Yoshi's New Island is Like a SNES Game?

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - The latest impressions.

According to this article, Yoshi's New Island will be... good! And for all my bitching about it and Arzest being in charge, perhaps Nintendo having direct influence over level design will truly pay off. So let's examine the impressions.

"Yoshi’s New Island much like Yoshi’s Island DS before it follows in the footsteps of Super Mario World 2."

Well, YIDS followed the footsteps, but it tripped over itself in doing so. So this line isn't reassuring.

"Throwing eggs is all about timing. When you throw an egg a moving cursor appears that arcs up and down, you have to press A at the right moment to line up your shot."

I liked shoulder button egg-throwing. Even that was in Yoshi's Island DS. As an aside, I've always used the "Patient" egg-throwing style over Hasty. The article doesn't mention different styles.

Not a particularly creative puzzle, but this is only 1-2.

"What’s "new" in Yoshi’s New Island? Not that much, but Mega eggs are one addition."

"Not that much" is much better than YIDS's Stork Stop for sure. An Arzest trying to be innovative is a danger to society. Mega eggs are basically the Mega Mushroom from New Super Mario Bros. in egg form. Whatever, I doubt they'll be used often.

"Yoshi’s New Island also has binoculars that let you scan the layout of the level by moving around the 3DS."

Well this is new information. You should probably use the 3DS Stand that came packaged with Kid Icarus: Uprising if this is particularly annoying. It's not clear if this is a stage-specific feature, an item like Yoshi's Island had like Watermelons and Magnifying Glass that you can carry with you, or a constant addition to Yoshi's moveset. I think it's clear that they added this for everyone who bashed Yoshi's Island DS for the gap between the bottom and top screens.

There isn't any evidence that the level design is particularly spectacular like the SNES title, but it's probably too early to call. What we do have evidence for is that the graphics style in this game is still overly saturated, but at least it looks much more consistent than the cluster of styles that was present in Yoshi's Island DS.

Yoshi's New Island used to be declared for "Holiday 2013" but now it's to 2014. Maybe the rumoured "Year of Yoshi" is true? (Since Yarn Yoshi is also 2014.)

Ludwig didn't want people to think he stopped caring about Yoshi's New Island, so he's keeping his eyes open for any new news.


Ludwig follows up on the "Year of Yoshi" concept, formally predicting it here.
There is finally a release date and new news on this game since this was published. Click here for more.