Nintendo 3DS

According to Destructoid, the Nintendo 3DS will be launching on March 27, at 249.99$.  That's way over what I'd be willing to pay.
I think I'll wait.

Here's the original article.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/114/1144746p1.html

Scribblenauts - Nintendo DS

This is the perfect type of gameplay for how I play my DS. I don't sit down and play for an hr or more on the DS, more like 20-30 min. This game lends itself wonderfully to this type of gameplay sessions.

Premise: They give you a scenario and you have to solve it by typing/drawing in objects that can be used to solve the puzzle. Inventive and Entertaining.

There are 10 worlds each with their own theme and each gets harder. Each world has 11 stages in puzzle and action. So each level has 22 stages, more than enough to keep you entertained.


You are given a ridicules amount of things to come up with. You can't use real names of things like Dracula, but you can use vampire, that sort of thing. Other times different words can mean the same thing. Since you can't use the same thing twice on a level. Writing Explosives and then Dynamite will get you the same item. Which can be helpful if you need more of the same.


The levels start out easy and fun but get hard pretty quick, which results in the creativity becoming stale because I keep using what works. The main thing I use is vampire to kill things, fire to burn or melt things and the rocket pack to get to areas I can't reach. Those 3 things are a staple in my completing a level.

So in that aspect, completing a level and earning points is based on the least number of turns it takes you to create items, the time it takes you to pass the level and the specific items you use in creativity that earns you points. The least amount of points I ever got was 70, it took my 9 min and 12 created items, way past the required par 4 of the level.


Then theres the money you earn which buys you more levels and costumes and create a level , all adding a little more to the game.

Overall, its fun, but can become stale because I keep using what works, other wise dieing over and over gets frustrating. Some levels will make you want to ring your friggin neck and clicking things that you didn't mean too can become annoying. But, its a great time waster for a few mins here and there.



A Great little game for the DS. I scribble it a "Cthulhu" vs "God". Do it and now once and for all you can see who wins in battle, true story.

Puzzle Quest Galactrix - Nintendo DS

I'm not the puzzle fan at home. The wife is the puzzle master, I can't seem to string and move far enough ahead to be any good at them. Maybe if I could shoot the blocks, then maybe I could do better.

I played the first one on the DS, the Challenge of the Warlords and I like it. I enjoyed the RPG element added to the game. Which is funny, because the wife hates it for the reason I like it. She rather there be no running around, fetching quest and getting new armor and weapons.

So When I saw puzzle Quest Galactic for the DS and for $19.00 I figure I couldn't pass it up.
Well, the wife hated it and loved it for the same reason has mentioned above. We both set up our own games and while I was level 14, she was level 43. Hardcore, that's what puzzle woman are all about.

I enjoyed it aswell. Its a game that I could pick up, play for 15-25 min or longer and turn off. It was a great way to widdle some time away. Of course if you want a review, you are in on the wrong site, what was good, what was bad, all you get here is me and my brain.


Still......your a guy with a ship, who puzzles his way to saving the galaxy. Yup, that simple. Well, there are a bunch of mini puzzle games/ puzzles for mining, puzzles to open gates, rumors and my favourite, puzzle for ship fights,etc

I found that if you have the right combination of weapons on your ship, you can beat anything. So here is what I had that may help those people who are getting their asses handed to them. To get these weapons, just search around the map at the local stores until you find them to buy or craft them yourself if you get the plans.

I don't know the names, but I know what they do, so just go along with it all.

1)Shield blocker gun(Its not called this, this is just what it does)
This gun, keeps the enemy from regenerating his shield for 6 turns. This is a must and cuts down on the overall battle. The longer a battle goes, the more chances that the other guy will win.

2)Net (something or other)
Anywho, there are different versions out there, but I found this one the best. It freezes the opponent for 2 turns, plus another turn for every 8 red points they have. Great to get in some good shots with the mines.



3)Take away everything gun.
This weapons takes all their points, green, yellow,red and shields and reduces it to zero. This is the best weapon in the game. Makes it go alot faster.

4)The BIG GUN
There are alot of variations to the common laser. But this one caused 16 points of damage plus 2 points for every 5 levels in your gunnery skill. So me, putting most of my points into the gunner skill, by the end, it was level 90. So I was doing 30 something damage every time I used the gun. It was my only offensive weapon in the end and it was all I needed.

