The Official Yoshi Touch & Go Thread

[Shane R. Monroe]

I gotta tell ya ... I'm loving this title. Its old school arcade style scoring with kick ass touch screen control.

Finally, something I could recommend someone BUY a DS for ....

More on this later ...

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

yeah its one im looking foward to. Any news on a uk release date?.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I can't see it too far behind ... its already localized.

Anyway, here is the basic overview here ...

Let me start off like I do with other favorable reviews - if you were just waiting for someone to recommend it - GO NOW ... get it .. This is THE title to own for the DS.

If you are expecting story, adventure, all that modern gaming goop that gets in the way of a good time - then stay the hell away. This has NO story (thank GOD), no plot, no 20 minute cut scenes. This is touch-arcade game play.

The game really comes in two parts - the falling baby, and the horizontal scrolling part.

The Falling Baby
The baby is falling from the sky. You draw clouds on the bottom screen to help guide the falling toddler to the safe ground. Along the way, you protect him against bad guys, capture bad guys Quantum style by circling them (then hurdle them at the baby to get bonus points), and direct the baby to get coins. This is totally remenicint of BRAT on the Amiga where you basically draw and manuever a never stopping charge as they relentlessly try to kill themselves. Its fun.

The Horizontal Game
Mario and Yoshi constantly walk across the scrolling screen. You must protect them by stopping enemies, jumping/covering chasms, etc. Along the way - the real point of the game - SCORING POINTS!!! Remember that? Where you played a game to SCORE POINTS? That's what this game is all about. You can draw clouds formations to guide Yoshi around (up in the air, over chasms, and even slow him down a bit). You can also capture enemies, coins, etc. with circle formations, and throw them at Yoshi to collect. Tapping the screen anywhere will throw an egg that way, and the egg follows through to the top screen (scoring coins, killing enemies, etc). Your eggs will run out - eating fruit will get you more, either by Yoshi touching it, or you hitting it (causing it to fall to the ground where you eventually eat it) with an egg, or encircling it in a cloud and tossing it to Yoshi.

Sometimes, you make clouds you don't want (or screwed up making a circle). Blow on the screen, and the clouds blow away! Dayom .... owns.

What makes this game crazy is that you can easily get to the goal - but the goal isn't the point here. You can get from point A to B without doing anything but BASIC protection - and have ZERO points at the end. Or, you can play the game MAD FURY and shoot, snag, kill, maime, and go NUTS grabbing points - which is where this game rules. You get out of this game what you put into it.

I haven't played the multiplayer game yet, but I'll let you know.

The game oozes with style. The demo modes are KICK ASS - showing you EXACTLY how to play.

And ... if this wasn't all enough ... the GOOD DEAL first party game regular price of $29.99 makes this a ZERO BRAINER to pick up.

I grabbed Pokemon Dash too ... Might be awhile before I get into it... :)

[Galaga will never die]

I'll probably grab Pac-Pix first, but I'm concerned about the longevity of these titles. $29.99 is a good price though...

[Shane R. Monroe]

There is no end to Yoshi. Its a scoring game. That's part of what makes it leet.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I'm still playing ...

This is one of those evil games ... its a ... GREEEEEEEED game! Sumbitch I can't even finish the level because I want to greed and get all I can.

Anyone else pick this up? Thoughts?

[Demolition Man]

Damn you Shane R. Monroe, now I'm going to run out and buy this. I wasn't certain on this title since I hadn't heard much, but any game that has such a great retro soundingness to it alone grabs my attention.

Once again..... I feel totally raped, robbed, and owned.

[Darksol]

Damn you Shane R. Monroe, now I'm going to run out and buy this. I wasn't certain on this title since I hadn't heard much, but any game that has such a great retro soundingness to it alone grabs my attention.

Once again..... I feel totally raped, robbed, and owned.

Yeah Shane is such a pain in the ass because he always shows us good ways to spend our money. Ever thought of saving your money Shane :) ?

