Yoshi's Story (1997)

Yoshi's Story is an odd duck, a cute little title overflowing with charm but doesn't quite balance between its easy/breezy platforming and its maddeningly difficult and frustrating collectathons.

While the Yoshis are living in harmony through the fruit-bearing Super Happy Tree, Baby Bowser becomes jealous and steals the tree! With the world transformed into a pop-up storybook, the Yoshis must travel from page to page and collect enough fruit to complete levels and make their way to Baby Bowser's castle. This setup is fairly unique for level progression - instead of playing/replaying levels in a "Story Mode" the player can choose one of four levels in each main "Page" world (depending on how many special hearts they collect in previous levels) and lives come in the form of six different Yoshis. If a Yoshi is killed they are kidnapped, meaning the player has few chances to mess up.

This isn't too much of a worry at first, since the platforming is very gracious. Yoshi can eat any of the fruit in the level as long as it's 30 fruit, with plenty of health given back. Yoshi's platforming skills from Yoshi's Island is retained, with flutter jumps, hurling eggs, and ground pounding. Some abilities are no longer available, such as no longer being able to spit out enemies or ricochet eggs. Most mechanics are straightforward (ride a dragon! move propeller platforms upward) and are pretty fun, though some are unnecessarily obtuse to figure out (getting past bees).

If the player is more used to a challenge they needn't worry about Yoshi's Story being too easy - in fact if the player wants to add to their overall score and get better endings they can try collecting all 30 melons in the level, which give a lot more bonus points but are extremely obtuse and difficult to collect. Often melons will be hidden in places very inconsistently (ground pound flowers in one level, signs in another level, and maybe that one corner in that one area?) and while Yoshi can sniff to see if there are secrets about it becomes a lot of tedious hunting if the player doesn't already know where to look. With the limited lives and tendency for challenges/melons to not respawn if Yoshi messes up it can be pretty stressful, though there is a Trial Mode to practice.

The visuals in Yoshi's Story are probably its strongest aspect, with the pre-rendered arts-and-crafts inspired platforms, enemies, and other such bits are delightful. The level menu itself is a graphical wonder to behold, with enthusiastically animated elements literally popping out of each page. Yoshi's Story music is often a variation on some themes from Yoshi's Island, ranging from cutesy to peculiar and wacky (the Jungle variation). The actual theme to the Yoshi storybook is beyond adorable though, and melts my heart every time it plays while the storybook narrates their adventure.

Yoshi's Story is a difficult game to recommend because while it's a very charming title it has an imbalance between elements that are either very easy or way too hard, and while someone very new to games might find the regular platforming welcoming the challenge offered to those who are melon collecting need to put up with some very frustrating design decisions in order to get the most of this story.

Comparing this to Yoshi's Island I think highlights how and why this feels so halfbaked and paper thin. First off, while I think the use of 2.5D is a nice aesthetic on the n64, with Paper Mario doing an excellent job with it, Yoshi's Story leaves more to be desired. The levels are colorful and bright, yet compared to what they composed in Yoshi's Island it feels very flat.

I didn't spend any time finding these screen grabs. They were just the first images that appeared when searching for each title. The second image for Yoshi's Story is better, but the first is more emblematic of what Yoshi's Story looks like most of the time. Just a little flat and simple especially when compared to the complex contrast and layering in Yoshi's Island.

So for me, while I like 2.5D, Yoshi's Story just doesn't feel that inspired. In addition, there just aren't that many ideas thrown in. Only 6 levels. 2 Bosses. Half the levels look the same with palm trees, green grass, blue sky and clouds. Some levels introduce a few new ideas (like riding a dragon), but for the most part you just explore a level, collecting fruits and the hearts. That's it. I like the idea of an exploration focused Mario game, but these levels really aren't that big, the platforming is scarce and you encounter the same enemies in most levels. So the sense of repetition sinks in pretty quickly. In addition, the controls don't feel good. Yoshi feels like he is constantly on ice, sliding around the moment you stop running, which is terrible when it comes to trying to platform. If you nudged the joystick a little too far forward, once you land you will just immediately run off a narrow platform... Compare this to Mario 64, which focused on exploration and non-linear progression: each level had 7 objectives. And there were more than 15 courses for you to tackle with an increase in difficulty. Here there are 6 levels and only 1 necessary objective (collect enough fruit) and 1 secondary objective (collect the 3 hearts). While it's interesting having teleport areas to navigate through the maps and the level ends once you collect enough fruits, they don't push this concept at all.

