Yo! Noid

"One of the greatest games of the "product placement-themed" genre"

Every few decades a game comes along that breaks new, untouched ground in its field of trying. Quest 64 showed us what 8-bit RPGs can do on a 64-bit machine. Shaq-Fu showed a ''sport-figure figting game''-bare market just what it was missing. Even such games as ''Super Mario Bros.'' and ''The Legend of Zelda'' shared a respectable amount of quality in their field. In the genre of product placement themed games , though, Yo! Noid jumps to unherald heights. I spied Yo! Noid at my local FunCoLand, and, having been previously amused by both bright colors and marketing characters in the past, it seemed like a no brain buy. Thus, the next three weekends of my life were sucked from me like an eclair of its sweet, sweet filling by the fat Tilt-A-Whirl operator at the county fair.

The following is my account of these happy times:

Graphics 9: When I first popped this little gem into my near-dead NES it was late... real late, and I was on the latter end of a pixie-stick filled sugar hangover. Needless to say, my mind wasn't ready for the intense cartoon-like, colorful animation that followed. This stuff is eye candy of the highest grade, and, as far as NES games go, is unsurpassed in quality. The enemies are varied and well drawn, and the Noid, and his yo-yo, are animated well, as well. Sadly, though, Yo! Noid still falls short of the glorious visuals of ''Battletoads'', so a point has been deducted.

Audio 6: First, the bad news: The nondescript beeps and whistles of most NES games are, sadly, everpresent in Yo! Noid. The good news: The beeps are not monotonously drug along as in most pre-CD games, but are, instead, set to catchy, fast-paced tunes, that, despite your mind's best attempts against it, you will be humming for weeks after you first played the magical cartridge.

Gameplay 10: This is where the Noid really takes the pizza. The levels are varied and many, consisting of about a dozen platform hopping-stages taking place in a carnival, a frozen-over marketplace, a flooding dock, and the rotting, reeking sewers of a Pizza-Hut free city. As with so very few other games, great thought was put into the levels themes; heck, Yo! Noid even has one of the most entertaining vehicle based levels ever created.

Oh. And there's a pizza eating contest that you must force yourself through every few stages. The less said about the pizza-eating contest, the better.

Challenge 5 : No I haven't beaten it. No, I haven't really tried. It'sone of those few games that, even if I don't actually PLAY through all the levels, I'm confident that the game retains its quality throughout. About the challenge though, there are a few annoying ''fall-off-the-ledge-into-an-unavoidable-pit-o-death'' deaths that get on every gamer's nerves, and, as seen in the carnival level, the enemies kinda jump out of nowhere and into your lap. Most of the challenge is in irritation more than actual challenge. Oh well. The falls of the Noid are drowned out by his glory.

Replay 7 : Not much to say here. If anything, you'll come back o play thorugh it agaain and again, dusting it off every few years to get those warm fuzzies. Actually, if you're anything like me, you'll go back every weekend to play through the skateboarding level.

Potato Judgement Call (Overall) 9: On a scale of potato dishes (potato salad being the lowest, curly fries being the highest, and Arby's potato cakes being average) This gets at least waffle fries. It's a great mixture of fun and frustration with fun graphics and hip tunes that scratches ya right where ya itch.

Buy or Rent? BUY: You'll never see this game. But, if you ever walk into a pawn shop, a flea market, or a FunCoLand, keep a lookout for this. Its a definite buy.

In other words... no, don't avoid the Noid.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/01, Updated 06/13/01