Yoshi's Island DS

"Blast to the Past"

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.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/07