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Author Topic: Why Yoshi's Island DS makes no sense  (Read 7880 times)

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« on: January 08, 2013, 10:33:27 PM »
From Supper Mario Broth, a blog run by a former editor of Waluigious:

Quote
Yoshi's Island had a basic story: The Stork is delivering Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to their parents, but gets intercepted by evil forces who hold him and Baby Luigi captive while Baby Mario lands safely on Yoshi's Island. With the Yoshis' help, Baby Mario needs to reunite with Baby Luigi and free the Stork so he can finish his job, all the while overcoming adversity by the bad guys looking for him, avoiding being captured himself. So far so good.

In the sequel on the Nintendo DS, however, the formula is shaken up... but doesn't make any sense as a result. Instead of the Stork getting captured, now it's just a bunch of babies being kidnapped. The Yoshis and the Stork need to team up with some of the babies that escaped and rescue the others. Sounds good, right? Let's examine the logic:

The Yoshis can move freely around the map on their own, when unencumbered by babies. At the end of each stage, another Yoshi is there to take over the carrying, and he got there without any issues all by himself. In Yoshi's Island, this isn't an issue since the mission is to get Baby Mario to the end, not the Yoshis. They just divide the work of carrying and protecting him.

In Yoshi's Island DS, however, the Stork can reach any place on the map as well. He's there immediately at every Stork Sign, and they're in every level. And he's carrying every baby but one. Now, do you see it? If the Yoshis can get everywhere without problems, and the babies can (using the stork), what's the point of the Yoshis carrying the babies? All they need to do is get to Bowser's Castle anyway - so why not just have the Yoshis waiting there and get the babies delivered to the final chamber?

If you have two parts that have no problem moving by themselves, why do you put them together to get somewhere even if that only means difficulties?
[source], [Mario Broth Twitter], [Mario Broth blog]
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2013, 07:41:35 AM »
Thought it'd be about the tepid level design and how poorly it implements the added gimmicks.

« Last Edit: January 09, 2013, 11:34:32 AM by Glowsquid »

The Chef

  • Super
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2013, 12:28:30 PM »
I still can't get over how they couldn't think of a special power for Baby Mario, so they gave him:

1. The ability to hit a specific kind of block that they only made up just so he could have a specific kind of block to hit, and

2. The ability to let Yoshi run via button, which meant they had to take away automatic running by default even though that worked perfectly fine in the first game.

« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2013, 07:26:16 PM »
Judging by the threads I found detailing a Mario timeline and everything, I may get flamed for this, but when have the stories for Mario games ever made sense, lol? I love the games just the same.

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #4 on: March 18, 2013, 09:28:53 PM »
I'm with you.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

Insane Steve

  • Professional Cynic
« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2013, 06:32:52 PM »
I love the games just the same.

but this thread is about Yoshi's Island DS though
~I.S.~

« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2013, 07:23:40 PM »
Well I was including this game when I spoke of Mario games.

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2013, 09:23:10 PM »
I agree... but YIDS isn't just horrible for the story
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

The Chef

  • Super
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2013, 02:41:27 AM »
Before he inquires, here's a list of things that are definitely bad about Yoshi's Island DS:

-Ugly graphics, right down to little things like the boss' Windows Movie Maker fade-out.
-Ugly sound, especially that snore-inducing castle theme.
-Lazy, unimaginative new enemy designs.
-Pointless new mechanics such as:

o) Multiple characters, each of which has an ability you use considerably less than the main character (Baby Mario) because his special abilities (running, bouncing eggs) are an integral part of the main game. BP has this same complaint about Super Paper Mario, and he's right.
o) Crappy mini-games that felt like an afterthought.
o) Crappy vehicles that pale compared to the transformations.
 
-Stupidly easy to beat, but stupidly difficult to attain 100%.
-Only five worlds when six or eight is usually the norm for a Mario game.
-Feeling overall like a retread of the first game but not as good, like a lot of movie sequels. Game sequels are usually supposed to expand on the first game and fix things that didn't work. Guess they couldn't find anything to fix, so they broke it on purpose.

ShadowBrain

  • Ridiculously relevant
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2013, 10:57:39 AM »
Yeah, pretty much.
"Mario is your oyster." ~The Chef

« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2013, 03:26:23 PM »
Well said. Its difficulty invoked frustration rather than satisfaction.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

Kuromatsu

  • 黒松
« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2013, 01:51:50 PM »
I think one of the things that off put me the most about Yoshi's Island DS was the the garishly misaligned particle effect of destroyed dirt.

Failing to correct something so arbitrarily simple seems like an obvious sign that the developers of the game had zero ambitions for it.

« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2013, 02:32:37 PM »
Ia Yoshi's Island DS a remake of the old SNES version with new things added? Or is it a new game entirely? If so I'd love to try it out.

The Chef

  • Super
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2013, 02:56:43 PM »
Read the thread carefully.

And no, you shouldn't try it out.

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