Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The Review column that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. After four reviews dealing with playformers, adventure epics, and a trio of terrible game modes in Bayou Billy, I thought I’d take an easier route this week, and review a puzzle game. But since most puzzle games are pretty basic, and don’t offer too much, I figured I’d look at one that stars one of Nintendo’s most iconic and beloved characters. Oh, and Mario as well. Was this puzzle game a success, or was it just a rotten egg?
Year of Release: 1992
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Puzzle
By now, if you’re a gamer, or even one who isn’t, you should be well acquainted with our beloved dinosaur Yoshi. The always hungry, egg-chuckin’ dino made his “world” premiere (get it?) in 1991 in the SNES launch title “Super Mario World”. And a star was born. Yoshi became an instant hit with gaming fans, and clearly Nintendo was ready to strap the rocket on this pre-historic powerhouse
By 1992, the NES was still huffing and puffing in the console market. It was already being outshined by far more powerful consoles, but it still managed to have some fight left in it. The Game Boy was also still a massive success as well, and almost at the peak of its gaming run. Nintendo figured that with puzzle games being a massive money maker on both consoles, that they would release a puzzle game featuring Yoshi for both platforms. To aid them, Nintendo would get help from a young game development company known as Game Freak.
This wasn’t the first Game Freak developed game on the NES. That honor would go to the Hudson Soft title Mendel Palace in 1990. But this would be the first major project for Game Freak under the Nintendo banner. And one of the first design collaborations between Shigeru Miyamoto, and Satoshi Tajiri.
The game is known in Japan as Tamago No Yoshi (Or Yoshi Egg), and in the UK and Australia as “Mario and Yoshi”. No clue why, but I’m guessing because Mario has an involvement in the core game. Or, Mario’s just a glory hog. Who knows?
Story
Once upon a time, Mario wondered aloud how one could create dinosaurs. He always wanted to have a little dino he could ride and use to eat his foes. One day, the plucky plumber stumbled on a broken egg. He didn’t think much of it, until suddenly he was attacked by a goomba. During the bout, the goomba would slip, and fall into the bottom part of the broken egg. Mario quickly slammed the top of the egg on the goomba, and all of a sudden the egg began to glow. After a few seconds, the egg would hatch, and out popped a Yoshi. Impressed by the power of the egg, Mario wanted to make more yoshis. So, he sent an invite to all of his enemies to meet with him. All of them accepted, unaware of the cruel scheme Mario had for them.
Okay, that’s not the plot. But since this is a puzzle game, there really isn’t any major story. Though I guess Mario making dinosaurs out of the trapped bodies of his does would be a rather grim story. Could be worse, we could be seeing Luigi in his video game where he creates the first ever Toadan Wiggler.
Gameplay
Yoshi is a puzzle game starring Mario. The object of the game is to eliminate the enemies that come from the top of the screen. There are two methods in doing so. Stack similar creatures on top of one another (for example, place on Blooper on top of another), or to make a Yoshi. To make a Yoshi, you have to get an egg bottom, and stack up as many enemies as possible until you get an egg top. Once you have the egg top on top of the stack, the stack will turn into a yoshi. The size of the Yoshi and the points earned depends on how many enemies were in the egg stack.
0-1 enemies make a baby Yoshi
2-4 makes a regular Yoshi.
5-6 makes a winged Yoshi.
and finally 7 enemies will make a Star Yoshi.
You have four enemy types in the game to deal with. Goombas, Boo Buddies, Bloopers, and Piranha Plants. You also have the egg pieces. The bottom will stay in play until you get an egg top, or another bottom put right on top of it. Unlike some other puzzle games that add more items to deal with as the levels and challenge progress, these are the only ones you have to deal with in the game.
You control Mario at the bottom, who will spin the platforms with a push of either the A or B buttons. Turning the platforms can swap the enemy stacks around. So this becomes your main method of strategy in the game. You can also drop newly falling enemies faster with the down button.
Enemies and egg pieces drop two at a time, and if close together, won’t break until one hits another stack. You have no real control on where to move the falling enemies other than the speed in which they drop, so you have to spin your platforms, and hope for the best. You only get four platforms to spin, making the game pretty tricky.
This also leads to the game’s tedium. Most of the time, you won’t get the enemy needed to put on top of one on the bottom, or you don’t get an egg bottom at the perfect time. So, there is a shred of tedium rather than puzzle strategy.
The game has three gameplay modes. Two one player modes, and one for two players. Game A is your standard unlimited play mode. You will continue play until you eventually get your pile too out of control, and it ends up hitting the top. You can set the level of gameplay up to 5 at the options screen, but all it really does it up the challenge and speed. 5 isn’t the final level, as the game will continue to up levels with the more points and enemies placed.
Game B is a bit different. The object of this game is to clear the area of all pre-existing enemy blocks. The only way to do that, is to of course stack similar enemies on one another. But the downside is you still have to clean up the excess enemies and Yoshi eggs that will drop as well. But should you manage to clean the area, you’ll get a quick animation of Mario riding Yoshi, who eats a random item, and it’s then back to another round. Like game A, you can set the starting level to 5. And just like the other mode, 5 isn’t the final level, as the game goes on with higher starting stacks, higher difficulty and faster speed.
And then there’s the two player mode. You control Mario and Luigi in a best of three battle to see who can survive the longest. The gameplay in this mode is similar to game A, where you simply just keep going until either you, or your opponent hits the top of the play area. Just like the other modes, you can set the individual level of gameplay up to 5.
Graphics
The graphics look decent. The play area is colorful, and all of the characters look like how they would in any other Mario game. Plus, for the first time seeing Yoshi in an 8-bit game, he looks really good. The game gives off a nice, simple puzzle game look, and works well.
Music
The music is decent, but I wouldn’t say it’s anything too amazing. You get three songs to choose from in the options area, Mushroom, Flower, and Star. In my opinion, Star is the best song of the three. The music does feel at times similar to that of another certain Game Freak game. They’re small potatoes to tracks from other puzzle games like Dr. Mario or Tetris, but they still manage to be solid in this game.
Overall Thoughts
Yoshi is a very average puzzle game. It controls very well, and looks nice, but in the end the gameplay is very basic and bland in comparison to far superior puzzle games that came out earlier for the console. You get a decent amount of gameplay options, and they are both fun, but they do suffer from annoying challenge. The game’s gimmick isn’t all that solid either. Hatching the Yoshi’s don’t seem to be as important as they should be. If they implemented the Yoshi’s into being some sort of special trick to eliminate more blocks, it would’ve been a cool idea, but probably wouldn’t have saved this from being so basic.
So, while this was more of a misfire from Game Freak, it wouldn’t be the last time they’d team with Nintendo, for a mere few years later, they would come up with an idea for a Game Boy RPG that would deal with a little game that would take the world by storm. And that game would of course be Pokemon.
I’d say give Yoshi a try at least, especially for the history of the iconic dinosaur. You might enjoy it, and have a far more fun experience with it than I did. But, for me, it was just a scrambled egg. Not disgusting by any means, but not the most delicious meal I’ve had.
Rating: Thumbs in the middle