Greetings Gentlemen,
I always wanted to try and review some games in my collection from a variety of genres (Nothing special or anything, but I still have the interests in doing it) Ima start with this one since it’s the first one that sparked the idea to talk about some obscure video games. I appreciate whoever is reading this.
Brief History and Gameplay Introduction:
Before 2006 Yoshi Island DS, there was Touch And Go, 2005, which pretty much been hiding under Island DS’s shadow nowadays. It was first Shown during E3 2004 titled, “Balloon Trip” as a simple tech demo, demonstrating the DS touch screen abilities. It was well received and soon released in Late Winter/Early Spring. The game starts with an oversimplification of the plot in the original SNES Yoshi’s Island, A stork on its way carrying baby twins, Mario and Luigi, to their parents when all of a sudden some Magickoopas came storming in, leading to Luigi being kidnapped and Mario being sent down to the skies of Yoshi Island. The new part is the gameplay. There are 2 segments, 1. You help Baby Mario reach down safely by using the stylus to draw cloud tracks to guide him down and avoiding obstacles, while also collecting coins to upgrade your Yoshi, which is what the next segment is about. As the color of the Yoshi changes, the more eggs you can carry to attack enemies coming by and coins up in the sky. It's an auto scroll, but there's a lot of things to work with to keep you busy. Once you reach the end, you deliver baby Mario to the stork and the level ends with a score ranking. (You have to reach over 300 points to unlock the extra modes)
Review:
To put it simply on what comes to my mind first whenever I play this game . . . it feels more like a mobile game than anything. Not Mobile game quality, but like the concept of it just being touched screen and no buttons can work almost flawlessly if it was ported onto an iphone with some slight adjustments. The good thing about Touch and Go is that since the idea of it is so simple, they ramp up the difficulty, especially the second segment, having way more replayability. I think the best way the few reviews I've seen talking about it, is that it's more of an arcade type, sorta of what Nintendo did back then, and I could agree. There's a sense of determination that drives you back to try again, mostly from an unfair death, but it does get the job done making you return, so some credit has to be given. You could say the game lacks some g i r t h since there's hardly a story and the 4 modes (Not including versus) all play similar, but I believe that criticism exists only because the game sold for 30$ back then, which is ridiculous, so the money spent wasn't worth it and was reviewed a bit more harsh. But now since everyone has a modded DS/3DS, they can get the game for free from a simple mod, so there honestly is nothing to lose and expectations aren't set up as high. If you want to play Touch and Go, it's best to treat it like a simple tech demo game, like Wii Sports to be fully satisfied with its content, and not a real DS game like New Super Mario Bros or hell, Yoshi's Island DS. The modes are decent for the most, with time and attack being kinda stupid, but Marathon mode is really good, with different themes to keep up the attention and being an endless mode helps out a ton. One last thing I should mention and it might be my biggest positive to the game, is that the soundtrack is good? like really good?? I'm acting surprised since after like . . the original Yoshi's Island and not until Wooly World, I just can't not enjoy the bland or atrocious soundtracks from the Yoshi games. There's obvioulsy New Island with the unnecessary amounts of kazoos and oh . . . Yoshi's Island DS, I can't stand it's OST as much as the 3DS. (It sounds like I hate DS, but trust me I don't, I'll talk more about it eventually.) Touch and Go, literally sounds so upbeat and similar style to the OG game, like we got bangers like Rankings ,Time Attack with the funky sax A calm music done right and oh man, Big Walks is easy S tier for me (And the only one remade in Smash Bros) Big Praise to the composers for cooking up.
Overall I like Yoshi Touch And Go, it's simple, but has a nice challenge to it to balance it out. Like old DS Games, it is a pick up and play type of game, but it succeeds a lot with that for what it has. One word to describe to it . . . it's cute. 8/10
Feel free to leave any comments or criticism on my first review. It looks like I didn't say too much, but maybe I could improve on a lot more the next time, but what do y'all think? I apricate you guys for taking the time to read and have a good rest.
