REVIEW: Yoshi's Story 1996/1997, Nintendo 64
	By: Nintendo Type: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy

Oh, the bitter tears I cried over this. Yoshi's Story was supposed to be a semi-sequel to the tremendous SNES masterpiece Yoshi's Island (alias Super Mario World 2), which is without a shadow of doubt one of the most brilliant games ever. So anything even slightly related to it would have to be pretty damn amazing. The typically delay-ridden development dragged on slowly (this is a game by Nintendo, after all), with screenshots appearing in magazines that could blow your socks off. Everyone's hopes were very high for this. And then the blow fell. It's not that Yoshi's Story is a -bad- game per se. It's okay, but the world expected so much more than just okay.

So, what have we got here? In a nutshell, Baby Bowser wants to be a nuisance once again, so he rips off the fabled Super Happy Tree (don't ask) and transforms the once-perky island of the Yoshis into a fold-out storybook. The horror of the situation is not to be overseen. However, six young Yoshis are determined to put a stop to this and set out to retrieve their precious tree.

Now, if you're expecting a long, sprawling quest across a multitude of huge, secret-stuffed levels, you're in for a big disappointment. This game is short and frightfully weedy. There are only a measly 24 levels in there, which feature merely three or four genuinely tough ones. The levels themselves require you to find and eat 30 pieces of juicy fruit in order to move on to the next one. So yes, it's a collect'em up kind of platformer.

The big fish shows off his kinky lipstick

What's more, the story mode has a very awkward structure. To see the game's ending, you need to play through only six of the total 24 levels. Why's that? Well, as you travel through the storybook-turned world's six pages (very short book, that), each page presents you with a choice of four levels. Just completing one of the levels on offer is enough to take you to the next page. It sounds a bit confusing on paper, but then again, it also doesn't work very well in the game itself.

So the story mode is a bit pants. Anyone with so much as an ounce of gaming skill can zip through it (and see all the 24 levels) under 30 minutes. There is also a Challenge Mode, which is a bit more enticing. In this mode, the levels that you have completed in the story mode will be available for you to play through at your leisure, exploring them as fully as you like, in any order you choose. The point is that now, you can really get stuck into finding the secrets and obtaining high-scores.

 
(left) Kleptomaniac Shy-guys zip past carrying fruit , Kleptomaniac Shy-guys zip past carrying fruit (right)

You see, you'll only get some challenge out of Yoshi's Story if you're willing to make efforts. The game's levels can be completed in mere seconds; the margin of 30 bits of fruit to eat is very lenient. By eating every fruit you come across, you'll have reached 30 pieces and have the level done in no time. But then again, you'll also have seen hardly anything of the level itself and will be awarded a crap score. Yes, high-scores are a key point in the game. And that's a big problem; ever since home console games have been invented, people stopped caring about high-scores. If you persevere with Yoshi's Story and make brave attempts at seeking out the more point-hefty hidden fruit, your only reward will be a big points tally. No secret levels, no extra options or powers to unlock new areas, just a big number. Pretty much nothing at all, then.

A note about how this scoring system works; the levels are riddled with four types of standard fruit (watermelon, grape, apple and banana if you must know). Each of the six playable Yoshis has a special liking to one of these four types of fruit (pink Yoshi likes apples, yellow Yoshi likes bananas, you get the idea). Hence, eating the favorite fruit of your Yoshi of choice will boost your score a bit. It's a nice touch, but it does almost nothing to up the game's challenge level. The only real challenge in there is finding the elusive melons.

The bone dragon's a total wuss, really.

For the pale green melons are the ultimate form of joy to a Yoshi's tastebuds, probably. Hence the melons award you the biggest score, especially since the score gets multiplied with every extra melon you eat. This works with other fruit as well; basically, pick up two fruits of the same type and you'll get double the initial score. Three pieces of the same fruit means a quadruple score, and so on (I suck at maths, so I know how you feel if this confuses you). Thing is, these melons are usually hidden away, or at least more tricky to come by. You'll have to either sniff out secret bits, kill rooms full of nasties or complete small sub-games to get them all. If you make the firm resolution of seeking out every melon in every level, then you have quite a task ahead of you, as it requires a pretty big amount of precise searching around. So there you have some sort of a challenge. There are also other small things that will boost your score, such a seeking out coins and big smiling hearts or killing only Shy-guys of your Yoshi's own colour. Add to that a few genuine secrets, such as groovy black and white Yoshis and the game looks as if it will offer some sort of a challenge -somehow-.

Only sort of, though. You don't really -have- to go the melons-only way, as there is no extra thing whatsoever to be obtained with melon-hunting. Just a far better score. Oh wow. So you can squeeze a challenge out of there, but only if you really, really want to. Most gamers won't be quite so duty-coscious and will not bother will all this melon nonsense. Insyead they'll just feel ripped off and angered.

Because, let's face it, the first reason why anyone will buy this is the graphics. It must be said that this game looks simply wonderful. A multitude of colours is splashed around the screen while cuddly sprites move around slickly. Yoshi-chan himself is exquisitely animated with many amusing reactions to the on-screen happenings. Everything is fleshed out in gorgeous detail which you could almost reach out and touch. The sound compliments this nicely, with some expert use of the N64's musical abilities and a bucketload of cute sounds samples that make Yoshi and co even more adooorable than they already are. But for once, a thing of beauty is not a joy forever.

The next Scream sequel is slighty...

Even with all it's graphical loveliness and snuggly sounds, Yoshi's Story remains a painfully short and shallow mini-platformer. Quite a few typical Mario platform elements are used in here (snapping pirahna plants, warp pipes, etc) but it never shows any of the intricate design and inventive challenges of proper Nintendo titles. When the game does get tough, it just uses cheap tricks. No truly groundbreaking novelties are put in here, this is mostly platforming fare you've seen many times before. Even the control system has a flaw. It's basically the same as in Yoshi's Island, but quite a bit more limited. The big snag is that using the analogue stick is sometimes hopelessly fiddly (in the bits where you need to duck underneath spikes for example). A few more nuisances, such as the fact that Yoshi remains immobilised for -ages- after taking a hit get in your way as well. Overall, it lacks the nigh-on perfection Nintendo -should- put into their 2D platform titles, what with the Super Mario saga under their belts.

Maybe, if it wasn't for the big name of Yoshi's Island, this game would be a bit easier to like. It looks gorgeous and adorably cute, and isn't too horrible, but we expect more from Nintendo, and certainly more for our money, so this very meagre effort is hard to swallow despite it's wonderful looks and cuddly atmosphere. Renting it for a weekend to sample the fluffyness (and see almost everything the game has on offer) might be worthwhile, but you're better off sticking with Yoshi's Island, or any other properly top-grade Nintendo platformer - Toasty 73%

[Key to the reviewing system]