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Yoshi's New Island | OT | Is you is or is you ain't my Baby (Mario)

MrBadger

Member
His little cameo makes me think that the first thing they did when making New Island was remake every non-boss asset and enemy from Yoshi's Island. Him and
Tap Tap the red nose, who appears very briefly in the final castle.
 

Zing

Banned
Made it halfway through 2-1 before quitting in frustration. Nothing feels right about the game. Yoshi feels too weighty. The camera has Yoshi so low in some sections that I can't even see where I'm landing (ex. 1-S). Trying to get all the collectibles is tedious and often infuriating when the weighty jump makes me miss a coin and I have to replay the entire level for it.

Gonna hold off on that new Kirby if this is the direction and amount of effort Nintendo is putting into their lineup. This game just isn't fun.
For what it's worth, 2-1 was tough to handle mentally after doing 1-S 100%. I also called it a day on 2-1 after a few mistakes. I played again the next day and it was fine. The rest of the levels in world two are fine.
 

steveovig

Member
Bought a copy of this yesterday and I really like it so far. To me, it doesn't feel too far off from YI on the SNES. Getting 100% completion on the levels is pretty hard and requires some patience but that's ok. The music doesn't even really bother me. So far, it's not quite as good as DKC:TF but it's still very well put together and very fun.
 
Through the first two worlds so far, and aside from the music issues, I'm not seeing anything game breaking here. It's a nice chill game I can play for an hour or so to unwind before bedtime.
 
Made it halfway through 2-1 before quitting in frustration. Nothing feels right about the game. Yoshi feels too weighty. The camera has Yoshi so low in some sections that I can't even see where I'm landing (ex. 1-S). Trying to get all the collectibles is tedious and often infuriating when the weighty jump makes me miss a coin and I have to replay the entire level for it.

Gonna hold off on that new Kirby if this is the direction and amount of effort Nintendo is putting into their lineup. This game just isn't fun.

Triple Deluxe is much better than this. *Much* better.
 

Metallix87

Member
Through the first two worlds so far, and aside from the music issues, I'm not seeing anything game breaking here. It's a nice chill game I can play for an hour or so to unwind before bedtime.
This is starting to sound very much like YIDS to me. That was a solid game marred by a lackluster soundtrack that gets way too much hate overall.
 

Kinsei

Banned
There have been two sections that I really didn't enjoy in world 6 so far. Spoilered in case you want to go into the level completely blind.

In 6-3
there is a section with rising lava, however this lava starts out so low that it is off screen with no way for you to know it is coming. If you end up lollygagging around near the start of this section long enough to see the lave coming up, you've already missed the secrets that are on the path.

In 6-5
There is also a section with rising lava, however instead of rising at a consistent pace, it speeds up and slows down depending on how fast you go. This means you need to keep a steady pace if you want the flower and all of the red coins in this room instead of rushing like you naturally do when you see lava coming at you.
 

protonion

Member
Finished the first 2 worlds and... nope. I had more fun in the first 2 minutes of the original.

It feels like a fanmade sequel.

And there is no excuse for the music. It destroyed an already 6/10 game.

It will be traded for Metal Gear in a couple of days.

This lack of respect from Nintendo for many of their legendary franchises is starting to really piss me off.
 

Griss

Member

Camjo-Z

Member
I don't get where all the hate for the soundtrack comes from. I'm up to World 4-2 so far and the only songs I can really call bad are anything with that awful kazoo (which is pretty much just the title theme, the Yoshi clan part from the intro, and the victory theme when you get medals) and and that weird cave music. Everything else has ranged from OK to pretty good.

Also, I just spent nearly 30 lives trying to 100% 2-S. Whoever said this game was easy clearly did not bother going for all the collectibles.
 
Haha, I feel like such a contrarian for liking this game. Granted, I am only half-way through world 3, but the game has its hooks in me. The slow pace of the game with the chill music, nice looking backgrounds, and "explore everywhere" gameplay make this a joy to play.

Though, I will admit that the submarine gyroscoping was god-awful.

To me, Yoshi's Island DS felt more like a fan made game, and this is trying for its own take on the old game. I really like the changes they made, while everyone else seems to hate them. Oh well.
 

MrBadger

Member
I don't get where all the hate for the soundtrack comes from. I'm up to World 4-2 so far and the only songs I can really call bad are anything with that awful kazoo (which is pretty much just the title theme, the Yoshi clan part from the intro, and the victory theme when you get medals) and and that weird cave music. Everything else has ranged from OK to pretty good.

