Yoshi's Island DS Quickie Retro Review

Reviewed by Bob

Played on a Nintendo 3DS
Platform: Nintendo DS (also on Wii U 's Virtual Console)

Developer: Artoon

Release Date: November, 2006

          Yoshi's Island DS is a sequel to the critically acclaimed Super Nintendo game: Yoshi's Island.  The story goes that Luigi and other babies are being captured by Bowser and it is up to Yoshi and Baby Mario to go through various platforming stages to get them back.  In the DS adventure, there are four new babies that join Yoshi and Mario, each having their own special ability to help gather the three various collectables in each stage (20 red coins, 5 flowers and 30 stars).

Plenty of new babies, plenty of wasted opportunities

          The DS game takes advantage of the dual screens by allowing players to see what is high above or below Yoshi.  The game consists of 5 worlds, each including 8 stages and three unlockable stages that you can obtain by beating the game, gathering a hidden baby coin in each stage or accumulating a certain amount of points by collecting everything in each level. 

The divides don't even match up

 How does this sequel to a beloved classic fare?  Let's look at the pros and cons:

• The visuals are very nice and colorful.  Sprites look and animate very similar to the original SNES game.The music in a few stages are catchy and nice to listen to.  I found myself whistling along with the game several times during my playthrough.
• The stages are varied and for the most part they each offer something slightly different from the previous stages. 
• Four babies means there are different ways to explore the levels.  Adds more variety.
• Plentiful lives.  The player gets extra lives like candy being tossed at a parade.  I ended my playthough with about 226 lives.  I didn't farm lives or anything, the game is just very generous. 
• Has a certain amount of charm to it.

(This is the point where you discover how much I disliked this game)

•   There are only 5 worlds.  This makes the game much shorter than its predecessor.

5 Worlds and 3 Worthless Bonus Stages

•  The game is boring! Boring, Boring, Boring! 
• Granted there are slightly different things in each level, the game is just so bland.  Despite several good music bits, most music just blends into the background.
• The babies allow you to do different things in the stages. However, of the five total babies, only three are with you most of the game.  Wario and Bowser only have about 3-4 stages and then you never see them again.
•  Wario comes in more than 3/4 though the game and Bowser only in the last world. 
• The DS/3DS screen divide is a nightmare.  In some levels, collectables are hidden behind the divide and you miss them.  Sometimes Yoshi was behind the bar during auto-scroll levels which was also nightmarish.  Aiming your eggs past the divide is terrible because the projectile angle slightly moves when past the bar.
• Terrible level design on many stages.  Things like cheap deaths, one hit kills, confusing maze design, etc.  I was mostly angered by the fact that for some flower collectables, you barely get a second to react in order to get it, then you miss it and have no opportunity to get it again unless you kill yourself or restart the whole level.

•  The camera is so zoomed in on you, Yoshi is forced to makes leaps of faith all the time and flying enemies pop out from nowhere and hit you because of your limited vision. 

If I drop down, will I die? Who knows?!

•  Unlockable stages are a waste.  Two of the three are just mini-games to gain more lives (like over 200 isn't enough) and the last are just bonus stages that take the most infuriating parts of the game and combine them into one.  Most of these unlockables just are not worth the time.
• Adult Bowser looks as if he came out of a CD-i game.  He does not fit the rest of the game's art at all.

  

  Silly Bowser, this isn't the CD-i

          As you can tell, I did not like this game.  I wanted to, I really did.  But with the boring gameplay, terrible level design, underutilized characters and lackluster bonuses, the game is really hard to recommend.  If you really love Yoshi and don't mind putting up with very frustrating elements, give the game a try (the cartridge and VC versions are dirt cheap).  If you would like to play a better platformer, there are certainly many out there that are much better than this piece of garbage. 

Total Play Time: 9 hours 30 min

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