Yoshi's Story

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Yoshi's Story
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Takashi Tezuka
Composer(s)	Kazumi Totaka
Series	Yoshi
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64 iQue Player Virtual Console
Release date(s)	Nintendo 64 JP December 21, 1997 NA March 9, 1998 EU April 9, 1998 Virtual Console NA September 17, 2007 EU October 26, 2007 JPN October 30, 2007
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player Multiplayer racing only
Rating(s)	ESRB: E OFLC: G
Media	128-megabit cartridge
Input methods	Nintendo 64 controller Classic Controller Nintendo GameCube controller

Yoshi's Story (ヨッシーストーリー, Yosshī Sutōrī^?) is the Nintendo 64 sequel to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. It was released on December 21, 1997 in Japan, March 9, 1998 in North America and April 9, 1998 in Europe. It was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console service in North America on September 17, 2007, in PAL regions on October 26, 2007 and in Japan on October 30, 2007. The game was developed by the Yoshi's Island team, directed by Hideki Konno, and produced by Takashi Tezuka. It was one of the first EAD-developed titles that was not produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, and one of a very few Mario series games that does not feature Mario. The game received criticism and praise for its controls, levels, music and childlike atmosphere.

Like most Yoshi games, it is a 2D platformer. It features digitized 2D graphics of high resolution 3D models (similar to Donkey Kong Country), which resemble patchworks of fabric and other materials, giving it a unique look. While interviews and previews described these visual methods as 2½-D, the gameplay remains completely two-dimensional. The game received mixed reviews from video game critics.

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Plot 3 Development 4 Marketing and sales 5 Critical reception 6 Game Boy Advance demo 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The game begins by allowing players to choose from the Story, Trial, and Practice Modes. (An Options menu is available from the main menu, as well.) For the full single-player experience, the Story Mode contains the substance of the game. From there, the player will be able to select the level, Yoshi, and Lucky Fruit of the chosen Yoshi.

The levels are divided into six pages, each containing four stages. While only one stage per page is chosen, each has a number (1-4). The higher the number, the harder the stage. While any number can be chosen on the first page, players must find all the hearts in the previous stage to maintain the same difficulty (high page number). For example, collecting one heart would unlock the second numbered stage on the next page, two hearts would unlock the third stage, and all three hearts would unlock the fourth and hardest stage.

Yoshi's Story borrows the basic elements of the Super Nintendo game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. While Yoshi can jump, swim, and extend his tongue, he can lay and throw eggs and hover, as well. In each level, the goal is to eat 30 different fruits to advance. This must be done while avoiding the enemies that populate each scenario. When Yoshi comes in contact with an enemy, one or more "petals" are lost from the "Flower Meter.", and the game music also slows down and becomes more sad. The flower meter has a total of 8 petals. Eating fruit, while advancing the progress of the game, replenishes Yoshi's health (or "petals"), keeping the player in a comfortable state of platforming. In addition, a "Lucky Fruit" is chosen at the start of the game, and, when this fruit is found and eaten, all petals are restored to the "Flower Meter." Each Yoshi has a favorite fruit, which is determined by the chosen Yoshi's color. Eating this form of fruit restores 3 petals of health, identical to the effects of eating a Lucky Fruit. However, all other fruits (With the exception of the Melon) only restore one petal. ^[1]

Many bonuses permeate each stage. For example, Small Hearts will fall from the sky or be found in special areas. These allow the Yoshis to achieve a "Super Happy" state. During this time, the Yoshi is invincible, has a longer tongue, infinite eggs, and has a longer "Pound Range." (Therefore, more enemies will be hit when the ground is "Pounded." In addition, Shy Guys will turn into the chosen Yoshi's Lucky Fruit if they are within the Pound Range, and all bubbles will pop.) Hidden coins will become visible as well, which contribute to Yoshi's overall score.

Despite these advantages, Yoshis are still susceptible to losing lives. There are numerous enemies that can cause damage, the most common of which is the Shy Guy. If the player's Yoshi runs out of petals, comes in contact with spikes or other hazards that trigger an instant death, or falls down a bottomless pit, it will be captured by Kamek's minions, or "Toadies." While that Yoshi is no longer selectable, the player can choose another and continue through the rest of the stage. In this case, any items or fruits already obtained will still be available. The game will end if all of the Yoshis have been kidnapped (Which is an example of permadeath, which means that if you get Game Over, saved progress in Story Mode will be erased, which means that the player must start the game from scratch). Yoshis can be restored by finding a White Shy Guy and completing the level without losing it. After completing a level, the White Shy Guy can be selected from the "Select Yoshi" screen (despite not being a Yoshi), and a previously-lost Yoshi will be restored. Helpers are available to assist the Yoshis in specific areas, as well. Throughout the game, the Yoshis are aided by Poochy, a character first introduced in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Poochy can sniff for hidden items and give the Yoshis extra height for their jumps. The main advantage any player can have, however, is choosing their Yoshi carefully.

