Surprising at first, but logical when explored, is the decision to grant the Super Nintendo's Yoshi's Island a proper sequel. Certainly the most underrated entrant in the Mario platforming lineage, 1995's slice of pastel-shaded, child's imagination brought to life, holds a unique position in Nintendo fans' hearts. It was an astonishing shot of warped design for a franchise that was only a few years from leaping in three dimensions, in conventional drapings. With the SNES, and the 2 dimensional standard, about to be superseded, it was as if the brilliant minds of Nintendo sat down and let their ideas run wild on paper, like a yob chucking paint on a council house wall. The decidedly average Yoshi's Story on the N64 borrowed ideas, but hardly deserved the mantel of the sequel. Over a decade later, the franchise is being dug up, stretching onto two screens, and will be available for Christmas DS lovin' in a matter of weeks. The sequel we've been waiting for then?

Hopefully. The biggest warning is staring at you on your right, under the Developer heading. Yoshi's Island 2 isn't, strictly, being developed by the same company that wowed us with the original. It's being co-developed (we're not sure exactly how that works) by Nintendo and Artoon. You might remember the latter from the credits of the lacklustre Yoshi Gravitation the GBA, where you were invited to tilt your console to play the game. The studio does have experience in converting the green dinosaur to new technology then, although it didn't work out as we hoped for last time. Some might recognise the name from the Blinx platformers on Xbox… and I suppose the least mentioned on that, the better. We're confident that Nintendo are keeping a close eye on development – even if some IP-farming has produced less than stellar results, we've enough trust in Nintendo's sanity for them not to let any old business stick with the sequel to one of their unquestionable Greats (better than Super Mario World? Discuss!). Reports back from playtests vouch for the quality of the builds too, so we should be relatively confident in the title. Although why they couldn't have just done it themselves is unclear.

The DS update replicates the core game mechanics of the original, which, for the six readers who don't know what they were, goes like this: Yoshi carries Baby Mario on his back; Yoshi eats baddies and 'ejects' eggs; Yoshi uses eggs to hit things. This skew on traditional platform dynamics – and the distinctive art style – defined the game for all of us who fell in love with it as kids. It restricts the kinetic energy of the gameplay, forcing you to deal with more combat and puzzle sections than other Marios. And you've got to keep an eye on the baby on your back too – if you get hurt he floats off and the clock counts down until game over. Maternity, it seems, is taken very seriously. Both these elements make it that bit unlike the other platformers you play on your DS.

But wait! The game introduces a new component to the central maternity of the player. The original had you taking Baby Mario on a quest to rescue his slimmer baby brother from nefarious koopa forces; now you've a veritable menagerie of toddlers to accommodate. Dodgy stocks, having kidnapped all the nappy-sporting parts of the population, managed to miss Baby Mario, Peach, Wario, Bowser and Donkey Kong. At certain parts of the game you can switch between members of the surviving trio to modify your abilities. For instance, Peach can use her parasol to catch drafts and ride the air, while Mario lets you do some old-fashioned down-and-B stomping. Extra helping of strategy for your money: it'll hardly escalate into Advances Wars levels of difficulty, but it does add some diversity to the proceedings.

What else is new then? Well, the level proportions have been tinkered with to suit the visual height afforded by the second screen, and the palette has been brightened up with the console's superior graphical innards. In terms of game content, most else has remained the same. Collectibles like coins and flowers have more emphasis now, but that's hardly a weighty change. The art style, a wonderful collage of bright primary colours, cutely exaggerated character design, flowers, pastels and crayons straight from a four-year old's colouring book, remains as vibrant as ever.

By and large, it's still the same game that occupies your misty recollections. Same basic mechanics, art décor and the frantic panic when the kindergartener under your care is bawling and escaping. Whether it is able to inspire the same devotion in gamers, though, is a question we harbour more scepticism about.