Remember when a new Yoshi game used to be a big deal? Well Nintendo doesn’t seem to think too highly of Yoshi these days if this latest 3DS game is any indication. Who knows maybe Nintendo are too busy trying to relaunch the Wii U this summer so poor Yoshi is being relegated to “Ermm, it’s been awhile since the last Yoshi game, maybe we should do another one. Who’s not developing anything?” status.
Let’s not jump the gun here, I’ve yet to play the game for myself and will be doing so next week at a invite only event Nintendo is hosting but isn’t it a bit weird to think “there’s a new Yoshi game and I sort of don’t care“. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I personally believe that this is one of the finest games ever created.
It’s a classic no doubt about it, I even would go so far as to say it’s much better than Super Mario World (yeah I went there). From the striking visuals to the soundtrack to the amazing level design coupled with tight gameplay, the original Yoshi’s Island is just about everything any self respecting gamer could ever want from a game minus the annoying baby cries we all love to hate.
In 1998 Nintendo released Yoshi’s Story for the Nintendo 64 and whilst it wasn’t a bad game, it was kind of rubbish by Yoshi standards. I sometimes forget that a Yoshi game even exists for the Nintendo 64 which just goes to show how little I think of it. I own it on the Nintendo 64 and on the Virtual Console yet I can never seem to bring myself to spend more than 20 minutes playing before I get bored.
2006 saw the release of Yoshi’s Island DS for the Nintendo DS which stuck much closer to the original Yoshi’s Island formula instead of the weird fruit collecting madness seen in Yoshi’s Story. For reasons I honestly can’t even remember, Yoshi’s Island DS felt like a watered down version the original Yoshi’s Island. It’s still a very good game that I would recommend to others but it lacked that extra something that separates good games from the great ones.
It’s now 2013 and Nintendo is at it again with a new Yoshi game for the Nintendo 3DS. I’ll let you take a quick look at the newest trailer for Yoshi’s New Island.
The first reaction everyone has is typically “what happened to the art style?“. Well that’s a great question and I honestly don’t have a clue, it appears to be some kind of strange mix between Yoshi’s Island and the more “plastic” look seen in Rare’s Donkey Kong Country series. Here’s a better question though, what’s wrong with the original Yoshi’s Island artstyle that warranted a change in the first place?
In terms of gameplay I obviously can’t say much until I play it but is that giant Yoshi egg the only difference here? For what it’s worth Yoshi’s Island DS at least introduced new babies each with their own unique abilities. Yoshi’s New Island on the other hand just ends up looking like a lesser version of something I already played in 1995.
We’ve had some other Yoshi related titles over the years such as the awful Yoshi’s Universal Gravitation for the GameBoy Advance and the rather decent Yoshi Touch & Go for the Nintendo DS. When you combine all the Yoshi games together you end up with the amazing Yoshi’s Island, a solid sequel in Yoshi’s Island DS and a bunch of more forgettable titles that are usually farmed out to outside developers to mixed results.
There is however some glimmer of hope with Yarn Yoshi for the Wii U which is looking SUPER COOL, I’m VERY excited about this one and look forward to learning more.
Maybe Yarn Yoshi will be seen as the “spin off” title but you’d think that the game carrying the name “Yoshi’s New Island” would be the bigger deal out of the two upcoming Yoshi games. It’s almost as if Nintendo has more important matters to attend to so they throw out the Yoshi IP to random developers to see what sticks. If Yarn Yoshi does end up being awesome then I can’t help but think that it’s more down to Good Feel doing a good job rather than Nintendo going out of their way to make it so.
Anyone else feel that Yoshi is being consistently shunned by Nintendo despite starring in one of the greatest games of all time?