In addition to the six Yoshis that are available at the start of the game, two hidden black and white eggs can be found in certain stages. These eggs contain a Yoshi of the same color, and, when the stage is complete, these Yoshis can be selected from the "Yoshi Selection" screen. Unlike the original six Yoshis, the Black and White Yoshis like multiple fruits, making the chances of obtaining a high score even greater. In addition, the Black and White Yoshis like peppers, and Shy Guys are considered Favorites. Besides what these Yoshis like to eat, Black and White Yoshis also shake the ground when doing a ground pound, and their eggs explode when you throw them. If a black or white Yoshi is lost while in story mode they will not return, and can only be obtained by finding the egg again.

Story Mode is accompanied by the Trial Mode, where the player can attempt a high score in each completed stage. There are multiple ways to increase one's high score, the most used being the "Melon Quest." With this goal, the player must eat nothing but Melons throughout the stage, earning a high score and a "Melon" symbol at the end of the level. This goal, however, is considered difficult due the requirement of beating all in-level mini-games perfectly. A "good score" in Trial Mode is considered a point range between 5,000 to 7,000 points. This contrasts heavily with Story Mode, which allows the player to earn up to 40,000 points in a single level.

A Practice level is also available from the main menu. This level contains most of the elements of the game. The game also has the 19-note Kazumi Totaka song in it.

Yoshi's Story was among the first generation of games to support the Rumble Pak and the first in the Yoshi series to use it.

[edit] Plot

The Yoshis live in harmony on their island, Yoshi's Island. Through the Super Happy Tree, a magical tree on the island, the Yoshis are able to maintain a perpetual state of joy. However, Baby Bowser becomes jealous of this happiness and casts a spell to transform the entire island into a storybook. In addition, Baby Bowser steals the Super Happy Tree in an effort to ruin the Yoshis' happiness. Six eggs survived in the dismal environment and hatched. While confused, the Baby Yoshis were aware of the gloomy atmosphere and set out to retrieve the Super Happy Tree and restore happiness to the Yoshis.

[edit] Development

Originally titled Yoshi's Island 64, the game was developed by the Yoshi's Island team, directed by Hideki Konno and produced by Takashi Tezuka. This was one of the first EAD-developed titles that was not produced by Shigeru Miyamoto. It was renamed Yoshi's Story in August 1997. At the same time, the size of the game was changed to 128 megabits from an initially planned 96.

[edit] Marketing and sales

According to Famitsu magazine, Yoshi's Story sold 53,428 copies on the day of its release in Japan. As a result, it gained the #7 rank in Famitsu's top ten best-selling video-games. ^[2]

Nintendo intended to release Yoshi's Story in North America by the 1997 holiday season, but the release was delayed until March 1998. A Nintendo official said that the delay was "based on us demanding A-plus quality."^[3] Once the game was completed, Nintendo initially shipped 800,000 units to American retailers from Japan.^[4] Retailers were concerned that there would be shortages (like there had been for GoldenEye 007), but a Nintendo official promised that the shipment would satisfy demand.^[5]

In an effort to promote the game in the U.S., Nintendo direct-mailed advertisements to recent console buyers, put advertisements in gaming and children's magazines, and aired a 30-second television advertisement on NBC, Fox, WB and Nickelodeon during children's programming.^[4][5] On March 7, 1998, Nintendo launched the game in Lizard Lick, North Carolina, a town of 1,300 residents. The event featured tongue-themed contests for children and video terminals that let people try out the game.^[6] The game was officially released on March 9, 1998, with a MSRP of US $59.95.^[7]

An article in Financial Times said that the late release, an inadequate supply, and distribution errors had led to poor sales for Yoshi's Story. Within a month, the game was being discounted by more than 50%.^[8] Even so, Yoshi's Story became a Player's Choice title on August 23, 1998 and its MSRP was reduced to US $39.95.^[9] According to The NPD Group, Yoshi's Story was the 16th best selling video game in the U.S. in 1998.^[10]

