Yoshi’s New Island is Nintendo’s newest game in the Yoshi series and is an entertaining platformer. It’s not one of the hardest games I’ve played, but it tells a story that you just can’t help but fall in love with.
The Story is Familiar
One of the great things about all Nintendo games, I’m sure most of us will agree, is that the story is one that we see as familiar. It has all the classic features of earlier Yoshi games.
A stork delivers Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to the wrong parents and tries to take them to their rightful ones. Once the stork is in flight taking the babies to their parents, Kamek stops them. Kamek struggles with the stork for the babies and takes Baby Luigi away, but in the fight Baby Mario falls on Yoshi’s Island. Baby Mario can feel where Baby Luigi is and your mission is to carry Baby Mario to his brother and save him.
The Design is Smooth and Well Thought Out
The levels are all very well crafted and offer plenty of hidden little treasures for this type of “easy” platformer. (I say easy because it’s not meant to be as challenging in terms of puzzles and hidden items.)
Each level adds a new aspect to the game like giant eggs, or a little mini-game to get a special key for a door. It’s all straightforward and simple and I like that about this game.
The Mini-Games are Great for This Type of Technology
Since this game is for the 3DS the developers Arzest got to create content that was specific to the console. For example through some of the “mini-game like” parts of the levels you get to use a tilt feature in the 3DS that allows you to guide your Yoshi through bricks, the sky, and other cool things. The tilt feature responds well and is easy to learn on a quick notice.
You Don’t Really Die From Enemies but From Your Own Lack of Coordination
Yoshi is hard to kill in this game and most time you only die if you fall into a pit or on some spikes. The enemies instead will knock Baby Mario off your back and he starts to float in a bubble. Yoshi must jump up and get him before the time runs out. This is very simple to do and a little too easy for anything bad to actually happen.
The Music is Bubbly and Fun
All the music and sounds in this game are reminiscent of earlier Yoshi game soundtracks, so nothing is groundbreaking for sure, but it does offer cool little jingles to play along with and makes it fun.
Just Like in Other Yoshi Games, You Get to Carry Eggs
The newest egg in the game is a giant egg that will crash through certain walls and create paths. Collect these eggs by eating large Shy Guys throughout the levels. But the only problem is that you don’t get to use these eggs with imagination. Meaning these eggs only appear when you have to use them. You don’t get to collect them for optional things which is a little disappointing. It would be stronger if the puzzles throughout the levels weren’t initially obvious and you had to guess where you needed to use all your eggs.
Overall Yoshi’s New Island is a fun little game that most of us can play within a relatively short amount of time – but I wouldn’t say that it’s not worth playing, even if it’s just for nostalgia’s sake.
Yoshi’s New Island is available now for the 3DS!
