Yoshi’s New Island Review — A Chalky Rehash

Yoshi’s New Island is a better-late-than-never sequel in every sense of the phrase.

Released 19 years after it’s predecessor Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Yoshi’s New Island brings along the classic watercolor visuals into the 21st century alongside classic platforming action.

Though the visuals, childish music and baby-saving story line may make players feel like this is solely a kid’s game, Yoshi’s New Island is anything but. As the 9+ hour journey goes, players will often find themselves facing a challenging level that will be enough to make you think about what needs to be done next. That being said, there may be challenge, but nothing in this game will make players want to rip their hair out of their heads in the way that some points of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze did.

In terms of level design, this game provides its own unique take on levels, and does its best to make them enjoyable. From using platforms to launch Yoshi across obstacles to having to avoid becoming fish food, the levels in Yoshi’s New Island are something that did become more enjoyable as the game went on. Despite the aforementioned “make you think” levels, Yoshi’s New Island is a pretty relaxing game. It’s one of those titles that you can just pick up and play while laying in bed as a way to wind down after a long day.

There really isn’t any truly tough parts to this game that get you riled up. Even the boss battles, though fun, are surprisingly simple and short. Overall, the level designs of the game look nice, but there just never seems to be any real flow to the game. You have to make sure to collect the flowers, red coins and stars on each level, and the intermittent checkpoints just seem to get in the way.

A new twist to the classic egg throwing mechanic is the introduction of the giant egg. This egg clears out enemies and in-level obstacles with easy, and even

collects the coins it passes along the way to save you the trouble from have to jump and chase them down.  There are different tilt-controlled mini-games in Yoshi’s New Island that see the dinosaur become a railcar, hot hair balloon, submarine and even a helicopter. Those collect-the-rings mini games add a bit of added fun to the game, but not enough to keep one interested for too much longer.

The game does have a two-player co-op multiplayer, but it’s just another example that multiplayer isn’t really Nintendo’s strong suit. There are six two-player mini-games that feel like they were just thrown into the game in order to say that it has a co-op feature. How long can you stay in the air? How many enemies can be turned into eggs? These are games that I don’t think many players will be interested in with this one.

Ultimately, Yoshi’s New Island is your typical, run-of-the-mill platformer that offers nothing new to the player that we haven’t seen before. While there is the saying of don’t fix what isn’t broke, Yoshi’s New Island is a game that had a lot of potential, but just didn’t grab the attention of this reviewer as much as I would’ve hoped in the way of challenge and design.