Yoshi's Story is a 1997 platform game published and developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It came after the Super NES game Yoshi's Island (1995) and is the second main game in the Yoshi series. It was the second Yoshi game released for a home console. The game was released in Japan in December 1997 and later around the world in 1998. It was later released again on the Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo EAD handled the development, with Hideki Konno and Takashi Tezuka leading the project. This was the first Yoshi platformer not made or directed by Shigeru Miyamoto. However, he helped with design ideas and supervised the game. The music was composed by Kazumi Totaka, who also voiced Yoshi in the game.
The game stays in the platform genre, similar to its predecessor. However, it focuses more on puzzles, with challenges often requiring strategies to earn high scores. Set in a pop-up storybook, the game uses bright pre-rendered 3D graphics to show worlds made from materials like cardboard, fabric, plastic, and wood.
Critics had mixed opinions. They didn't like the low difficulty, but praised the art style, music, and graphics.
Gameplay
The player can choose between two game modes from the main menu: Story Mode and Trial Mode. When starting either mode, the player can pick a course, identify the Lucky Fruit, and select a Yoshi of a preferred color to play as. Trial Mode does not include any courses at the beginning of the game. These courses must be unlocked by completing them in Story Mode.
Each course requires the player to fill the Fruit Frame by eating 30 pieces of fruit. Fruits are found in many places, such as on the ground, floating in bubbles, or carried by enemies. The puzzle part of the game asks the player to use strategy to earn a high score. For example, eating the same type of fruit in a row gives more points, and even more points are earned if the fruit is a Favorite Fruit or a Lucky Fruit. Melons provide the most points, and every level has exactly 30 hidden melons. Valuable secrets are also hidden in each course, which add to the total score.
Courses are organized across six pages, with four courses on each page. Courses are arranged by difficulty, and the player chooses which course to play individually for each page. The first page always shows four courses, but later pages begin with only one course. To unlock the remaining courses on a page, the player must find and collect Special Hearts. Each course contains three collectable hearts. The number of hearts collected determines how many additional courses are unlocked on the next page. For example, collecting two hearts in a course allows the player to choose from three courses on the next page.
Yoshis can run, duck, jump, ground pound, temporarily hover, and throw eggs. Eggs no longer bounce off walls or the ground, and Yoshis can no longer spit out enemies. Enemies swallowed by Yoshis turn into eggs immediately. Two Yoshi colors, White Yoshi and Black Yoshi, can be unlocked during the game. If both are found, they give the player two extra lives.
Plot
At Yoshi Island, the Yoshis live together in peace and happiness because of the Super Happy Tree, which grows special fruit. Baby Bowser becomes jealous of this happiness and uses magic to change the island into a pop-up storybook. He takes the Super Happy Tree, which makes the Yoshis weaker and causes sadness on the island.
Six eggs survive a difficult test and hatch into baby Yoshis. Confused by the sad state of their world, the baby Yoshis realize something is wrong and decide to fight sadness with happiness. They set off to find the Super Happy Tree and bring joy back to the island.
To reach Baby Bowser's castle, the Yoshis must travel through six pages of the storybook, each representing a different part of the island. Each page has four courses, but only one course on each page leads toward Baby Bowser's castle. After reaching the castle and completing the final course, the Yoshi playing the game faces Baby Bowser in a final battle. After Baby Bowser is defeated, a narration tells the story of each of the six pages and courses the Yoshis traveled through. The story ends with the Yoshis standing together in happiness, surrounding the Super Happy Tree. However, if a Yoshi is knocked out during the game, a scene shows Kamek’s helpers capturing that Yoshi and removing them from the game.
