In light of Nintendo's recent travails, concern about its reliance on treasured brands is understandable. In these circumstances, it's worth thinking of the company not as a creator of games, but as a maker of premium toys. Viewed this way, the aim of its output is clear: its focus is not on past buyers, but on a new generation of players who won't mind that they're getting something similar to what their parents or older siblings played with.
Yoshi's Island (subtitled 'Super Mario World 2' undoubtedly to attach itself to one of gaming's biggest franchises) is the epitome of what any smart retro enthusiast knows: the twilight of a. Mar 14, 2014 Yoshi's New Island for 3DS game reviews & Metacritic score: Yoshi's Island brings Yoshi and Baby Mario back with flutter jumps, ground pounds, egg throws, and a host of new actions that use the unique features of the Nin.
Meanwhile, avid collectors remain enamoured with the company for the consistent quality of its product. The toys are ostensibly familiar yet subtly improved every time the line is refreshed; consider an action figure, hand-crafted to the same set of stringent design standards, but now using only the finest contemporary materials, with a greater level of detail and more points of articulation. In other words, it looks, sounds and moves better than ever before, and therein lies its maker's enduring appeal.
Yoshi S Island Review
Problems with this approach only really arise when the the update isn't up to scratch. And it's immediately apparent that Yoshi's New Island has been outsourced to a manufacturer without the same level of quality control. To the untrained eye, it might not look like such a bad job, but those in the know can instantly tell it isn't the real deal.
It's a lesson in the importance of getting the fine details just right, because it's quite startling that a game so outwardly similar to the Super Nintendo original can be so very inferior. Initially, it's hard to pinpoint quite what developer Arzest - formed from the ashes of Artoon, the studio responsible for Yoshi's Universal Gravitation and FlingSmash - has done wrong.
After all, many of the same ingredients remain. The story is all but a straight retread, with different-coloured members of the Yoshi clan transporting proto-Mario to reunite him with his kidnapped brother. Each level holds the same collectables - five flowers, 20 red coins, 30 small stars - and many of the same enemies. You'll still gobble up Shy Guys and Crazee Dayzees, excreting them as eggs that can be thrown at coins, switches and other enemies. The action is broken up by occasional vehicle sections that see Yoshi transform into a balloon, a helicopter or a bobsled. In many respects, little has changed.
And at the same time, so much has. The SNES game had an art style that felt unique at the time, a delightful hand-drawn aesthetic with character and charm to spare. Yoshi's New Island opts for a similarly homespun look, using pastels, oils, watercolours and inks in both its background and foreground scenery, while the 3D slider offers some neat depth-of-field effects. It's not flat in a physical sense, then, but it's lifeless. It's inconsistent, too: Yoshi and several of his opponents have a pre-rendered look akin to the N64's disappointing Yoshi's Story. It may be a practical choice to ensure they stand out against the colourful scenery even with the 3D effect switched off, yet the result is ugly and looks unusually cheap for a Nintendo-published game.
It's startling that a game so outwardly similar to the Super Nintendo original can be so very inferior
If the art is divisive, however, it's likely there will be greater consensus on the way it sounds. It seems Kazumi Totaka reserved all his best tunes for Animal Crossing: New Leaf, because his soundtrack is bewilderingly poor, with a series of feeble variations on a lacklustre main theme and several duff jingles. Some deliberately off-key moments are presumably meant to lend the music a rough-edged charm, but only succeed in provoking irritation. The aim is to evoke a bedtime story, but it merely feels lethargic. Where's the bounce, the energy of Koji Kondo's wonderful athletic theme?
If the music has something of a soporific effect, it finds a match in the sedative qualities of the level design. The original wasn't the paciest of platformers, but it was never as languid as this. The sluggishness seems to infect Yoshi, who waddles along as if constipated, while his flutter-jump seems more strained than ever as he labours for that extra airtime. There's seldom any sense of peril in the platforming - for the most part, falling down simply means finding a route back from where you dropped, while enemies aren't a threat so much as an irritant, positioned for maximum inconvenience. Towards the end you'll be chased and harassed by larger foes, but these dangers are too infrequent and arrive too late. The boss battles, meanwhile, are insultingly easy - most are simply larger versions of existing enemies, and all perish within three strikes.
Rarely has one word in a game's title felt quite so redundant, because there's very little that qualifies as 'new' here. Occasionally you'll happen across a large pipe which holds a giant Shy Guy, prompting a brief bout of button-mashing as Yoshi struggles to swallow it down - and the logistics of what follows don't bear thinking about. These enormous eggs can be rolled into scenery to demolish it and earn you extra lives, but they're used prescriptively and predictably.
The heavier metal eggs, obtained by swallowing a silver Shy Guy (whose pencil-shaded design is the best visual effect in the game) are used a little more creatively, as they're the only way to sink in a body of water. Negotiating a path through these pools to hidden flowers and coins is as thoughtful as the environmental puzzling gets - but as new features go, the sporadic use of large eggs is hardly an innovation for the ages.
Next to the upcoming Kirby Triple Deluxe, a similarly slow-paced and challenge-light platformer, Arzest's effort falls embarrassingly short, lacking the vibrancy, spirit and generosity of HAL's game. Most gallingly of all, it seems Nintendo saw this coming: aware of the murmurings of discontent that accompanied the game's initial reveal, the company took pains to announce that original producer Takashi Tezuka would be overseeing the latter stages of development, which always felt like an unconvincing attempt to placate worried fans.
