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Yoshi - What's the deal?

B

BuddyC

Member
Both Yoshi titles on GBA and DS have been far overshadowed, by other, once-lesser-known Nintendo characters taking the gameplay and making it, you know, work. What happened?
 
Yoshi has never been in a truly great game--the closest, Yoshi's Island was a mess of gameplay that only really worked in boss battles. If it was devoid of the crying and had better level design, it'd be legendary.

As it stands, Yoshi usually gets stuck in titles that get fixated around a gimmick that's very hit or miss, although the art design behind the titles is great.

Oh well.
 
Yoshi's Island owns imo. I don't know why Nintendo keep the Yoshi Story style and sounds like if that was ZE popular Yoshi game....
Yoshi WAS hot. I want the Yoshi of YI back. ;(
 
The crying is in there for a reason. When they were first testing the game, Miyamoto found that upon losing Baby Mario, players did not drop everything and make a run to save him. They would often wait to grab him until the last second. He wanted the players to feel paniced, and to hurry to save Baby Mario. So, he added the crying. After doing so, almost everybody sprinted to save the kid (and shut him up).
 
Matlock said:
Yoshi has never been in a truly great game--the closest, Yoshi's Island was a mess of gameplay that only really worked in boss battles
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That's going to be an unpopular opinion.

But it's true that Yoshi just isn't that popular a character. The reason Yoshi's Island didn't do as well as it could have was because people perceived it as a Yoshi title and not a Mario title.

Yoshi's other games are usually quirky in nature. And usually not very good. Yoshi, Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Cookie, and Yoshi's Safari come to mind.
 
Yoshi's awesome! except in Mario Sunshine. and Yoshi's Story. and Yoshi the puzzle game. and Yoshi's Safari. and probably Yoshi Topsy Turvy.

Yoshi's Island, Tetris Attack(it WAS Yoshi themed), and Yoshi's Cookie (multiplayer was great)......poor Yoshi. He needs games like these again.
 
StrikerObi said:
The crying is in there for a reason. When they were first testing the game, Miyamoto found that upon losing Baby Mario, players did not drop everything and make a run to save him. They would often wait to grab him until the last second. He wanted the players to feel paniced, and to hurry to save Baby Mario. So, he added the crying. After doing so, almost everybody sprinted to save the kid (and shut him up).
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"Man, Bob, I don't like this machine that lops your dick off if you blink."
"You can't complain, it's there for a reason."
 
That's going to be an unpopular opinion.
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Indeed. Yoshi's Island is one of the nicest Nintendo games I can think of, really. Although I'm not the hugest fan of their games, I really like that one. One of the few games where fun, art and technology blends seamlessly and meaningfully.
 
StrikerObi said:
The crying is in there for a reason. When they were first testing the game, Miyamoto found that upon losing Baby Mario, players did not drop everything and make a run to save him. They would often wait to grab him until the last second. He wanted the players to feel paniced, and to hurry to save Baby Mario. So, he added the crying. After doing so, almost everybody sprinted to save the kid (and shut him up).
Click to expand...

It worked. I would almost say it's good design. Yoshi's Island is also one of those rare platformer that makes you collect alot of things without that bad collect-o-thon feeling many games have today. And it was some of the first platformers at that i think.
 
Might as well complain about losing energy when shot in other games as complaining about the crying. It's meant to annoy you, it's a punishment. No one goes "Man, those Mario games would be awesome if you didn't turn small when hit".

As for the topic, I'm not sure Yoshi's ever been a more popular character than Kirby, which is what I assume you're referring to.
 
BuddyC said:
Both Yoshi titles on GBA and DS have been far overshadowed, by other, once-lesser-known Nintendo characters taking the gameplay and making it, you know, work. What happened?
Click to expand...
Not really the angle you were going for, but I'd disagree that Yoshi is much more well-known than Wario. Yoshi's been around ~15 years to Wario's ~13, most of their appearances have been in games they're both in, and Wario's "main character" appearances have been more recent and more numerous.
 
Also, have to say the thread title reminded me of the old EGM article: "What's the deal with Toad?" where they speculate about whether he's a dude or a chick. Now that Toadette exists, that question has been answered, but really, is Yoshi a guy, and if so, where are the girl Yoshis? Is Yoshette in the future? (I'd say the emergence of Waluigi and Toadette shows that Nintendo will probably go there. They aren't the most original at creating new characters these days).

Yoshi trivia: According to the end credits in Super Smash Bros. (in one-player mode), Shigeru Miyamoto DID NOT create Yoshi. Shigefumi Hino, the Nintendo graphics designer who updated the graphics in Super Mario All-Stars, created Yoshi.

Kazumi Totaka did the music for Yoshi's Story and Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins. He is the voice actor for Yoshi.
 
JoshuaJSlone said:
Not really the angle you were going for, but I'd disagree that Yoshi is much more well-known than Wario. Yoshi's been around ~15 years to Wario's ~13, most of their appearances have been in games they're both in, and Wario's "main character" appearances have been more recent and more numerous.
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It's true they both had their own quirky puzzlers back in the NES days, but I was thinking more of Yoshi's role in Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island. Wario's had his own games, yes, but they haven't been as ....recognizable to those outside of the gaming cliche.

I guess I'm trying to say that even though they've both been around for more than a decade, Yoshi's been the more prominent item, both appearing and starring in his own games on the SNES and 64. Meanwhile, Wario's been mostly relegated to the handheld arena.

