Yoshi’s Story is an incredibly cute game that just oozes charm. On a quest to save their magical fruit tree from Baby Bowser, the Yoshi’s journey across a book across six worlds, eating a lot of fruit along the way.

In each level, your goal isn’t to make it to the end, it’s to eat 30 fruit. Fruit is also health – apart from chillies, which the Yoshis hate (shame, they’re delicious). Getting the 30th one ends the level no matter where you are, so if you’re after finding the super hearts or just more points, you’ll want to hold off. The platforming is great (other than some blind jumps) and there are lots of little secrets to discover.

The biggest issue with Yoshi’s Story is the game’s structure. In a similar style to Star Fox 64, you only play a portion of the levels – one from each of the six worlds. So reaching the Baby Bowser (who is ridiculously easy to defeat) does not take long at all if you’re munching up fruit whenever you see it. I feel like it does Yoshi’s Story a massive disservice, and many people will miss a lot of the game due to this.

In order to unlock more levels, you need to search the levels for giant hearts – needing to find three each time if you want the fourth stage in each world. There’s also an additional challenge of only eating melons – there are exactly 30 in each level. This all adds to the replayability, but as much as I love the game, I just really hate its structure.

Great

But those appreciative of the art that is game development will rightly sit back, look at Yoshi’s Story and admit that it’s incredibly good fun. And that, at the end of the day, is what it’s all about.

Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #15. Review Score: 86%

Remake or remaster?

A remake would be amazing. The different graphical styles (craft, wool, inflatables) would pop even more with added detail and they could provide different ways to play to change the structure of the game.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no way to buy a new copy of Yoshi’s Story, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

Re-releases

2007: Wii Virtual Console

2016: Wii U Virtual Console

2021: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)