It might look a little like Yoshi's Island, then, but it's a worse game in every regard. 19 years on from the original, its design has been denuded of almost everything that made it great: a series once fecund with ideas is now coasting on past glories. Yoshi, one of Nintendo's most selfless heroes, deserves far better - and may get it later this year, if Good-Feel can spin yarn into gold on Wii U. But on a console that has recently hosted more than one unlikely comeback, Yoshi's New Island is the slightest return so far. If it were a toy, you'd make sure you kept the receipt.
4 /10
Folks, we have begun our descent to Egg Island, where the current weather is a balmy 82 degrees. Inhabited by the indigenous Yoshi tribe, the island is also home to a whole host of creatures such as the dog-like poochy and the mischievous monkey ukikis. While a veritable paradise of lush flora and fauna, the island’s fragile ecosystem is being threatened by Koopa Industries, owned by CEO King Bowser Koopa. Nevertheless, the natives have taken a stand to protect their homeland in an ongoing standoff between the two entities.
As we make our final descent, we'd like the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for arrival, and we want to thank you for flying with us toYoshi’s New Island.
Here We Go Again
An inter-quel between the original Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s Island DS, Yoshi’s New Island explores the subsequent events following the initial game's conclusion. For those unfamiliar with the series, think of a 2D cross-country babysitting marathon complete with precision egg tossing.
It seems Kamek is just slightly obsessed with babies, possibly in an effort to finally learn “How are babbies formed?” -- good news for science and discovery; bad news for Mario and Luigi’s stork. Fortunately, baby Mario escapes the kidnapping, falling miles down to the very, very convenient saddle all yoshis are born with. Tasked with reuniting the brothers, the rainbow of reptiles split the task of searching for Luigi across the island.
While a rather charming story back in 1995, when I first played the Yoshi’s Island series, I could not help but feel disappointed that the story remained almost the same nineteen years later. Arzest, the developer, seems content to stick with the winning formula from the 90’s and rarely diverges from the first title. Little changes help place it as a continuation of Super Mario 2: Yoshi’s Island, but those are largely superficial within the context of the story. They're mostly used to smooth out any continuity errors. I guess you have to hand it to Kamek, he’s one persistent baby stealer.
How is Yoshi Egg Formed?
Despite reused story elements and mechanics, Yoshi’s New Island does retain the fixtures that made the original fun and addicting. Collectible hidden red coins, giant flowers and collecting ambulant stars are littered throughout the game. Ending a stage with all collectibles gives a higher chance of collecting medals and the smug satisfaction of an A+. What do medals do? Collecting 30 medals in each world unlocks a challenge level for your everyday hardcore gamer.
With enough time and patience, finding all the flowers and red coins was relatively easy. I had much more trouble collecting those running stars, especially since losing baby Mario subtracts from the total in the form of a countdown.
Character abilities draw from Mario staples, though with a unique yoshi twist. Yoshi can ground pound with the best of them and, while making the same noises I make on the toilet, float a bit longer while jumping. The main difference between Mario and Yoshi games is how yoshi acquires his power ups. By eating and digesting enemies, yoshi can create eggs -- even monstrously big eggs. With a little bit of geometry, eggs are an end all solution to picking up coins, flowers, and destroying enemies. He’s not limited to just egg throwing, as eating watermelons allows him to spit damaging seeds which are required to fight certain enemies.
One of my favorite parts of the older game was transforming into the helicopter or train yoshi and traveling around collecting miscellaneous items. This mechanic makes a comeback, though not quite the same as remembered. Upon entering certain doors (You’ll recognize their acid-induced imagery right away), your yoshi will transform into a myriad of forms: submarines, jackhammers, helicopters, and more. Using the gyroscopic abilities of the 3ds, you’re able to move the new and improved yoshi around. While I did enjoy these alternate transformations, the forced use of the gyroscope was an exercise in frustration as I found it very easy to go to undesired places due to a lack in the snap response expected from a platformer.
Mona Lisa Smile
Despite perhaps drawing too much from the original title, I’m really quite glad that the developers kept the almost nauseatingly whimsical, hand-drawn quality art. Seeing the background hills smile makes me smile. A lot of the art palette and quality reminds me of elementary school days, drawing dreamy scenes in pastels and crayon. Nintendo does seem to emphasize that hyper realistic graphics aren’t the end all and be all of aesthetics. Fun, unique stylization can also be equally attractive.
Coupled with the vibrant color palette are the sounds. Yoshis make many varied, amusing sounds, from idle humming to constipation-like grunts. Collecting coins, finding secrets, and unlocking hidden stairs make upbeat tones that fit their nature. The subdued background music really allows these notes to pop, especially the special sound effects that occur upon collecting all the red coins or flowers on a stage.
Yoshi's Island Flash
Aloha ‘Oe, Yoshi
Yoshi's New Island Ign Review
Yoshi’s New Island is sure to delight those gamers who haven’t had the opportunity to experience the other two earlier titles in the series. For those who have played Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’sIsland, the developer’s heavy reliance on the same formula detracts from the overall experience. To me it felt like more of the same ole, despite how much I may have enjoyed it years ago. Yet I can not truly fault Arzest for reusing so much of the classic game. Without accounting for its legacy, Yoshi’s New Island provides the art, sounds, and gameplay of a solid, entertaining game. For newer gamers and nostalgic ones alike, there’s plenty of fun to be had on the sandy beaches of Yoshi’s New Island.