Yoshi’s New Island Gameplay Shows A Return To Form

Thanks to Nintendo fan blogger NiNTENDOMiNATiON, we have five minutes of footage for upcoming 3DS title Yoshi's New Island, which clearly shows, among other things, that the action sticks to one screen.

Core fans of the franchise will recognize I am actually making allusions to the prior game in the series, Yoshi’s Island DS, which was overall well received, but received criticism for its implementation of the dual screen gameplay. Unlike other 2D Mario games for that console, such as the first New Super Mario Bros. or Super Princess Peach, Yoshi’s Island DS had you playing both the top and bottom screens. While some platformers, such as Sonic Rush DS, were able to pull this off, for Yoshi’s game mechanics, the blind spot was a hindrance to aiming your eggs, taking blind leaps and other actions.

So in the new game gameplay sticks to the top screen, while the bottom screen now displays practical information, such as lives, number of gold and red coins collected, and flowers collected. Nearly everything else about the game uses old and familiar tropes in the Yoshi/Mario platformers, including collecting eggs, Yoshi’s extended jump, and the game’s general collectathon nature. Yoshi is generally not a very hard game, with a lot of its appeal coming from its charming art style and relaxed gameplay mechanics.

You may also note the demo was not in 3D, although it is possible this was a deliberate move by NiNTENDOMiNATiON since the 3D effect may not show up properly on video. There are rumors that 2014, the game’s tentative release date, will be celebrated as the Year of Yoshi, in the same manner that this year has been treated as the Year of Luigi. Does this mean more Yoshi games might be in development? We’ll just have to wait it out until the game’s release.