Development
The game was first called Yoshi's Island 64 for the 64DD floppy drive. Later, it was changed to a cartridge version. It was developed by the Yoshi's Island team, directed by Hideki Konno and produced by Takashi Tezuka. The first promotional video from the game was shown at Nintendo Space World in November 1996. The game featured colorful, computer-made 3D pictures and animations made of many small shapes. It also showed the Nintendo 64's ability to run 2D games. Shigeru Miyamoto said the 2D format was needed to create the artistic style the team wanted. Nintendo called the game "2.5D." The title was later changed to Yoshi's Story, announced in August 1997, with promotional screenshots shared. Soon after, the game was noted to have a memory expansion, increasing from 96 to 128 megabits. The completed game was shown at Nintendo Space World in November 1997.
The game was first released in Japan on December 21, 1997. Its international release was delayed from the fourth quarter of 1997 to February 9, 1998. Press reviews said the game was too easy and not rewarding. Nintendo of America asked for the game's difficulty to be increased. With extra time, changes were made to the international version, including cleaner graphics, white fences on cardboard courses, Egg Blocks that matched the Yoshi's color, new item locations, a different ending if the player finished a course with only melons, and additional secrets like hidden coins that spell letters. The updated version also added a save feature in Story Mode, letting players continue from the last page reached.
The game's sound effects were designed by Hajime Wakai. The vocal expressions for Yoshi were recorded by Kazumi Totaka. These recordings became the official voice for Yoshi, later used in Super Smash Bros. (1999) and other games. This trend stopped in 2009 with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which used the original Yoshi cry from Super Mario World as a tribute.
Kazumi Totaka also composed the game's music. The soundtrack changes dynamically based on the game's events. For example, if Yoshi is harmed and the Smile Meter has no petals left, the music becomes slower and lower in pitch. If Yoshi eats a Heart Fruit and becomes Super Happy, the music switches to a rock version of the current theme. Totaka included his 19-note signature melody in the game, which can be heard on the Trial Mode course select screen after the background music loops eight times.
Before the game's release, a promotional soundtrack titled Music to Pound the Ground To: Yoshi's Story Game Soundtrack was released in North America. Published by The Original Shape CD, Inc., the 15-track CD was shaped like Yoshi's head. However, its unusual shape caused problems with most non-portable CD players. The full soundtrack was released in Japan on February 4, 1998, by Pony Canyon. A third version, Love, Peace & Happiness: The Original Yoshi's Story Soundtrack, with 28 tracks, was released in Germany by Nintendo of Europe on April 9, 1998.
When Nintendo introduced the Game Boy Advance to U.S. developers on April 10, 2000, a tech demo based on Yoshi's Story was shown. It demonstrated the system's graphical power, featuring a rotating island shaped like a Yoshi and a seascape using the system's special rotate-and-zoom feature. The demo's level design used the colorful cardboard theme from Yoshi's Story, but gameplay was different. For example, Yoshi could not use his tongue or throw eggs, even though he could collect them. Screenshots showed giant Shy Guys, designed to show the system's improvement over the Game Boy Color. Though Nintendo shared a promotional image of the Game Boy Advance with the demo running, the demo was never released as a full game. It was later preserved and shown as a working example.
Yoshi's Story was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console in October 2007, on the Wii U's Virtual Console in early 2016, and on the Nintendo Classics service in October 2021.
Marketing and sales
According to the Japanese magazine Famitsu, Yoshi's Story sold 53,428 copies on the day it was released in Japan. This made it the seventh best-selling video game in Famitsu's top ten list. By January 4, 1998, the game had sold an additional 118,502 copies in Japan, bringing its rank to eighth place. At the end of 1998, Yoshi's Story had sold a total of 618,789 copies in Japan, making it the 27th best-selling video game in the country that year. In Germany, the game sold 150,000 units between January and September 1998. This placed it as the sixth best-selling console game in the region during that time.
Nintendo planned to release Yoshi's Story in North America during the 1997 holiday season. However, the release was delayed until March 1998. A Nintendo official explained that the delay was due to the company's goal of ensuring the game met high quality standards. After completion, Nintendo sent 800,000 copies of the game from Japan to American retailers. Retailers worried there might not be enough copies available, as had happened with the game GoldenEye 007. A Nintendo official assured them that the shipment would meet demand.