Also, I just spent nearly 30 lives trying to 100% 2-S. Whoever said this game was easy clearly did not bother going for all the collectibles.

I found the soundtrack to be a mixed bag. I liked it, but I did think it weakened my experience. I know New Super Mario bros and Super Mario World did the "remix the same melody" thing, but somehow, it just worked better in those games. Maybe it was a stronger melody, maybe it's because it wasn't the only theme in the game (barring boss themes) or maybe it's because the re-arrangements did a lot more to differentiate themselves from each other depending on the circumstance. In New Island, I found a lot of the themes to be at similar calm paces and not really linked to the environment.

I think the best example of this is the music that plays in 6-7.
The place is an active volcano and stuff's collapsing everywhere. The music, however, is that same calm theme we hear in the trailers.

I don't know if what I said makes any sense, I'm just trying to figure out why I found this soundtrack so bland. I don't dislike it, since I find myself listening to any arrangements that don't contain a kazoo or squeaky toy on Youtube.
 

Kinsei

Banned
Whelp, I had to look up the location of 2 red coins in 6-6. I'm not sure how you're supposed to know to do that. I mean the location they're at is suspicious but nothing in the game has let you know you can do what you have to do there.
 

maxcriden

Member
Though, I will admit that the submarine gyroscoping was god-awful.

That's the one transformation I've encountered that really hasn't worked well for me so far. It's so slow and the turning is pretty weak. It doesn't help that I'm coming off of Dream Team which had amazing gyroscope use in those Giant Luigi battles.
 
Just got this today after watching a lets play (http://videogamesawesome.com/2014/03/16/yoshis-new-island-is-awesome/). My first Yoshi game and I'm loving it so far.

I get frustrated when playing 2D Mario games by the difficulty sometimes, but here the challenge isn't in getting through the course but finding and picking up all the collectables. As someone who loves doing this in Rayman its perfect for me.
Also the art and music is so relaxing I cant stop playing and have been happily repeating stages to look for more items.
 

maxcriden

Member
Glad to hear you're both enjoying the game!

Ah crap, I accidentally picked up the flutter wings in 3-5 with the
Spear Guys.
I immediately turned off the game so hopefully it doesn't count against me.
 

ryushe

Member
Glad to hear you're both enjoying the game!
It's the slow pace, the chill music and emphasis on collectibles that won me over.

Don't get me wrong, Yoshi's Island is still God tier, but this game is its own thing that I can and do appreciate as well.
 

maxcriden

Member
It's the slow pace, the chill music and emphasis on collectibles that won me over.

Don't get me wrong, Yoshi's Island is still God tier, but this game is its own thing that I can and do appreciate as well.

I can dig it. It's funny watching my wife play YI GBA for the first time while I play this. It's really interesting seeing the games side by side.
 

Kinsei

Banned
I just got 100%! What's the reward you ask? Absolutely nothing! You don't even get a congratulations message.

It was a fun journey, but let us have a moment of silence for the 191 Yoshi's who lost their lives along the way. RIP my dinosaur friends, RIP. I think only 15-20 of them were lost in normal levels, the rest were all victims of the S levels.
 

Nemesis_

Member
Does anyone have any link to any GOOD songs from this game? Trying to find some for a podcast we're working on but there's nothing that doesn't sound like flies and farts (like another user so hilarious pointed out)
 

Mael

Member
Well I guess that passed through the cracks of my learning...
I now know that yids can actually mean something other than Yoshi Island DS.

original.0
 

Metallix87

Member
Does anyone have any link to any GOOD songs from this game? Trying to find some for a podcast we're working on but there's nothing that doesn't sound like flies and farts (like another user so hilarious pointed out)

I actually like this song that was posted earlier:

Special Levels

It's way better than any song in YIDS.
 

maxcriden

Member
I played a bit more last night, I think I'm almost done with World 3 at this point. I actually tried to get 100% in a level on my first run through a level just to see if I could.
I couldn't.
I'm sure it'll help to be familiar with the levels already when I replay them for 100%, though. I'm still really digging the game. It's very charming.
 

Zing

Banned
I find the soundtrack to be fine after playing up through world 3. Even the title screen music is catchy.
 

CrisKre

Member
I like this game too. I wish they had run work some more new ideas, but it looks good and plays great as is and some of the levels are very very well designed and have some really neat puzzle elements to them.

It's a solid title.

My main complaint is that I wish they had come up with some new level concepts, since this seems so fast to follow YI pretty closely in that regard.
 
