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Not a Nintendo game, and it shows

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The original Yoshi's Island, first appearing on the SNES in 1995, was one of my favorite childhood games. I was understandably excited when I learned there was a sequel out on the DS. To "prepare" for Yoshi's Island DS, I decided to play through the original on the Gameboy Advance beforehand. Not only did I beat the game, but I got a perfect score on every level, earning all 6000 possible points. Despite frustration at times (mainly because of "The Looong Cave"), this turned out to be the most satisfying gaming experience of my life. Yoshi's Island went from a childhood favorite to certifiably my favorite game of all time.

With the excellence of the original fresh in my mind, I was eager to play the DS version, although I knew it wouldn't be nearly as good. Based on screenshots and video clips, it looked like the exact same game, only with different levels and additional babies. However, once I sat down and played it myself, I was shocked at how different--and inferior--it really was.

The catchy, powerful soundtrack has been replaced by haphazardly arranged xylophone and flute sounds. The distinctive crayon design of the original--which made you feel as if you were playing in a children's coloring book--has been smoothed out, polished over, and brightened. Old enemies have been either removed or stripped of their charm. All the little things that made the original so special have been removed: fuzzies, the floating hallucinogenic cotton balls, are gone; watermelons, which Yoshi could eat to spit seeds or breathe fire, are gone. In fact, the entire item system has been scrapped; the mini-games that used to give out items now give out worthless lives.

Not only did the game developers deface the original, but they added their own offensive content. The new enemies--and a giant kangaroo that you ride in periodically for no reason--look totally out of place; their art design reminds me more of Maple Story than Mario. If that wasn't enough, cowboy and pirate levels were added. Yes, there are now pirate shy-guys--bandanna and all. The addition of the top screen is a hindrance more than anything; there is an annoying blind spot between the two screens, and it is difficult to shoot eggs from one screen to the other. There are also four new babies--Peach, DK, Wario, and Bowser, each with their own special power--but as you can imagine this amounts to nothing more than a tedious gimmick. Wario and Bowser--the coolest babies--appear only in one or two levels late in the game.

But the essential flaw of Yoshi's Island DS is this: NINTENDO DID NOT DEVELOP IT. A relatively unknown company, Artoon, did. Frankly they did a terrible job. But when close to no one from the original team participated in its creation, what can you expect?

I would strongly recommend getting the Gameboy Advance version of the original instead. In addition to the bonus levels found in the original, there are six new "secret" levels you can unlock, and these alone provide a more compelling gaming experience than Yoshi's Island DS.

stop the mario!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: May 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Just like the Wii console, the DS is being plagued with endless Mario/Wario wtc games. Good god, I like Mario games as much as the next person but enough's enough.

Why must all the good games be killed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 7
Date: June 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Nintendo really needs to put more effort into its games. It is unacceptable for the name of great games such as yoshi's island to be put to shame by crappy sequels. Furthermore, I have not found a single ds game to be satisfactory. Please stop making horrid games Nintendo.

Very average, not even in the same league as Yoshi's Island

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: January 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I don't know how Nintendo let Artoon get away with this irritating game. They took everything I liked about the first "Yoshi's Island" and got rid of it, and replaced it with an annoying character changing system. This system is just an easy way to inject replay into the game, when I could not even play through it once to begin with. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to rant about the bad things in the game, but I have no choice. They took out the 3D elements provided by the Super FX chip on the SNES (which they don't need anymore, but still didn't even try to duplicate), they took out the subtle moving backgrounds, and they took out the psychedellic cotton balls that I loved so much. Ugggh. Also there is little variation within the levels, and also fewer of them. The bonus games are also not much fun to play, making it not very rewarding to unlock them. One positive thing I can say is that there are often cute things going on in the background of the various levels. They took a classic game and stripped it down, maybe for kids, but the game is much too frustrating to even give a kid. I could go on for pages pointing out bad things about this game, but you get the idea. If you love "Yoshi's Island" as much as I do, buy that game for the SNES or GBA and play it again, but don't ruin the experience by buying this. To be honest, I gave up on this one after world 4, but if they put in all the things I said were missing after that point in the game, then it's also an unbalanced game. This seems more like work than a game. Thanks for reading.

