Yoshi's Island DS

Yoshi's Island DS
Yoshi's Island is back...this time with some little friends!
Protagonist(s): Yoshi Genre(s): Platform Platform(s): Nintendo DS Release Date: NA: November 13, 2006 AU: November 17, 2006 EU: December 1, 2006 JP: March 8, 2007 KOR: November 8, 2007 Developer(s): Artoon Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Mario Yoshi Predecessor: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Successor: Yoshi's New Island

Yoshi's Island DS is a 2D platform game developed by Artoon and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It is the sequel to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (but takes place after Yoshi's New Island), and is Yoshi's second platform game on a handheld console after Yoshi Topsy-Turvy, as well as the second Yoshi game on Nintendo DS after Yoshi Touch & Go.

Why It's a Big Adventure with Little Friends

1. The game remains faithful to the original SNES game in both art style and gameplay, while also making a few changes to help it stand out from its predecessor.
2. Yoshi now has five baby companions, which is four more than Baby Mario from the previous game. Each baby has their own special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses:
   • Baby Mario: He is the most balanced of the babies, and allows Yoshi to run more quickly and ricochet thrown eggs off walls.
   • Baby Peach: She may not help Yoshi run very quickly, but her parasol helps him jump higher and glide for a longer period of time, as well as riding vertical air currents.
   • Baby Donkey Kong: He is heavier than most babies, so Yoshi can't jump very high with him, but the little gorilla can climb up plants and swing on vines to cross gaps or reach higher places. He also has a DK Dash Attack to charge through enemies or break obstacles and can make thrown eggs explode upon contact with a wall or enemy.
   • Baby Wario: He uses his magnet to attract coins to Yoshi or move magnetic objects, even through solid walls.
   • Baby Bowser: While he rides Yoshi, the latter can't make any eggs or eat foes, but Baby Bowser can breathe fire at enemies or ice to melt it, and Yoshi can still collect eggs from Egg Blocks or Egg Plants.
3. You can swap your baby companion out at any time using the Stork Stops, which allows you to solve puzzles with each of them where required.
4. Lot of creative puzzles that are somehow even better designed than in the original due to the varied abilities of the babies, and it make the game less repetitive and very fun.
5. The graphics are nicely-drawn for Nintendo DS standards, and use the same art style as Yoshi Touch & Go while also remaining faithful to the SNES game, especially the background art.
   • Each level also takes up both of the DS's screens, allowing you to see even more of the level than you could in the original game.
6. The story continues on from Yoshi's Island (and also Yoshi's New Island): after his previous two defeats, Kamek is now looking to kidnap all of the star children (the Baby Bros, Baby Peach, Baby DK, Baby Wario, and Baby Bowser) so that Bowser can rule the universe with the star power in their hearts. The stork helps the six of them escape and partner up with the Yoshis so they can stop Kamek and Bowser's evil plans.
7. Solid and fluid controls, much like in the SNES game; Yoshi never feels unresponsive, and he moves pretty fast despite not being as fast as in the original. Also, they are very easy to use, having both a Type A and Type B scheme.
8. Great boss fights that are once again very creative and also challenging, and are just as good as the original.
   • The fight with Bowser in particular is awesome, and despite not being as iconic or as great as the final boss from the original, Bowser still offer a decent amount of challenge, even if the fight itself lacks epicness compared to the original.
9. Despite not being as incredible, the soundtrack is still decent and catchy enough, one of the best exemple would be the intro theme.
10. There's still a lot of challenges to be found in this game: for example, the puzzles or even some of the castle levels, and despite not being an easy game, the difficulty is very well-balanced, as it's not too hard nor too easy.
11. It is overall a much better continuation to the original than New Island, which nearly ruined the Yoshi franchise and completely killed the Yoshi Island continuity.

Bad Qualities

1. The soundtrack, while not bad and actually decent, was criticized for being a bit bland and for having themes that does not fit a stage whatsoever, with the Castle theme being one of the worst offenders.
   • In fact, speaking of the castle theme, it doesn't even fit the levels themself and fit more in a cutscene. Ironically, this theme is present in some of the cutscenes.
   • Even worse, some music tracks lack some extra parts from the Japanese version, most notably the Bowser theme that had an extra part in the JP version, and the Japanese theme is way better and more epic at 0:48. It's too bad that the extra parts were left out of the international versions.
2. The Game Over sequence could potentially scare young kids due to having no music playing whatsoever when Baby Mario got kidnapped by Kamek.
3. Some levels are still very frustrating at times, most notably the extra levels.
   • In fact, the game is even harder than the original due to some of the levels being overly frustrating, extremely long, and overall some of the levels are poorly designed, despite that the level design being excellent for this game.
4. Some levels doesn't use the babies' abilities well enough, and sometimes it feel like they threw them in at the last minute.
5. The instruction booklet erroneously states Baby DK is the only baby with more than one special ability, which is misleading as Baby Mario has three abilities.

Reception

Yoshi's Island DS received positive reviews by critics and gamers alike, on Metacritic the game had a score of 81/100 and a user score of 8.2.

The graphics, controls, puzzles and introduction to new babies were praised but the gimmicks were criticized by some, as some peoples though that the gimmicks were added to the last second.

Trivia

• The game was originally going to be named Yoshi Island 2, until that they renamed it as Yoshi Island DS one month before the North America release.
• The box art shows Baby Bowser riding Yellow Yoshi, and Baby Wario riding Light Blue Yoshi; they do not ride these Yoshis in the game other than when Baby Wario is in the final boss fight, however. This is because the babies are only playable in the last four levels on the world map, as opposed to the Yoshis they ride, which are in the first four.

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