5)Wasp Missiles
Use this while you are building up your gunnery skill. This causes 2 points of damage. Big whoop, but it gives you another point of damage for every yellow block in play. At times it can be really high. A great weapon to use untill you get your BIG GUN.



There are a few others that you can use. But find what works for you. Mostly my strategy was to keep them being defensive, by taking away their points, so they can't use any of their weapons and then taking away their turns so they can't refill their points all the while making it so they can't regenerate their Shields. The strategy worked great and come to the final boss, I beat him the second time around. Which is good.

I really enjoyed this game. Especially for me not being a puzzle person, this was really fun and entertaining. If you like puzzle games at all and enjoy the RPG every now and then. Then you should...like this game.


Oh, also,...you know when the DS says, "don't turn off DS while saving". yeah, you shouldn't do that. I did it by accident, I had died a bunch of times and was sick of doing something over and over, so when the round ended, I switched off the game just has the "do not turn off" warning appeared. What happens?..you lose all your stuff. So I started it up again, my game was gone and the wife's game was gone. She wasn't happy, I only had level 14 to get back , while she had level 43. Sooooo, DON"T TURN OFF YOUR SYSTEM WHILE THE ITS SAVING!!

7.5/10

So even though I have the DS version, you can get his for almost any system, download it on the PSN, PC, probable even the Xbox store, I don't know. The graphics shown in the trailer are not the same ones on the DS. But I'm sure they are all the same great game.

Mario Kicks Ass!!

This is pretty freaky looking. Some guy takes pics of people dressed has Nintendo characters.
I must admit, I don't know a few of them. I just don't , who the hell are they? the other ones just look like some random Japanese character from some weird cartoon. Well here's a few and check out the link for the rest of them.



Click here to see the rest.

The Adventures of Bayou Billy - NES

If your in to game reviews, then most people have heard about Bayou Billy. So I won't go into what the game is about or what works and what doesn't. Instead just give a little blurb or my time with the game.

This was one of those games that once I saw it being advertised, I had to play it. Perhaps I can thank my dad for wanting this a little more than usual. My Dad was big fan of the Crocodile Dundee movies, which in turn, so was I. So this was like playing Crocodile Dundee, although the guy wasn't Australian and there arn't any Crocodiles in the game, only Alligators.

But he had a hat and wore a vest and had a big knife like Crocodile Dundee, so for a kid, that's good enough for me.

Unfortunately, my parents rule of," You don't get a new game until you've finished the one you got" was in full effect. I don't remember what game I was playing at the time, but remember that "that" was the main reason they weren't going to shell out full price for new game.

So what does a little kid do, he rents it of course. But I come from a small place where 10 games come into town once a month. So getting your hands on the game on a weekend was next to impossible. But I would go early in the morning and wait out infront of the door to rent the game or get the person inside to call me when the game came back. So I run home and wait for the call that the game is in and come get it.



I was super excited when I finally got my hands on this. I died left right and center, but I didn't care, I was Crocodile Dundee, or some weird version of him. But after the Coolness factor wore off and I wanted to really get into enjoying this game and seeing the driving levels and what boss do I fight next. It was then I found out that I wasn't getting anywhere with this game.



I spent all weekend playing this game and only made it to the second level. It was very frustrating and hard. It was too easy to lose life, everything killed you. It was clear that this game was not a rental game that you can play in a weekend and enjoy. It was clear that this was utter shit. I brought the game back that Monday and never thought of it again. I had my fill of Bayou Billy.


It was clear that it wasn't Crocodile Dundee, cause if it was, I would have kicked some serious ass. Not this Billy pussy, "oh watch out billy!!, there's a fart blowing your way!!". Damn, he got hit.

The game is just too hard to be fun. I recently played again, but with the game genie, and it turns out to be just so repetitive. Its quite dull in places. But for the time back in 1989, holy cow!!



