Yoshi's Story
Released on March 10, 1998 by Nintendo (EAD), Yoshi's Story follows a bunch of Yoshi's as they try to rescue a tree or something.
March 11, 1998. A day that will live in infamy. The day IGN posted a 7/10 score for the just-released Nintendo 64 game, Yoshi's Story. I had been waiting for Yoshi's Story excitedly since playing its predecessor, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, three years before. Yoshi's Island is one of my favorite games of all-time, a truly transcendent, sublime slice of 16-bit platforming. How on this Earth could its sequel be a 7/10? More reviews came in, and they all painted the game as a mediocre disappointment. I was so dispirited, I not only didn't buy Yoshi's Story, I didn't even rent it. Years passed, and several other Yoshi games were released across multiple Nintendo platforms. I played a few, and some were okay, but none matched that 1995 magic. Enough time passed to where I at least didn't mind picking up Yoshi's Story in the used bin, but it's sat there for years, until, suddenly, 21 years after it was released, I thought, let's give this Yoshi's Story thing a try.
No! Don't do it! Turn back!!!
Woof. After just a few seconds, it's apparent that Yoshi's Story isn't going to offer any joys on the level of Yoshi's Island. Yoshi's Island has that incredibly charming opening cutscene, which sets up the game's simple story of the Yoshi's deciding to reunite the stork-napped Baby Mario with his brother Luigi, so that the duo can be delivered safely to their expectant parents. Though Yoshi's Island's story is simple, and its atmosphere is breezy, the game's main task feels monumentally important. Yoshi's Story's overly cute, extremely overlong intro dithers on and on about the Yoshi's Happy Tree or some such ridiculousness, and how Baby Bowser's stolen it, and the world has turned into a pop-up book or something. It's all so saccharine and strangely esoteric, and feels like it was conceived by sugar-addled toddlers.
Seriously, what?!
So you're off to save the happy tree...ugh. Instead of playing through level after beautiful level, world after world in side-scrolling platformer bliss, Yoshi's Story only allows you to play through a branching path of six levels, then the game ends. You could play one of Yoshi's Island many levels for 5-15 minutes, beat it, save your progress, and turn the game off until next time. Not in Yoshi's Story. You've got to beat the six levels straight through, which takes between 90-120 minutes, with no form of saving possible. That's it. Six levels. In total, if you play through the game enough times to get through every branching path, there are 24 possible levels to play through. But you always play through six. Six levels. SIX LEVELS. Shigeru Miyamoto produced Yoshi's Island. Somebody else produced this.
But what of the levels? Maybe they're so fun, it doesn't matter that you only play six of them to complete the game?
...
Nope. For some reason, the purpose of Yoshi's Story's levels isn't to get from beginning to end. It's to collect fruit. Collect 30 pieces of fruit, and the level ends. Yep. That's it, no matter where in the level you're standing. The levels often just seem like fruit depositories with some enemies and obstacles scattered around to make grabbing thirty pieces frustrating. Few of the mechanics are enjoyable.
I don't like this game. Spoiler, I guess. Yoshi's Story has its fans, who claim the game's true depth lies in going back to the levels and trying to get higher scores. The game saves the ones you've beaten into "Trial Mode" where you can play them again to your hearts content. But why would you want to?
You should probably watch out where you stick that thing.
I mean, the game doesn't control that well. The Nintendo 64's joystick doesn't seem suited to what this game wants you to do with Yoshi. Often, when you tilt the joystick left or right, Yoshi creeps along because you haven't tilted it hard enough. This will kill you. Dying in games due to lackluster controls is always frustrating. You only get a limited amount of lives per pass through (ain't no 1-ups here), and while this game isn't hard, you don't want to play for an hour, get a game over, and have to start the whole stupid thing again. I don't like this game.
At least eating bad guys with your stretchy tongue and turning them into eggs is still easy, as is throwing them at foes and other targets. Hey, that's a nice thing I can say. I can even say a few more. The graphics here are beautiful. Since everything has been changed into a pop-up book or something, levels and objects have an arts and crafts-style construction. Of course, I wish that the Yoshi series as a whole wouldn't have decided to keep this look forever and ever and ever since this, but here it feels fresh, new, and it looks great. Also great are the 3D models and animations for the Yoshis and their enemies. This is a good looking game, even if it looks too cute sometimes. Even the pop-up book storytelling between levels looks good, though its inanity goes on and on and on. The pop-up level-select screens look cool, too.
To the right: this game. To the left: me.
I wish I could say the same nice things about the music, but not much from the music found in the levels sticks out. Koji Kondo did the music for Yoshi's Island. No surprise after a few minutes into Yoshi's Story...Koji didn't stick around for this one. As much as the in-level music is forgettable, though, you'll never forget the insanely annoying, yet immensely catchy singing the Yoshi's do between each level. How did this game get made?
Going back and reading IGN's 21-year-old review, it's clear to me that, if anything, they were too easy on Yoshi's Story. It's like a straight-to-video sequel to a classic, blockbuster film. It's a damn shame.
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