I didn't mind my time here, it's very short. You will beat it in a few hours tops. But there really isn't any replay value and the levels don't really have a sense of progression nor does this game push any of it's concepts past their introduction.

Game #3/200 Like

• storybook aesthetic, overall graphical style (especially 2D art and blurry/bright objects and characters)

• delightful music and sounds

• tongue actions are snappy and fun. Shooting is too. But yoshis movements feel a little too slippery.

Dislike

• levels are opened up with warps and no clear end. Yet they’re linear and I don’t get the sense that exploring will be much fun.

• Lots of weirdly unrealized mechanics. The fruit collection as a main goal rather than a collectible is certainly a twist, but it’s just not satisfying. Stopping every few seconds to suck up fruits in obvious spots is monotonous. Mood and lucky/favorite fruit mechanics tie into the fruit collection goal in a way that intends to enhance it, but they’re not fun or interesting to manage.

• The level design just isn’t very strong. And it ties into the game’s weakly realized overall vision. It seems like the game was made to present to children, but the difficulty is just slightly too frustrating for that audience. The game is not abundantly easy, but its difficulty is inconsistent to a large degree (one boss is defeated by simply hitting him with your tongue 4-5 times).

• You play one level from each world. You need to replay the game to explore other levels. I only went through it a single time though.

This was a 2D platformer on the N64, it's main gimmick being that to complete a level, you collect enough fruit scattered about (rather than just reaching the end). So it's kind of a more exploration-focused take on Yoshi's Island. This is an easy one to breeze through (clearly aimed for younger audiences), and it's easy to call it cute in terms of presentation. The idea is you're playing in a children's storybook. To be honest the visuals of this one don't look that great to me -- to some degree it's just a product of its time/hardware, but it's also just kind of messy and unpleasant in design generally IMO. Levels aren't that engaging, music is often annoying, and the controls are very slippery. I didn't enjoy any instances of platforming that required careful jumps.

All in all a so-so Yoshi game, but I can understand some finding it charming. I think it could've pushed the storybook world gimmick way further, and it seems they have been more creative with that sort of thing in more recent entries. (Wooly World, Crafted World, etc)

When I was 9, my mom wanted my brother and I to give up video games. She didn't have an alternate hobby she wanted us to partake in, but for some reason she did want us to stop playing video games. Did it have to do with her witnessing me shoot men in white lab coats in Goldeneye- something I recall her mentioning her displeasure of MANY times? Only God knows.

Anyway she told us about eBay and asked if we wanted to make some money. 'Video games go for a pretty penny' she probably said. Wanting the money for Slurpees, I sold 3 video games- Super Mario 64, Pokemon Blue, and Yoshi's Story. My brother angrily told me I had made a mistake. I didn't care. I had $43 dollars to spend on Five Iron Frenzy CDs.

Well in the 22 passing years, I essentially re-bought Super Mario 64 twice (Super Mario 64 DS and Super Mario 3D All Stars), and I essentially re-bought Pokemon Blue twice (Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon Let's Go: Eevee). But I never got my hands back on Yoshi's Story... UNTIL NOW!!!

Yoshi's Story is the perfect game to get for free. Because it is very good but also very short. Its idea of beating levels through exploration and not through crossing some finish line is inspired. I wish more games did this. It has a cool art style. It has a good musical score. It has fantastic level variety and pretty good level design. It has some very cool hidden secrets. It makes me happy to just look at Yoshi move when I flick the control stick.

But it is very short. Like you don't have to be a speed runner to beat this game in under an hour. Like there is plenty to do on repeat play, but it is super short. In good conscience, I don't think I can recommend a $60 hour long video game... BUT if you are picking up the Expansion Pack for the Nintendo Switch Online, just play this game. Yoshi's Island is probably technically better, but this game is more magical. And with 2020/2021 being the years they were, couldn't you use just a little bit of that Yoshi magic?