Bluebells Forever.
I always wanted to try and review some games in my collection from a variety of genres (Nothing special or anything, but I still have the interests in doing it) Ima start with this one since it’s the first one that sparked the idea to talk about some obscure video games. I appreciate whoever is reading this.
Brief History and Gameplay Introduction:
Before 2006 Yoshi Island DS, there was Touch And Go, 2005, which pretty much been hiding under Island DS’s shadow nowadays. It was first Shown during E3 2004 titled, “Balloon Trip” as a simple tech demo, demonstrating the DS touch screen abilities. It was well received and soon released in Late Winter/Early Spring. The game starts with an oversimplification of the plot in the original SNES Yoshi’s Island, A stork on its way carrying baby twins, Mario and Luigi, to their parents when all of a sudden some Magickoopas came storming in, leading to Luigi being kidnapped and Mario being sent down to the skies of Yoshi Island. The new part is the gameplay. There are 2 segments, 1. You help Baby Mario reach down safely by using the stylus to draw cloud tracks to guide him down and avoiding obstacles, while also collecting coins to upgrade your Yoshi, which is what the next segment is about. As the color of the Yoshi changes, the more eggs you can carry to attack enemies coming by and coins up in the sky. It's an auto scroll, but there's a lot of things to work with to keep you busy. Once you reach the end, you deliver baby Mario to the stork and the level ends with a score ranking. (You have to reach over 300 points to unlock the extra modes)
Review:
To put it simply on what comes to my mind first whenever I play this game . . . it feels more like a mobile game than anything. Not Mobile game quality, but like the concept of it just being touched screen and no buttons can work almost flawlessly if it was ported onto an iphone with some slight adjustments. The good thing about Touch and Go is that since the idea of it is so simple, they ramp up the difficulty, especially the second segment, having way more replayability. I think the best way the few reviews I've seen talking about it, is that it's more of an arcade type, sorta of what Nintendo did back then, and I could agree. There's a sense of determination that drives you back to try again, mostly from an unfair death, but it does get the job done making you return, so some credit has to be given. You could say the game lacks some g i r t h since there's hardly a story and the 4 modes (Not including versus) all play similar, but I believe that criticism exists only because the game sold for 30$ back then, which is ridiculous, so the money spent wasn't worth it and was reviewed a bit more harsh. But now since everyone has a modded DS/3DS, they can get the game for free from a simple mod, so there honestly is nothing to lose and expectations aren't set up as high. If you want to play Touch and Go, it's best to treat it like a simple tech demo game, like Wii Sports to be fully satisfied with its content, and not a real DS game like New Super Mario Bros or hell, Yoshi's Island DS. The modes are decent for the most, with time and attack being kinda stupid, but Marathon mode is really good, with different themes to keep up the attention and being an endless mode helps out a ton. One last thing I should mention and it might be my biggest positive to the game, is that the soundtrack is good? like really good?? I'm acting surprised since after like . . the original Yoshi's Island and not until Wooly World, I just can't not enjoy the bland or atrocious soundtracks from the Yoshi games. There's obvioulsy New Island with the unnecessary amounts of kazoos and oh . . . Yoshi's Island DS, I can't stand it's OST as much as the 3DS. (It sounds like I hate DS, but trust me I don't, I'll talk more about it eventually.) Touch and Go, literally sounds so upbeat and similar style to the OG game, like we got bangers like Rankings ,Time Attack with the funky sax A calm music done right and oh man, Big Walks is easy S tier for me (And the only one remade in Smash Bros) Big Praise to the composers for cooking up.
Overall I like Yoshi Touch And Go, it's simple, but has a nice challenge to it to balance it out. Like old DS Games, it is a pick up and play type of game, but it succeeds a lot with that for what it has. One word to describe to it . . . it's cute. 8/10
Feel free to leave any comments or criticism on my first review. It looks like I didn't say too much, but maybe I could improve on a lot more the next time, but what do y'all think? I apricate you guys for taking the time to read and have a good rest.
Bluebells Forever.
