The true sequel to one of the best platformers of all time, how does it live up to it's predecessor?
In the game, you play as Yoshi, and are accompanied along by Baby Mario and Princess Peach (Baby Peach). The game sets a story, in that Yoshi plans to stop the evil Magikoopa Kamek who's kidnapped the tots. Now granted, the storyline truly isn't deep, special or any of the sort, but it's enough reason to go through the worlds, carry on the game, and keep it moving with a purpose. First off, the immediate changes you'll realize from the game, is the use of the dual screen aspect. This game cleverly uses both screens on the DS, to add vertical height, and gives even experienced players a bit of a challenge in the form of puzzle solving, traversing through levels and looking out for danger, and overall just a new experience.
The basic sets of moves for Yoshi is his signature ground pound, swallowing and turning your foes into eggs, or spitting them out at another enemy, hover jump (which keeps him supsended in air floating for a short period of time) and tossing eggs at enemies. However, now you'll come across new babies, whom will offer to lend a helping hand to the game, and changes things up. For example, Baby Mario can grab a super star and become invincible for a period of time,. running on walls, and obliterating all in his path, even running on spikes, and Baby Peach will use a parasol to allow you to jump further and catch strong gusts of wind. There are many more babies and their abilites are used cleverly in the game, and it always changes the layout so that things are never too repetitive.
Now, the game itself is balanced properly. In the beginning, it's more a tutorial, and it's very easy to gain extra lives in abundance. As the game progresses though, all those extra lives you obtain will be meant for a reason, as the game can become more challenging to some people. Granted though, it's possible to gain so many extra lives in the game, you may actually never see a "Game Over" screen either, but it's still a good fun challenge, and even the, there's many reasons to play the same levels over.
The reason being is because at the end of every level, you recieve a score out of a 100. The only way to get 100 points is to gather all the secret Red Coins, Flowers, and stars. Doing so unlocks more hidden levels, and other bonuses to keep you playing. Now, the SNES game of Yoshi's Island had some truly memorable, and atmospheric songs that just fit so well with the title. However, it must be said that the music in Yoshi's Island DS, despite being very well fitted for the game's atmosphere, and fits it very well, just doesn't feel up to par with Koji Kondo's musical score. Some of the songs aren't too memorable in YI DS, and some were very decent. However, the sound department of the game is excellent for the DS, and it does have some nice stero effects. It's loud, cheery, and well made for the game and the DS speakers as well. All the sound effects are mostly from the previous game, but sound a lot clearer and there's a great amount of new sound effects as well that accompany the older ones, and they all sound alike and are hard to tell which ones came from the 16-bit system, and which were made for the new more powerful DS in mind.
Overall, if you love platform games, or are just looking for a new game to play, I'd highly recommend Yoshi's Island DS. It has a ton of replay value, and lots of length to keep you playing, that makes the game well worth the money. If you've never played the original game, (and why havent you!? ) picking this one up won't keep you lost or anything. It's actually a great game to play no matter what.