I really like the game.

I love the art design (in 3D).

I enjoy the music (it's passive and fitting).

The only thing I'm not too terribly fond of (but it's serviceable), are the gyro sections.

All in all, way too much hatred for a pretty polished and well made game.

Feels like Yoshis Island has always felt, to me.
 

daydream

Banned
Haha, it sounds like you just need to see what you're more in the mood for. Those games are going to offer more bite-sized on the go experiences, whereas YNI is a full fledged game. If you don't mind a physical edition, YNI will probably be at least $10 cheaper in the B/S/T thread within a month or so, OTOH there are pretty good eShop sales pretty regularly.

Well, I solved the problem the only way I know how
by getting both :p
. Ironically enough, it was the soundtrack samples that pushed me over the fence.

March is an expensive 3DS month with all those eShop releases, Yoshi, PL vs. PW:AA, and Senran Kagura. May will be just as wallet-draining.
 

Kinsei

Banned
I figured I'd write up a full (Spoiler free!) review now that I've finished the game. This is my first time ever doing anything like this so criticism is very welcome. I'm aware that I have pretty bad grammar so I figured writing reviews could help me improve it.


Yoshi's New Island is an interesting game. Simply by virtue of it being a Yoshi game the odds were stacked against it as it needed to fill the enormous shoes of it's predecessor, Yoshi's Island. Did it live up to the pedigree set by its predecessor, and more importantly does it matter if it did or not? Let's find out!

Let's start with something you experience as soon as you start up the game, this assault on your auditory senses. As you can probably tell from the song I just linked to, the music in this game is not good. I can see that they wanted the music to be comprised of this you might find in a child's room (Kazoo's, maracas, etc) but the end result is an attack on your ears. There are some good songs in the game, Hotfoot Hurdle in particular is a great song, which lets me know that the music team isn't bad, they just decided to try out a style that unfortunately didn't work out. I'd honestly recommend playing the game on mute, except for the castle levels, the secret levels, and the previously mentioned Hotfoot Hurdle.

The art style on the other hand is great. I was very against this painting-esque style pre-release but I have to say that the game looks beautiful in motion on the 3DS. The environments look great, from the muddy ground of the swamps to the rocky face of a volcano, the style perfectly capture what it needs to. They also play around with the backgrounds, one level you might be looking at a jungle background while crossing a swamp, and in the next you might still be crossing the same swamp but the background has changed to a minimalistic black and white painting. The contrast works very well. The enemies are also really nice looking with some great animations. From the goofy Lunge Fish, to the squishy Bumpty, all of the animations look great and fit the enemies.

Now for the most important part of any game, the gameplay. Yoshi's new weight and animations will take some getting used to, especially if you've played other Yoshi game before. That being said they're not bad, just different and take some getting used to. Here's a small tip. When swallowing an enemy you can cancel the animation by quickly press the tongue button.

Let's talk level design, shall we? The levels in this game are nicely designed... if you're a completionist. When just playing through going from the start of the level to the end of the level, the game is a breeze. There aren't too many enemies, and the levels themselves are quite short. Whereas most games feel like a sprint or a race of some kind, Yoshi's New Island feels like a nice stroll through a park on a beautiful Spring afternoon. However when going for 100% completion the levels open up considerably. There are a ton of secrets to be found in this game, including entire section of levels that you wouldn't get to play otherwise. The secrets themselves are intelligently hidden for the most part, but there are a couple (Literally only 2 things) that I felt were unfairly hidden. When going for 100% I'd say the game feels like going through a corn maze on a nice cool Autumn evening. This also applies to difficulty as well. Along with most levels, the bosses are also really easy. Now this doesn't mean the bosses are bad, far from it. I had a lot of fun with most of the bosses, the stand outs being King Clawdaddy, Freaky Fred De' Filet, and Kamek 5. You'll never be challenged unless you go for 100%, in which case you'll have to deal with the excruciatingly difficult special levels. Just to give you an example I spent hours on 5-S and lost over 40 lives. The challenge is definitely there if you decide to seek it out.

The gimmicks on the other hand don't fair nearly as well as the core gameplay. The Mega Eggdozers are a completely worthless addition to the game. You might think that having a single giant egg that replaces your regular eggs might make a great risk/reward situation when it comes to secret hunting but you'd be wrong. The Mega Eggdozer is always only useable in the immediate area of where you got it (Most times you get one, you don't even need to move before throwing it), and there is always something showing you where you need to throw it. This effectively makes them glorified cutscenes that don't affect the gameplay in any way. Metal Eggdozers on the other hand fare a lot better than their organic counterpart.

