Review: Yoshi Topsy-Turvy
by Juliet Flores | April 11, 2006 in Portable Games | Comments Off
Have you ever found yourself shaking, tilting, and jumping up and down with your game controller in your hands as if this is going to make a slight difference on the way your game on screen will be affected? Wish that your acrobatic grace would help you win the game? Well wish no more, Yoshi Topsy-Turvy is here to tilt your world around.
Developed by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance or Nintendo DS systems Yoshi Topsy-Turvy is a true tilting adventure. I was skeptical at first that the game would really change depending on how you tilt the system while you play, but boy was I proven wrong! You cannot play this game the conventional way of just pushing buttons; Yoshi depends on you to tilt him around to accomplish the tasks that the spirits assign to him, as he tries to rescue Yoshi Island from the pop-up book world it’s been sucked into.
The graphics in the game are excellent; I really enjoyed the detail they put into making it look like Yoshi is inside a pop up book. As a texture artist who’s created textures for both 3D models and 2D animations I really enjoy looking at the detail that goes into a design, and this game’s artwork is really excellent. What I thought was an excellent design element is the cardboard-like edges on things. The art style flows with the whole concept of the game. The art style is very cartoon-like and the sound effects and music in the game are what one would expect from a Yoshi game.
This game really relies on your handling of the system. One small tilt will determine whether you get Yoshi up to the next level or you bring him to his doom and have to start the level over again. It’s really very enjoyable how they incorporated this type of mechanic into how you play the game. With each level you play, you’ll gain more experience that will help you reach the end and help Yoshi save his world. The game is not multiplayer by design and I doubt it would work well as a multiplayer title anyway. Unless the group you were playing with was really coordinated Yoshi would never get anywhere!
Personally I would enjoy working on designing a game such as this. The art style is to my liking and it really is an addictive game; I couldn’t put it down. It’s a lot of fun to play because it’s very different from most games on the market, where you just sit there and push a couple of buttons to get your character moving.
You actually have to move the entire system to get things rolling with this title, and that’s a cool and entertaining dynamic. The only thing I found to be annoying in this game is “The Spirit Who Loves Swiftness,” and believe me when I say this that this Spirit can be a pain. Check it out for yourself by picking
up a copy of Yoshi Topsy-Turvy.
Quality: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Game Play: 5/5
Developers Perspective: 5/5
Over all score: 5/5
