Published by: Nintendo
Developed by: Nintendo
Genre: Action
Release Date: March 14, 2005
Rated: E (Everyone)
Written by: Faerieprincessco








Introduction
Formally known as Balloon Trip, Yoshi Touch & Go was originally shown at E3 2004. It was a simple game that consisted of Baby Mario falling through the sky and it was up to the player to draw clouds to create a safe path for Baby Mario to follow. On this path, Baby Mario could collect coins and avoid enemies -- assuming the path created also avoided the enemies. The idea of Balloon Trip sparked a lot of praise and Nintendo reacted to this praise by making Balloon Trip a full game -- Yoshi Touch & Go.

One of the most important things to realize before considering Yoshi Touch & Go is that this game is not a platformer. Even though at first glance it looks like a platformer, Yoshi Touch & Go is more of an arcade style game. You don't progress through levels and you definitely don't fight any bosses. Yoshi Touch & Go is all about racking up the highest scores, quick reflexes and good coordination.

Yoshi Touch & Go is actually the first Nintendo DS game to use all of its features. This includes dual screen, touch screen, wireless play and even the microphone. This proved that Yoshi Touch & Go was not only innovative and refreshing, but is clearly a game designed only for the Nintendo DS.

Story
The story of Yoshi Touch & Go is far from being involved and interactive. In fact, there's not much of a story at all. The story basically consists of a single stork flying through the air that happens to be carrying twin babies. These twin babies are Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. The flight in the air is going smoothly until a dark creature swoops in out of nowhere and crashes into the stork. This dark creature is Kamek, the evil Magikoopa and guardian of Bowser. The startled stork drops the twin babies, which then leaves Baby Mario falling in the sky. Unfortunately, this is where the storyline of Yoshi Touch & Go ends.

Surprisingly, the story actually starts out very similar to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, once Baby Mario is falling in the sky he is caught by Yoshi. Baby Mario then has to ride on Yoshi's back while they travel through Yoshi's Island together in order to rescue Baby Luigi. The story of Yoshi Touch & Go stops when the crash between Kamek and the stork takes place and despite the similarities, Yoshi Touch & Go's story hardly plays a role for the game. The lack of a detailed story is a big disappointment, but at the same time fans of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island will be happy to see how this game can bring back some nostalgia.

Gameplay
Yoshi Touch & Go is split up into two sections, with the first section dependent on the second one. The first section is the Baby Mario Stage. You'll have to help Baby Mario navigate through the skies as he gracefully falls towards to the ground. By drawing paths of clouds beneath Baby Mario, you can give him a safe path to follow to avoid clashing into enemies and allow him to collect coins during his adventure in the sky. As Baby Mario is falling from the sky, three balloons will hold him. This means avoiding enemies is very important! Every time Baby Mario is hit, a balloon pops. Once all three balloons have popped, Baby Mario falls rapidly and then lands in the hands of Kamek. If this happens, it's game over for you!


Help Baby Mario travel safely in the sky.

Once Baby Mario is close to the ground, all of his balloons will pop. Don't worry; Yoshi will come to the rescue and catch Baby Mario! This is where the second section begins. Now, the gameplay of Yoshi Touch & Go will become a 2D sidescroller. However, you don't control Yoshi left or right this time, Yoshi will automatically walk for you. As Yoshi, you will have to again use your stylus to protect this dino from enemies. You can use the stylus to create a line of clouds that Yoshi can walk on, which is very useful when Yoshi needs to go over a gap. Also, tapping Yoshi with the stylus will cause him to jump. If you tap on Yoshi again while he is in mid-air, then Yoshi will perform his famous move -- the flutter jump. Similar to how Baby Mario could collect coins in the sky, Yoshi will also be able to collect coins as he walks on the ground. However, just providing paths to reach the coins isn't going to cut it this time. If you tap the touch-screen with the stylus, this will cause Yoshi to hurl an egg in that direction! So hurl eggs at enemies, coins, and basically anything in your way to get the most points as possible.


Hurl eggs at enemies!

