Yoshis Story Game Over

Posted on  by 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/YoshisStory

Go To

Yoshi's Story was the first game I've ever played. It was incredible. It made me into who I am today by introducing me to a new form of entertainment. Video games became my favorite thing to do. Video game characters became the ones I cared about most. Yoshi's entire world has been transformed into a picture book, and the Super Happy Tree has gone missing on top of it all! Who would so recklessly take the source of the Yoshis' power? Baby Bowser, that's who. Now the Yoshis must look to their six babies to eat lots of fruit, get powerful, and restore equilibrium to the world.

Haba-haba-haboo!
Advertisement:

Released in 1997 on the Nintendo 64, Yoshi's Story is a Platform Game and a sequel to the Super Nintendo classic, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. It's shorter, simpler, and aimed at much younger players than its predecessor. The story concerns eight baby Yoshis that have been trapped in a magical storybook thanks to a spell cast by Baby Bowser, and must find and eat thirty pieces of fruit on each of the book's six pages in order to escape, steal back the Super Happy Tree (a tree that bears all kinds of fruit), defeat Baby Bowser, and rescue their parents.

Yoshi's Story Characters

Fruit is plentiful throughout each level, and novice players can simply gobble up every fruit they find to finish the game quickly. Experienced players can choose to eat only a single type of fruit (such as melons, the rarest type) for a higher score and a tougher challenge. You only need to beat one level per page to move on to the next, and bosses are fought on pages three and six. Finding up to three large, smiling hearts on any page lets you choose the more difficult levels on the next.

Advertisement:

Yoshi's Story Download

Although it's not as popular as its predecessor, Yoshi's Story is notable for introducing Yoshi's famous squeaky voice and anthropomorphic design (before then, he looked much more like a real dinosaur). A spiritual successor, Yoshi's Woolly World, was released for the Wii U in 2015.

Tropes:

  • 2½D: The Trope Codifier. Though Donkey Kong Country was an earlier example, Yoshi's Story did the important task of proving that sidescrolling platformers were still viable in a time when nearly everyone had predicted that games like Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot (1996) would kill the market for them.
  • Abnormal Ammo: Eggs and small boomerang birds.
  • Absentee Actor:
    • Baby Bowser is not aided by Kamek this time.
    • Baby Mario makes no appearance either, though Baby Bowser mentions him in the final battle.
  • Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Several stages, including 'Jelly Pipe' and 'Torrential Maze'.
  • Advertisement:
  • A Day in the Limelight: As in Yoshi's Island, Yoshi steals the spotlight from Mario, who doesn't even make an appearance here.
  • Aside Glance: Yoshi will sometimes give one to the camera.
  • Bee Afraid: The beehive enemies that impede your progress and, eventually, attack you if you don't sneak by them.
  • Big Eater: Yoshi, as usual. However, toxic or bad-tasting things are actually harmful to him in this game. The unlockable Black and White Yoshis can eat the hot peppers without taking damage, though.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: 'Ghost Castle,' level 3 on page 6.
  • Bombardier Mook: Black-robed Propeller Shy Guys fly around carrying either bombs or large spiked stones, both of which they will try to drop on Yoshi's head.
  • Bubbly Clouds: 'Cloud Cruising,' level 1 on page 3.
  • Continuity Nod: The aforementioned 'Cloud Cruising' level includes a reference to the old 'Coin Heaven' bonus stages of Mario games past.
  • Collection Sidequest:
    • Actually the main game, as Yoshi must eat 30 pieces of fruit to pass each level.
    • Each level contains three large hearts Yoshi is expected to collect while travelling through the levels. The number of hearts collected determine how many levels become available to you on the next page (i.e. if you collect all three, you can play any of the page's levels, but if you collect none, you can only play the first).
    • There's also the 30 Melons in each level, which is enough to complete the level, and one can beat the game collecting only Melons - Compared to the rest of the game, it's surprisingly difficult, and there's absolutely no reward for doing so beyond a higher score and bragging rights, though it's become a rather popular Self-Imposed Challenge to do so.
  • Cranium Ride: We'll let the game say it:
    Neuron is a friendly guy;
    Use his head to ride up high.
  • Dem Bones: The Bone Dragons.
  • Developers' Foresight: When you eat all thirty melons in a level it will show Yoshi dancing in front of a giant melon. If you go out of your way to eat thirty Lucky Fruit by being very careful and ground pounding near lots of Shy Guys while you're invincible, Yoshi will dance in front of whatever fruit you ate thirty of.
  • Difficulty Spike: The first five pages are pretty easy for the most part, as most gamers won't lose any Yoshis there. However, on the sixth and last page, all of the levels are filled with evil traps that will kill your Yoshis that the average six year old would struggle to get past.
    • In what doubles as Self-Imposed Challenge, the game suddenly becomes a whole lot more difficult if you try to clear all levels eating only one fruit. Particularly the Melon-only runs.
  • Easy Level Trick: In 6-3, 'Ghost Castle', there is a room with lots of Mini Boos in it which are just like Shy Guys and turn into Lucky Fruit when you ground pound near them when you're Super Happy. If you eat enough Lucky Fruit to get a Super Happy Fruit in this room you can get all 30 fruit you need to beat the level in just one ground pound! The yellow block near the end of the level also has a hidden Super Happy Fruit in it if you ground pound it.
  • Eternal Engine: Mecha Castle and Lift Castle on page six. Mecha Castle appears to contain large swords, and lift castle has mostly lifts, but both are mechanized levels.
  • Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: Or dragons. Whatever Yoshi is this time.
  • Expressive Health Bar: The player's health bar is represented with by a smiling flower, which loses its petals and becomes less and less happy as the player loses health. If the player manages to eat a Heart Fruit and become temporarily invincible (which also fully restores their health), the flower instead breaks out into a wide grin and starts pulsating.
  • Fake Difficulty:
    • Part of the reason the 'Melon Quest' side-challenge (eat nothing but 30 melons in one playthrough) is so hard is because in some levels, the Melons are very well hidden and require thorough knowledge and exploration of the levels to find them, and some of them require unintuitive methods, trial and error or just logic-defying ways to find them (i.e. having to ground pound a very specific spot of a level in a precise way—even the Yoshi's ability to sniff for secrets isn't always helpful, one box puzzle in Jungle Stream requires you to combine two specific ? boxes in a certain way to get all the melons, etc.). Some are just straight up impossible to find without looking up a walkthrough.
    • Another problem is that the Melon Quests very nature leaves zero room for error—one slip up means having to replay the entire level or, in worst case scenario, restart the entire playthrough. And some of the melons, like the race or 5 coin melons, only give you one chance at getting them, or levels have lots of pits for them to fall into (i.e. Shy Guys Ship).
    • Worst of all, the melons can sometimes land in spots where its very easy to grab the wrong fruit (Cloud Cruise has a particularly nasty case of this where a melon lands directly between two pieces of fruit that are already very close together, meaning your Yoshi needs to eat it from a very specific, pixel perfect spot so he doesnt eat the other fruit by accident).
  • For Happiness: The entire plot of the game is to bring happiness back to the populace of Yoshi's Island. Also, the baby Yoshis' lives revolve around happiness. Literally. So you've gotta make sure they stay as happy as can be!
  • For the Evulz: Implied to be the real motivation by Baby Bowser to take the 'Super Happy Tree,' as he admits after being defeated that the tree's fruit 'tasted rotten to him anyway.'
  • The Goomba: Not Goombas, but Shy Guys in this game.
  • Green Hill Zone: 'Treasure Hunt' and 'Surprise!' on page one.
  • Happy Fun Ball: One enemy is named 'Spiked Fun Guy.' Does he sound fun to you?
  • Invincible Minor Minion: Pak E. Derm.
  • Idle Animation: Aww, lookit him dance! And that's not all. Depending on the circumstances, Yoshi may pant and attempt to catch his breath, teeter back and forth (if he's low on health), growl at nearby enemies, cheer happily, gulp, or even stare in confusion at the camera.
  • It's All Upstairs from Here: 'Tower Climb' and 'The Tall Tower.' It's right there in the names!
  • Jungle Japes: The entirety of page 4, which is even called 'Jungle.'
  • Kid Hero: The six hatchlings, as opposed to the adult Yoshis featured in the rest of the series.
    • Given the timeline, it's possible these same hatchlings ('specially the green one) are the adult Yoshis in the rest of the series.
  • Lighter and Softer: Even more so than Yoshi's Island, which was already a kid-friendly game.
Over