1989 before playing it -10/10

1989 after playing it - 0/10

Today, after having an appreciation for it -4/10

Castlevania. Dawn of Sorrow - Nintendo DS

Will I guess I should have known from the title what to expect from the game, SORROW!!
This is the first Castlevania I played since Castlevania 2, Simon's Quest. Did I miss something from then till now. Didn't I hear everyone ranting about how good all the Castlevania games were?! Did I just happen to play the only crappy one outta a ton of great Castlevania games??!! I Don't know, am I out of touch with the Castlevania games now and this is what they are suppose to be like??! I don't know. Well enough of this pointless go nowhere banter, lets see what I didn't and did like about the game.




What I liked.
1)The name, "Castlevania."

What I didn't like.
1)The rest of the name, "Dawn of Sorrow." What the hell does that even mean.

2)I HATE, DETEST ANIME, the style of this entire friggin game is ANIME, little tiny mouths, Giant/slanted eyes,big giant spiky hair, Story lines that make no sense, symbolism that, the only way one would be able to understand it, is if they were fried outta their trees. And the biggest complaint of all Anime are the characters, is it a boy??!! or is it a girl??! Doesn't matter, cause they all suck ASSS!!!!

3)GAMEPLAY
At first I didn't mind what I was doing, running around and hitting this with that and killing this and that thing. Until I found out that I could collect enemy powers and use them myself. These powers allowed access to secret areas and areas that you NEEDED to go. So if you didn't have the proper soul equipped you ain't getting through. Not only that, how the hell were you suppose to know what soul did what.

This is mind blowing , I'm standing in front of spikes, I know I have to get across to the other side, But can't. If I jump on them I die. So I equip each soul I have and try all kinds of different things to do. There are alot of souls to get, 99 in all. And getting certain souls are harder to get than others, just because they don't appear all the time, they are RARE souls. Bullshit, it just means leaving the room and re-entering 248 times until finally the enemy gives you the soul that you need to get the next area. That would be fine, but it doesn't tell you what soul you need.



And if it does, where do I find it, where is the enemy on the map, you mean if I don't remember I have to explore the entire friggen map again, looking in each room trying to find a enemy that will give me a specific soul, but how do I know what enemy, YOU DON"T, just kill everything you come arcoss until it gives you the soul that you don't know if you need or not. But knowing that the enemy may or may not give you what you need......what???



You get news papers that give you hints. REALLY!!...... well lets look at this great hint. "Its in the sky, way up". Whats in the sky, what are you referring too, Where is this way up bit you are talking about. There's something way up in the sky?? your saying there's something way up in the sky??!!.......of course there is you frikken idiot. How the hell does that help me do anything.



Another one is"Its seems to be attracted to light". What's attracted to light? Who, WHAT , WHEN and WHERE. These hints are useless. The only way I found anything in this game was by going through a walkthrough. I got stuck countless times. And not the fun, entertaining, what do I do next, let me try some things. Remember the old NES games where you really didn't know what to do. You've been back and fourth through the same 6 rooms again and again and you can't see anything that could lead the way. THE WHOLE FUCKING GAME IS LIKE THIS. I understand that a part , maybe two could be thrown in, but the whole game.

It was not fun, running through the same levels again and again trying things that wouldn't make any sense at all. ITS just like the Simon's Quest game. Where you had to go to a certain area, equip the red orb and squat down for 10 secs to be taken to the next area. HOW THE HELL ARE YOU SUPPOSE TO KNOW THAT!!!!!! Well, this whole game is like that. Just made up random shit.

It doesn't help that the BG elements look like the foreground elements. I can't tell if the chair in the room is something that I am suppose to use or if its just piece of the random BG. So I miss alot of things like that because I just thought it was some random shit piece in a level. But no, that's a area where I have to poop while standing on my head and singing Yanke-Doodle.

I hated this game. This game took took me way too long to finish, why?? I didn"t like it and didn't want to play it. Its the first DS game that I had to look up a walkthrough to get through it. It really felt like work to finish this crap. I really hope that the other games ain't like this one and this was just some random anime shit game that Konami shit out.



I haven't really disliked a game in a while. This one takes the cake for me. For all those who do like it, I guess I am out of touch with what makes a good game, or your all friggen bonkers.

0/10

Yes the gameplay is that exciting. Now imagine doing that and not knowing what you are looking for. OMG, I just went looking for reviews of this game. IGN says," The final product is what is clearly one of the best Castlevania games in the series, and an absolutely top-notch, beautiful, and most importantly, fun DS game" Well that settles it. If this is the best in the series so far, then I guess I just play ball and cup from now on.

