Yoshi’s New Island – Recensione

The Super Mario saga is certainly one of those that boast a myriad of companions and supporting actors almost at the height of the real protagonist. This new exclusive for Nintendo 3DS is dedicated to Yoshi, the cute green dragon who will once again be called to help Mario and Luigi lost in a colorful world full of dangers.

The story of the game, simple and with childish features like most of the Mario titles, sees a stork delivering two babies to the wrong family. The bird is forced to turn back but on the way is attacked by Bowser Jr. and companions who kidnap Baby Luigi while Baby Mario falls on a small unknown planet. The baby plumber, however, will not stay long alone because the planet on which he fell is that of the Yoshis who will take care of him by helping him find his lost brother.
The mechanics of Yoshi's "new island" are simple and with strong references to past adventures. We are facing a title that focuses entirely on the historical foundations of the series rather than trying to take that step towards novelty, perhaps exploiting the potential offered by the 3DS. Our green dragon, who will be replaced by a companion of another color at the end of each level, is able to jump, glide, produce and launch eggs all in a platform world that is overcome with disarming ease for any type of player. It seems that the target of the series has been shifted towards an even younger audience, a baby-audience that is hardly allowed to lose. Just like in the last “New Mario”, when Yoshi is hit by enemies you don't run into the classic Game Over but the little Mario ends up in a floating bubble giving Yoshi time to recover and catch him comfortably.

The eggs, which will follow the dragon like a long tail, are generated by cute smiling cubes or simply by eating enemies. Despite being of different colors, the eggs that Yoshi carries with him all have the same characteristics (unfortunately) and can be shot by the player to eliminate enemies, activate switches or collect the numerous collectibles that the production studio has hidden in the game. The collectibles seem to be the most challenging part of the game, so much so that the developers have chosen to dedicate the entire lower screen to the latter, eliminating the classic exploration map and replacing it with a counter of the collected collectibles. The care placed in the research and in the small environmental puzzles that hide the collectibles does not seem to have been put back into the adventure of the dragon which can be finished in a few hours without any difficulty. Even bosses know they've already seen them, and many of them require nothing more than a few head jumps to be defeated. The linearity of the game worlds is broken only by some minigames, usually located at mid-level and which take advantage of the 3DS gyroscope. These mini-pastimes see the little dragon transform, from time to time, into a different means of transport: a wagon, an airplane, a hot air balloon etc ... always intent on transporting Baby-Mario away from danger and collecting the collectible placed at the end of the minigame .

The only other section that, albeit minimally, manages to diversify one level from the other is the one with the giant enemies, which can be swallowed by the dinosaur and transformed into huge eggs to be thrown to destroy the elements of the nearby scenario, such as the classic green pipes or rocks.

The graphic level, on the other hand, detaches itself from the past to offer an atmosphere with a tempera and pastel flavor. The game world has been drawn and colored by hand and remains sharply in contrast with the polygonal models of the characters and some environmental elements such as suspended platforms and bricks. However, the title remains bright and colorful but with a technical sector inferior to the other titles in circulation, even the stereoscopic mode is subdued without providing much satisfaction given the almost totality of two-dimensional elements and scenarios.

On the multiplayer front, Yoshi New Island offers a kind of challenge mode: By completing the adventure worlds it will be possible to unlock minigames for two players that can be played even with a single copy of the game. The guest console will be able to connect to the network to download the necessary game data that will be activated by the console with the game cartridge. Multiplayer minigames are nothing more than 2-player variants of hidden minigames within the adventure and add practically nothing more to the gaming experience.

Yoshi New Island is a title that remains strongly anchored to a past that is not very functional to future expectations. The developers of the little dinosaur have aimed to create a game strongly based on the safety of its predecessors without trying to overreach with big choices in terms of gameplay. The innovations are few and do not involve the player who will be quite blown away by the ease of the title. The technical level does not stand up to comparison with the other games in circulation and the graphics made of colored pencils only confirm the childish target of the title. Yoshi new Island is a welcome gift to give to the little ones who may have yet to make their first acquaintances with the Nintendo 3DS but given the learning pace of today's children, it will not take long to finish the main adventure and launch themselves on a any other Mario title.