Yoshi's Story Nintendo 64

  • Lethal Lava Land: 'Blargg's Boiler' on page two and 'Magma Castle' on page six.
  • Levels Take Flight: A good portion of one level takes place on a flying dragon.
  • Long Song, Short Scene: The song 'Spider Swing' plays in exactly one section of one level, and it's not a segment you'll spend too much time in. On top of that, there's the Super Happy version of that song, which you'll hear for maybe twenty seconds.
  • Mood Whiplash: When a Yoshi is near death the music is distorted and slow in a disturbing way and when he dies, he's taken to a castle by Toadies and cries while depressing music plays, and when all the Yoshis die, an even more depressing song plays as if all hope is lost for them. Also, the mood of Page 6 is unhappy-like compared to the other pages. And of course - Page 2 is practically Hell right after a lighthearted, Green Hill Zone prologue.
  • Mouthy Bird: * This artwork has a Bumpty's beak flat against its face, almost resembling lips.
  • Nintendo Hard:
    • Some of the melon puzzles are very difficult, in very stark contrast with the general ease of the rest of the game. The absolute worst of these are the damn long jump minigames. Also, anything that involves you catching melon stacks one crate at a time or jumping while carrying them. This is part of what makes the games optional 'Melon Quest' side challenge so difficult.
    • The stage 'Frustration' lives up to its name. Places with insta-death traps aren't fun, either, especially if your controller sticks.
  • Only Fatal to Adults: All of the inhabitants of Yoshi's Island become zombie-like except for a couple of Yoshi eggs.
  • One-Hit Kill: Falling into a pit or touching lava.
    • Not to mention the crushers in 'Mecha Castle' or the infamous jumping fish in 'Jungle Puddle.'
  • Power-Up Letdown: It's a good idea to avoid the umbrella if possible. Getting this item makes you unable to do the flutter-jump, and instead gives you the ability to fall in directions you did not intend to at various speeds. Also, upon getting it, the player is stuck with it until they die, use a Miss Warp or somehow leave the room.
  • Press X to Die: The suicide code that many young players might discover by accident.
  • Punny Name: Pak E. Derm, an elephant that occasionally pops up to halt your progress.
  • Rainbow Motif: Each of the Baby Yoshis comes in a different color, and this is important because each of the Yoshi's has different tastes in fruit and Shy Guys. There are also Black and White Yoshis you can bring along.
  • Recurring Riff: Almost all of the music tracks reuse or include a few notes from the games opening theme song.
  • Ribcage Ridge: A few stages on page two feature the bones of massive creatures as stepping stones, most notably in 'Blargg's Boiler'.
  • Scoring Points: In the form of 'happiness'.
  • Secret Character: Hidden in various levels are secret Black and White Yoshi eggs that will hatch into their respective Baby Yoshis; these Yoshis lack favorite foods but can eat peppers and black shy guys, which the normal Baby Yoshis cannot tolerate. These Yoshis also shoot more powerful, explosive eggs.
  • Self-Imposed Challenge: Each level has 30 melons, and each level requires 30 fruit to pass. It's actually pretty difficult to do a melon-only run.
    • Arguably even more difficult is a non-melon pure fruit run, because unlike with the melons, there's no guarantee of there being 30 in the level, forcing players to generate them from Shy-Guys by pounding the ground while under the effects of a Heart Fruit. The screen at the end will show whichever fruit you purely ate, even if it's not a melon.
  • Sixth Ranger Traitor: The White Shy Guy, who is willing to work with the Baby Yoshis after they bring him with them on their journeys. His main purpose is to run covert operations to Bowser's Castle and reclaim one of the Baby Yoshis that the Toadies may have collected. (He can't normally collect the Black and White Yoshis, but he can once the player has beaten the game with them).
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: 'Poochy and Nippy' and 'Frustration', two of the stages on the third page. The other two feature a cloud theme.
  • Speaking Simlish: The hatchlings sing the theme song in simlish; Yoshi's now-famous squeaky voice was modeled after this song.
  • Storybook Opening: The game features a pop-up storybook. The opening scene presents the first several pages introducing the story. During gameplay, the page turns for each new world. At the end, the storybook reviews all six worlds, the final pages present a happy ending, and the book closes.
  • Suddenly Voiced: This game is the debut of Yoshi's current voice clips (courtesy of Nintendo mainstay Kazumi Totaka, but pitched up), which have been infamously recycled for literally every subsequent game Yoshi has appeared in since.

Yoshi's Story Game Over

  • Surprise Difficulty: Sure, the main gameplay is very easy, but any attempt at completing the game with the 'Melon Quest' side challenge instantly shoots up the games difficulty into 'throw controller at the wall' levels of frustration.
  • Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: All of the music in the first five pages is based on the same melody. The sixth page, however, introduces a new theme called 'Baby Bowser's Lullaby,' with its own variation in some areas.
  • Toy Time: 'The Tall Tower' is made of wooden tinkertoys, and what appear to be old baseballs. The enemies aren't really more toy-themed than usual, though.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: As mentioned above, each Yoshi has its particular favorite taste in fruit and Shy Guys, which are reflected in the health boosts they get from eating their favorite. Each of them get an enhanced boost from standard melons, but specifically, Green likes Watermelon, Red and Pink like Apples, Blue and Light Blue like Grapes, Yellow likes Bananas. Black and White have no real favorite foods, but they can eat peppers, which the normal Yoshis can't eat.

Yoshi Death

  • Underground Level: The Bone Dragon Cave. All of Page 2 is known as the 'Cavern,' but only the first level is truly cave-themed.
  • Under the Sea: 'Lots O' Fish' and 'Lots O' Jellyfish,' from Page 5. The Page itself is known as 'Ocean,' but the other two levels in it are aboveground Palm Tree Panic areas.
  • Unending End Card: With the many different paths one can take and the amount of replay value, you wouldn't expect this trope to come into play here. It does though as you have to reset upon beating any of the possible final levels through story mode. Good thing the game will Auto-Save.
  • Variable Mix: Every song has a Super Happy mix that briefly replaces the main level's theme when the playable Yoshi is invincible.

Index

Coments are closed