I Never Did Like Yoshi's Island

[Darth_Payn]

Walls that look like regular non-pass-throughable walls that hide secret goodies? Wtf? At least when Castlevania games since Symphony of the Night did that, there were collectibles that increased Max health and magic, even if I had to whip/slash every chunk of wall to do it. And Yoshi's not the only culprit, the Donkey Kong games have a lot of Kong koins and those letters that spell out KONG. At least they gave you extra lives.

Pitchforks! Get your pitchforks here! Cheap and sturdy! Buy two, get a free torch!

Do you have a garden hoe? Or maybe a scythe.

 

[FoolKiller]

Kinda far-fetched to relate level completition tiers to invisible walls and restricted linear paths. Mechanically, the first is totally optional; and the others are forced (no way around them).

PS: Thank God for Lenin

His point is that Super Mario World rewarded exploring the level by unlocking more levels, branching the path and adding more fulfilling gameplay. In Yoshi's Island, it's just another tick on the checklist.

Agreed. I didn't mind collectibles in GTA III because there was a cool (but not necessary) reward. In Assassin's Creed, there are 420 flags to pick up just so you can say you picked them up.

 

[strumbore]

You can unlock 1 bonus and 1 secret level per map by 100%-ing it. Remember those question mark squares? They flip around after 100%-ing every level on the map.

Croshaw forgot, and so did all of you. If that's still worth complaining about, then that's the part he should be criticizing instead. Here's a video link to a walkthrough of said levels:

https://youtu.be/yAdIXPGG-nI

 

[C117]

Well, Yoshi's Island did unlock some brutal bonus levels if you 100% all levels in a world... but I can see how that is too much work for not enough payoff, especially since the levels you unlock only really are there to kick your ass.

 

[Olas]

Yoshi's Island was one of my favorite games growing up. I never paid much attention to the completionist aspects, I don't think I ever unlocked any bonus levels ever. Just beating the damn game was hard enough for my 10 year old self.

That being said, now I want to go back and try all this stuff now.

Running after Baby Mario was obnoxious and not fun. Nobody likes escort missions, because most of them are done shoddily. And that's basically what Yoshi's Island is. One big long escort mission.

That's not true and you know it. You aren't escorting Baby Mario, you're carrying him on your back, he never get's in your way. It's only when you get hurt that his presence has any impact on gameplay, and it serves as a punishment for getting hurt.

 

[Jorpho]

You can unlock 1 bonus and 1 secret level per map by 100%-ing it. Remember those question mark squares? They flip around after 100%-ing every level on the map.

Croshaw forgot, and so did all of you.

o rly?

In Yoshi's Island, if you care about getting everything, you get a perfect in each level so you can unlock the bonus stage.

Yes Yoshi's Island has a grade system but besides opening an extra level

In Yoshi's Island doing 100% on every stage unlocked an extra level and a bonus level where you could stock up on items.

 

[Mangue Surfer]

I totally dig what are you saying. I'm playing Geometry Wars 3 now and I don't feel like advancing until a finish the level with three stars. But the difference between two and three stars is the difference between slightly good and merge itself with the controls.

 

[Zetatrain]

Eh, count me as one of those who found the Baby Mario mechanic too annoying to enjoy the game. Never got past the 2nd level.

Granted this was way back when I sucked at video game so maybe someday I'll give it another try.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Running after Baby Mario was obnoxious and not fun. Nobody likes escort missions, because most of them are done shoddily. And that's basically what Yoshi's Island is. One big long escort mission.

I agree with this mostly except I do feel it would've been at least tolerable if he didn't make the most annoying noise in the world when he was in that bubble. That's the point where I say Mario's mother should've had an abortion, just so I wouldn't have to deal with that screaming.

 

[sonicneedslovetoo]

To be honest a good deal of my nostalgia for Yoshi's island comes from just messing around in the worlds after my older brother had beaten them. In particular I remember one where most of the world was made of yellow gunk that you could break with an egg, and that was a good 14 years before Minecraft even existed so I liked to imagine building a game where you could build a house out of that stuff. I think it was the start of level 3-5.

