Yoshi's Island DS

The Mario universe has been the starting point for many spin-off titles that have developed into their own series. SOme of these have been more casual affairs featuring sports or party games with the cast as a whole taking the starring roles. Other spin-offs have allowed for some characters to flourish away from the plumber's shadow by placing them in the lead role. Yoshi's Island DS is an entry into Yoshi's own series of games that presents platforming action with a few twists to the standard gameplay that attempts to separate this game from the many Mario leap-athons that have come before.

The general gist of the game is that the evil magikoopa Kamek is going around kidnapping babies and taking them off to a floating castle, but during the raid Baby Mario and baby Peach fall from the sky and land on Yoshi's Island, saved by Yoshi. At...

THE GOOD:
- A new Yoshi’s Island game
- 5 different babies to use, each with their own special power; each special power adds a lot of new fun to the gameplay (more variety)
- Plenty of different colored Yoshi’s to ride on
- Same format and style as the first game for the SNES (overall look of the game; levels, bosses, etc)
- Graphics are as good/better than ever; sound works well at all times
- Great use of both DS screens; some gameplay/views use the other screen for high up or low secrets
- Lots of minigames to play
- New vehicles to use; a lot of fun and add new variety to the gameplay
- Many great levels to play, most being pretty long
- Lots of bosses and minibosses to fight!
- Red coin and flower collections in every level, and also character coins in this game
- Same great scoring system for levels
- Great uses for eggs, as usual

THE BAD:
- No stylus use
- Essentially, this...