Yoshi's Story

1997 · Platform · Nintendo 64

About Yoshi's Story

Yoshi's Story (1997) is Nintendo's "2.5D" Nintendo 64 follow-up to Yoshi's Island, set in a pop-up storybook of cardboard and cloth, praised for its looks and criticised for being too short and easy.

Yoshi's Story in Depth

Rather than reaching a goal, the aim in each course is to fill the Fruit Frame by eating 30 pieces of fruit, found lying about, in bubbles or carried by enemies. Scoring rewards strategy: eating the same fruit in a row earns more, and more still for each Yoshi's favourite fruit or the course's Lucky Fruit, while melons score most and exactly 30 are hidden in each course. The courses are spread over six pages of a storybook, four per page in rising difficulty. After the first page only one course is open on each, and collecting Special Hearts, three per course, opens more on the next page. Yoshis can run, duck, jump, ground-pound, hover briefly and throw eggs, though eggs no longer bounce and swallowed enemies become eggs at once. White and Black Yoshis can be found and unlocked.

Baby Bowser, jealous of the Yoshis' happiness, turns Yoshi Island into a pop-up book and steals the fruit-bearing Super Happy Tree. Six baby Yoshis hatch and set out to fight the gloom with cheer. The worlds are made of materials such as cardboard, fabric, plastic and wood, rendered in 3D but played in 2D.

Making Yoshi's Story

The Yoshi's Island team developed it, directed by Hideki Konno and produced by Takashi Tezuka, with Shigeru Miyamoto supervising and contributing ideas. Shown at Space World in November 1996, it demonstrated that the Nintendo 64 could run 2D games; Miyamoto said the 2D format was needed for the art style, and Nintendo called it "2.5D". Its cartridge was expanded from 96 to 128 megabits. Totaka's interactive score slows when Yoshi is unhappy and turns to rock when he is Super Happy.

It was released in Japan on 21 December 1997, where it sold 618,789 copies in 1998, and in North America in March 1998 after a delay Nintendo said was "based on us demanding A-plus quality", launched with an event in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. US sales of 679,219 by the end of 1998 were hurt by a late release and supply problems. It averages 65 on Metacritic: critics loved its graphics and music, but EGM's Crispin Boyer asked why there were not enough levels, bosses and secrets "to keep me busy longer than a weekend".

Yoshi's Story Trivia

It began as Yoshi's Island 64 for the 64DD before moving to cartridge.
After Japanese reviews called it too easy, Nintendo of America demanded more challenge, and the Western version gained changes and a Story Mode save.
Composer Kazumi Totaka also voiced Yoshi; those recordings became Yoshi's voice in later games, starting with Super Smash Bros.
Totaka's 19-note signature melody plays on the Trial Mode course select screen after the music loops eight times.
Its US soundtrack CD was cut in the shape of Yoshi's head, causing problems in many CD players.