 

[ghalleon0915]

I think I would have really enjoyed this game if it didn't have that constant wailing, it just grates on me. Once I finished it, I was done. Oh, and I guess I wasn't a big fan of the targeting either. Now Super Mario World....I definitely enjoyed that, and I think the hidden exits/alternate pathways contributed to that mightily.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, that's okay. I never played it. So, we're even.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I loved Yoshi's Island, and hated Yoshi's Island 2, Yoshi's Story, and passed on the new ones since they didn't look interesting.

I loved Yoshi's Island so much I even got Tetris Attack, and wrecked all my friends.

The only part of Yoshi's Island I didn't like much was the final boss fight, the helicopter, and some of the harder skiing sections.

The music, graphics, and level design were just excellent. Even compared to more modern games, not just Mario series its a good platformer.

 

[Thanatos2k]

Running after Baby Mario was obnoxious and not fun. Nobody likes escort missions, because most of them are done shoddily. And that's basically what Yoshi's Island is. One big long escort mission.

That's like saying Sonic the Hedgehog is one big long escort mission where you're escorting rings.

I loved Yoshi's Island, and hated Yoshi's Island 2, Yoshi's Story, and passed on the new ones since they didn't look interesting.

I'm gonna say that's true of most people who like Yoshi's Island.

I loved Yoshi's Island so much I even got Tetris Attack, and wrecked all my friends.

Tetris Attack is a similarly amazing game. I was so good at it eventually all my friends and my parents didn't want to play me anymore.

Pokemon Puzzle league is just as good.

 

[KDR_11k]

I never bothered with 100%ing more than the first world in YI, once you have that you can play a minigame forever and amass a ton of helper items (especially star refills).

YWW makes it a lot easier to get stuff in the level, for one each collectible type works by itself so you only need all the flowers for the secret level, all the wools for a new yoshi color and the stamp tokens to unlock more stamps instead of needing everything plus full HP at once to unlock a bonus level. Also it remembers what you picked up so it's far less tedious, only need to grab the items you missed when you play the level again.

The baby was an annoying mechanic, usually you'd grab it again immediately anyway and would only worry about instakill traps but the feeling of frantically chasing after a flying object like that certainly wasn't fun. YWW just has an old-fashioned health bar so you take a certain amount of damage and that's it. Also no regenerating health when below 10 hearts.

 

[Rad Party God]

HERESY!

[small]Still an interesting read, but you have some crappy tastes in games sometimes :3[/small]

 

[sageoftruth]

Are you sure? I'd always thought Donkey Kong Country was the game that kicked off Rare's tendency to put percentages in everything.

 

[beastro]

Yahtzes larger issue is perfectionism getting in the way of fun, not the game getting in the way of it.

Hard to find secrets and the level percentages are added replayablity, not something YOU MUST DO before you can move onto the next level. Personally as a kid it never bothered me, I tried to get the highest I could and was happy if a got 100% on a level, but I only went back to unlock everything once I'd beaten the game and only did the move on once I got 100% every level on subsequent replays.

 

[Megane67]

"The whole notion that it can be possible to not just beat a level, but also to beat it 'properly', is inherently inorganic. In the Super Mario World example it doesn't matter how you limp past the finish line, just that you pass it. That's organic, you set the basic task and let the players find their natural level. When you start bringing out a checklist and determining whether the goal has been reached the 'correct' way, that's when you're insisting that players toe the line, so you can squeeze them all into the same box. It's the precursor to the modern triple-A world of invisible walls, strictly linear paths, and the clamping down on creative thought and emergent gameplay. So basically, if you disagree, you're probably a communist."

But in a similar vein, didn't you praise 'Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood' in one of your Let's Drown Outs for the whole 'perfect synchronization' game mechanic when the previous two games let you approach the missions in the game in any manner you chose and from 'Brotherhood' on, you're expected to follow an exact path or you're repeatedly told that you failed even when you succeed? Yes, it makes sense for the story, but IMHO, I found it extremely annoying and intrusive.

I agree with you that gaming should have fewer restrictions, which is why I liked 'Assassin's Creed II' much more than 'Brotherhood' but I was just curious why you felt the mechanic in 'Brotherhood' was more agreeable than 'Yoshi's Island' or 'Woolly World'? Or has your opinion changed since then?