Yoshi's Island 2

Written by Chris Reiter  on September 27, 2006

First Impressions: Anyone who tells you that parenthood is hard work, direct their attention over to Yoshi's point of view.

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At the end of the Super Nintendo's life cycle there stood a few exceptional titles that helped the system continue to shine brightly before Nintendo stepped up to 3D on the Nintendo 64. One of these gaming marvels was the platform sequel to Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. In it, you had control over Yoshi rather than Mario like in the last one. And instead of Mario being grown up, he was small. Baby small. He was an infant, in which Yoshi served as his ridden protector and the main character you piloted throughout the game. After eleven years, Nintendo's heading back to Yoshi's Island on the DS for a second go-around, in this fall's release Yoshi's Island 2.

Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No wait, it's an enormous mass of granite floating overhead! Yoshi's Island is being visited by a mysterious hunk of Earth, and in this moment, all the kids from Yoshi's school vanish without a trace. It's up to Yoshi and the only three diaper-draped survivors to save the day -- Baby Mario, Baby Peach, and that sometimes nefarious Baby Donkey Kong.

For being one of the greatest platform games to this day, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that Nintendo really isn't interested in changing the formula that helped make the first Yoshi's Island so successful. But we do need something, right? We gamers need at least a taste of evolution if you don't want us to repeat a play of that exact game we worked through last decade. It just so happens that is what Nintendo's giving us, in that they're not only providing players with the familiar where Mario rides atop Yoshi who eats the enemy, then gets pooped out as en egg, and the egg gets spit out at whatever target is necessary. They're giving us two additional piggy backers that ought to reshape the scenery for the better. Providing all new levels and challenges, Nintendo's placing in a stork swapping system that'll allow players to switch from Mario to Peach to Donkey Kong at distinct stations across the stages. When presented with the opportunity to change a tot in tow, Yoshi gains with their assistance through new abilities. Mario has Yoshi stomping on enemy butt and moving more hurriedly. Peach has a pink parasol that'll let the two hover across long gaps. And Donkey Kong can both scale vines and shoulder charge his foes. The three personalities will inject some new gameplay while preserving the already enriched flavor from the classic Mario days.

Considering the technology of the DS, you can bet that there will be some reason the newest of Mario's adventures is arriving on the handheld. And you'd be right. Yoshi's Island 2, while not inheriting any touch-based capabilities, will utilize the dual screens to its advantage. Can you imagine being perched on Yoshi's back while leaping away from a boulder taking up both screens? Now you'll be able to. For more sameness though, Yoshi's Island 2 will also share a wildly colorful 2D crayoned architecture that its former entry did on the SNES, naturally with updated sprites and backgrounds so not to be an exact replica.