Once upon a time, Nintendo took its biggest mascot and put him in the backseat of his own franchise. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island sent the Mario Bros. back to their infancy, handing the reins to their relatively new dino sidekick.
Yoshi’s New Island isn’t a remake, but it returns to the same touchstones as the SNES original. It follows a similar story, as a stork gets ambushed on its way to deliver Mario and Luigi to their parents. Mistakes are still measured by the wails of a crying baby whenever Mario gets knocked from your saddle. And the world is presented in a colorful artistic style — although the new oil pastel look doesn’t come across as strongly as the crayon effect of the original.
This is still a game about running and jumping, but Yoshi handles quite differently than Mario. His signature flutter jump covers some extra distance, but it can be tricky to master. Meanwhile, egg-tossing creates another dimension of gameplay as you take aim at faraway objects, ricochet shots, and swallow enemies to refill a limited ammo reserve. These basics haven’t changed, but players can choose between either the classic pendulum-style aiming or use the 3DS gyro controls to aim more precisely by tilting the handheld left and right. This new option takes some getting used to, but it works well and speeds things up.
New to Yoshi’s shelled stockpile are mega eggdozers, giant eggs capable of demolishing large chunks of a level to clear the way forward. More interesting are the weighty metal eggdozers, which not only are bound to the surface of the ground, but limit the height of your jumps. Since Yoshi’s buoyancy limits him from diving underwater, you’ll have to make use of this heavy ballast to explore the deep, and carefully decide when to release it to pick up any goodies.
Like the original, Yoshi’s New Island has a standard checklist of collectibles, tasking you to complete every level with 30 stars, 20 red coins, and 5 flowers. Red coins are disguised until you pick them up, and many of the game’s secrets are hidden from view, motivating you to explore every inch of space in search of invisible triggers. Collecting stars takes the most skill, since you’ll lose stars any time you take damage and drop Mario. While we aren’t sure what the ultimate reward may be, these challenges do entice you to retry levels in pursuit of finding everything and making that perfect run.
While the world map actually feels straightforward and boring, Yoshi’s individual levels introduce fun new ideas at every turn. Out of its 48 stages, nearly all of them introduce something different to the game, whether it’s a new enemy type, contraption or mechanic. There are shy guys carrying spears and shields, platforms you can only land on a limited number of times, and Yoshi doppelgangers that mirror your movements, letting you guide them into pits of spikes. The downside is that many of these elements are never really built upon to create more complex scenarios. So if you come across something you really like, chances are you’ll never see it again.
Another area that feels underdeveloped is Yoshi’s transformations. You frequently encounter zones where Yoshi can turn into vehicles such as a helicopter, submarine, or bobsled, but every segment boils down to a brief, gyro-controlled race course. You only get a few seconds to dive through a path of coins before going back to platforming as usual.
In terms of difficulty, navigating the levels and hunting down goodies presents a fair amount of challenge and you’ll certainly spend a few lives overcoming some of the more difficult sections. The game is quick to offer help, though. You can easily rack up over 100 lives without really trying, and after a handful of deaths, you’ll be tossed a pair of flutter wings, allowing for infinite air time. If you still manage to get yourself killed, you’ll get a golden version that prevents you from taking damage. You don’t have to accept this helping hand, but it’s rather annoying how eager the game is to treat you like a baby, especially if you’re getting killed just trying to figure something out.
As you work your way through the main single player campaign, you’ll also unlock mini-games to play locally against a friend. What’s strange is that each of these simple challenges is limited to co-op play that combines both players’ scores, stifling any sense of competition that might have you calling for one more round.
Music in Yoshi’s New Island is likewise a bit of a miss. Individually, each song is fine, but the main theme is endlessly revisited in different styles, eventually wearing thin by the end of the game. There are also times when the music just doesn’t match what’s happening on screen, with joyful whistling juxtaposed against a frantic chase outside a volcano.
Overall, Yoshi’s New Island is a solid platformer, revisiting the original’s distinctive gameplay with a wide range of fresh ideas. It just feels as if many of its elements never grow beyond the introduction phase, resulting in a romp that’s varied and enjoyable, but never quite raises the stakes.
Reviewed on Nintendo 3DS.
Reviewed by Daniel Bloodworth.
Summary
Most will find something to like, but it’s not even close to the classics.
