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Yoshi's Island DS

Started by Double, November 06, 2008, 11:43:03 PM

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Double

November 06, 2008, 11:43:03 PM Last Edit: November 07, 2008, 04:46:52 PM by Phoenix Magnion
In case you didn't figure it out, I'm reviewing whatever the fuck meets my fancy at the moment now.

Intro: Yoshi's Island DS is a sequel to Yoshi's Island, and pretends that awful N64 game never happened. It instead decides that an awful new DS game happened.

Gameplay: Yoshi still can shoot eggs and still has his basic gameplay as usual. HOWEVER, the dreaded character changing rap name rears its ugly head again. If you remember the last time I mentioned it was during DK64... but enough comparisons, here's some information on the different characters:

Mario-Can run, can jump on enemies, and can shoot eggs that ricochet. Can also activate special switches, and the only one that still can turn into a super baby (like in the original).
Peach-Has superior hover, and can use hover to gain altitude in windy areas. Cannot jump on enemies to kill them. Eggs do not ricochet.
DK-Is slower, can't hover well, can use a charging attack, can climb vines, can jump on enemies, and eggs explode.
Wario-Can use a magnet to pull blocks, coins, and platforms towards him. Otherwise behaves like Mario minus the running.
Bowser-Can shoot fireballs, and has eggs that behave like Mario. However Yoshi loses the ability to use his tongue move and thus becomes totally dependent on egg blocks for eggs.

Further, the final two characters on that list only join you for a few stages, I believe you can use Wario in 6, and Bowser in five. Also the game really isn't that creative with the puzzles, if you see wind, use Peach for instance. In the end, the character changing rap name seems even more arbitrary than DK64.

Yoshi still has no health meter, the baby flying off your back system is in the game, just like it was in the original.

Yoshi lost some of his vehicles from the last game*, but now has a bunch of numerous things the game uses like transformations, such as a kangaroo and a mine cart. They're still widely underutilized. Oh skiing is back too in case you didn't have enough of it in the first game.

*To be fair they got rid of the ones they really didn't use that much.

Guess what's in each level for you to collect!:

-20 red coins
-5 flowers
-30 stars
-AND INTRODUCING: Baby specific character coins required to unlock the ability to play harder versions of the mini-games whenever you want. (In other words something you'll never use)

Stars, red coins, and flowers function in the same way as before... only this time there are no items. This means you must find every red coin by yourself, AND must be much more cautious about being hit, as you can easily put yourself in a situation where you simply cannot 100 % a stage because you took a hit. Needless to say, this makes 100 %ing a level a far less fun, and far more tedious. Like in the last game, getting a total of 800 points in a stage unlocks an extra stage. This time around however, each world has a secret stage unlocked after beating the game. This means you'll have 9 stages in which to get 800 points (this averages to 89 for those who are interested, you can't have fractional scores), this is a bit fairer for the people who want to play those stages but not put up with the games new star bull.

I'd like to immediately segue into a section about the fact this game is one the DS, it uses both screens. While this seems pretty cool at first to have two screens of Yoshi action, in many cases the designers will put items in such a way you have to change what screen your on to see them, meaning the item is effectively off screen in the air or off a cliff. This isn't really creative and seems to just be shoehorning in the dual screen feature. Also invariably you will find yourself beating a level and missing a red coin because you didn't see it because it was in the gap between the two screens, which is really fucking annoying.

Because items are gone, all bonus games are for lives. This renders the meaning of lives pointless, as you will be fucking swimming in extra lives by the time you're done. FYI, two of the item games from the last game now return but are stripped down to now being extra life games. There are new mini-games to replace the old ones... but now they are all challenges really, such as hover x distance or make x many eggs. None of the versus styled mini-games from the original, which is quite a letdown.

Upon completing the game you can time trial any of the levels, in this mode your score reduces your time at the end, making it possible to beat a level in negative time. That fact alone shows this mode is fundamentally flawed.

There's also an enemy museum or something... I really didn't look into it.
14 out of 20

Music: Yoshi's Island DS's music... well sucks to be quite frank. I dunno whether it was Artoon not fully utilizing the hardware, being lazy or what but the sound quality of the music is awful and to boot it's really fucking repetitive most of the time. For example the castle music... just sounds laughable, especially when its compared to the castle music from the original Yoshi's Island. Have a listen to both and compare, the SNES is on top followed by the DS:



I'm honestly at a loss of what I should even say here.
0 out of 15

Translation: There's a bit more text, but it still seems to be handled fine.
10 out of 10

Length: Yoshi's Island DS is shorter than the original, boasting a total of 40 regular stages, with an additional 10 hidden ones. Despite that, the game was meant to be a portable so I can understand why they wanted a shorter length, but still...
12 out of 15

Rehash Factor: Stage 1, bares an unusual resemblance to Make Eggs Throw Eggs from the original Yoshi's Island. One of the bosses returns, but now you fight two of him at once. Besides that it's basic enemy, and platforming concepts that are rehashed, which are to be expected. To be fair the game does have a lot of new things in it, but they aren't used that well or often. I would have appreciated some new end level games as opposed to blatantly reusing the ones from the last game though.
14 out of 15


Plot: THE BABY LUIGI HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY KOOPAS ARE YOU BAD ENOUGH OF A DINOSAUR TO SAVE THE BABY LUIGI? ALSO, BOWSER FROM THE REGULAR MARIO GAMES HAS TRAVELED BACK IN TIME FOR SOME REASON**. I'll give the game credit for not having the stork kidnapped again, but still time travel?!
0 out of 10

**With the exception of a few games, I really don't like Time Travel in video games.

Difficulty: As stated before, going for 100 % in each level is now significantly harder. The actual platforming can get a bit brutal*** in some of the later stages, and outright insane in the extra and special ones.
13.5 out of 15

***In comparison to the original Yoshi's Island

Total: 63.5/100 = 63.5 %

I'll give Yoshi's Island DS credit for being a better follow up than Yoshi's Story and Touch and Go, but the game is still somewhat doomed by the fact it has to be compared to the original.

Positive: It's still better than Yoshi's Story. Also the game has some decent bosses.

Negative: HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY... NOW WITH ADDITIONAL BABIES.