To promote the game in the United States, Nintendo sent advertisements directly to recent console buyers, placed ads in gaming and children's magazines, and aired a 30-second television advertisement on NBC, Fox Kids, Kids' WB, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network during children's programming. On March 7, 1998, Nintendo tested the game in Lizard Lick, North Carolina, a town with 1,300 residents. The event included contests with a "tongue" theme for children and video terminals where people could try the game. The game was originally scheduled to release on March 9, 1998, but heavy rain from El Niño storms caused a delay. The game was released the next day, on March 10, 1998.
An article in the Financial Times reported that the game's late release, limited supply, and distribution problems led to weak sales in the United States. Within one month, the game was sold at more than half its original price. Despite this, Yoshi's Story became a Player's Choice game on August 23, 1998. PC Data, which tracks U.S. sales, reported that the game sold 679,219 copies and earned $32.6 million in revenue by the end of 1998. This made it the eighth best-selling Nintendo 64 game in the United States that year. According to The NPD Group, Yoshi's Story was the 16th best-selling video game in the U.S. in 1998.
Reception
Yoshi's Story received a 65 out of 100 rating on Metacritic based on eight reviews, which means the game had "Mixed or average reviews." When it was first released, critics highly praised the game's music, simple controls, and graphics, especially how computer-generated images were smoothly combined with hand-drawn art. However, they also noted that the game was too simple, especially compared to its earlier version, Yoshi's Island, and that it was too short and easy, offering little value. John Ricciardi of Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote that "Fans of the original Yoshi's Island (one of the best platformers of all time) are going to be shaking their heads at the simplicity of this sequel." His co-reviewer, Crispin Boyer, said, "Nintendo got nearly everything right – the control, graphics, music, and sound effects are all brilliant. Now why aren't there enough levels, bosses, and secrets to keep me busy longer than a weekend?" Edge praised the game's computer-generated graphics for their variety of colors and scenery but criticized the gameplay for being too easy and lacking difficulty. Critics generally agreed that changes to the international version were positive but not enough to fix the game's short length and weak challenge.
Most reviews noted that young children, the game's intended audience, would likely enjoy it. Joe Fielder of GameSpot wrote that Yoshi's Story "was obviously designed so that younger players could play through quickly and feel some sense of accomplishment" and called it "good for a rental at best." A few more positive reviews, such as from Game Informer, praised the game's unusual art style, unique progression system, and many hidden secrets. Next Generation stated that "Yoshi's Story could have been a renaissance for side-scrollers. Instead, it sounds more like a death knell."
GamePro highlighted the game's impressive graphics as its main appeal, noting that younger players would enjoy it but older players might not. They also criticized the analog control for being too sensitive and frustrating, and suggested the game should have allowed use of the N64 controller's D-pad. Peer Schneider of IGN, however, said the analog control was an improvement over Yoshi's Island, praising its ease of use. He summarized his mixed feelings: "At its best, the level design is right up there with the original Mario games and impresses with innovative control, great graphics, and original levels. But at other times, Yoshi is an unchallenging romp through levels that reek of recycled game ideas, derivative layout, and clueless enemies."
On September 17, 2007, Nintendo released Yoshi's Story on the Wii's Virtual Console service. Reviews of the Virtual Console version were not enthusiastic. GameSpot gave it a 4.0 out of 10, noting that "Like many other Nintendo 64 games on the Wii's Virtual Console, Yoshi's Story had improved graphics with clearer details and fewer slowdowns during boss battles. However, rumble support was removed, just like other N64 releases." They again criticized the lack of interesting designs and challenge. In IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas's review of the Virtual Console version, he gave it a 6.0 out of 10, saying, "It's nonsensical. And worse, unengaging." He repeated criticisms of the game's short length and lack of challenge, adding that in hindsight, Yoshi's Story marked the beginning of Yoshi's decline in popularity and did not compare well to later games like Yoshi's Island DS.
In 2020, Screen Rant praised the game's artistic style, commenting that "The crisp 2D layout and colorful storybook vibe give it a timeless quality."