The Gamer's Quarter

[friedchicken]

Surely I'm not the only one playing Yoshi's Island 2... er, DS, right?

After Gamestop led me on a wild ride trying to find a copy, even though I had pre-paid it ahead of time, I finally managed to get a copy yesterday after driving all around the city.

Now that I've had a little while to play it, and get through the first world, I have to say I'm a little torn. It's technically a good game, but I have to wonder if maybe I should be expecting more from it. I don't really envision this thread as a discussion of Yoshi's Island itself, since we've already had a thread a while back discussing its merits and its place as a Mario game. Let's not view YI2 against the backdrop of other Mario games, but rather against the first Yoshi's Island.

For those of you who haven't played it, YI2 is basically just an entire new game based around the same exact gameplay as the first game. Not much is added, but with the addition of other babies besides Mario-- Peach, for example, who can float in wind gusts using her umbrella during a flutter jump. Also included are Luigi, Wario, Donkey Kong, and Bowser, although you don't start with them. You can switch babies on the fly by stepping on special 'stork buttons', at which point the stork flies up and you can switch.

So yeah, it's fun, and you'll probably enjoy it if you liked YI. I just can't help but feel that it could have been even better, and that I'm going easy on it because YI is one of my favorite games, hands down, ever. Part of my concern is that it feels like it was made with the 'Yoshi's Island Assembly Kit", much like the bonus levels from the GBA version of YI, and part of it is that so far, I've encountered one sub-boss so far that is directly pulled from the first game, but requires a different (and much easier) technique to beat it.

Now that I've taken a break from writing this to play an additional level, I've softened a bit. Baby DK's role is pretty cool-- he can climb and swing on vines, a lot like in Donkey Kong Jr. It's a classy touch, and makes me think maybe more thought has gone into the game than I previously expected.

So I've gone on long enough. What does everyone else think? Shaper, you've got to have bought this one, so that's at least one other person.

[dessgeega]

oh boy, new babies!

my concern is that the game looks too similiar to the original. then again, the original isn't one of my favorite platformers.
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[friedchicken]

[Lockeownzj00]

So, friedchicken: if the graphics were derivative rather than identical, would you feel differently? I ask this because dessgeega brings up a good point: I think often the reason we find a sequel or the next iteration in a series stale is because it aesthetically feels entirely the same--whereas a stylization, a transformation in visual structure would actually contribute more than we'd think.

Actually, looking at the screenshots of YI2 kind of annoys me. I don't get the emtional squeeze I got when looking at YI1 or Celda.

Speaking of Celda, that's the perfect example: if Wind Waker had been anything but its whimsical, animated (in the literal sense of animation) self, it would feel tired--it might have even docked a few points off the final score. I really think the graphics matter that much: the radical change was still made syntactical sense in regards to Zelda, but it was a welcome interpretation of the concept.

I don't quite know what I'm getting at, but YI2's graphics don't impress me at all. They're even a downgrade from the original. If anything, they repel (and trust me, I want to like it...I'll most likely buy it soon).

[dessgeega]

incidentally, i've always been positive that yoshi is female because, shit, she lays eggs.
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[friedchicken]

Yeah, I had always sort of assumed Yoshi to be female too. But when I first got the SNES game, my Dad was watching me play it and asked me why the dinosaur pooped out eggs. Hence the subject!

[OtakupunkX]

Yoshi's Island was one of the first games I can remember owning. I'm pretty sure that Yoshi is a male and he poops the eggs out. At least, that's how I'll always think of it.

[friedchicken]

Okay, now I need to backpedal on most of the bad things I said about Yoshi's Island 2.

So go out and play it now. You'll notice that world 1/stage 1 is almost identical to world 1/stage 1 in the first game. Likewise, much of world 1 will look strangely familiar. But after that the resemblance becomes much less distinct.

Case in point: World 3 is pirate-themed! And in world 2, there are snapdragons. Snapdragons, just like in Donkey Kong Jr. In fact, there are ton of unique enemies, and enemies that act differently from the way they did in earlier games-- Bullet Bills, for instance, don't stop firing when you stand next to them.

It's good. Honestly, I haven't been able to put it down.

[dessgeega]

snapdragons are always welcome. i assume you're using baby donkey kong to swing through the vines while they come from the top screen or something?
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[friedchicken]

There are climbing vines that don't move, and swinging vines that have really well done vines swinging physics. The snapdragons do mostly drop down from above by climbing down vines, but you have a lot of options as to going up and down between the two screens. I'm hoping for a snapdragon boss or midboss!

EDIT: Wow, I just got Baby Wario. He uses a magnet to attact coins and metal stuff.

[Nana Komatsu]

That sounds a lot like how I felt about Super Princess Peach: it was put together using a formula while adding little new gameplay aspects.

Maybe was this done partially by TOSE?

[dessgeega]

screenshot of baby wario please.
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