There's no time. This is your story.

-That guy from FFX i dont know his name

Once upon a time, in all my years of playing stupid Nintendo games for babies, I had never touched Yoshi's Story until recently. Some of it had to do with the idea never crossing my mind, while some of it was due to the "mixed" reception this title received, from both critics and fans like. And yet, after giving it a try myself, I am perplexed by the number of individuals who outright dislike this game. Well fine. Maybe Yoshi isn't for everyone. But Yoshi's Story went on to be one of the most iconic parts of Yoshi's franchise, inspiring two Smash Bros stages, one which even has a cult following in competitive play, as well being referenced in various Mario spinoffs. You could say that it even laid the groundwork for Good-Feel's Yoshi titles, Woolly World and Crafted World, many years later. So why the hate, despite its legacy?

There are a few recurring criticisms of Yoshi's Story I've seen that seem to have spawned this mixed reception. One is most likely due to the fact this was a 2D platformer on N64, one of maybe like, three total. 1998 was probably the worst time in history to be a 2D platformer. As 3D games began to get more ambitious, 2D was seen as lame and uncool, and Yoshi not even going the true 2.5D route like Kirby 64 would two years later was probably seen as unimpressive, despite the pre-rendered faux-3D graphics. This could explain low critic scores, at the very least.

The other criticisms are as follows. The first is that the game is "too kiddy" motherfucker you are playing a Nintendo game! If you go to the circus there will be clowns!!! ok sorry despite everything I find the presentation of Yoshi's Story to easily be its strongest aspect. The aesthetic is tied down in such a gorgeous and loving way that takes full advantage of the N64 hardware. Ultimately I get it might not be the kind of game for everyone, and it was the late 90s after all, where "softer" games were kind of looked down upon.

Another criticism I see is that Yoshi's Story fails to live up to the legacy Yoshi's Island set out. Now I get you, Yoshi's Island is absolutely one of the games of all time. Regardless, the style and structure of Yoshi's Story is so different from island it feels like it really stands out among yoshi games -- not quite a sequel or followup, but something really unique. Is it as good as Yoshi's Island? No, but nothing will be as good as Yoshi's Island, and that's just a sad truth we have to accept.

Maybe i'm fucked up like the joker and just enjoy baby games but something about Yoshi's Story clicked so well with me -- the look of it, the sounds and music, the unique way of progression. The world map being a literal storybook, with characters and environments popping out at you. The gorgeous prerendered style of the cute little Yoshis whose lives you feel you must protect. The feeling of losing a Yoshi is a loss unlike any other in a video game. While a playthrough of Yoshi's Story is short, replaying the story multiple times to unlock new levels and find new secrets you might have not seen before to get Yoshi's mood up as much as you can is so enjoyable as someone who is a fan of "arcade-like" progression such as that.

People will rant about how much they love a game and only give it 4/5 stars on Grouvee. That people is me. Ultimately Yoshi's Story is far from a perfect game. there are some aspects, particularly in level design, that are really wonky. The few boss fights available are downright boring and easy. Getting all melons is the best way to get a high score, and that can be a pain in the ass -- there are 30 per level and not only is it difficult, but at times very tedious. Having to sniff out entire levels gets tiresome. and those minigames HOO BOY I do not want to carry another crate ever again

And despite everything, despite all the hardships you took to find those melons, the Yoshis lost, the trials endured -- everything feels so worth it just to watch the ending story recap your wonderful efforts to save the Yoshis and help them live happily ever after.

While I cherish cute things, I have an extremely strong, borderline pathological aversion to media or imagery that is "overly cute", to the point of being cloying. Yoshi's Story personifies this phenomenon for me. It is the ur-saccharine text. This game released at a very low point in my life. I felt hopelessly sad, at levels that were new and catastrophic for my child brain, but the game would smile back at me -

beaming

making me feel weak and sick with its stark emotional contrast. I guess I still resent it to this day.

P.S. I miss the old Yoshi. (SMW, Mario Party 1 & 2, Mario Golf 64, etc)