I've grown far too accustomed to Nintendo's hyper-polished first-party titles. The corporate-feeling slurry that is by design incapable of alienating because it does everything "right". Saccharine, inoffensive, the personality of a free cereal toy.
Yoshi's Story is a game from their repertoire that is instead... so genuinely baffling from top to bottom, riddled with curious imperfections large to small, each playing a part in reminding me that the people who make their games are human. The sensation that every member on the team contributed a few ideas into a lucky draw hat, only for every single one of the scraps of paper to be used instead, regardless of how fucked that'll make the game end up.
Yoshi controls like one of those jelly spike yoyo balls, heavily whipping around with a palpable sense of velocity in stages that often demand complete precision. The stages are sprawling, filled with one-time-only mechanics, enemies, hazards and puzzles, and the game is as excited to introduce you to them as it is to throw them out of the cot. Often elusive in the way you're supposed to approach them that they demand experimentation, luck, or just feel outright broken. I can see myself diving back in for a replay at some point just to explore! Weirdass music, cute paper craft look. Psychotic scoring and goal system that felt a lot of fun to wrap my head around, you essentially need to go against your Gamer instincts just to see everything a level has to offer. ("wait, I can just, finish a level whenever???") Yoshi's Story feels genuinely confused, it made ME genuinely confused, and I relish that! This game isn't great, but it's interesting, and that means somethin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7AS50NAwM
Yoshi's Story is a game from their repertoire that is instead... so genuinely baffling from top to bottom, riddled with curious imperfections large to small, each playing a part in reminding me that the people who make their games are human. The sensation that every member on the team contributed a few ideas into a lucky draw hat, only for every single one of the scraps of paper to be used instead, regardless of how fucked that'll make the game end up.
Yoshi controls like one of those jelly spike yoyo balls, heavily whipping around with a palpable sense of velocity in stages that often demand complete precision. The stages are sprawling, filled with one-time-only mechanics, enemies, hazards and puzzles, and the game is as excited to introduce you to them as it is to throw them out of the cot. Often elusive in the way you're supposed to approach them that they demand experimentation, luck, or just feel outright broken. I can see myself diving back in for a replay at some point just to explore! Weirdass music, cute paper craft look. Psychotic scoring and goal system that felt a lot of fun to wrap my head around, you essentially need to go against your Gamer instincts just to see everything a level has to offer. ("wait, I can just, finish a level whenever???") Yoshi's Story feels genuinely confused, it made ME genuinely confused, and I relish that! This game isn't great, but it's interesting, and that means somethin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G7AS50NAwM