Yoshi's Story

Category: Action
Players: 1 player
Release Date: Mar 01, 1998
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo

Yoshi has had an interesting history. Starting with his debut in Yoshi (NES) he was quickly dubbed as Mario royalty, and is still known as one of the favorite characters ever by many people (me being one of them), and the number 1 pick for any Mario party or sports game. But Yoshi had never really enjoyed his very own game before (Yoshi's Island still had Mario).

The game starts off with Yoshi's magical tree getting stolen, and their world being turned into a story book. It may sound farfetched, but it helps progress the game along, with psuedo-3D enviroments, while maintaining a platforming layout. Their are 6 worlds to play through, with bosses after world 3 and world 6. But there are 4 levels to each world, which make it very difficult to get done with all the game has to offer any time soon. This is why even today this game is one of my favorites.

Depending on how many hearts you get during a level determines how many level options you have in the next world of your adventure. For example if you gather 1 heart you can go to 2 levels, 2 hearts = 3 levels, 3 hearts = 4 worlds, 0 hearts = 1 level. But anyway.

From one of the most annoying levels, which was cleverly named "Frustration"

Gameplay. The way this game sets itself aside from the casual platformer is instead of having a goal at the end of each level, the level loops itself and your yoshi must devour 30 fruit to progress to the next level. However, after playing the game through a few times, you start to see the real challenge this causes, for ideally you must eat 30 melons to achieve maximum points, and see the special ending. The replay value is somewhat legenday, for it is a game you can keep playing again and again for many hours. Die-hard fans, and casual gamers can pick up over 60 hours of gameplay easily, and maybe unlimited enjoyment, trying to topple your top scores, and then erasing all your data and starting again.

Yoshi's special abilities, such as making eggs, eating almost everything, the flutter jump, and more, help to push this game away from clichéd platformers that were developing around this time. The way the game uses yoshi's abilities, and the abilities of his enemies pushes this game to a new level of platforming adventures. The game is very memorable, for it has unforgettable moments such as eating a huge cotton-candy monster, and riding on lava dragons.

The difficulty of this game is hard to pin down, for you could technically "beat" the game and avoid some of the harder spots of the game, that people going for a high score, or trying to eat all the melons, would have to face. Long-time players would pay attention to what they eat, since you can't go crazy, and expect a high-score. Since the range is so broad it is ideal for all players, young or older, newbies or hardcore fans.

Control. Using the analog stick was a great revolution to platforming games everywhere. Yoshi's Story uses them very dramatically, with challenges that require you to keep a steady thumb or to stay in the air as long as you can. Also, the entire game revolves around sensitivity to the analog stick, things such as sniffing the ground, tip-toeing to running, flutter jumping, and using his tongue.

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore"

Graphics. Each level is very different and they all are so crisp and beautiful that it really appears to push the Nintendo 64 to its limits. The challenges that each level has are very unique, that you can play this game over so many times, and each time make it feel like its a new game.

Bonuses: Outside of the regular game, Trial Mode has point challenges on levels you have already completed; Although it doesn't add much to the game, it still makes for some fun competitions between friends, trying to see who can rake in the most points. And sadly this is as close as the game comes to multiplayer, which would have been a nice addition.

There aren't any real bonus levels, and there are only a few unlockables, which are pretty easy to find, and add little depth to the game.

Sound. The sound is perfectly suited for the game, with Yoshi voiceovers, to Yoshi singing, and background noise that fits each level. The sound and music will get you lost into your levels. and engluf you even more into the game. However, you may get quickly annoyed with the opening themes and the maybe too-cute Yoshi singing.

However, the background music goes very far to provide a nice experience in this game, and it more than establishes a mood. Such as when your Yoshi is captured, it is so very sad, most gamers find them selves pressing reset.

Too many unique characters to count.

Overall. Many reviewers are too quick to put this one as lacking depth, too easy and being more aimed for kids, but in truth this game provides many unique challenges that haven't been seen before. And as for being too easy, this game has levels that a hardcore gamer such as myself still have trouble beating, and are normally avoided by me. I don't know if that says something about me or the game.

Some shortcomings are the missing abilties that the Yoshis had in previous games, and the lack of multiplayer. The gameplay is quite different when compared to Yoshi's Island, but there are similarities.

Crisp enviroments and annoyingly cute sounds make this game more than worth the ten bucks when it becomes available via the Virtual Console.

Now before you establish a paradigm of me being a total Yoshi fanboy, realize that i didn't truly become a fanboy until this game. Anyway.

Full Rating---> 9.2/10