[Shane R. Monroe]

You can't take it with you ... God only knows how far the wifi on the DS reaches - if it can go coffin to coffin in a standard cemetary. I gotta get my play time in NOW.

[Demolition Man]

You can't take it with you ... God only knows how far the wifi on the DS reaches - if it can go coffin to coffin in a standard cemetary. I gotta get my play time in NOW.

Now only if Nintendo hurrys up with that online game system for the DS then all of us round here with DSes can have a tournament to see who's really the best twitch game player! :D

Personally, I put my bets on myself... but then again, I'm rather biased on that one. :p

[veganjay]

Okay - two nights ago I picked up a DS and Yoshi Touch & Go, partly due to Shane's rave reviews on it.
I have to say at first I was not sure I was liking it - the game just felt very small, and I thought, "that's it?" And I was starting to agree with someone who had complained that it felt like an unfinished tech demo.
Well, I popped the baby in this morning again, and said I'll play one round of marathon mode. Then comes another round, and then another - hooked! This game is really good! I think my problem is that there is a tiny learning curve, because you can do so many things: draw clouds, shoot eggs, draw circles to create bubbles, throw the bubbles, make yoshi jump, make yoshi hover, and blow away the clouds using the microphone. But once you get the hang of it, it's fun!
For one of the first times in a while, I feel like I'm playing something new and original, but still gearing for those old school high scores. Anyways, thanks for the recommendation on this one!

[Shane R. Monroe]

Glad you like it ... Its almost hardwired into my DS now I play it so much ...

[Bloodcat]

Sounds interesting. The problem is I want DEEP long playing games with substance. (That I can play in 10-15 minute increments.)

I have none for the DS, and Yoshi doesn't sound like it either. Mr Driller is a quickie game, and so is Atari Retro.

I need the RPGs and the turn based wargames right now.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Yeah, Bloodcat - this isn't for you. This is the new generation Robotron.

Its very difficult, IMHO, to find any game with longetivity that you can get enough satisfaction playing 10-15 of unless its BUILT SPECIFICALLY that way.

Case in point: Metroid is hard to gain a lot of satisfaction playing for 10 minutes - same with any sort of platformer/adventure. Super Mario Bros. 3 GBA - that works out; I can knock off a couple of levels while on the can. Tiger Woods DS ... I can rip a couple of holes off during a break.

I can't imagine ANY RPG being worthwhile over 10-15 minutes; even excellent titles like LOTR for the GBA. I'd need more than 10 minutes to feel like I'd DONE something other than wander.

Perhaps the missing key here is turn based wargames - which I personally can't stand (Never understood the draw to Advance Wars - but I'm obviously in the minority since everyone loves it). Maybe there is 10-15 minute values in there. But if its like Risk or other turn based military games; I can't see 10 minutes being enough time.

[Bloodcat]

Ive actually beaten a LOT of Game Boy/Advance games under my time restrictions.
Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Fuzion, Pokemon, Tron 2.0, Castlevania Circle of the Moon & Harmony of Dissonance, Mario & Luigi, Final Fantasy Legend 1-3, Mario vs Donkey Kong, Mario Golf, Lord of the Rings 2 Towers, Zone of the Enders Fist of Mars, Advance Wars 1&2, Shining Force, Shining Soul 2, Cardfighters Clash (NGPColor game), Dragon Warrior 1,2,and 3, Golden Sun, Faselei! (NGPColor game), and probably quite a few more I can't think of right now.

While I don't get to get deep into the game, I do get a LOOONG amount of time per game unless I have some burning need to beat it right now at home. (Pokemon took me a good 3-4 months to complete. Roughly 2-6 hours of play a week all combined and about 30 total hours on the record in game.)

