Hey everyone! I’m Hannah, kid reviewer with Canadian Online Gamers. Nintendo Canada was awesome enough to send me a really fun game to review, Yoshi’s New Island and I’m very excited to share my thoughts about it with you. I’m a pretty big Yoshi fan. He’s so adorable! I remember being 6 years old and playing the Yoshi’s Island games on my Game Boy Advance and DS, and I really loved playing them. So when I found out I had the chance to review Yoshi’s New Island, I was super excited to play on my 3DS XL to see what it looked like in 3D and see what’s new with the series.
So just like the other games, Yoshi carries little Baby Mario on his back. The game starts out with the stork (because we all know that’s where babies come from right?) delivering Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to the wrong house. When the stork tries to the deliver the babies to the right house, this weird Kamek guy (who kinda looks like a wizard Koopa thing) tries to kidnap them! He takes baby Luigi, but poor Baby Mario falls towards the sea! Meanwhile, Baby Bowser has taken over Egg Island, who is evil even though he’s just a little baby, and he plans to make it his vacation home. Egg Island is of course, home to those cute and loveable Yoshi’s and Baby Mario falls safely onto this island. The Yoshi’s decide to make sure he is safe, and help him try to find his brother AND defeat that crazy Bowser.
The controls were a lot like the old games, so I felt pretty comfortable playing, but someone who hasn’t played before might have a little bit of trouble. You make Yoshi jump from platform to platform, which seems pretty easy, but you also have to gulp enemies and make sure Mario doesn’t fall! And if he does, oh that wailing sound! He cries really loudly if he is knocked off your back, and if you don’t catch him in time Kamek’s minions capture him and take him away and it’s game over. Doing all of this can be a bit confusing sometimes! You also have to collect eggs, coins, and flowers.
The levels in Yoshi’s New Island were pretty neat, colorful and had crazy names like Beware the Boo Brigade and Hop N Pop Till You Drop. Some of the levels are tough to get through! There was a part where you had to reach a key, but it was hidden. I think about littler kids out there, who normally just run through the level and will not bother looking for the key, will get frustrated a lot. But if it gets too tough, a pipe will spit out a pair of little wings appear to make things a lot easier for Yoshi.
I really like the big giant eggs, something that’s new to the Yoshi games. In some levels a big giant Shy Guy pops out of a pipe and Yoshi can eat him, then spits out a giant Yoshi egg! When you push that egg it rolls and knocks down walls, blocks, enemies, anything and everything that gets in its way. Another new thing in Yoshi’s New Island is the mini games, which I really didn’t like whole lot. In the mini games Yoshi turns into certain vehicles, like a balloon, a helicopter or a submarine. It sounds like it would be fun but the gyroscope on the 3DS made things a bit difficult. It felt like no matter how I moved the 3DS, I still kept bumping into the sides and missed coins, which really didn’t feel smooth at all!! So when I got to the mini games I just got annoyed after a while.
There is multiplayer modes in Yoshi’s New Island too, and you can play with a friend who doesn’t have the game using DS download play which was really fun. You can work together to complete a level, or play against each other to collect coins. These levels are unlocked as you play the game. I really liked this feature as I thought it was cool that I could share the game with my other friends who have 3DS but don’t have the game, and it’s a lot of fun to play with someone else.
Yoshi’s New Island looks really pretty! It has the same pastel cute colours as the previous games and it looks really good. I also really like the different coloured Yoshi’s! But I almost like the looks of the old Game Boy version better. Maybe I’m just being nostalgic, but I like the old school graphics better for this game; however, it did look pretty good on the 3DS, and playing in 3D made it look pretty awesome, especially on the 3DS XL. And the music, oh I love it!! It’s very different from the old games, but I really, really like the change and I keep whistling the songs from the game. It sounds very cute and babyish. I love Yoshi’s little voice too.
While ittle kids will love the colours and the cute adorable Yoshi’s, I think very young children will have trouble playing the game because of all the jumping parts and puzzles can get a little confusing sometimes. But if they play it with an adult or older brother or sister, I can se it being fun for them. For kids my age, this game is pretty good and it can definitely be challenging sometimes. But for adults, they might not like it because it can seem pretty childish, and maybe a bit too easy for them. I had a lot of fun playing Yoshi’s New Island. I liked that it reminded me of the old games, that it looked really cute, and I especially liked the music. I definitely recommend playing this game.
Kid Score: AWESOMEÂ
About the Kid Author:
Growing up in a gaming household with her mom, and COG writer, Jen Dingle, Hannah has been playing video games since before she knew how to talk. One of the biggest Legend of Zelda fans out there, she aspires to be a Pokemon Master, and can be found glued to her Nintendo 3DS at all times. She loves internet memes, Harry Potter and trolling her mom, and can be found tweeting about her favourite games and space cats on her twitter account, @NyanHannah