Yoshi's New Island Review - Not Too Eggciting
- Thread starter Jimothy Sterling
- Start date
You just couldn't resist that pun, could you Jim?
Anyway, sounds about right: Nintendo trying to create a "New" version of a game, and it just turns out okay.
Anyway, sounds about right: Nintendo trying to create a "New" version of a game, and it just turns out okay.
I can't say I'm really too surprised about this at all. The visuals for one give me a headache, so I'll be actually skipping this title because of it. When this game was announced at Nintendo Direct and we saw more about it, I honestly felt underwhelmed by it.
I'm more interested in Yarn Yoshi, have been so ever since it was announced, so hopefully that one delivers.
I'm more interested in Yarn Yoshi, have been so ever since it was announced, so hopefully that one delivers.
So the same problems that Yoshi's Island DS had, huh? It's almost like the folks at Arzest (the same people who worked at Artoon on Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi Topsy Turvy don't know how to design fun levels. Nintendo should really stop trusting 'em with the Yoshi franchise.
P.S. Thanks
P.S. Thanks
I feel that this review somewhat sums up the entire Mario series of late, not bad in any objective sense, just uninspired and repetitive, especially if you've played the originals.
I think the big irony here is that the original Yoshi's Island was a terrific example of Nintendo doing something wildly creative and new with the series to great effect.
I think the big irony here is that the original Yoshi's Island was a terrific example of Nintendo doing something wildly creative and new with the series to great effect.
Well, it's a shame it turned out to be yet another "Yoshi's Island DS".
On Ninty's defense... hold on a sec... *raises flame shield* This was made by a different developer, just like Yoshi's Island on NDS, a developer that maybe sees a little of what made the original Yoshi's Island so great, but never understood it completely (god, the music on the NDS version is all kinds of terrible and even with a system technically more powerful than the SNES, it somehow looks WORSE than an SNES game).
The fact that the game may or may not be repsresentative of Ninty's current state is another debate I don't entirely want to discuss, so I'll take my leave.
On Ninty's defense... hold on a sec... *raises flame shield* This was made by a different developer, just like Yoshi's Island on NDS, a developer that maybe sees a little of what made the original Yoshi's Island so great, but never understood it completely (god, the music on the NDS version is all kinds of terrible and even with a system technically more powerful than the SNES, it somehow looks WORSE than an SNES game).
The fact that the game may or may not be repsresentative of Ninty's current state is another debate I don't entirely want to discuss, so I'll take my leave.
The original Yoshi island (or at least the GBA port I played, never had a snes) and even the DS game got hard as crap. The unlockable extra levels in particular got near "I Wanna Be The Guy" levels of sadistic. Try to keep up as the screen moves a hundred miles an hour! Fall and dodge your way down a pit filled with tons of spikes! Go in a room where the light lasts three seconds!
"I don't HAVE to collect them, per se, but I know I'm gonna want to anyway..."Johnny Novgorod said:
Or, the way I'm sure Jim meant it.
"These days, it's pretty much obligatory to throw in optional things."
I get the feeling that Nintendo are rehashing their ips because they are constantly going for the same market in the same manner. A quality title for kids who are just getting into gaming. They are remakes for a new generation that have not experienced the originals.
I think we all expected this to be mediocre; but I personally have different reasons for doing so. It's not the "New" series aspect, although that bleeds into it somewhat. I actually really like the New Super Mario Bros. games, especially NSMB2 which was a really clever little game under the admittedly bland aesthetic. It's a shame not many people gave it a chance, because NSMB2 was probably one of the best games in an otherwise uneventful 2012, but I can totally understand what turned people off from it. And there's no doubt that some of the NSMB series' worse habits have gone straight into YNI.
But honestly, I knew YNI was going to be mediocre because it just retreads all the same tracks of YI, which if you ask me is also a mediocre game. YI had a great aesthetic which was made to look even better for its time by the SuperFX2 chip's graphical capabilities, but it's sort of the converse of the NSMB games in that an aesthetic that was anything but bland was wrapped around an absolutely brainless platformer with annoying mechanics to boot (don't tell me anyone liked the Baby Mario mechanic.) The actual platforming was piss-easy, the levels simplistic, and the powerups you got weren't things that actually made the gameplay more interesting as much as they were diversions. Maybe it's one of those games that indeed loses some appeal when you get older and - unfortunately - it's one of those rare Mario games I didn't get to actually play until years later, but YI was anything but the masterpiece people often claim it is. It was all flair and no substance. Kirby's Epic Yarn did what Yoshi's Island tried to do but executed it much better in terms of the game actually being interesting and having depth, and it's because of that game why I have higher hopes for Yarn Yoshi than I had for this.
In any case, I often argue against claims that Nintendo just rehashes things over and over, but YNI fits that bill perfectly. No one asked for this game, and I think everyone saw scores like this coming. Though personally, I could tell this was gonna be dull from the words "Yoshi's Island" in the title, not the word "New."
But honestly, I knew YNI was going to be mediocre because it just retreads all the same tracks of YI, which if you ask me is also a mediocre game. YI had a great aesthetic which was made to look even better for its time by the SuperFX2 chip's graphical capabilities, but it's sort of the converse of the NSMB games in that an aesthetic that was anything but bland was wrapped around an absolutely brainless platformer with annoying mechanics to boot (don't tell me anyone liked the Baby Mario mechanic.) The actual platforming was piss-easy, the levels simplistic, and the powerups you got weren't things that actually made the gameplay more interesting as much as they were diversions. Maybe it's one of those games that indeed loses some appeal when you get older and - unfortunately - it's one of those rare Mario games I didn't get to actually play until years later, but YI was anything but the masterpiece people often claim it is. It was all flair and no substance. Kirby's Epic Yarn did what Yoshi's Island tried to do but executed it much better in terms of the game actually being interesting and having depth, and it's because of that game why I have higher hopes for Yarn Yoshi than I had for this.
In any case, I often argue against claims that Nintendo just rehashes things over and over, but YNI fits that bill perfectly. No one asked for this game, and I think everyone saw scores like this coming. Though personally, I could tell this was gonna be dull from the words "Yoshi's Island" in the title, not the word "New."
The original yoshi island is my favorite 2d mario game so I will probably buy this game when It becomes cheaper, It?s still pretty disappointing that this game isn?t better.