Yoshi's Island (DS) Review
Posted by Morakoth Tang on 01.05.2007
Remember great platforming?
Title: Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
Publisher: Nintendo
Type: Platformer
Players: 1
Yoshi’s Island first appeared its colorful little self on the Super Nintendo and quickly gained fanfare and respect in the platforming community. The game enables players to play as the lovable dinosaur Yoshi, who takes care of the mustache-less baby Mario. Nearly a decade later Nintendo has brought back this title onto their Nintendo DS with even more babies to take care of. Does this game live up to its heritage or will it surpass it?
Graphics:
I must admit even though I have a background in 3d animation, I love 2d art to no end. 2-dimensional games have a distinct feel and appeal. It can pull off many unique and lovely characteristics that 3d can attempt. It’s very hard to define with words the detail, but if you play or see Yoshi’s Island DS you will formally see this great accusation. The palettes of color although limited are put to great use, and from a consumer’s point of view we would not know that it was restriction. The art direction for the characters are cleverly designed, when seeing them they will demand affection immediately. The game environments are detailed and strikingly sharp. Artoon have incorporated in Yoshi Island’s a detail that I’m very fond of, bold dark black outlines. They didn’t over do the black lines nor underused it; they have provided enough to make the game look clean, fresh and amazingly appealing. The double screen adds more real estate for the great looking game; believe it or not the addition of the top screen adds “completeness” to the world. This game has the best use of the double screen I’ve seen to date.
Game Play:
There are many ways to design a game, and Yoshi’s Island went with the convention of Mechanics. Since this is a platform we all know what to expect from game play; jump from one platform to another and pray your little heart out that you do not die! Yoshi can jump, flutter jump (float), swallow enemies, lay eggs, perform ground stomps, and of course keeping to its heritage egg tossing and platform jumping. The addition of new characters like Baby Princess Peach, Baby Donkey Kong, Baby Wario, and Baby Bowser furthered the way the game is played. They all have different abilities thus creating a more unique playing field. Baby Mario is the all around character while Baby Peach has the ability to float on a gust of wind, Baby DK can climb vines, Baby Wario has magnetic abilities, and Baby Bowser can spit an unlimited amount of fire balls. The levels were all crafted and mindful of each character’s know how. This attention to detail dictates a game level where there are path options and elects the feeling to explore it. For example, I was playing a level with Baby Mario, but I see across the ceiling vines. Sure enough I looked for a switch spot to pick Baby DK to see what’s up there, so exploration is a big part to its appeal and depth. Items are cleverly laid across the game and egg tossing skills comes to great use. Each baby has different egg tossing abilities and its interesting how the developers choose to expose it. As I mentioned in the graphics section, this game has the best use of the double screen. The developers even used the plain in between the screen to hide items. Another example of creative use for both screens was during a boss fight in which the bottom screen served a mirror…very innovative and very smart. The game is fun and very addicting; nevertheless, there are parts that I have gripes with. Let’s go back to the switch port for a minute. The switch ports are the only way a player can choose another character. This creates a difficulty. The level designs are brilliant and make me want to explore every vine, green pipe and off shoot holes in the wall; however, the game punishes me by making me remember where I saw these exploration points. Since these points are only accessible by specific characters, and switch ports come every once in while we would have to replay the whole level again, and if we switch characters at the wrong time we would miss the exploration points recycling the problem. Another issue that the switch ports create is the accidental switching. When you activate a switch port, a Stork flies to and stays above the port until you leave the spot. You’ll have to jump and touch the Stork to switch between characters; this is where the conundrum lays. The game is a platformer, and there’s a lot of jumping obviously. In small enclosed and fast pace gaming areas, there’s a lot of accidental switching that contributed to my death in game. The ports should never lead to a player’s death if that was not the initial intent. Players should have been given the chance to switch on the fly somehow. This is just a suggestion, but I believe it would have contributed to a better experience. Game balance is another issue. The game has five worlds to explore and conquer. It’s rather easy from world 1 to level 4-6, but then gets exponentially hard at 4-7. It’s shameful but I must admit I died thirty times on level 4-7 and only ten times before hitting that level. I’m not the greatest platform player, but those stats should say something about game balance.
Sound:
The music for Yoshi’s Island DS in one word is cute. It’s nothing to wow about, but it suits the game very much. The music box intro to the typical in-game level music compliments the graphical details of the game. The music is not annoying, it’s not lame and it doesn’t rock, it just works. The in-game sound effects however “could” be a little annoying and for a purpose. Here’s an instance where it could be annoying, when Yoshi gets hit by an enemy the baby riding on his back flies off in a bubble and he/she cries, and yes cries really loud and annoying. Why do I say this could be annoying? Because I look at it not as a sound effect alone but a game play mechanic. Players could have up to thirty seconds to retrieve the baby, so there’s plenty of time…no need to rush. The designers want people to feel they need to get the baby right away, so they made the crying very annoying forcing the player want to grab the little ones as fast as possible. This use of sound is great and not obvious, and it gets cool points from me. Other sound effects such as jumps, stomps and egg throws are all basic and serve there purpose, nothing new around here.
Lasting Appeal:
The game has a great last appeal. There are so many things to collect and explore. In every level there are a few different paths but to get to them you’ll need a specific character via switch port. There are three things in each level to collect, thirty stars, twenty red coins, and five flower heads. These items are extremely difficult to collect in one run through of the level. Players would have to play it multiple of times to get one hundred percent of the items. There are also mini games embedded in the levels and I warn you, these games could easily take up a bunch of time. My personal mini game favorite is the “How far can you flutter jump?” In this mini game you start off on a platform high up and the objective is to jump off and flutter jump across the level and see how far you can get. There are measurements along the way so you could see how far you’re going. Very fun, believe me! In addition to the mini games there’s a museum in which you can view conquered and encountered enemies.
Fun Factor:
The game is definitely fun. It has a lot to offer and keeps true to its bloodline. There’s so much to explore and achieve. Yoshi’s Island may not be as hard as I would like it to be, but from level to level the ranking and item collection offers a challenge worthy of replay. The mini games that are included in the levels as I mentioned earlier is a lot of fun and will cause an obsession. It’s short and easy to play creating an addictive combination. The addition of the new babies also adds a great deal of fun. The Baby Peach levels in particular are very fun. It’s pretty much open and free flowing and takes advantage of the duel screen to the fullest extent. Since she has the ability to float in a gust of wind, flying from one area to the next is a new and fun experience.
The 411:
Those of you who have been a fan of the original Yoshi’s Island go out and get this game. It is a true predecessor and adds even more creativity to what has been established in the SNES days. The new babies, the beautiful art, the addictive mini games and the different level scenarios add up to one fun experience. The creative use of both screens has surpassed any game out there. They could have gone cheap and implemented a needless map, but developer Artoon has done a great job using it to create fun game play. There is game balancing and character switching issues that I wish could have been fixed and handled differently, but with these small issues aside the game is something every platformer fan should not neglect.
Graphics
9.0
The game has the prettiest 2d art I have seen on the DS.
Gameplay
8.0
The game is all about game play; however, there are a few game balancing issues and baby switching problems.
Sound
7.5
The music is very typical of a Nintendo title. They are all very appealing and supplement the game just fine.
Lasting Appeal
8.0
Yoshi Island DS has a great last appeal there are just so many things you could collect through out the journey.
Fun Factor
8.0
For platform lovers and Yoshi’s Island fans this game is all the fun you expect and more.
