The Yoshi Series

[Ziggy587]

I think this series is worthy of discussion! Here's a list of games in which Yoshi takes the lead.

Yoshi has had a few spin-off games, such as Yoshi's Cookie and Yoshi's Safari, but I like to think he has a "main" series much like Mario does. They would be:

Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Yoshi's Story (N64)
Yoshi's Island DS (DS)
Yoshi's New Island (3DS)
Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U) [dedicated thread here]
Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch)

Let's get one thing out of the way... Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is a sequel to Super Mario World by title only. Much like how Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is really the first Wario Land game, and not really the third Mario Land game.



I first played this game on a rental from Blockbuster. I remember being upset because I thought it was going to be a true sequel to Super Mario World, and that is what I was excited for. So for that reason, I kind of hated the game for a while. Years later, I realized that the title is bogus and it's really just its own game having nothing to do with Super Mario World. At that point I could finally enjoy it.

It's definitely one of the best platformers on the SNES. Top 5 for sure. And the art style is still beautiful to this day, and definitely one of the nicest looking games on the console. The music gets stuck in your head. It also plays very well. But for some odd reason I've never beaten the game. I have an original cart that I got pretty far in. Then when the Sd2snes got an update to play Super FX games, I started a new file with this hack to remove some of the annoying sounds. But again, I didn't finish the game. I really do like it though.



Yoshi's Story is another game in the series that I first played on a rental from Blockbuster. I actually got really far in the game, not realizing how short the game is. Years later I picked up a cart, but I never got around to playing through this one again. I have found memories of it, so I'm interested to see how I'd feel about it today. This one seems to take a lot of negative comments.



I actually didn't realize Yoshi's Island DS was its own game until recently. I thought it was a port of the SNES game. That said, I haven't ever played it.



This one I did pick up, but never finished. Seems to play just as good as the rest, I'm not sure why I put it down.



This one seemed a little weird when it was first released. Take Kirby's Epic Yarn and Mix it with Yoshi's Island. But it works, and it's just as fun to play as the rest of the games in the series. Although... I've never finished this one either!



This one I picked up, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet. Anyone play this one yet? Thoughts?



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I haven't played many Yoshi spin-off games. I checked out Yoshi's Safari when I briefly owned a Super Scope. Are any of the other spin-offs worth playing?

I love how Yoshi use to pop up in seemingly random places. Like in Donkey Kong Country 2, he was one of Cranky's Video Game Heroes.



Or in Super Mario 64. I remember when the game first launched, a lot of people were hoping Yoshi would be in it. You play through the entire game and there's no Yoshi. Then you find him on the roof and he's just chilling like, "Oh, hey, what's up?"






Anyone else a fan of this little green dinosaur?

[PartridgeSenpai]

I went through all the games after playing through Yoshi's NEW Island a year or so ago, so my thoughts are still fresh-ish in my mind.

Yoshi's Island: One of the best action platformers every made. A superb game that blends exploration with platforming in a really fantastic way.

Yoshi's Story: A kind of successor game that tries to innovate without much purpose. The "collect 30 fruit" mechanic means you often don't see all of the level or every part of it (unless you're trying to get 30 melons for a high score or whatever), and you also won't see every stage in the game on one playthrough, so you'll need to play through it several times. Even then, it has only half the stages Yoshi's Island does. Yoshi's Island was a hard act to follow, but Yoshi's Story falls on its face HARD in that regard. If Island is a 10/10, Story is like a solid 6/10 by comparison (especially at full-price. I mean even at the silly price of 100 yen I've seen it at, I've still not bought it for N64).

Yoshi's Story DS: A return to form to Yoshi's Island. 8 levels less than the original game, but adds in a baby swapping mechanic that's quite fun! Baby Mario allows you to run, Peach gets a parasol to let you hover, DK can climb vines, and some levels let you use Baby Wario (who has a big magnet to attract metal blocks or coins) or even Baby Bowser (who can spit fireballs!). A fun game, but it focuses a bit to much on designing the levels around the collectibles, rather than just incorporating the collectibles into already good levels, as the original game did.

Yoshi's NEW Island: Loses the baby swapping mechanic from DS, and also doubles down on the bad idea of designing the levels around the collectibles. It's a noticeably more mediocre experience than Island or DS. Not a bad game (especially for what you can get it for now), but difficult to justify $40 when it just misses the high mark of the first game (or even the lesser DS game) so hard.

Yoshi's Woolly World: The closest the successors ever came to being as great as the original. A fantastic game and one of the best newer 2D platformers Nintendo has put out in the past few generations. An absolute must-play for any fan of the original (and it even has co-op and TONS of Yoshi costumes to collect <3 ). Good Feels combined the yarny aesthetic of Kirby's Epic Yarn and the great level design of Wario Land: Shake It!! for a platforming magnum opus that is an absolutely stellar Wii U title.

And then I haven't played Yoshi's Crafted World, so I can't really comment on that
Anyhow, I'd rank them:
Yoshi's Island > Yoshi's Woolly World > Yoshi's Island DS > Yoshi's New Island > Yoshi's Story

[alienjesus]

These are also kinda spin-offs, but I could see an argument that Yoshi Topsy-Turvy and Yoshi Touch n Go should be considered when discussing the main series too.

