Yoshi's Island DS

This time round, poor Luigi has been baby-napped by the pesky magician Kamek. In fact, it is not only baby Luigi that is lifted away to the mysterious floating castle in the sky, but lots of other young tots as well. Thankfully, Mario, Peach, Donkey Kong and even baby Wario manage to escape his wicked clutches. With the multi-coloured Yoshi family on-hand to offer transportation, the four set about their rescue mission in this new, colourful adventure.

And when I say 'colourful' it is no lie, as Yoshi's Island DS is bursting with over-exuberant flair, bright shades and wonderful charisma. The SNES had to rely on its Super FX2 chip to help squeeze out the gorgeous graphics it had, with its tasty hand-drawn style, but the DS being far more powerful deals with large sprites, multiple on-screen enemies and hordes of flying eggs with the greatest of ease. In fact, because you can tell this is not really pushing the DS, the visual appeal is somewhat negated. Everything also has a far more 'clean' appearance, thus detracting from the original's character to some degree. But the game still succeeds in dazzling gamers in many places; something most Third Party games fail to do.

 

Artoon has also done a splendid job recreating the soundtrack's feel as well, re-using snippets of tunes from the 16-bit game, but re-mastering the entire score to give this DS outing its own sense of identity. There are a couple of tracks that seem out of place, such as one country-and-western style, but even these are pleasing enough to not ruin the atmosphere. Other than the peaceful, mellow music, with a few more upbeat tracks mixed in, Yoshi's Island DS does a fantastic job in the sound effects department. Be it the grunting of Yoshi, the cries of the babies when the green dinosaur is hit and loses hold of them, or the various other noises, like eggs being fired, beanstalks growing and the difference between gold and red coins being collected, everything is perfectly fitting for the adventure.

And what an adventure it is! For those thinking that this would merely be New Super Mario Bros. in disguise or a poor man's Yoshi's Island, think again. Whereas NSMB struggled at times in terms of variety throughout, YI DS is jam-packed with substance

 

For those that missed out on the first game, or its GBA port, you take control of Yoshi and can run, jump, slam into the ground as usual, along with the ability to use his trademark moves

 

Of course, this means that certain aspects of a level can be only reached using Peach as your baby of choice. And so begins the heart of the gameplay, with each baby adding something different to the adventure. For instance, once Donkey Kong is unlocked you will have the ability to do a strong forward charge that breaks through strong blocks, plus he can climbs vines dotted around stages or swing around whenever possible. As for Wario, well, we all know how much he loves money...and sure enough his specialty is bringing a magnetic ability to the fold. Devious, even as a child