Yoshi's Island DS (Nintendo DS)

 

 

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What an amazing game. As a Megadrive owner as a kid, I never had the pleasure of playing the original on the SNES, and I now see what I was missing out on.

The game looks fantastic, plays wonderfully and offers a more intelligent challenge compared with the brilliant New Super Mario Bros.

It's so good that I even missed my train because I was so engrossed in playing it, and didn't notice the train pull in.

Yoshi's Island on the Super NES all those years ago was a challenging but addictive game that was utterly fantastic. Yoshi's Island DS is very similar in terms of levels bur with new features, new characters and the advantage of dual screens.

This game doesn't make use of the stylus and you find you can get through the first few levels with ease. Egg-throwing is the same as it was before, the stars = seconds and red coins and flowers are all still here, but you also have the option of changing the baby- to Peach, who can help Yoshi float on air currents, or Donkey Kong, who can climb vines and ropes. Wario and Bowser also appear- the former has a magnet that can clear metal blocks for you, the latter can spit flames to melt ice.

To be honest, I found that you can play the majority of the game with Mario, with the others needed sparingly.

Good game play is appreciated and this game has it in abundance, but the later levels can be very frustrating. The difficulty seems to spike sharply in the final few levels of the game, which can lead to immense annoyance.

That said, the game is a fun remake of an old classic which I'm sure will entertain for many eggs to come!

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 2003, 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. Bowser, for example, can spit fire while DK can swing on vines and ropes. 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. Most of the backgrounds and platform look the same. Some of them are given more detail, but for the most part, most of the graphics are all the same.

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.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Yoshi's Island
Yoshi's Island is the longed for birthday present for my 12 year old grandson. He is so very excited to have it now, and he spends as long as he is allowed playing with it and... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Janey

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun but also hard!
Maybe it's just me, but I am stuck on the final levels and finding it really frustratingly hard! Some of the levels are very long so I have to keep putting my DS on standby while... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Steffster

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect airplane toy
Bought the game to entertain a little 4-year old on a longhaul flight. He loved Super Mario Brothers, so was hoping this would also be a hit. It was! Read more

Published 20 months ago by CM van der Walt

4.0 out of 5 stars Lizards, babies, and eggs - who could ask for more?
If you've played any of the Super Mario Bros. games in the past then this will feel pretty familiar. If you haven't played any Super Mario Bros. Read more

Published on 4 Jan 2010 by GeekZilla

4.0 out of 5 stars Great fun!
I loved this game, the graphics to me are a bit funky but they're not bad. I love how you get the baby characters and that they give you a different power depending on which baby... Read more

Published on 12 Dec 2007 by H. L. T. Ha

3.0 out of 5 stars As with the first, starts off great, then descends into bore
I liked this game to begin with. The graphics are simply gorgeous and shows off what the DS is capable of perfectly. The gameplay is, to begin with, easy and imaginative. Read more

Published on 18 Oct 2007 by Inspector Gadget

5.0 out of 5 stars Yoshi goes wild!
I think this game is AWSOME! sometimes though it is a bit hard. I thought it look colourful and fun so i got it for christmas! i was really right! Read more

Published on 3 July 2007 by Robert Margerison

4.0 out of 5 stars Tis Yoshi, Yoshi baby's back
Being a fan of the first Yoshi's island, which I have had the pleasure of playing on the snes and the gba, I practically bought a ds just to play this. Read more

Published on 6 Feb 2007 by Ms. M. kathleen stephenson

4.0 out of 5 stars Yoshi's Island DS
At last, another great Nintendo game is released.

Nintendo games always seem to offer something to everyone and with older franchises from the days of the SNES and N64,... Read more

Published on 23 Jan 2007 by Mr. A. R. Cantrell

4.0 out of 5 stars More of the same, just tougher.
The original Yoshi's Island on the SNES amazed gamers with its odd crayon-drawn feel and amazing gameplay. Read more

Published on 4 Dec 2006 by RK

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