Touched by a Yoshi'

It's been a long time since something truly arcade like came around, with no real plot persay, just an objective to reach and a high score to defeat. These were the things that used to make arcades such large draws for our endless quarters.

Though, arcades just aren't the same now that the consoles and even handhelds can come close if-not surpass the graphics provided. So, with it, so has the way of the arcade game somewhat faded over the years.

Yoshi's touch & Go on the other hand is something of a arcade revolution. Where as, it's not really about a specific story rather just a task of achieving higher scores and lower times. Through the use of the touch screen and in some cases the microphone.

Don't come into this game thinking you're getting a full fledged Yoshi Adventure, this is an arcade style game at it's core. With two basic modes making up pretty well all the gameplay.

Falling!

Yes, I'll cover the Baby Mario scenes first, as it's probably both one of the more interesting scenes and the first thing you'll be thrown into should you buy the game.

It starts off with a stork carrying you to your destination (Where ever italian plumbers get taken, I mean other then the bronx) Unfortunately, poor baby Mario gets dropped, and sent plummeting thousands of feet in the air towards the ground!

Lucky for you though, your given three clouds to help slow your decent, and the ability to draw clouds with the stylus to help "Steer" baby Mario in the right direction to collect coins and avoid monsters that happen to be occupying the skies.

Drawing clouds isn't all you can do with the stylus in this mode either, you drawing a circle around an enemy or groupings of coins (or even enemies) you can swallow them up into a bubble in which you may also using the stylus attempt to fling at Mario.

The point of collecting coins is to achieve a better Yoshi colour (each colour getting more eggs, which we'll get too later)


Side Scroller

Once you've safetly landed Baby Mario, he ends up on the back of Yoshi (different colours dependant on how well you did during the falling scene) and head off into a platformer-esc shoot'em up.

Riding on Yoshi's back you're once again placed with the task of drawing clouds to keep the duo from falling into the holes in the ground and large empty gaps, along with the abilty to launch a limited number of eggs at enemies that happen to be in your way (Be it, your direct way, or in the way of you getting a higher score)

Circling enemies and coins produces coins (if you draw a good enough circle that is) which can be brought back to Yoshi for collection, firing an egg at coins is another way of collecting, and the only way to collect the coins on the upper most screen.

The action takes place on the bottom screen and top, while you travel on the bottom, various powerups, enemies, and events will be happening on the upper screen that you'll have to keep an eye on aswell.

Yoshi can replenish his eggs by the simple (sometimes) task of finding fruit and eating it. Sometimes this requires you to draw paths straight to it, others you can simply allow put them into bubbles and send them floating off towards the small child-carrying-dinsosaur.

Presentation

The music is as upbeat as you'd expect from a Nintendo game, the backgrounds scroll along smoothly and the cartoony style suites the general mood and atmosphere. There are four play modes, two of which must be unlocked by recieving the number one score in the first two missions.

They aren't extremely different from the rest, and almost all the game happens in the same 'looking' places with no varied locals or otherwise.


Multiplayer

The only multiplayer is a rather race-to-the-finish with desctruction of some enemies on your opponents screen bringing further difficulties to yours. It's fun, but after a while the lack of variety tends to get to you.

Conclusion

It remains great for pick up and play, as most arcade like games do, though those looking for a lengthy adventure will certainly find some disappointment in this title.