More of the same

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 22
Date: November 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Maybe I'll come back and revise my review in a few days, but I have to say so far, Yoshi's Island DS is a disappointment. I had high expectations after the SNES version released almost a decade ago. In fact- if you've never played the original, be sure to buy the Game Boy Advance version to play on your DS - so far, it's the superlative game.

Sequels are derivative by their very nature, however, this is almost TOO derivative - even the 'getting used to the controls' level before the real levels start is almost identical to the one in the SNES version. The levels so far, seem to be mere rearrangements of the old levels. No new scenery yet.

Also gone are the beautiful, almost 'hand drawn' crayon, chalk, and other scribbly-type art that were so apparent in the original. Yoshi's Story for the N64 carried on this tradition with it's super cool, rendered jeans-and-other-fabric pattern backgrounds. Any such cool backround are gone in Yoshi's Island DS.

I haven't gotten far enough into the game to say whether the different babies abilities' make the game more interesting, but so far, it's a disappointment to this huge Yoshi fan.

Lacking Nintendo Magic . . .

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: January 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Yoshi's Island DS was very disappointing to me. The original Yoshi's Island for the SNES still ranks as one of the greatest games of all time. It had all of the hallmarks of great Miyamoto design: ingenious level design, a perfect level of challenge, unique play mechanics (such as Yoshi's ability to make eggs), classic music, and abundant heart and charm. Sadly however, Yoshi's Island DS is not a Nintendo developed game and, not surprisingly, lacks all of those qualities.

The game's third party developer (Artoon) tries to recapture Nintendo's magic touch but largely fails. The levels are huge but unfocused. The level of difficulty is unfairly high towards the end of the game not due to ingenious design but rather because of unfair item and platform placement. The music is a real disappointment, consisting of multiple variations on the same bland theme. The "innovation" of having multiple playable babies is more of a chore than anything.

This is certainly not a terrible platformer - but its also obviously not a true Nintendo product. I suggest that anyone in search of a real Nintendo platform check out New Super Mario Brothers or even the original Yoshi's Island, which plays great on the DS. Let's also hope that one day Nintendo internally develops a true sequel to Yoshi's Island.

Way too kiddish --

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 14
Date: May 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game because I thought it would be like New Super Mario, which I really liked. This game is for really little kids. There is no challenge value, and the game is pretty boring. Don't get this if you are an adult player!

REMIXED 4 THE BEST

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 7
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

AS MANY PEOPLE THINK THIS IS A REMAKE,I THINK IT'S NOT. YOU CAN PLAY AS ONE OF MANY YOSHI'S,AND TEAM UP WITH BABY,MARIO,PEACH,D.K.,WARIO,AND BOWSER TO RESCUE BABY LUIGI FROM KAMEK.EACH BABY HAS A UNIQUIE SKILL TO GET YOU PAST OBSTACLES.WITH 5 WORLDS TO CONQOR THE FUN IS LIMITLESS.TAKE DOWN KAMEK,BOWSER,AND A CERTAIN TRAITOR TO RESCUE ALL THE BABIES.

As with the first game, good for a while, but decends into bore.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: October 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I liked this game to begin with. The graphics are simply gorgeous and shows off what the DS is capable of perfectly. The gameplay is, to begin with, easy and imaginative. But it it quickly gives way to tedium by about the third level.

The problem is that it doesn't really change much and you end up doing more or less the same damn thing in every level. There became less and less need for me to go back to the game. I like new things to constantly crop up and develop through the course of a video game, even in a simple kid's game such as this.

Much like the original Yoshi's Island, that I played on my GBA, this game starts off great with loads of color and cuteness, but fails to keep it all interesting.

Not as good as SMW2: Yoshi's Island

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: November 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Yoshi's Island for the SNES was a great game. This game is an ok game. What's different? Yoshi's Island DS is a difficult game. The SNES YI is easy to beat, but so fun that you will spend hours trying to get 100 on all the levels. YI DS will leave you either happy just barely getting through the level or just getting frustrated and turning the game off. What I miss most from the first game are the items. The items collected in mini-games made the mini-games worth playing. In YI DS the mini-games are harder, less enjoyable, and only get you coins and extra lives. Speaking of lives, you can get more than 100 in YI DS making getting extra lives pointless. Like many of nintendo's sequels lately (except the wonderful New SMB) it is an ok, playable game, but only if you've never played the original.

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