When it's time for controlling Yoshi, racking up points will either seem really hard or really easy to do. Since both stages of gameplay are dependent on one another, how many points you rack up in the Baby Mario stage actually determines what colored Yoshi you will get during Yoshi's stage. There are several different colored Yoshies -- such as green, blue, and even yellow. While all the Yoshies have the same abilities, they do have some differences. Some Yoshies can hold more eggs and even walk faster. For example, a green Yoshi can hold twenty eggs and walk at a constant pace. However, score enough points and you will be awarded with a yellow Yoshi, who can hold forty eggs and walk much faster than the green Yoshi. As you might have guessed, the more eggs you have the better -- it increases your chance of gaining the most points while controlling Yoshi. However, don't worry about running out of eggs to use during Yoshi's adventure. Even when you have the Yoshi that holds the least amount of eggs, Yoshi can eat fruits to replenish his egg count! Different fruits, such as melons and grapes, will give Yoshi different amounts of eggs back.


Yoshi can eat fruit to get more eggs.

It might seem impossible to get such a high score just by collecting coins and destroying enemies. Nothing is impossible, but there are many tactics that can be used that will make this goal a lot easier. The simplest way of collecting coins is giving paths for Baby Mario to follow that contain a line of coins floating in the sky. Usually, these are only gold coins that will add one point to your score. Collecting coins that are worth more points, such as blue and red coins, gets a little more complicated. These blue and red coins are either placed between enemies or even spikes. Even though making Baby Mario avoid enemies is important, this doesn't necessarily mean to stay distant from them. By drawing a circle around an enemy, this will cause the enemy to be encircled in a bubble. The enemy inside the bubble will then turn into a coin! However, precision of the circle drawn is taken into consideration. You must not overlap the circle, and ovals will not cut it. Also, enclosing multiple enemies inside one bubble will give you a bonus, which may be a blue or red coin. Forming the bubble is only half the battle. There has to be a convenient way to get these coins to Baby Mario, and of course there is.

By touching and moving the bubble with the stylus, you can throw the bubble towards Baby Mario. If the bubble touches Baby Mario, then the prize inside the bubble is rewarded towards your score. Unfortunately, throwing a bubble to Baby Mario can push him, which can interrupt his path that he is currently following. After more and more practice, players will figure out even more strategic ways of getting these coins to Baby Mario. This can range from having the bubble stay stationary so that it becomes a part of Baby Mario's current path, or purposely popping a bubble near a spiked enemy to have Baby Mario follow a path around this spiked enemy to collect coins.

While these current ideas apply to Baby Mario's stage, the same concepts can be applied to Yoshi's stage as well. Thanks to the combo system, this is the section where you will gain the most points. If you hit five or more enemies and/or coins with a single egg, then you will obtain bonus points. These bonus points are key to getting high scores! Players will notice that there are sequences of coins, for some easy to get combos. Players can create more complex combos, such as creating an empty bubble and using that bubble to push coins and force them into a line. Also, by drawing a wall in front of Yoshi, you can slow him down which will give you more time to turn current enemies on the screen to coins to gain even more points. Get the enemies close enough, and when you draw a circle around them, it's then possible to get multiple enemies inside the same bubble. This will give bonus points, the same way it works in the Baby Mario stage. As you can see, the ways to get points are endless and it's up to the player to come up with their own creative combos to get the most points.


Trap enemies in bubbles to turn them into coins


Looks like a perfect line-up for a combo

It's easy to make mistakes in Yoshi Touch & Go. Sometimes players might create a path they no longer want Baby Mario to follow, or sometimes holding the stylus too long on the screen will cause a cloud to form instead of hurling an egg. What has been done to solve this problem is the use of the microphone. By simply blowing into the microphone, all the clouds on the screen will be blown away. What a nifty way to utilize the microphone in a game design like Yoshi Touch & Go.

While the gameplay of Yoshi Touch & Go seems simple, collecting points can be done in various ways. Initially, Yoshi Touch & Go offers two different modes of play. These modes are known as Score Attack mode and Marathon mode. Score Attack mode is basically all about obtaining the highest score, or getting as many points as you can get. Marathon mode is more of a survival type idea, in which your score is based on the distance you traveled. The distance traveled is measured in yards, which is displayed at the top of the screen. Both of these modes have built-in high scores, which seem impossible to beat at first but with practice it becomes easier.

