It's really easy, but it grows on you.
The story is that the yoshis were being happy when the evil Baby Bowser comes and steal the source of their happiness, the Super Happy Tree. Without the tree, most of the yoshis turn to mindless zombies. However, several baby yoshis that just hatched from their eggs become aware of the situation and come up with a plan to stop Baby Bowser, which is to eat a bunch of fruit from the tree and get super happy. Kind of questionable, but you can't really complain.
The game is set as a 2 and a half D sidescroller. You have a choice of six different colored Yoshis. The color of their skin represents the kind of fruit they prefer the most. But unlike most sidescrollers there is no physical goal to be had. All you have to do is collect thirty pieces of fruit. Simply getting the first thirty in your sight makes this game feel very short and you can probably beat this in about 30-45 minutes. However, you can try add challenge to it by hunting for melons. All of the Yoshis love melons and collecting all thirty in each level is quite challenging. There are other levels to unlock which add some replayability. To get access all 24 levels you will need to find three hearts scattered throughout each level.
Well it's a good thing that the game features some good level design and controls. The levels are unique in their location and are all bright and colorful with a unique patchwork and cardboard design that suits the storybook theme. This is certainly one of the most gorgeous games on the N64. There are also a wide variety of enemies, many of which are familiar Mario favorites like Shy Guys, Boos, Bullet Bills, Chain Chomps, Cheep Cheeps, and more. The music is questionably good. Each level has a different variation of the theme song, and depending whether or not you can tolerate the overall cutesy sound of the game you'll grow to either love it or hate it. For me, it manages to suit the game, though perhaps it is a bit too cutesy. The sound effects are also quite good overall.
PROS:
-Yoshi
-Really beautiful, lush, and colorful graphics. This is easily one of the best looking games the N64 has to offer.
-Controls well
-Music is questionably good
-Sound effects are nice
-Trying to collect all 30 melons in each stage plus going back to unlock more stages adds a bit of replay value.
-Familiar enemies from the Mario series, plus some creative new ones.
-Levels are creative
CONS:
-Very easy to fly through
-The same objective for every stage
-Perhaps a bit too cutesy
-Too short
Overall, this game was basically meant for younger players, the hardcore fans, and the open-minded Mario/Yoshi fans like myself. Although some veterans of the Mario series may be disappointed as they will be wanting more of challenge to it. The game itself is good and I did have some pretty good times with this game when I was younger, but it just lacks alot of the challenge that Yoshi's Island and the other Mario games had. At least it has its own special charm and personality to it and it starts to grow on you.