fans of the original yoshi's island be warned: this game could severely disappoint you if you get your hopes up too high
so clearly i couldn't wait for yoshi's island ds and had very high expectations.
sadly i have been very disappointed..
the first thing you think when you start up the game and see the title screen is "hm, this time they completely rendered the island in 3d - probably the ingame graphics will be improved in comparison to the last one, too"
then you start your game and start to realize that there's something wrong...
the overworld music is simply just terrible where as i absolutely loved it in the original game.. but it's not just the overworld music that completely sucks.. until now each and every track and sound effect is not worthy of a yoshi's island game. the sound is mostly boring and seems completely out of place, uninspired and loveless.. (never in my life have I heard more unsuitable music in a castle level)
the graphics are pretty similar to the first game here and there are some new effects but some character models, like the man-eating-flower or those 2 guys in the castle areas that hop top of each other (sorry, don’t know the original names but you know what I mean), simply looked better in first game. they give the impression of having been drawn and animated poorly.. compare the 2 games and see for yourself.
lastly and most importantly: the gameplay.
i remember when i played yoshi's island on snes and gba and the game already had me in the first level. it just made click - everything was just right.
well, in this title i'm still waiting for this "click" sensation.. i am playing the game and i'm still waiting for it to capture me.. but until yet there has just been disappointment. the gameplay seems as uninspired as the sound and the graphics.. as if nintendo had not made the game themselves but hired some company that did not quite get the uniqueness of the first game or simply was not able to reproduce it.
small example: why the f*** do i have two screens for the gameplay when i still have to look up all the time (press the directional-up button) to see if there is something hidden in the outer screen area (in-between the 2 screens). one really just can wonder what the developers where thinking when they did that...
I could go on, but I guess you get the idea…
so to sum it up: the game might be appealing to people who did not play the first one.. and thus have no clue of how great this game could and should be.
fans of the original game: definitely give it a try.. but don’t get your hopes up too high.