Graphics
The cute and scruffy graphics of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island are back and are more colorful than ever. Yoshi and Baby Mario are nicely detailed themselves as well as familiar enemies such as Shy Guys and Piranha Plants. All of the sprites are full of somewhat fluid animation making Yoshi Touch & Go a real 2D beauty. Also, the beautiful backgrounds of Yoshi's Island are also back to give an old-school feel to this game. However, what's even more impressive about the nostalgic backgrounds is the transition of the times of day. Players can literally watch the background and see the nighttime sky turn into dawn or even vice versa, when afternoon skies turn to dusk.


The sky simply looks beautiful!

Graphically, the game is solid. The graphics aren't perfect, but they do a good job in representing the 2D graphic capabilities of the Nintendo DS. There are also a variety of environments players will come across as Baby Mario rides on Yoshi. Players will see eerie caves full of bats, marshy jungles and grassy lands. The graphics of Yoshi Touch & Go really fit the design of the game and watching Yoshi squint as he performs the flutter jump couldn't be cuter.

Audio
Not only do graphics have some similarities with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, but the music featured in Yoshi Touch & Go does as well. As soon as players start up Yoshi Touch & Go, they are greeted with an updated Yoshi's Island theme from the Super Nintendo classic. Also, many other Yoshi tunes from the past are also played during the Yoshi section of the game. As for something different, that's what the Baby Mario section provides. As Baby Mario is falling from the sky, the music is calm and peaceful at a nice steady pace.

The sound effects of Yoshi Touch & Go are what any Mario or Yoshi fan would expect. Yoshi makes his familiar grunts and mutters in forms of "Woo Hoo!" the same way he did previously. Baby Mario also has his own sound effects such as him crying once all of his balloons are popped. This isn't the sound you want to hear, so have Yoshi catch Baby Mario and listen to Baby Mario say, "Thank you very much!" in a cute Italian accent. Also, throwing up coin bubbles to Baby Mario will result in making Baby Mario release a cute giggle. Even though the background music can get a little repetitive, with all the enemies on the screen sometimes you rarely even notice.

Replay Value
As far as replay value is concerned, this can either be the one of the strongest elements of Yoshi Touch & Go or it can be the most frustrating. At this point, it's really up to the gamer for it depends on how much they enjoy the style of gameplay. Fans of arcade games, especially ones that require getting a really high score, will more likely find Yoshi Touch & Go a lot more addictive than fans of platformer gamers that enjoy playing through a series of levels.

The main reason why achieving high scores is so important is because it is what allows you to unlock other modes. Beating the high scores of Score Attack mode and Marathon mode will cause two other modes to be unlocked. These are Time Attack mode and Challenge mode. Time Attack, as the name implies, is all about getting to the end as fast as you can. In Time Attack mode, Baby Mario starts off in the sky and now there are stars that can be collected in the air. Stars will make Baby Mario move faster, which will obviously help since they will aid in getting Baby Mario down to the ground the quickest. As for Challenge Mode, there's a lot going on here. Challenge Mode is the hardest mode of all, since players will have to combine all of the skills learned to master this mode. The basic idea of Challenge Mode is to get as far as you can in a certain time limit. Once again Baby Mario starts off in the sky and can collect stars, but when it comes time for the Yoshi section, things get twisted. It begins with a 100 second count down and once it reaches zero it's game over. However, you can add seconds to the clock by killing enemies and collecting coins. As you can tell, both of these un-lockable modes will require players to be quick and think fast.


Collect stars in Time Attack mode to make him go faster!

Yoshi Touch & Go also features a wireless 2 player multiplayer mode. It takes place in the Yoshi section only, in which it's a race to the finish between you and your opponent. The first one too 1000m wins; however that's not the only goal. You also want to interfere your opponents’ path. By making combos, such as hitting three or more enemies and/or coins, in a single throw will cause more havoc on your opponents screen.


Race to the finish!

If this idea of multiplayer is what you love, or if you can't get enough of trying to beat old records, then Yoshi Touch & Go will offer the replay value you want. Other than that, there's nothing else that will motivate you to play Yoshi Touch & Go for more than you have to.

Personal Thoughts
Yoshi Touch & Go works very well even though it might not please all gamers. Yoshi Touch & Go was the first Nintendo DS game released that actually shows the potential of the system and it's disappointing that it wasn't a launch title. When it comes to a simple and arcade like experience, Yoshi Touch & Go definitely delivers. The game design is so addictive even though it's not a platformer like many Yoshi fans hoped for. Yoshi Touch & Go at least deserves a try and is strongly recommended.


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