Metal Eggdozers are essentially giant Koopa shells that can also weigh you down enough to submerge you underwater. The fact that you have to keep up with the Metal Eggdozer after rolling it is enough to make it a much better addition than the regular one. I'm sure everyone has fond memories of chasing a Koopa shell as it mows through enemies eventually giving you a 1-UP, and the Metal Eggdozer works pretty much the same. The key difference being instead of giving you a boring one up, it smashes through walls leading you to secrets. I much prefer the latter, don't you? Being submerged in water is a nice change of pace. Being underwater leads to slower floatier jumps, you can't throw eggs (Since throwing the Metal Eggdozer will lead to you resurfacing), and you can't eat anything. While these sections are quite short, they are a nice change of pace and I'm glad that they are in the game.

Now let's talk about what I like to call the "lesser" gimmicks. First up is the Yoshi doppelgangers. In all honesty they are quite fun. The goal in these sections is to lead a fake Yoshi in a closed off area at the top of the screen who mimics your movements into a pit of spikes. The challenge comes from not only the platforming required to get the Foshi into the pit, but also from the fact that the camera follows Yoshi. This leads to a situation where you have to platform with two characters at once. You're probably thinking this sounds pretty fun, but it only appears in a single level in the entire game. Once you beat that level, which is early on in the game I might add, you'll never see them again. This gimmick had such potential that it was disheartening to see it abandoned like it was.

The Vehicle sections are actually used quite a bit unlike the Foshi sections, but they aren't that great. There are 2 vehicle sections per world, along with a special vehicle challenge minigame. The sections themselves aren't bad per say, but they aren't very exciting, and there is nothing to keep you engaged during them. I'm guessing this is to make up for them being gyro controlled, so you could focus more on the tilting. The gyro controls themselves aren't bad, but I would have still preferred actual button controls.

Overall does this game live up to the original Yoshi's Island? No, but does it need to? I also think that the answer to that question is no. The game is well made and a lot of fun. I've quite enjoyed my time on Egg Island, and I think any fan of platformers would as well. I give the game a 7/10
 

maxcriden

Member
I'm sorry, Kinsei. I liked your review a lot and added a link to it in the OP, but I'm going to have to sue you for using Foshi © without permission.
 

daydream

Banned
Played the first three stages. I actually really like the look and, pardon me saying so, the music. I didn't expect to be part of a second defence force for a Yoshi game, but it looks like that's how it's going to be.

That intro was adorable btw.
 

maxcriden

Member
Played the first three stages. I actually really like the look and, pardon me saying so, the music. I didn't expect to be part of a second defence force for a Yoshi game, but it looks like that's how it's going to be.

That intro was adorable btw.

Yay! Glad you're digging it.
 

SCReuter

Member
For those who missed it, Toys 'R' Us is offering a $10 gift card with the purchase of this game.

I'm gonna buy it today, I think.
 

Metallix87

Member
After listening to a lot of the music, so far the only real stinker is the Yoshi Clan theme. The rest of the music seems pretty good, and MUCH improved over the trash music in YIDS.
 

RM8

Member
Triple Deluxe is much better than this. *Much* better.
Have you played it? How would you compare it difficulty-wise to this game?

I'm a big Kirby fan but somehow I find myself lacking hype for Triple Deluxe. Looks way too Return to Dream Land-ish to me.
 

maxcriden

Member
Have you played it? How would you compare it difficulty-wise to this game?

I'm a big Kirby fan but somehow I find myself lacking hype for Triple Deluxe. Looks way too Return to Dream Land-ish to me.

I haven't played it, but my understanding is that the main game is pretty typical Kirby easy fare; Squeak Squad appears to be a good difficulty comparison (although Triple Deluxe is supposed to be a better game).
 

matthwq

Banned
The more I play the game, the more I enjoy the game on its own terms. Comparisons to the best game ever be damned. It's a simple, fun game... nothing amazing or incredible, but competent and fun.
 

Zing

Banned
Anyone else try the gyro egg control? I enabled it a day ago and have been enjoying it. I also switched back to the "A control", which actually feels superior as long as you use the R button for eggs.

After playing tense, linear games such as Tropical Freeze, and games that rush you with a time limit as in Mario 3D Land, this game is a welcome change of pace. I can actually explore, and am rewarded for doing so.
 
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