Yoshi's Island 2 surfaced this week at E3 2006, starting with a very brief mention on a slide at Nintendo's pre-show press conference, and like a large portion of all the other games Nintendo announced this week, was playable on the show floor on a shiny new Polar White Nintendo DS Lite.
There's really not a whole lot that Yoshi's Island 2 does to change up the gameplay its predecessor, Yoshi's Island, made famous. Players familiar with the button configuration in that game will feel right at home with Yoshi's Island 2: B jumps (hold to hover); Y controls Yoshi's tongue, allowing him to pull enemies into his mouth or spit them back out; and A fires eggs, which Yoshi can lay by swallowing an enemy, done by pulling it into his mouth and pressing down on the directional pad. Players who (like me) were introduced to the game through the Super Mario Advance 3 for Game Boy Advance will have to take a little time to get used to the slightly different controls, but I found it simple to adjust. Egg tossing is still used extensively, though it gets a little more challenging as you're occasionally asked to throw your eggs up to a target on the top screen.
The biggest change to the game is that Yoshi is asked to ferry not just Baby Mario, but also Baby Peach and Baby DK as well. Depending on which baby Yoshi is carrying, he gets special abilities. Baby Mario equals speed, which is required to get through one level where a large destructive spiked (and smiling) ball is destroying the terrain Yoshi is trying to traverse. Baby Peach comes equipped with a parasol capable of catching updrafts and bringing her and Yoshi to previously-inaccessible places. Baby DK enables the pair to climb vines — again to reach the aforementioned previously-inaccessible places.
The demo featured a handful of levels, most set in a familiarly styled outdoor area of the titular Yoshi's Island. Scattered throughout the levels were "stork points", marked with a little sign. Standing on a point summoned the stork, carrying an alternative baby for Yoshi to carry. By jumping up, Yoshi can grab that baby and the stork will carry away the first one to the Stork Dimension, to be returned next time Yoshi needs to switch babies. (Presumably there's enough storks to carry all but one of the babies and the unlucky baby wielding the power Yoshi needs is the one that gets put into mortal danger.)
The game's style is pure Yoshi's Island, and looks great on the DS Lite. I had the opportunity to plug in some nice noise-cancelling headphones to listen to the sound; it's definitely up to the standard Nintendo has set with recent DS titles, taking full advantage of the DS's high-fidelity audio and virtual surround capabilities. Some game sounds needed a little tweaking (a rotating platform made a very jarring creaky noise while spinning, for example), but this could very well get done before the game's release.
It remains to be seen if the level design will live up to the standard the original Yoshi's Island set; the demo was only a few short stages long with a single, rather simple boss battle. Based on my playthrough of Yoshi's Island 2, Nintendo seems very confident with the formula. If all goes well, the final game — releasing this fall — should be a worthy addition to the platformer-lover's library.
There's really not a whole lot that Yoshi's Island 2 does to change up the gameplay its predecessor, Yoshi's Island, made famous. Players familiar with the button configuration in that game will feel right at home with Yoshi's Island 2: B jumps (hold to hover); Y controls Yoshi's tongue, allowing him to pull enemies into his mouth or spit them back out; and A fires eggs, which Yoshi can lay by swallowing an enemy, done by pulling it into his mouth and pressing down on the directional pad. Players who (like me) were introduced to the game through the Super Mario Advance 3 for Game Boy Advance will have to take a little time to get used to the slightly different controls, but I found it simple to adjust. Egg tossing is still used extensively, though it gets a little more challenging as you're occasionally asked to throw your eggs up to a target on the top screen.
The biggest change to the game is that Yoshi is asked to ferry not just Baby Mario, but also Baby Peach and Baby DK as well. Depending on which baby Yoshi is carrying, he gets special abilities. Baby Mario equals speed, which is required to get through one level where a large destructive spiked (and smiling) ball is destroying the terrain Yoshi is trying to traverse. Baby Peach comes equipped with a parasol capable of catching updrafts and bringing her and Yoshi to previously-inaccessible places. Baby DK enables the pair to climb vines — again to reach the aforementioned previously-inaccessible places.
The demo featured a handful of levels, most set in a familiarly styled outdoor area of the titular Yoshi's Island. Scattered throughout the levels were "stork points", marked with a little sign. Standing on a point summoned the stork, carrying an alternative baby for Yoshi to carry. By jumping up, Yoshi can grab that baby and the stork will carry away the first one to the Stork Dimension, to be returned next time Yoshi needs to switch babies. (Presumably there's enough storks to carry all but one of the babies and the unlucky baby wielding the power Yoshi needs is the one that gets put into mortal danger.)
The game's style is pure Yoshi's Island, and looks great on the DS Lite. I had the opportunity to plug in some nice noise-cancelling headphones to listen to the sound; it's definitely up to the standard Nintendo has set with recent DS titles, taking full advantage of the DS's high-fidelity audio and virtual surround capabilities. Some game sounds needed a little tweaking (a rotating platform made a very jarring creaky noise while spinning, for example), but this could very well get done before the game's release.
It remains to be seen if the level design will live up to the standard the original Yoshi's Island set; the demo was only a few short stages long with a single, rather simple boss battle. Based on my playthrough of Yoshi's Island 2, Nintendo seems very confident with the formula. If all goes well, the final game — releasing this fall — should be a worthy addition to the platformer-lover's library.