I’ll never be able to claim that I am a hardcore gamer as I have never once played Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island on the SNES. The lesser-known classic was released late in the SNES’ life, and it went overlooked by my naïve teenage self, as my eyes were targeted strictly at the PlayStation and all of its Tekken-y, Ridge Racer-ish polygonal candies. I have repented somewhat since then, redeeming myself by swallowing up the Gameboy Advance port, Super Mario Advance 3, in two days. Playing the Gameboy version allowed me to play it on the move, which drastically affected how long the game lasted me. I couldn’t put it down. If Yoshi’s Island were a novel, I would have been turning the pages like one of them crazy speed-readers off Record Breakers. The thing you have to understand about the original game is that it was a lesson in originality – every single level threw something new at you, something unpredictable that wouldn’t be repeated anywhere else in the game. Every stage was a stand-alone experience, a beautiful, magical self-contained world where you learnt more and more as you went along. There was tonnes crammed into it, without a daunting learning curve or a baffling amount of things to remember.
I’ve just gushed for 103 adjectives and compliments about the first game, so you can imagine my delight when, sixteen thousand years later, a sequel was finally announced. It was to be on Nintendo’s pocket prodigy, the DS. This was coming off the back of New Super Mario Bros, a long-awaited return to Mario’s 2D roots that the fans had begged for and Nintendo had gleefully provided. The 2D platformer revolution was upon us, and it looked as if all was going well.
The game pretty much reworks the concept of the first game – the Yoshis (a race of cutesy, egg-throwing, multi-coloured dinosaurs) are charged with transporting a young baby across their island, keeping it safe from enemies and traps. If Yoshi gets hit, the baby goes flying. Don’t rescue it in time, and you lose a life. A simple but unique concept (that, in my opinion, makes gameplay a little too easy). In the first game, this baby was Mario, but in this sequel, one of the selling points is the introduction of four new babies and the ability to change between them. Unsurprisingly, each baby has their own unique abilities.
Mario – Always the generic lead man, Mario’s got a few useful yet unremarkable skills. He’s the fastest runner (to me, this suggests that he is the lightest baby, as the Yoshi is the one doing the running). He can see and hit ‘M’ blocks, and collect invincibility stars. It’s best to bring him out when you need to get away from something swiftly.
Peach – Following on from Peach’s adventures in Super Princess Peach, the otherwise useless princess can use her umbrella to float up gusts of air. That’s all she’s good for, so avoid unless necessary.
Donkey Kong – You see, I don’t understand Donkey Kong. He flits between the good guys and the bad seemingly at random, but all of his mates are just like “Yeah, whatever, that’s just ol’ DK’s way!” You’ve got your head in the sand, fictional characters. He’s bi-polar and he needs your help. In this particular adventure, he’s a good monkey, and he’s the strongest (physically) of the bunch. He can smash through walls and throw explosive eggs. He can also swing across vines and ropes, giving him access to areas the others are not.
Wario – This money-grabbing freak has a giant magnet in hand, which attracts coins and platforms to him. You only have access to the scamp for one of the game’s five worlds, but it’s nice to have the variety.
Bowser – In a strange plot twist, baby Bowser teams up with you to fight adult Bowser (who has travelled back in time, of course). Um… yeah. You unlock him in world four, and he sacrifices Yoshi’s ability to lay eggs for his own ability to breathe fire. I don’t need to explain any more about this guy – he can breathe fire.
The colourful world of Yoshi’s Island DS is a bright and spritely treat, and all of the favourite bits and bobs from the prequel are present. Unfortunately, that’s about the sum of it. By duplicating all of the distinctive features of the SNES gem, Nintendo have made this derivative and dull. None of the sparkle is still here – rather, it plays like an over-long, laboured copycat. This is fine if you’re as yet uninitiated into the series, and doesn’t necessarily make it a bad game, but… well, I imagine I was expecting the second to be as daring and different as the first. You do get the oppourtunity to turn Yoshi into a helicopter and a tank, you do get to throw eggs and stomp the ground, smash through walls, roll giant boulders and hop onto stilts, but we’ve been here before.
The addition of the new infants sounded like a recipe for success, and at the very least a chance to crank the originality up to 11. Sadly, they just make the game a tad too fussy. Every time you are presented with the chance to change character, you wonder about whether you’re making the right decision, not how best to improve your chances. The going back and forth to swap babies is pointless and, while not a massive distraction, makes you question why it’s there. Why not just give Yoshi all of their powers and make the game that much more satisfying? Because more babies is a nice gimmick, that’s why.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the game’s lack of need for the stylus. The feature of the DS that is constantly worked into the make-up of each of its games (for often spurious reasons) is denied here – it’s all buttons and the D-Pad. The two screens are used to good effect though. Unlike New Super Mario Bros before it, which filled up the bottom screen with a map, Nintendo let us explore the level over both screens. This creates a stronger illusion that you’re actually somewhere, in an actual environment, rather than playing a level from point A to Z. You can fall from one screen to the other, see what’s coming up, or what’s above or below you, so you can take in just how much you’ve got to explore. That old trick of needing to perfect your aim to hit targets on the top screen from the bottom is also used to great effect. There are a few downers to this way of presenting the levels – the fact that the two screens have a fair bit of distance between them can make aiming awkward, and sometimes it’s tough to get a decent view of your surroundings. This doesn’t hinder you too much, and is far more enjoyable than the simple static screens that platformers on the DS usually offer.
I think it’s a commonly held misconception amongst the developers of platformers that gamers love to collect things. I’m not a platform obsessive, so maybe I’m the one in the wrong here and platform fans really do love searching every nook and cranny of each level twice over for anything they can find. If they do, they’ll be happy with this one. Yoshi’s Island DS’ designers of this particular game have pumped every level full of collectable treats – twenty red coins are hidden amongst the regular ones, five giant flowers are ready for collection, star bonuses (which give you extra time to recover your baby when he gets knocked off your back), and character coins which can only be picked up if you’re the right baby at the right time. Phew! All these collectables add up to a percentage score for each level, which you will enjoy if you’re an obsessive loon. I liked it.
Find a key and the door to fit it in and you will unlock one of the many mini-games. These invite you to test your skill with Yoshi’s various abilities, including racing, egg throwing and so on. These are stilted attempts to extend the game’s lifespan, and being as uninteresting as they are, are only really worth collecting for completion’s sake, and not actually playing. Besides, the game has no problems with longevity – there’s five jam packed worlds full of replayable levels, and after world three, the difficulty level slowly creeps into an addictively fiendish place, never frustrating, always inviting for ‘one more go’, but far from easy to overcome.
This is essentially a good game. Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that, with a little more of a push, it could have been a classic. It instead resigns itself to respectable status as an enjoyable but uninspired notch on the DS’ bedpost. It’s a glorified repackaging of what came before it, and rather than heading into new directions, it simply fits the game snugly into the DS. It enhances, in some cases it improves, but it doesn’t change and it doesn’t revitalise the formula. Some say ‘If it’s not broke, don’t fix it’. But, if that’s the case, what’s the point in making a sequel?
There’s nothing wrong with how the original Yoshi’s Island played, neither is there anything bad about this one, but it’s hard to justify its release for a current gen console. All the mainstays of the platform game are here, from ice levels to auto-scrolling levels, and where they once inspired you to keep on playing, now they’re simply predictable and, to be honest, you’re eager to get through them. Could it be that the platform genre has no more to offer us, despite Nintendo’s renewed enthusiasm? This could be why Yoshi’s Island DS seems to take so few steps forward, and so many more backwards.
Besides, there’s more than one Yoshi, so the apostrophe should be after the ‘s’.