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General Gaming Discussion / HD Plays Games: Yoshi's Island, A Sequel-Prequel (Update 2!)
« on: May 08, 2013, 07:56:21 PM »So yeah I've been bored lately and I was like "Why not, I'll play a game." So I decided on this game. Because it's a good game. And it contains Yoshis. And I'm going to shut up with this horrible exposition now.
SO LET'S BEGIN
(Warning you now, the intro is fairly long and the largest plot dump in the game.)
Update 1: Welcome to Yoshi's Island!
(click to show/hide)
If it hadn't been made obvious to you from the title or having common sense, this game is a Nintendo game.
In a galaxy far, far, awa- whoops, wrong series!
Yeah, this game is some sort of weird...prequel...thing to Super Mario World, despite clearly being labeled a sequel. Oh well.
Unless...Mario ages backwards?!
Pretty.
Well, gee, I wonder who those two twins are.
Um...I don't see a shadow. And there are a lot of gaps between clouds.
On a different note, the art style for this game is really pretty.
See that speck in the distance? No? Let's have a closer look.
WHOA HOLY SHIT
What kind of reaction to a butt ugly flying...thing stealing the only cargo you're carrying is this?
This intro gets stupider, just you wait.
Remember that he only stole one baby, it's fairly important.
I accidentally missed a screen, but:
"The second baby falls undetected towards
This is important too. Remember both a) He fell undetected, and b) He fell into the open sea.
DRAMA
Never would have guessed. Thanks game!
Um...which Yoshi? There's probably like 100+ of them around here!
IT'S RAINING BABIES
Wow, you're a fucking steed even when I'm an infant.
Okay, level with me for a second. This baby just fell 500 feet from the stork's mouth AND straight into the open sea--yet somehow lands on an island that appeared out of fucking nowhere and onto a Yoshi, and neither of them get killed from the impact? What?
That paper on our left? It fell on our head too. But we're still perfectly fine!
Naturally, Yoshi is quite curious.
Um...what? This is the actual world map that we'll see later in more detail, and considering how the game works...I have no clue as to how it's possible that Yoshi doesn't comprehend the thing.
Maybe there's a smarter Yoshi that helps him decipher it?
Oh hell it's you again.
Yes, it's the Wicked Witch of the West. Next thing you know, the Yoshis all burst out into song about following the Yellow Brick Road.
Clever double meaning there.
Excuse me, what?
How did you not notice before that you were only holding 1 baby? Better yet, how did you not notice a baby hurtling towards the fucking ocean, most likely crying most of the way down?
So yeah this is basically the plot. Kamek kidnaps babies for a hobby, and for some godforsaken reason needs to have Baby Mario in particular. I don't think anyone ever explains why Mario in particular, but oh well.
WHOA MARIO HAS PARENTS
Of course, due to the power of game design, we never actually see them. Nor do I understand how the Yoshis plan to get Mario off the island to his parents, but whatever.
Speaking of, how does he have his red cap if he's never met his parents in order for them to give it to him?
NINTENDO LOGIC AHOY!
Yep, there's another intro when you actually start a new file. But this one's unskippable.
And yet again, Nintendo gives us some extremely useful information.
Yeah, there'd definitely be some commotion if a baby fell from a sky in my town.
Of course, it'd also probably be dead when it hit the ground, but that's besides the point, because this is a Nintendo game.
What?
...when did I stumble into a cliché fairy tale? >.>
First of all, what? What's the point of this? If the Yoshis can travel fast enough to set up a relay system to find Baby Mario's brother, why don't they just fucking carry him there directly?
Secondly, we were told Yoshi can't comprehend the map. Don't you need to be able to comprehend such a map to assemble this relay system?
AGAIN, NINTENDO LOGIC!
Also, shouldn't "Yoshies" be spelled "Yoshis"? Maybe I'm just crazy, I dunno, but I'll be spelling it as "Yoshis" personally.
So let's leap...
...into the dark, endless void...
Nah, not really, this is the tutorial level.
This is basically the game's health system. Basically, you start each level with 10 Stars. If you get hit by an enemy or a hazard, Baby Mario will get knocked off your back and start flying away from you in a bubble. (Don't ask me where this bubble was when he was dropping from the stork though) During this time, you'll lose Stars at a swift pace. If you ever reach 0 Stars, Kamek's Toadies will come and kidnap Baby Mario, probably finding him from his incessant wailing.
In order to stop the countdown, you just need to pop the bubble with your body or tongue and Baby Mario will hop right back on your back. If you have less than 10 Stars at this point, you'll slowly gain Stars until you reach 10. You can never go above 30 Stars at any particular point.
Stars have another purpose I'll explain in the next update when we enter our first actual level, but this is enough of an info and plot dump already.
Coins are just like they are in any other Mario game; collect 100, get a 1-Up. Again, they'll be of more importance later.
We also run into our first enemy here! This is a Shy Guy, and they are fucking everywhere on this island. They're basically a Yoshified version of Goombas. They don't do much, but if you touch them they'll knock Mario off.
Of course, Yoshi has ways to take care of them.
For starters, he can jump on them, just like any Mario game. Next, he has a tongue attack (shown) which allows him to store enemies in his mouth. He can then to proceed to spit them out at enemies as a projectile or store them in an egg to use later. He can hold up to 6 eggs at a time (I have 2, as you can see), and let me tell you, they'll quickly become the most important aspect of this game. Yoshi's tongue can also be aimed up and be used to pop the bubble when Baby Mario gets knocked off.
This is an Expansion Block. If you hit it from the bottom, it'll expand and rise a little, allowing you to access higher areas using it.
This is a Hint Block. As the name might suggest, it gives you hints and tips about playing the game.
This one teaches us about what most of us probably know as the Flutter Jump, although in this game it's called the Hovering Jump. Basically, you can hold the jump button to get a little bit more height and distance out of your jumps.
For some reason though, in this game, it feels like less height/distance than other games in the series. Just me?
Having successfully fluttere- HOVERED across the gap, we come across this thing.
This is a Spring Ball, which as the name suggests, will allow us to access greater heights by jumping on it. If you press the jump button with good timing, you'll jump fairly high.
Big Spring Balls, of course, do the same thing, but propel you even higher.
And we come to the end of this tutorial level. As a minor note, unless you're playing the Advance version, you can never come back to this level again.
And this is the world map! And as you can see, there's our relay system, completely in place already.
And that's all for this update! Next time, we'll enter the first level and learn about more of what this game has to offer!
Any constructive comments would be appreciated!
Flattery is optional, but recommended.