See, a good portable game understands a player might need to save and quit at most any time. Every game above had either a save anywhere option or save points which could be reached in a short amount of time. The problem is some games (Shining Soul 1) don't do this. Its save was more an exp thing inside the Diablo like dungeons. You could save any time, but you would warp back to town. Some of those dungeons were HUGE and could take an hour at a time. While now I have a DS so leaving the game on and silent in my pocket for an hour till the next break isn't too bad (I did it in Eye of the Beholder this weekend as you have to camp to save. I kept getting random encounters in camp. Too much progress had been made so I paused it.) I definately didn't like doing this in the GBA days. Batteries cost money ok? Some games have true save slots, and an erasable quicksave in game so you can at least keep playing it. Breath of Fire 2 has this. The problem was a dungeon I spent all weekend in locked up on me once I completed it. 2 hours plus long giant ass mazey dungeon where my party levelled up like a mofo lost. Showing that erasable quicksaves aren't the greatest solution either. (Then there is Fire Emblem which saves every single action during combat in a gameplay save. And it has character permadeath and true odds for hitting/criticals/ect. In a strategy RPG. Meaning you can make it up to the final boss of the map, only to have them go all Darth Maul on your party killing half of them. Which makes you go back to your end of mission save slots. Fire Emblem went overboard in trying to make itself hard. To the point its unplayable. In the old days when Ultima and Wizardry tried to immediately save character death to make it harder we could sneak by with a backup disk in the drive instead of the main character disk. Nothing you can do in Fire Emblem. Least unless you play it on an emulator and Save State it. Which we should NOT have to do. Its 2005. Permadeath saved to the game ended 20 years back.)

Its wierd but in some cases I LIKE only getting a nibble at a time. Games last longer (which is good since quality games for the GB family of portables are outnumbered 25-1 by liscensed kiddie crap), and its hard for tedium to set in since you are always left wanting more.

I think something similar happened in Japan back in the NES/Famicom era. A major publisher had been requested by parents groups or doctors or something to try to get kids to stop sitting in front of the system for hours on end. They had a big campaign promoting an hour a day of play. Their sales went UP because of this. I guess it prevents burnout and causes more enthusiasm for playing.

Hell, I think I beat almost as many games on the portables as I do the big home systems these days...

[Shane R. Monroe]

That's cool ... Some games really appeal to me that go on forever but can be serious twitch (like Wario, Super Mario 3, etc). Just takes the right game and thoughtful programmers.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

(Pokemon took me a good 3-4 months to complete. Roughly 2-6 hours of play a week all combined and about 30 total hours on the record in game.)

Although its become an overmilked cash cow, i loved the original its the first hand held game i played for a serious amount of time (roughly the same 30hrs) and on an original beige gameboy great game.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

just rediscovered this thread ah now i've got somewhere to really splooge out stuff about this game.

What i love about it is the multitude of uses the gameplay elements have. For example i make a bubble and rather than giving it to yoshi i sweep enemies down chasms (not a great way to get points but damn its fun) or throw them at enemies for a laugh and say if theres a nice juicy bonus on the top screen i draw the clouds vertically so that i can slow yoshi down.

Also to be safe i draw one line of clouds under another so i've got a better chance of not falling down. Theres just so much stuff to do.

Im really strugling on the time attack mode though (the one where you have to save luigi) there's so much to think about in that mode its insane.

[Zaphod]

Ive actually beaten a LOT of Game Boy/Advance games under my time restrictions.
Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Fuzion, Pokemon, Tron 2.0, Castlevania Circle of the Moon & Harmony of Dissonance, Mario & Luigi, Final Fantasy Legend 1-3, Mario vs Donkey Kong, Mario Golf, Lord of the Rings 2 Towers, Zone of the Enders Fist of Mars, Advance Wars 1&2, Shining Force, Shining Soul 2, Cardfighters Clash (NGPColor game), Dragon Warrior 1,2,and 3, Golden Sun, Faselei! (NGPColor game), and probably quite a few more I can't think of right now.