007 GoldenEye - Nintendo 64

Every system has a game or in some cases, "a few" game titles that defined the system. For the Nintendo 64 007,Goldeneye, was that game for me. I think it was the first true FPS that defined how all other FPS were to be handled. Although I was alot older when the Nintendo 64 game out, it was playing GoldenEye that really made me react the same way a 8 year old Darryl would react to seeing Mario on the NES for the first time. It was amazing.

I think the thing I remember the most about GoldenEye was the snow sniper level. Walking around and avoiding the enemies and watching the death animations when you blow the top of their heads off, that never got old. It really eased you into a genre that most gamers never experienced before on a console. Sure there were other games out their that sorta were FPS, but not like this.

It was one of the few games that was fun to wield the P38 and blow the shit outta bad guys. Carrying 2 weapons at once was awesome and upgrading to the golden guns was awesome. Those guns kill everything. But getting those guns was an intense experience. When you think back on games like this, its 1 or 2 experiences that one remembers. For me it was , what I already mentioned above , the snow sniper level. The part with the crazy boss bitch who ran across the bridge in the jungle level. God!! she was hard to kill.

And Congratulation's, GoldenEye was the first, (yes, I said first, this wasn't the last time this happened to me) game to make me throw up. Playing a FPS of this quality for the first time and for long periods at a time really did a number on my brain. I remember sitting there, but I don't remember at what part, next thing I know a little burp turns into a dash to the toilet.


I turned the game off after that and didn't touch it for a few days. I think it was all the quick turns and dashes and in tight quarter's.

Needless to say, GoldenEye is a game that really defined a system and the game franchise was really never able to recreate that wow factor again with any of their other trys. GoldenEye was a great time on a system that I think was very short lived. I think the PS1 killed it, I'm not too sure on the history there.


10/10
Frikken Vomit inducing awesomeness!!!

The Intro, which I really don't remember untill watching this, god the people were really blocky.

Lock's Quest - Nintendo DS

Good lord, I've been stuck on this one DS game since October 2008. Is it because it was a long game(20 hrs) and involved and required 100 hrs?! Nope, it was just not that interesting added with the fact that I don't start a new game until I finished the one that I am currently playing.

I picked this game up because it had the E3 award for the Game of the year and it was $29.99. Not a bad price for a game of the year award. The game is different than most games and they keep giving you different abilities that make each level a little bit different.

The game is a top down, build your castle and defenses, set traps and wait for the horde of enemies to come. It also lets you con troll your guy, so its just not the castle defenses that are working. SO you can run around and hit and use your special abilities such has poison, freeze, lower power, etc. You can also repair your castle has it gets damaged and add power ups to your defenses.

Enemies are varied, a certain weapon for a certain enemy, nothing new there. Followed by a weird story line, that basically is Pinocchio, if he went to war to prove that he is a real boy. It just didn't offer enough to keep me interested. The same events would take place. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, set up defenses and keep back the baddies, you win, BLAH, BLAh, BLAH, set up,"""""" and so on. It gave different enemies and different abilities, but not alot, you had a total of 4 abilities you could use and 4 super abilities. Which really is not that many for a game that is this involved.

It would be like if you played a final fantasy game and all you could do was, hit, block, magic fire and heal. IT really didn't keep my attention and the story line was really boring, I found myself just skipping all the story, which I normally don't do. I'm glad that this is over and move on to something new.

Game of the year for E3, I feel that I can't give a rating on this game, all the reviews online are praising this game, everyone seems to really like it. I guess its just one of those freak games that, YES, everyone else likes it, but it just doesn't do it for me. "what the hell do I know..this game won an award"

Mario Vs Donkey Kong 2, March of the Minis - Nintendo DS

This is going to be pretty short. Its a rendition of a Mario game. Its fun.

But to be a little more detailed. Donkey Kong has captured a princess, not thee princess, but what looks like princess peach whorish sister and apparently they both want to bone her. So when she accepts Mario's gift and not Donkey Kong's, Kong throws a hairy fit and kidnaps her. Then its up to Mario to save her. I say leave her with the monkey, but if we did that, then the game would've ended with me saying, "Good riddance to that tramp" and turned off the game.