Semantics aside though, I want to stress that Yoshi's Touch & Go didn't have bad gameplay, it just felt more like an ongoing tech demo than a game. And now that we've got Canvas Curse, which uses many of the same mechanics, it's just ...."Oh, that's how you make an engaging platformer with stylus control! Variety? Levels? Who'dve thought?!"
 
I don't know what this thread is all about... Yoshi Touch & Go rules... Of course... I just broke the shrinkwrap on my Kirby Canvas Curse, so that all might change soon. :D
 
Musashi Wins! said:
Baby Mario is one of the worst character designs by Nintendo.
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In every game except Yoshi's Island, I agree. Why we need to see Baby Mario play tennis, golf, etc., I can't seem to figure out.
 
I'd just like to chime in and say that Topsy Turvy is trash. I'd heard from various Japanese folks that this was the case, but the E3 demo was a lot of fun, so I reserved final judgement.

After spending some (frustrating) time with the final product, I can safely render my verdict.
 
Also, for what it's worth, the same attention to artistry is given to the Wario franchise--although it has a much better gameplay history.
 
GDJustin said:
I'd just like to chime in and say that Topsy Turvy is trash. I'd heard from various Japanese folks that this was the case, but the E3 demo was a lot of fun, so I reserved final judgement.

After spending some (frustrating) time with the final product, I can safely render my verdict.
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I hear it gets better after the first 20 levels or so, which are something like tutorials...
 
Actually, its the opposite. The first half of the game is cool, but it gets too frustratingly hard at the end. And not because I'm weaksauce. It's because the tilt sensor doesn't allow for fine movements.
 
GDJustin said:
Actually, its the opposite. The first half of the game is cool, but it gets too frustratingly hard at the end. And not because I'm weaksauce. It's because the tilt sensor doesn't allow for fine movements.
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Bingo. Plus, auto-scrolling levels are a bitch. I traded my copy in for Kirby yesterday :)
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
Yeah, Kirby is extremely popular.

Christ, he even had a cartoon on Saturday Mornings not long ago!
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Still does. Just saw a commercial for "all new episodes."
 
Mega Man's Electric Sheep said:
Kazumi Totaka did the music for Yoshi's Story and Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins. He is the voice actor for Yoshi.
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WTH? The yoshi sounds are made by someone's voice?
 
Well I've been hooked on Yoshi Touch and Go like a crack whore.

Also, just got that Yoshi Gyroscope game for GBA for my cousin and she's loving it. I played it a short while and iut's decent. Not great, but definitely a 'good' game from what I've experienced so far. This thread is broken.
 
I'm not a Yoshi fan at all, I carefully avoid him in Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf and Mario *.*
I did like him in Mario World when he didn't have a voice yet
 
Matlock said:
...Yoshi's Island was a mess of gameplay that only really worked in boss battles. If it was devoid of the crying and had better level design, it'd be legendary.
Click to expand...
That's it, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!
 
Yoshi Topsy-Turvy is just another example of Nintendo farming out development of its franchise characters and coming back with a major dud. I mean, what the hell were they thinking giving Yoshi to Artoon? Did they think Blinx was a good game?
 
5yc70k
 
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one addicted to YT&G. The other night I just decided to play one or two rounds. I ended up playing the thing for about an hour. Beat my high score though.
 
KingGondo said:
In every game except Yoshi's Island, I agree. Why we need to see Baby Mario play tennis, golf, etc., I can't seem to figure out.
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Plus, I don't know how Baby Mario and Baby Luigi are in the same time period. Unless these are Mario and Luigi's kids (haha), is there a time portal in the Mushroom World or something?
 
CO_Andy said:
That's it, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!
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No kidding. Yoshi's Island is one of the best platformers ever. If by "mess of gameplay" you mean to say "better gameplay than 99.5% of all other platformers ever made," then yes, messy it is!
 
john tv said:
No kidding. Yoshi's Island is one of the best platformers ever. If by "mess of gameplay" you mean to say "better gameplay than 99.5% of all other platformers ever made," then yes, messy it is!
Click to expand...

IAWTP and then some.
 
Yoshi's Island is almost perfect. I also think Yoshi Touch and Go is also one of the most underated DS games so far.

So then...
A YI style Touch and Go Yoshi game for the DS would be GODLY!
So WTF is Nintendo doing?
 
sasimirobot said:
Yoshi's Island is almost perfect. I also think Yoshi Touch and Go is also one of the most underated DS games so far.

So then...
A YI style Touch and Go Yoshi game for the DS would be GODLY!
So WTF is Nintendo doing?
Click to expand...

Yeah, a sequel to YT&G with actual levels like YI (and bossfights) would kickass. Much like Kirbyds does.
 
john tv said:
No kidding. Yoshi's Island is one of the best platformers ever. If by "mess of gameplay" you mean to say "better gameplay than 99.5% of all other platformers ever made," then yes, messy it is!
Click to expand...
Speaking of 2D games strictly, it's up there with the likes of Super Metroid and Street Fighter.
 
Matlock said:
Yoshi has never been in a truly great game--the closest, Yoshi's Island was a mess of gameplay that only really worked in boss battles. If it was devoid of the crying and had better level design, it'd be legendary.
Click to expand...
You have the worst taste.... in everything.... of any person.... ever.
 
I've spent the past twenty minutes typing stuff up and backspacing over it. The short of it is that for a character that debuted in Super Mario World, one of those "everyone and their Mom has played this" titles, Yoshi's more recent efforts have been lacking in some regards, especially compared to other Nintendo releases that use similar gameplay mechanics.

Don't want to turn this into the standard Yoshi Touch & Go debate, we had that enough months ago, but you can't deny that Canvas Curse feels more like a full-fledged game.
 
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