite give it 5 stars (some of the gameplay and control are just a tad too frustrating) but the fun factor is way up there at 5 stars.
Great Game! Let's see more of this!
MC White said: Great Game!
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