[prfsnl_gmr]

These are also kinda spin-offs, but I could see an argument that Yoshi Topsy-Turvy and Yoshi Touch n Go should be considered when discussing the main series too.

+1

I agree. I am planning to run this series at some point, and I was planning on playing those.

Also, you don’t see the classic Yoshi puzzle games, Yoshi and Yoshi’s Cookie, discussed much. I thought both were relatively pleasant games. Like Dr. Mario, neither is amazing, but both are pretty fun.

Finally, I’ve always thought Yoshi’s Safari looked intriguing. I’ve never reall y found a good way to play it, though. Are there emulators that let you reproduce the Super Scope’s functions? If so, I may need to play it that way. (As much as I want to play it, buying both a vintage CRT and a working Super Scope seems like a bit much.)

[Ziggy587]

Also, you don’t see the classic Yoshi puzzle games, Yoshi and Yoshi’s Cookie, discussed much. I thought both were relatively pleasant games. Like Dr. Mario, neither is amazing, but both are pretty fun.

Talk about them here! I think I have Yoshi or Yoshi's Cookie on the Wii VC, but I never played much of it.

(As much as I want to play it, buying both a vintage CRT and a working Super Scope seems like a bit much.)

Also, the Super Scope isn't all too great. I like using a light gun, like the Zapper, but the Super Scope is a pain in the ass. It's more kid sized, so being an adult it's kind of uncomfortable to look down the scope. And looking at the TV screen through the scrope is pretty shitty as well.

[Xeogred]

Sadly, I think they peaked with Yoshi's Island and it'll never be rivaled again. I hated Yoshi's Story as a kid and bought it again on the Wii U a few years ago, was disgusted instantly and couldn't stomach much of it haha. Woolly World was fine, but didn't really blow me away. It's clear Nintendo wants to experiment more with Yoshi and keep these things beginner friendly, when that was not the case with Island's rock solid difficulty. That game was massive in scope too (one of the big reasons I hate Story, it's like merely one world worth of Island's content). Story also introduced the HNN-HNNNNNNG grunt that they've abused ever since. Ugh!

[Anapan]

I hate all Mario franchise vocalizations. Despite that, the HNNGH is not all that grating during short sessions to me. Mario's baby cry however made the early games insta-dropped. Luckily, the cry can now be hacked out (as can most vocalizations in the GBA franchise re-releases).
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/3945/
http://www.romhacking.net/community/3691/
I thought Wooly World was good, and I like the co-op play of all of the newer ones. I think there's a lot of fun gameplay to be had in all the Yoshi games (puzzle games are OK).
A bit OT, but I recently watched a restoration of an old japanese VHS phone game with some now well regarded japanese VA talent as the Yoshis - Red Yoshi's VA went on to become Pikachu.
https://youtu.be/wWj63t4lFlc

[Ziggy587]

Woolly World was fine, but didn't really blow me away. It's clear Nintendo wants to experiment more with Yoshi and keep these things beginner friendly, when that was not the case with Island's rock solid difficulty.

How much of Woolly World did you play? I think I've only played about halfway through so far, but I remember the difficulty increasing as I progressed. There were some levels with platforming reminiscent of Yoshi's Island.

Despite that, the HNNGH is not all that grating during short sessions to me. Mario's baby cry however made the early games insta-dropped.

The Hnnnnnng thing never bothered me much, but I've always found the crying to be annoying. Thankfully those hacks exist! You can also disable the crying with the Game Genie code 44A0-672B (use with emulator or Sd2snes). But I like the hack that doesn't just mute the crying but replaces it with a (non-irritating) beep and replaces the animation too.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Woolly World was fine, but didn't really blow me away. It's clear Nintendo wants to experiment more with Yoshi and keep these things beginner friendly, when that was not the case with Island's rock solid difficulty.

How much of Woolly World did you play? I think I've only played about halfway through so far, but I remember the difficulty increasing as I progressed. There were some levels with platforming reminiscent of Yoshi's Island.

Having replayed through Yoshi's Island recently, that game is HARD. Especially the last world, that game gets really brutal. Woolly World's hidden final final stage I would say approaches being that hard, although Woolly World, as a whole, is not nearly as hard as the original game, at least as far as I remember.

[Xeogred]

Woolly World was fine, but didn't really blow me away. It's clear Nintendo wants to experiment more with Yoshi and keep these things beginner friendly, when that was not the case with Island's rock solid difficulty.

How much of Woolly World did you play? I think I've only played about halfway through so far, but I remember the difficulty increasing as I progressed. There were some levels with platforming reminiscent of Yoshi's Island.

I beat it in 2017, looks like I jotted down 8h 24m on HLTB. To be honest man, I can't remember much. It just didn't leave much of an impression on me. So I can't think of any specific hard levels.

I didn't clarify in my rant above, but yeah Yoshi's Island? Masterpice. Must play for any SNES / 16bit fans. I might even take it over DKC2-3 thesedays, though DKC1 and SMW are still probably my favorite SNES platformers.