So Mario has to go save the Princess, But this time he does it with little wind up Mario's. The game plays like lemmings, I guess I shouldn't say that. It plays more like Krusty's Fun house for the NES. That's the game where Krusty has to make all the mice get to their destination by manipulating the environment. Where this one you get to do that, but you can also click on the Mario's and make them do certain things. Jump, grab hammers, switches.




There are 8 worlds in all with 9 levels in a world, I think, maybe 7...but what ever. Each level has a boss fight where Donkey Kong is in some weird set up where you have to shoot mini Mario's at him to defeat him. There are also certain criteria that you have to do in order to get the gold star. Like finishing with all your Mario's, and getting them all in at the same time. Collecting all the coins and finally the hardest one, keeping them constantly moving.




This is nuts!, Its fine in the easier levels and with only 2 mini Mario's to control, but the later levels and up to 5 Mario's to watch, its like playing the live action game of that TV show, John and Kate plus 8. Try and keep track of 8 kids and get them all to safety before they run into a flaming lava pit.

That being said, it really is a fun game. Its not super hard, but trying to get the gold star on each level is pretty challenging. I found myself pleasantly surprised by this game. It was a great time waster if you just wanted to play for 10-15 min and then do something else. You can't go wrong with a Mario game.

7.5/10










I like that this video is set up differently than most.

Seth's Review, A 10 yr old Perspective - Shadow the Hedgehog - GameCube

I figure I sit down with my kid, Seth, and get him to give me his perspective on a game review that he has played and finished. So this is nothing to do with me and my thoughts and views. This is totally all Seth and what a 10 year old thinks of the game.

D- Who can u play has?

S- Shadow with a sidekick unless you are in solo mode.

D- What can he do?

S- Everything Sonic can do, but he has super shadow kick and he can pick up weapons and switch them.

D- What kind of weapons?

S- Alien and Human guns. With multiple shots and missiles.

D- Was he easy to control?

S- Really easy!

D- So he didn't get stuck on a wall?

S- Nope.

D- Did you like the graphics?

S- Not that much, the backgrounds made it hard to see whats going on around Shadow.


D- Are there any Extras?

S- Naaaaa

D- What are your favorite things about the game?

S- That you can switch sidekicks throughout the level.

D- Who are you sidekicks?

S- They are Sonic and his friends and even villians. But they don't help you out any, besides shouting out hints.

D- So they are pretty much useless?

S- yeah, except for tips.

D- What didn't you like about the game?

S- No Extras, and the backgrounds were distracting.

D- What would you score the game?

S- I would give it a 6.5/10


So there we have it, a 10 year old perspective on a game. Which is good to have I think. Hes a little older now, so I am thinking that he is getting or has passed the stage of where kids like everything. This may be the first of many. Perhaps I will create a section called, "The 10 Year old perspective"

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Nintendo DS

I've only read the first book and listened to the rest of the series on audio. I've seen all the movies to date and I don't consider myself a fan, I do enjoy the series. I've only ever played one other game in this franchise, and that was the Goblet of Fire for the PS2. It was quite fun, but overall, these games based off the series don't really interest me. But I wanted something to play on the DS without having to buy a new game, and Seth has a small kiddy selection. So this is what I choose to play next.

The game itself, plot and what I have to do...well, its like the movie that its based off. There's nothing new revealed, no new side story that was was hinted in the movies or books. Its a copy of the movie, so there are no surprises. Which makes the game story, quite boring. But if the game play is fun, then it doesn't' matter that we all know the story. But alas, this is not the case here.



The game play, is using the directional pad to walk around, and you use the stylist to make swishes with the wand to cast spells, followed by a little mini game to complete the spell. And its the same 8-10 mini games over and over again. There are maybe half a dozen mini games that you play once and never see again. That helps to keep things a little bit interesting. But saying that is like staring at those 3D pics where you have to see a picture in it, and just when you think are you seeing something and you get a little excited, your eyes adjust and you see static again. Having a little tiny weeny little ray of sunshine in a shitblock, doesn't make up for the downright boring game play.

