THE MAKING OF: YOSHI’S ISLANDTHE MAKING OF:YOSHI’S ISLAND
2004 2005 2006 2014 2015 2019
This platformer was
developed by Artoon, and had a
gimmick in which you could tilt
the playfield using a tilt sensor.
Unfortunately, it was very poor.
YOSHI’S UNIVERSAL
GRAVITATION
GAME BOY ADVANCE
This experimental game
saw players drawing on the
touchscreen to guide Mario
to Yoshi, before controlling
Yoshi’s egg-throwing in
scrolling segments.
YOSHI TOUCH & GO
DSThis sequel to Yoshi’s
Island retains the style and
mechanics of the SNES game,
but adds new babies – Peach,
Donkey Kong, Wario and
Bowser now join Mario.YOSHI’S ISLAND DS
DSWhile it tried to follow the
success of the previous Yoshi’s
Island games, this 3DS outing
was a bit too easy and bland to
make the same impression as
its predecessors.YOSHI’S NEW ISLAND
3DSThis platformer sports a
knitted aesthetic and offered a
pretty good time, particularly
when played in co-op. The
3DS conversion is known as
Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World.YOSHI’S WOOLLY WORLD
WII UWoolly World’s success
earned Good-Feel the
opportunity to do another
platform game. Read more
about it on page 30.YOSHI’S CRAFTED
WORLD
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XName XSurnameUnfortunately, it was very poor. scrolling segments. Bowser now join Mario. its predecessors. Poochy& Yoshi s Woolly Worlddd. about it on page 30.
Luigi, Baby Mario was lost in the confusion and
fell to Yoshi’s Island. With the instinctive bond
that brothers have, Baby Mario could sense his
brother’s location, and the Yoshis decided to take
him to rescue Baby Luigi and reunite them both
with their parents. And for those of you unfamiliar
with the game, that plural is no typo. “One of the
ideas that came out while we were creating the
story, and which I’m particularly taken with, is that
there are many different Yoshis in the game,” says
Tezuka. “Normally, the lead character is a singular
character in the game world, so personally
I thought the idea of having different Yoshis
working together and taking turns to carry Baby
Mario through the game was really interesting.”
This storybook presentation plays well with
the game’s aesthetic – it sports a hand-drawn,
colouring book style with crayon backgrounds.
While this wasn’t the plan from the start, the idea
of being visually unique was one of the team’s
aims. “We spent a lot of time trying to come up
with a new and different look for the game. We
tried out many ideas and the most interesting was
one I drew as a last-ditch attempt: a cloud that
had this very rough scribbled look to it,” explainsHino. “Everyone agreed it was
perfect and so we decided
to go ahead with giving the game a hand-drawn
look. At the time, there were a lot of other beautiful
graphics out there, and we wanted to differentiate
our title from these. I also watched a lot of
children’s TV shows as well for inspiration.”
That wasn’t the only reason that the Nintendo
EAD team ultimately chose to use a deliberately
low-tech look. “At the time, our company was
abuzz with talk of the graphics used in Rare’s
Donkey Kong Country. There was definitely
a feeling that those sorts of visuals might go
on to become the mainstream. I wanted us to
come at things from a different angle,” says
Tezuka. “Although there were some people in the
company who were expecting us to follow Donkey
Kong Country, a decision was taken that we should
put our weight behind a completely different sort
of visual look,” adds Hino. “It was around about
the time that we decided on that direction that Mr
Hisashi Nogami joined the company as a designer.
As we were competing together and having fun
coming up with different designs, we slowly
settled on the feel we wanted the visuals toWe spent a lot of time
trying to come up with a
new and different look for
the game
Shigefumi HinoRETRO GAMER | 27» [SNES] Although Yoshi ’s Island has a gentler pace, there
are still challenges like tricky moving platform paths.