Review: Yoshi's Island DS
All the new babies can suck my balls!
At first, Yoshi's Island DS has the same appeal and gameplay goodness of the classic Yoshi's Island for SNES. Quickly, after the first addition of a new baby I grew to hate this game. The introduction of different babies (excluding Baby Mario of course) to induce different gameplay mechanics makes me wonder what has become of classic game design. Yoshi's Island DS would have faired well by leaving this new gameplay cliche out; requiring the player to constantly switch between Baby Mario, Donkey Kong, Peach, Wario and Bowser gets very tedious very fast. I personally have yet to acquire Wario and Bowser, and have no plan to. That is how boring this game really is. Each baby has a very specific mechanics and it is made very obvious when it will be needed. Every time there is a vine or every time there is a stream of air I have to go find a switching block. Oh wait, they're right here next to me; how convenient. Why include this? If climbing vines is so important to the gameplay just allow Yoshi to do it. Mario can float as well as the next guy, just give him the item to do so; I remember him flying in one of those Mario Brothers games. I find the constant switching, despite how obvious and easy to do, to be a burden. It actually subtracts from the initially good gameplay. I can't understand how other reviewers can overlook this; some even complement the game for it. However, it is just a lazy way to extend gameplay.
One of the few things this game does well is that it is played on both screens, creating some very interesting level design. After playing a platformer in this way it makes New Mario Bros. use of the second screen look more like ass then it already did. The fact that the game uses all of the space provided by the dual screen is great, as it really expands the levels making them more enjoyable to explore and play. If this game could be played through entirely without the use of the other babies then it could have be an amazing sequel to Yoshi's Island. However, because the game forces the player to use the stupid babies and to constantly switch between them, it just makes me want to snap my DS in half and shove it up the game designers' ass, while proceeding to sing the song from Yoshi's Story over and over again. Overall Yoshi's Island DS tries to do too much by adding these gimmicky characters and mechanics; leaving what good gameplay it had behind. If they really wanted to include these mechanics then they should have named this game, Yoshi's Island: Professional Ball Sucker. Atleast then people would know what they're going to get. The only saving grace is that the first few levels with Baby Mario are actually really well designed and fun to play; everything that you would expect this game to be.
This is my first review on these forums, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
All the new babies can suck my balls!
At first, Yoshi's Island DS has the same appeal and gameplay goodness of the classic Yoshi's Island for SNES. Quickly, after the first addition of a new baby I grew to hate this game. The introduction of different babies (excluding Baby Mario of course) to induce different gameplay mechanics makes me wonder what has become of classic game design. Yoshi's Island DS would have faired well by leaving this new gameplay cliche out; requiring the player to constantly switch between Baby Mario, Donkey Kong, Peach, Wario and Bowser gets very tedious very fast. I personally have yet to acquire Wario and Bowser, and have no plan to. That is how boring this game really is. Each baby has a very specific mechanics and it is made very obvious when it will be needed. Every time there is a vine or every time there is a stream of air I have to go find a switching block. Oh wait, they're right here next to me; how convenient. Why include this? If climbing vines is so important to the gameplay just allow Yoshi to do it. Mario can float as well as the next guy, just give him the item to do so; I remember him flying in one of those Mario Brothers games. I find the constant switching, despite how obvious and easy to do, to be a burden. It actually subtracts from the initially good gameplay. I can't understand how other reviewers can overlook this; some even complement the game for it. However, it is just a lazy way to extend gameplay.
One of the few things this game does well is that it is played on both screens, creating some very interesting level design. After playing a platformer in this way it makes New Mario Bros. use of the second screen look more like ass then it already did. The fact that the game uses all of the space provided by the dual screen is great, as it really expands the levels making them more enjoyable to explore and play. If this game could be played through entirely without the use of the other babies then it could have be an amazing sequel to Yoshi's Island. However, because the game forces the player to use the stupid babies and to constantly switch between them, it just makes me want to snap my DS in half and shove it up the game designers' ass, while proceeding to sing the song from Yoshi's Story over and over again. Overall Yoshi's Island DS tries to do too much by adding these gimmicky characters and mechanics; leaving what good gameplay it had behind. If they really wanted to include these mechanics then they should have named this game, Yoshi's Island: Professional Ball Sucker. Atleast then people would know what they're going to get. The only saving grace is that the first few levels with Baby Mario are actually really well designed and fun to play; everything that you would expect this game to be.
This is my first review on these forums, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