While I don't get to get deep into the game, I do get a LOOONG amount of time per game unless I have some burning need to beat it right now at home. (Pokemon took me a good 3-4 months to complete. Roughly 2-6 hours of play a week all combined and about 30 total hours on the record in game.)

See, a good portable game understands a player might need to save and quit at most any time. Every game above had either a save anywhere option or save points which could be reached in a short amount of time. The problem is some games (Shining Soul 1) don't do this. Its save was more an exp thing inside the Diablo like dungeons. You could save any time, but you would warp back to town. Some of those dungeons were HUGE and could take an hour at a time. While now I have a DS so leaving the game on and silent in my pocket for an hour till the next break isn't too bad (I did it in Eye of the Beholder this weekend as you have to camp to save. I kept getting random encounters in camp. Too much progress had been made so I paused it.) I definately didn't like doing this in the GBA days. Batteries cost money ok? Some games have true save slots, and an erasable quicksave in game so you can at least keep playing it. Breath of Fire 2 has this. The problem was a dungeon I spent all weekend in locked up on me once I completed it. 2 hours plus long giant ass mazey dungeon where my party levelled up like a mofo lost. Showing that erasable quicksaves aren't the greatest solution either. (Then there is Fire Emblem which saves every single action during combat in a gameplay save. And it has character permadeath and true odds for hitting/criticals/ect. In a strategy RPG. Meaning you can make it up to the final boss of the map, only to have them go all Darth Maul on your party killing half of them. Which makes you go back to your end of mission save slots. Fire Emblem went overboard in trying to make itself hard. To the point its unplayable. In the old days when Ultima and Wizardry tried to immediately save character death to make it harder we could sneak by with a backup disk in the drive instead of the main character disk. Nothing you can do in Fire Emblem. Least unless you play it on an emulator and Save State it. Which we should NOT have to do. Its 2005. Permadeath saved to the game ended 20 years back.)

Its wierd but in some cases I LIKE only getting a nibble at a time. Games last longer (which is good since quality games for the GB family of portables are outnumbered 25-1 by liscensed kiddie crap), and its hard for tedium to set in since you are always left wanting more.

I think something similar happened in Japan back in the NES/Famicom era. A major publisher had been requested by parents groups or doctors or something to try to get kids to stop sitting in front of the system for hours on end. They had a big campaign promoting an hour a day of play. Their sales went UP because of this. I guess it prevents burnout and causes more enthusiasm for playing.

Hell, I think I beat almost as many games on the portables as I do the big home systems these days...

I agree with you that playing less often makes a game more fun and enjoyable. Instead of just rushing trough it you take a break and get time to reflect and enjoy what you have done. I have very little time to play these days so that is how it works for me. It also saves you money by making games last a lot longer.

[Shane R. Monroe]

just rediscovered this thread ah now i've got somewhere to really splooge out stuff about this game.

What i love about it is the multitude of uses the gameplay elements have. For example i make a bubble and rather than giving it to yoshi i sweep enemies down chasms (not a great way to get points but damn its fun) or throw them at enemies for a laugh and say if theres a nice juicy bonus on the top screen i draw the clouds vertically so that i can slow yoshi down.

Also to be safe i draw one line of clouds under another so i've got a better chance of not falling down. Theres just so much stuff to do.

Im really strugling on the time attack mode though (the one where you have to save luigi) there's so much to think about in that mode its insane.

The game has a lot of elements like that. I've also learned to bubble coins and drag them to Yoshi when they are impossible to get to conventionally. You really can do some interesting things in the game if you can treat it as a game and not some tech demo minigame.

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

Yeah i just somtimes experiment trying to find new ways to get more points, a new way i found is by making a bubble and quickly pushig the coins and enemies together putting them in a bubble and giving it to yoshi' nice bonus points :D .

Has anyone got the highest scores on all the modes?

EDIT: This game just gets better and better each time i play i swear marathon mode gains in genius each time random levels, music, enemies love it