Yoshi's New Island Reviews
Dino crisis.
Read our review of 'Yoshi's New Island' to see why the iconic green dinosaur's latest outing is better left with a babysitter.
Yoshi’s New Island’s inconsistent art and tacked-on new ideas are all layered on top of the same strong platforming and level design that made the original great. This deep understanding of pacing and flow helps Yoshi’s latest adventure stand out as the best iteration on Yoshi since the SNES original. Even if I wanted to play with the sound turned off.
Yoshi's New Island borrows heavily from the original game, but it fails to match its flair or originality
Perfectly playable and sometimes a nice challenge, but lacks its own identity
Yoshi's New Island lacks the imagination that made its progenitor beloved, instead offering a slow-paced adventure that's too easy for its own good.
Yoshi's New Island earns its place in a classic series
Nintendo's struggled to make a memorable Yoshi game since Yoshi's Island, and this new 3DS platformer isn't going to change that.
A return to classic Yoshi's Island gameplay would be worth cheering about if the new game didn't feel like an inferior imitation of a still-excellent game.
The biggest problem with Yoshi’s New Island is that it feels stripped of the style, substance, and ingenuity that once made the series such treasured property. By watering down the game design and failing to incorporate new ideas that enhance the established mechanics in any meaningful way, you're left with an egg that's not necessarily bad, just dull and unimpressive. It’s completely functional and could serve as filler while waiting for the next big 3DS or Wii U release, but there’s little denying that it’s an underwhelming outing for Yoshi.
Nintendo didn’t do Yoshi’s New Island any favors by adhering so closely to the game that spawned this Mario subseries. For Yoshi’s Island fans, New might feel odd. Despite that, solid gameplay and diabolically well-hidden collectibles have me sticking around.
Nintendo are famous for reinventing the wheel with their games, and throwing new ideas into old series that should have long become tired and repetitive but, sadly, Yoshi’s New Island just isn’t one of these titles. It’s enjoyable enough and has its own sense of atmosphere as well as a few unique ideas, but overall this actually feels like one of the decent but highly-iterative sequels that Nintendo is usually unfairly criticized for making. It is still fun, though, and while it may not innovate or be a classic, its joyous aesthetic and “pick up and play” nature make it at the very least a good choice for getting through the daily commute.
He should've stayed on his old island...
Yoshi’s New Island may bring a more relatively easy experience to more hard-pressed Nintendo fans, but its pastel charms and colorful spirit shouldn’t be off-putting to anyone. What it may lack in technical and gameplay innovation, it more than makes up for in creativity and charm – it would be hard for even the most sour-faced Nintendo fan to not crack a smile and want the best for Yoshi and Baby Mario to make it to safety. Yoshi may not be Mario, but he stills gives plenty a reason for gamers to take a trip to his own little paradise in Yoshi’s New Island, even if it’s just for a day-trip.
The Yoshi's Island series is one of my favorite gaming series ever, which is why it's so painful to see Yoshi's New Island fall short in so many ways. It's not a bad game and certainly a serviceable one for younger audiences and new players. Unfortunately, for those that have followed Yoshi since his first starring role nearly 20 years ago, this game is a tremendous disappointment.
About as new as a fossilised dinosaur egg and just about as fast and exciting, this is a depressingly poor degradation of a once great original.
Yoshi's New Island isn't the creative masterclass in platforming the original was, but it is the best platformer Nintendo's released for the Nintendo 3DS to date.
Dinosaurs and babies might not mix in history, but on 3DS they do just fine together. There’s a wealth of rewarding gameplay for anyone with fossil fuel left in the tank for yet another coin-collecting, Shy Guy-stomping, Yoshi spotlight. One of my favorite Nintendo characters continues to impress with heaps of charm and an oh-so-sweet soundtrack, meaning anyone looking for a spring break distraction will find a cold-blooded welcome on Yoshi’s New Island.
As you can probably tell from my time with it, Yoshi's New Island isn't a "must have," but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. It's very much by the books based on any genre standard, and there's pretty much nothing new here that you'll need to run out to experience. But even so, fans of the genre will still dig it.
Nintendo's latest 3DS platformer, while generally competent and sometimes fun, mostly just makes you wish you were playing a better game.