When I purchase a new game, and begin to play, I don’t ask for much. Several factors will make me a happy consumer, but there is one that stands out among the bunch when it comes to developers I trust. All I ask is that the game has some real meat to it. Nothing is more irritating than a game you can master in a four hour stretch. Nintendo is a developer I trust, but like all of their other DS games thus far, they have let me down with Yoshi Touch and Go. I’m not saying it’s a bad title. It’s very fun, extremely intuitive, and offers up something new; the problem lies in the fact that it doesn’t offer much to do. I remember when Nintendo would pair new concepts with a lengthy adventure stuffed with things to do, but I’m beginning to wonder if those days have passed us by.
Caution: Falling Babies Ahead
While I complain about the length and depth of this title (more to come on that), Yoshi Touch and Go is designed well, despite its crappy story. Its basic mechanics are solid, and use the dual screen set up really well. In the first stage, Baby Mario is falling through the sky, because that careless stork from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island is terribly inefficient at his job. Seriously, they need to fire him; he’s dropping babies for crying out loud.
"[Nintendo] let me down with Yoshi Touch and Go. "
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As Baby Mario falls, the game auto-pans downward. You draw paths of clouds on the bottom screen that end up on the top screen as the infant falls, which guide Baby Mario past obstacles like enemies, and into items like coins and power stars. Circling enemies will contain them in a bubble and then convert them to coins, which can be thrown to Baby Mario. If they have spikes, though, they can’t be circled, and can only be defeated by a power star-infused Baby Mario, or they must simply be avoided. Baby Mario can withstand three hits before a life is lost. At any point the player can blow on the microphone to clear clouds that were drawn. The goal is to guide him to the bottom, usually with the most amount of points possible. The music during this mode is worth mentioning, because it sounds distinctly "Secret of Mana-like." It was really a nice surprise.
Skywalking: the Nintendo Way
When you successfully and safely guide the gently cascading baby to the ground, Yoshi is waiting to help this infant get back to the stork who so carelessly dropped him. Depending on how many points you score, Yoshi will sport different hues. The higher your score, the more eggs he can "produce." Don’t put too much thought into how a male Yoshi produces eggs; he just does.
The second part of the game plays like a side-scrolling stage (auto-panning from left to right) with all the same mechanics as the "falling" stage, but some additions and alterations have been made. Baby Mario is on Yoshi’s back, and Yoshi must protect him. While you were able to withstand three hits before, you can withstand none now. Tapping Yoshi will make him jump, and holding the stylus on him will make him do a floating jump, or the trademark Yoshi "flutter kick," complete with the classic Yoshi "Vrooom" sound.
"Yoshi Touch and Go is designed well, despite it’s crappy story. "
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Tapping anywhere else on the screen will fire an egg in that direction. Eggs will be used to defeat enemies or pop bubbles that contain items or balloons that carry them. Sometimes enemies and items will be on the top screen, so the player will need to fire eggs upwards to get them. If more than one enemy is defeated with one egg, a combo is recognized and the player is rewarded bonus points. The player must guide Yoshi through the levels by creating and clearing a path all the way until the end (or the farthest point, depending on the mode).
Shallow Waters: Do Not Dive
While both of those stages are fun, those are the only two in the entire game. Granted, there are four different modes that put a "spin" on the levels, but they play exactly the same; changing the objectives in this case did not provide a fresh feeling. The first mode has you collecting as many points as you can. You do this through killing as many enemies as you can, and picking up as many coins as possible. The second mode is a distance mode. You want to go as far as possible without dying. Another, similar mode has you going for distance, but requires you to kill enemies to add time to a clock that is ticking down. If the clock runs out, you’re done. The last mode has you trying to rescue Baby Luigi from some enemies. This is a timed mode as well; the quicker you rescue him, the better you do.
While it sounds like a decent amount of scenarios, it’s really not. It probably takes only an hour to get the high score in each, since it really just requires you to memorize the level layouts (of which there are several), memorize the enemy placements (since they don’t change all that much from alteration to alteration), and react to them accordingly. Once you get the high score in all of them, a small balloon popping minigame opens up. And that’s it, no real motivation to play, other than posting higher scores in your cartridge.
This title has barely any replay value, unless you still subscribe to the way games were designed in the 80’s. It’s kind of a throwback to the old school games like Donkey Kong, or Robotron 2084, where players would just try to get as far as they could with as high a score as they could, but in today’s marketplace it’s just not an engaging or rewarding experience. Games can do much more now.
"... changing the objectives in this case did not provide a fresh feeling."
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Yoshi on Yoshi Crime: A Vs. Mode
There is a single cart wireless Vs. mode included, and while fun, it’s also fairly worthless. It’s far too empty for extended play, and the novelty wears off quickly. It has players race to the end of a stage, specifically one of the Yoshi side-scrollers. It uses all the standard mechanics, except that if a player scores a combo, obstacles appear in their opponent’s way that can hurt them. The first one to get to the end wins, or they win if the other player dies. That’s the entire mode. It just feels like there was a lack of motivation when putting this mode together, and nothing makes me feel more disappointed in a company like Nintendo than when something feels tacked on.
To Touch, or Not To Touch
There isn’t much software out there for DS owners, and it kind of depresses me to say that this is one of the better games for the system so far. If you’re hankering for a new DS game, want it to be innovative and fresh, but don’t care that it ends really quickly, then Nintendo has got your game right here. Anyone who prides themselves on high scores might also want to look into this game. However, for most people it’s not a bad game; it’s just hard to justify a purchase since there’s so little to do.