[edit] Critical reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	63% (based on 7 reviews)[11]
Metacritic	65% (based on 8 reviews)[12]
Review scores
Publication	Score
Allgame	[13]
GameSpot	5.3/10[14]
IGN	7.0/10[15]

Upon its initial release, critics were generally displeased with Yoshi's Story. As a spiritual and literal successor to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the game was seen as being comparatively smaller in size and scope. Critics noted many disadvantages with the level design: there were only 24 levels in this game (as compared to the 50+ levels in Yoshi's Island), each of them could be completed in minutes, and only six of them needed to be completed to clear story mode. The critics also disliked many other things about the game such as the graphical details, the music, and the absence of vehicle morphing. Joe Fielder of GameSpot noted that Yoshi's Story "was obviously designed so that younger players could play through quickly and feel some sense of accomplishment" and called it "good for a rental at best."^[16] GameSpot gave the game a "5.3" for "Mediocre" while Allgame and Game's Domain both awarded Yoshi's Story a "5.0" out of 10. Currently, Yoshi's Story maintains a "Meta Score" of 65 (out of 100) on the MetaCritic website^[12] and a 68 (out of 100) on GameRankings.com.^[11]

In the United States the average MSRP of a Nintendo 64 cartridge was $59.99, which at the time was $9.99 more than an average game for Sony's PlayStation console.^[17] The price had been attributed to the higher cost of manufacturing cartridges for the console.^[17] Despite the combination of the MSRP and the generally negative reviews given by critics, Yoshi's Story sold well in the marketplace; the game sold over 2.85 million copies worldwide,^{[citation needed]} earning it the Player's Choice re-release.

Nintendo released Yoshi's Story through the Virtual Console service on the Wii console. The game made second place in Virtual Console downloads behind Super Mario Bros. on the week of its release. However, the critics' reviews of the Virtual Console version of Yoshi's Story were lower than those of the N64 version.^[18][19] GameSpot gave the Virtual Console version of the game a "4.0", lower than GameSpot's score of the original version.^[18] The review gave Yoshi's Story five demerits: "Derivative," "Shallow," "Short," "Stripped" and "Too Easy." In IGN Editor Lucas M. Thomas' review for the Virtual Console version, he believed that the gameplay was "nonsensical" and "unengaging."^[19] Thomas commented that the game's "system of grocery-hunting was far and away removed from the style of play presented in the SNES Yoshi's Island, and far and away removed from that game's sense of fun."^[19] He also felt that the absence of Baby Mario and 50+ levels made the "premise [feel] disconnected. Boring." and that Yoshi's Story was "not the sequel to Yoshi's Island that it could have been."^[19]

Although Yoshi's Story was generally disliked by most critics, players have given extremelly mixed reviews and opinions on it. IGN's player rating for the game is 8.2, based on 2428 ratings.^[15] Gamespot's player rating is 7.4 out of 10, based on the votes of 1696 Gamespot users. 9.20% of these voters gave the game a "perfect" rating, 22.23% of them rated it as "great", 29.30% rated it as "good", 16.69% rated it as "fair", and 22.58% rated it as "other".^[20] Some players argued that the basis of some of Yoshi's Story negative reviews was comparison between it and the critically acclaimed Yoshi's Island. They generally commented that it was unfair to compare Yoshi's Story to Yoshi's Island because the two games were vastly different.

[edit] Game Boy Advance demo

For the unveiling of the Game Boy Advance in 2000, Nintendo developed an original technical demonstration, or "tech demo," that was based directly on the first level of Yoshi's Story. This tech demo was developed specifically to show off the Game Boy Advance's graphical power. While the gameplay was slower, it looked identical to the Nintendo 64 game.^[21] A full version of the game was never released for the Game Boy Advance. The demo, including full source code, is also included in the official Nintendo development kit for the Game Boy Advance.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Yoshi's Story at MobyGames
• Game Boy Advance tech demo at IGN: Screenshot and specs
• Yoshi's Story: The Mushroom Kingdom

v • d • e Yoshi series Main series Super Mario World · Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island · Yoshi's Story · Yoshi's Universal Gravitation · Yoshi Touch & Go · Yoshi's Island DS Other games Yoshi · Yoshi's Cookie · Yoshi's Safari · Tetris Attack