Well, one could think, theres more to it than casting spells, theres levels and interacting with the HP characters. Even that is boring. you start out in your dormitory, and the designers of the game must have thought it was cool to really design Hogwarts and have people walk all over it in real time. So in the game it tells you to go to the courtyard and see so and so. So you walk down the 10 flights of stairs and through the hallways, across the walkways, through the doors, etc, etc,. It really feels like they wanted the player to FEEL like they were walking around Hogwarts. So getting to your destination is very tedious. Go here, talk to this guy, go back there and talk with that guy, run into Malfoy and have a wizard duel, make your way back to your room, talk to Ron, practice your magic, go to this room, go to that room.

Over and Over, this is the formula that the game follows. It is nothing but a walk and gather game. But with nothing to do in between to keep it interesting. It would be the same thing if they had Grand Theft Auto , but you could only run on the road and there was nothing you could interact with and the object of the game was to run across town to talk to Jimmy Badass then walk back home to see who is the next person to talk too.

The game is really tedious, the same things over and over, and besides that. The character, Harry, could get stuck on objects that you can't even see. You go through a door, but he wouldn't go through, it was like the game wasn't reading the sprite going through the door. So I back up and do it again and again. Until eventually I would make it through the door way, but doing nothing different than what I was doing all along.

I was wondering if you needed to be a Harry Potter fan to like these games. I enjoyed the Goblet of fire game, so I don't think its a bias thing. But this game was downright boring. There was nothing to do in it, what was there, was so little and far in between. The only people that I think would enjoy this , would be young fans who get a kick outta , "look mom, I am walking through Hogwarts, here's the door that they talk about in the movie".

Stay far away from this borefest. Go pick your toenails or something, you never know what you may find between your toes, God knows it will be better than whats in this game

1/10














Wow, this is a case where the trailer for this thing is far better than the actual game. Don't be fooled, its still boring. Don't believe me, watch the Majhong trailer, I'm worked up for a good ole game of Majhong now!!!!

Cooking Mama 2, Dinner with Friends - Nintendo DS

I've seen this game out on the market for awhile now. The premise intrigued me, much like the Spiderman-friend or foe game. So one day out, I saw that there was a Cooking Mama 2. So I thought well, no need to get the first one to see what the game is about. I'm thinking that the second one will have what the first one had and more. I'm assuming, since I never played the first one.

The game plays entirely using the stylist in various ways and blowing into the mic. No buttons at all. Which is fine by me, because that's the whole reason I broke down and bought a DS. It was innovative! Anywho, there is no story or plot that one works towards in this game. It is a standalone premise that builds off playing with others who also own this game.

For the most part, you are this little girl, with an typical Asian accent that talks to you when you screw up or do good. Comes complete with no "R's" but substitute with "L's". If anyone has ever seen "Gorgeous tiny chicken machine show", you will know what I mean. If you haven't, do a search for it and enjoy.



Like I said, there is no story, you go into a option where you pick a recipe and you play a mini game that is like doing a part of the recipe. For example, if you are cracking eggs into a bowl, you start with a bowl the left side of the screen and a hand holding a egg on the other. You then have to slide the hand across and hit the egg on the edge of the bowl and pour the egg into the bowl. Hit it too hard and the egg splats on the table. Other things you do, is roll out doe, slice veggies and meats, adding spices, stirring, cooking, there is honestly a ton of different things to do.

The only reason for, (if you are disappointed about not having a story line,) completing the challenges, depending on how well you do, you get a grade, that grade then lets you unlock more recipes, 80 in total. Then there are bonuses, where if you do the mini games fast enough, you unlock a bonus. These bonuses are things like, new outfits for cooking mama, change the decor, the over all look of the play screen. It doesn't feel very rewarding.

Then there are timed challenges, cook for the computer, where if you screw up the receipe once, its over, but get it right and it opens up more bonus items. So really all you can do in this game is unlock bonus items to dress and decorate your kitchen.

The only other reason you would play this game is if others owned this game aswell and you could have cook offs. ....fun. Really, the gameplay itself is just a bunch of mini games in the form of cooking and preparing food and it gets a little boring pretty fast. If you want a good mini game type, then Daffy Duck's Duckamuck is a much better game.

