Yoshi's Island DS is the sequel to the Super Nintendo Game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. I must say, they certainly lived up to the excellence that was the first game. Even though this is a game that can stand on it's own, I'll probably be comparing it to Yoshi's Island a lot in this review, just because they're so similar.
Good gameplay, not much to say in that respect. The controls are very similar to Yoshi's Island, and offer various modes of controlling, to cater to the patient and hasty players. It's also very clean, simple, and easy to control. It's the sort of gameplay that one doesn't notice, which I consider the sign of quality.
The storyline doesn't make a lot of sense to me honestly. I may have to review the opening video, but I don't understand why Baby Luigi has been stolen yet again, and why Yoshi has to go on another adventure with Baby Mario. Perhaps it isn't supposed to fit in chronologically with Yoshi's Island, or be connected to it in anyway. . . I don't really know. The truth is, that doesn't really matter with this game, because it's really fabulous, and isn't the type of game that relies on a storyline. The introduction of the different babies in the game was at times sudden and not all that necessary, but again, this isn't the type of game that needs a storyline. I really liked the inclusion of the babies, as it added a variety that the other game was missing. Each Baby gives Yoshi different abilities (see YIDS babies for more details), and this is a really neat feature, and helps spice things up.
The graphics are essentially the same as Yoshi's Island, except for Yoshi himself. In my opinion, they're the greatest graphics a game can potentially have. And Yoshi, despite looking different, still looks really good. Actually, it's quite good that he looks different, because it prevents it from being too similar to Yoshi's Island. But yes, the slightly-cartoonish look is really a good one in my opinion. Unlike Yoshi Topsy Turvy, Yoshi's Island DS is very clear and clean cut. The graphics are just cartoony enough to be extremely cute, but not over the top or anything. And the thick borders on many things makes it unique and stylish.
The music was really great overall. To start with the negatives: the themes weren't nearly as great as Yoshi's Island, but I don't hold that against this game, since nothing can live up to the classics. As well, Yoshi's Island DS could have benefitted from a little more variety in the music, but at least the music that existed was good, and altered slightly from level to level. And onto the positives: it was really catchy, addictive, and cute. I almost always play videogames without music, because it's so often irritating. This game, most other Yoshi Games, Super Mario World, and the Zelda games are among the few that I consider good enough to actually listen to while playing. So yeah. . .quite an honour.
Another factor which could be important to some is the touch screen capabilities. In Yoshi's Island DS, the stylus is entirely unnecessary. I view this as good, but many may view it as bad. I think it's good to have a break from the touch screen gameplay (Yoshi Touch and Go), and this is the type of game that wouldn't work with a stylus anyway. I personally am not a huge fan of using the stylus anyway, so I'm content. Some may consider this a bad feature of the game though, since there's really no reason for it to be on the DS. They definitely could have done more in that department, to give it more specifically DS qualities, but ah well. I personally think that would have detracted from the game.
Overall, I've got to say, this is a fabulous game. Yoshi fans will love it, I'm quite sure; I'm also tempted to say that anyone will like it. Unless you hate video games, I recommend Yoshi's Island DS. It's simple, both not-difficult and extremely difficult at once (best of both worlds), fun, addictive, and of course the most important factor when choosing a game, cute. So yeah, play this game now, it's worth your time.
9 out of 10
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