Nintendo Reveals Yoshi's Island Sequel For 3DS

[Earnest Cavalli]

Nintendo Reveals Yoshi's Island Sequel For 3DS

A new Yoshi's Island title is headed to the 3DS, and that's all Nintendo will tell us.

A few moments ago, during Nintendo's periodic online press conference known as Nintendo Direct, company president Satoru Iwata revealed the existence of the upcoming Yoshi's Island 3D. Despite its simplistic title, the game is described as an entirely new entry in the Yoshi's Island franchise, which serves a sequel to the Yoshi's Island DS.

Unfortunately, that's almost the full extent of what Iwata was willing to reveal on the game. He claims that this latest Yoshi's Island sequel has been designed from the ground up to take advantage of the 3DS' unique capabilities, but failed to offer specific examples or even hypothetical ones.

Likewise, we have no release date on Yoshi's Island 3DS. Iwata says the firm will have more on the title relatively soon, so it looks like we're in for a bit of a wait.

As you can see from the screenshot embedded above however, you don't have worry about how Yoshi's Island 3DS will look. It maintains the pseudo-water color aesthetics of its predecessors, and in motion it looked very similar to the titles that came before it. That, if nothing else, seems promising.

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[Bindal]

Oh god - from what I can see on that screenshot, the game looks pretty ugly. The original and DS-sequel looked a lot better because they were using 2D graphics that tried to looks like they were drawn with crayons (and similar tools).
This? Not good.

 

[Fappy]

Oh god - from what I can see on that screenshot, the game looks pretty ugly. The original and DS-sequel looked a lot better because they were using 2D graphics that tried to looks like they were drawn with crayons (and similar tools).
This? Not good.

Yeah... I'm hoping it looks more like the original and less like a mash between it and Yoshi's Story.

 

[Uratoh]

They'd better not make the mistakes they did with Yoshi's Island DS...that game comitted some serious gaming sins.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

Oh god - from what I can see on that screenshot, the game looks pretty ugly. The original and DS-sequel looked a lot better because they were using 2D graphics that tried to looks like they were drawn with crayons (and similar tools).
This? Not good.

Yeah... I'm hoping it looks more like the original and less like a mash between it and Yoshi's Story.

Not to mention how it looks so NSMBish, which is what Nintendo seems to be stuck on for their latest SMB games...

 

[Earnest Cavalli]

Oh god - from what I can see on that screenshot, the game looks pretty ugly. The original and DS-sequel looked a lot better because they were using 2D graphics that tried to looks like they were drawn with crayons (and similar tools).
This? Not good.

In fairness, that's a cropped image grabbed from the bafflingly low resolution video feed Nintendo uses for its conferences. It should look better once Nintendo starts rolling out real imagery of the game.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Going by the screenshot, that's pretty damn ugly.

What's stopping them from making a 2D YI, that looks like a pop up book?

 

[Bindal]

Oh god - from what I can see on that screenshot, the game looks pretty ugly. The original and DS-sequel looked a lot better because they were using 2D graphics that tried to looks like they were drawn with crayons (and similar tools).
This? Not good.

In fairness, that's a cropped image grabbed from the bafflingly low resolution video feed Nintendo uses for its conferences. It should look better once Nintendo starts rolling out real imagery of the game.

Doesn't change that it's an ugly graphics-style and not fitting for Yoshis Island.

 

[Earnest Cavalli]

Doesn't change that it's an ugly graphics-style and not fitting for Yoshis Island.

Nope, you're fully entitled to form an opinion based on that image.

I just wanted to clarify that bit as you're going to see a lot of screenshots of that quality attached to our stories over the next few hours.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Let's hope that it can't be beating in less than 20 minutes. Unlike Yoshi's story...

 

[Covarr]

That screenshot looks fugly...I loved the old Yoshi's Island aesthetic, hopefully, they won't change that to shoehorn in 3D visuals which most people will barely use.

They'd better not make the mistakes they did with Yoshi's Island DS...that game comitted some serious gaming sins.

It did?

With level design that ranged from uninspired to downright shoddy, and a multiple-characters feature that was never used to anywhere near its full potential, Yoshi's Island DS felt more like a fangame than the evolution on its predecessor that fans were hoping for. At its best, the game was not as good as the original, and at its worst it was infuriating. Sadly, this seems to be par for the course with Artoon; I don't think they've ever made a genuinely good game in all their fourteen years of business. The closest they came was Blue Dragon, which was really more Mistwalker's baby; Artoon worked more on programming and less on actual design.

That said, I doubt Nintendo's letting them work on the franchise again. If this is a true first party game, it's bound to be better than Yoshi's Island DS.

P.S. Thanks

P.P.S. Let's give credit where due, Artoon are quite competent programmers. In all the games of theirs I've played, I don't recall encountering a single bug, glitch, or crash. Lousy game designers, but good programmers.

 

[Beautiful End]

Ugh...we get it, Nintendo. You have pretty, 3D graphics. You have a 3D handheld, got it. Now, can we just go back and get those games with the cool, original art style? Like, yes, the original Yoshi's Island. Like someone said, the purpose was to make it look like it was drawn with crayons or something to make it stand out from games like DKC. Changing it to 3D-ish graphics just defeats that purpose.

In fact, I'd be more interested in seeing something like the original Yoshi's Island game in 3D than something like the screenshot...in 3D.

I know it's just a screenshot, though, so I seriously hope I'm wrong.

 

[Uratoh]

Well, it wasn't as good as the original, but I enjoyed it (never finished it, game got pretty damn hard towards the end) but the different babies were a good thing to mix things up (too bad you couldn't keep them for most levels, some only lasted 1 world) Worlds were a bit dull, but I never thought of the game as bad, not enough to call it a "sin against gaming"

It managed to take things that the original did well, and ruin them...off the top of my head, here's a few...

- Making Baby Mario's unique ability...the ability to run faster by holding down the button. Now keep that in mind, with the next point.

- Doubling/tripling the lengths of levels compared to the original Yoshi's Island, while leaving the number of in-level collectables the same, leading to both vast, barren emptyness and exceptional frustration.

- As mentioned, poor implementation of the alt baby mechanic. It would have worked better if it was just 'this level, you've got Baby DK' for example, instead of requiring swaping and guessing who might be useful for secret finding ahead...

- An utterly embarassing final boss encounter, that wouldn't be great even if it weren't going to be compared to Giant Baby Bowser from the first one.

 

[Rad Party God]

As long as it replicates the SNES version more than the DS version (or simply ignore it ever existed... I know I do), all will be well and I even might consider getting a new 3DS.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Nintendo, telling unbelievers to suck it for decades

 

[Atmos Duality]

Oh neat a new 3DS title, so what is-

-oh. Another Mario style platforming title. Starring Yoshi.
Nevermind. False alarm.

*sighs*