I think this game is geared towards young girls, Its a neat little premise, but it just doesn't hold my attention. Unlike spiderman friend or foe, that I also think is a game geared towards younger kids, this game just isn't fun. Its not bad for what it is, but I definitely felt disappointed by the overall game.

My overall, its a different game, you may like it, i didn't.

4/10

Yoshi's Island DS - Nintendo DS

Haven't had much time to play a game all the way through, good games anyway. lots of crappy ones out there. So I figure a little Nintendo DS game would do the job. While there are tons of crappy games for that as well, most of the good games are almost always Mario related.

Yoshi's Island is no different. A spin off from the Mario series, where all the Mario characters are babies, baby Mario, Luigi, princess, Donkey Kong, Wario and Boswer. Yoshi and all his Yoshi friends have some story where babies stars (actually stars over the babies head) are stolen by Bowser from the future. (Great story line) Which brings up my next question, if Bowser wants all these stars from the babies and the main point of the game is for Yoshi and the Mario babies to rescue the other babies, couldn't Bowser have taken the stars away from the babies by the time we get to the end of the game??

Instead we find Bowser talking about what hes going to do when he gets the power of the stars, but still hasn't done it yet.......hes an idiot and deserves to get his ass handed to him by a baby in shitty diapers riding a sissy green dragon.


The game is set up much like anyone would expect a Mario type game to be. There are 5 worlds, each with 3 levels before we get to a castle with a mini boss, then some more levels and another final castle with another mini boss, then you go to the next world. Al though you don't get the feeling like the new worlds have a theme. It never felt like one was water world or plant world or Ice world, the levels were pretty much just scattered throughout the game. But they all still felt like Mario levels, with the tricky jumps and enemies hitting you just at the right time when you jump.

Instead of having just Mario riding Yoshi, he could be ridden by 5 baby characters, each one gives you a special ability/abilities. Throwing strength, speed, jumping, fire breath, enough to keep quite a bit of variety in the game. Of course having the different characters with different abilities meant there were tons of specific levels and pieces withing levels that were character specific.

The game play is pretty fun, pretty much what you expect from these type of games. For the first, 2nd and even the 3rd world, we all know that the closer we get towards the end, the harder these levels get. Well Yoshi's Island is an exception. Has I was playing this game, I noticed that "Holy COW!.....I have 147 lives!"..get to world 4," holy shit!!..I have 280 lives, whats the deal with all the lives?". Here lies the exception, in all other Mario games, when you get to the last world and all the levels are (scale of difficulty from 1-10) difficulty of around 8-10. Something that anyone who has played a Mario game would know. Well the difficulty level when you get the last world on Yoshi's Island is a 15.
It was my first attempt at level 1 world 5 (that's has far has Yoshi's worlds went and seeing how hard level 5 was, I wouldn't want to see world 8) and 10 min has gone by and I have lost 23 lives. I'm still not even finished the level...and when I finally do finish the first level on world 5, I had lost 33 lives. Holy Crap!!!....I am now down to 250 lives...that's still enough ....right?!

Every level in world 5 took me on average 25-40 lives to complete a level. The most lives I lost on one level was 52. Now I understand why getting all those lives through the first of the game was essential. The games later levels are insane. They are mental, idiot savant hard!!

In all the worlds, it says, that if you find all the 20 red coins, the 5 flowers and complete the level with full health and find the secret character coin in each level and you will unlock a great surprise. The surprise are new levels in each world. But I was trying to do this in world 1, the easiest world that one could possible do this. I did all, but 2 of the levels in world 1. The last 2 were just little things, I miss a coin, I get hit by doing something stupid at the end, etc. so when I finished the level, I didn't do what I needed to get 100%. So I said I will go on with the rest of the game and come back to this.




After finishing the game, I thought, there's no way in hell, that someone could possibly find all the secret shit and not get hit in harder levels, let alone even think about doing it in world 5. So I didn't even bother to go back to world 1 and try to fill the requirements. The only people who can do this are kids and maybe adults, who have nothing else better to do, no job, no life, nothing but the love of a little green dragon.




Now saying that this game or the end of the game is hard, exceptional hard. Doesn't mean its not a good game. Its quite fun and entertaining and I recommend it to all Mario fans. But!..be prepared for some hard ass shit levels that will make you curse the Mary mother of Jesus when you get towards the end.

7.5/10