REVIEW: Yoshi's Cookie 1992, 1993 SNES
	By:Nintendo/Bullet Proof Software Type: Puzzle Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium

    Before Puyo Puyo came along, it seemed almost as if no-one would ever manage to create a decent puzzler to stand tall next to Tetris. It's pretty difficult to improve on perfection, after all, but one can always try. And if your attempt comes out looking, well, a bit pants, just stick a beloved character over it (Mario and Yoshi-chan in this case), and it'll still sell fairly well. This entire game revolves around biscuits, which Yoshi just luuurves, and the things are all over the screen. Not the kind of game you want to play while you're dieting.
 
    For each level of the main 1-player game (which is called the "action mode". Doesn't suit it), you're given a screen full of biscuits, which you'll have to clear. This is achieved by moving a crosshair around the screen which allows you to shift individual columns of cookies in either horizontal or vertical motions. Line up an entire row of similiarly-shaped biscuits, and presto, they dissappear like money notes before a Crédit Lyonnais employee. Accurately describing this on paper is strictly hopeless, but seeing the game in action for five minutes will be enough for you to grasp everything. Alas, five minutes is also all it takes to unearth a glaring flaw in the game's design. After a hefty bit of biscuit-shifting, you'll have watered down the whole screen of shortbread to just a mere four biscuits, none of which match. Your only option, then, is to wait until new "lines" drop onto your screen and hope that they'll contain the missing pieces you need to clear the last few ones. But they never do, so you're left to wait until thre right pieces do appear. And this always ends up taking ages and ages and ages -until it makes you want to scream-. You're sat in front of the screen, waiting, doing hardly anything for such long periods of time that the boredom could just about kill you. Well, allright, it's not -that- terrible, but its still one tremendous flaw that can, on several occasions get on your nerves tremendously. And when you stop to think about it, the actual concept of shifting the biscuits around to form lines is also completely devoid of strategy, rapid thinking or any kind of technique whatsoever. Just shift away, there's always some type of biscuit of which there are enough pieces to make a line. Yawn. Even some silly intermission scenes where Mario tries to teach some discipline to a rebellious biscuit with a tendency for running away can't save the ill-fated "action mode" (although, to be honest, some of those semi cut-scenes did give me hysterics). Same goes to the uninspiring graphics (it's all nicked from Super Mario World, with hardly anything nice to look at in there) and the forgettable music.
 
    There's also a "puzzle mode", with, apparently "puzzles designed by Alexei Pazjitnov". But who cares? It's even more of a bore-a-thon than the non-aptly-named action mode, and poor old Pazjitnov-san was probably being forced by shotgun-toting guards to co-operate with this.
 
    However, just when all hope seems lost, the VS mode pops up and makes a brave attempt to save this from being an all-out travesty. And surprisingly, it almost succeeds. The VS mode is fast-paced, challenging and actually quite good fun. The flaws of the 1-player mode have been hurled out of the window; you're playing on a small screen that constantly re-fills itself with biscuits, and the aim is to make lines faster than you opponent does. Whoever is the first to fill up a score bar by making enough lines wins, and along the way, you can torment each other with some sneaky attacks. The attacks are activated by making a line of Yoshi-shaped biscuits, but you need to time it right, otherwise you'll end up attacking yourself. The attack system isn't as intuitive as in some other puzzlers, and can sometimes lead to unfair suicide situations due to it's slightly odd and confusing nature, but after a bit of a trial period, it works well enough. You can also choose between Mario, Yoshi, Peach and Bowser, each with their own, well-balanced strengths and weaknesses and loony little voice samples (I especially care for Bowser's little sadist chuckle). There's even a great, upbeat BGM to accompany this (it's the "C" music). Manage to explain how it works to a friend, and you might even find yourself having quite a good time. That said, if you find a person who actually takes the time to get into this game (it's not exactly pick-up-and-play) and even seems to like playing it very often, he must really love you.
 
    For the sad truth is that even the nice enough VS mode isn't enough to save this. You can squeeze -some- genuine fun out of this, providing that you squeeze very strongly, but it's not that much and certainly not worth the asking price. - Toasty 67%
 
The screenshots from this game was provided by The Mushroom Kingdom 

[Key to the reviewing system]

Design and content is copyright Marcus & Mattias Liedholm 1997-2004. All rights reserved. No part of the contents on this website may be reproduced without written permission. Products and game characters mentioned at the web site may be registered trademarks of other companies.            NintendoLand is not in any way connected to or sponsored by Nintendo Inc. We are no retailers of Nintendo's products and we are not offering services like technical support.     Further info: VGF Legal Statement & Terms of Use. Privacy policy.