Yoshi’s Island DS

Yoshi's Island DS arrived in November 2006, roughly two years into the Nintendo DS's commercial lifespan — a period when the handheld had already proven itself a dominant platform and developers were growing more confident exploiting its dual-screen hardware. The game was developed by Artoon, a Japanese studio that had previously worked on titles such as Yoshi Topsy-Turvy, and published by Nintendo. It serves as a direct follow-up in spirit to the beloved Super Nintendo classic Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, carrying forward that game's hand-drawn crayon aesthetic, egg-throwing mechanics, and the core premise of Yoshi protecting a baby from Kamek and Bowser's forces. Rather than a simple port or remake, Yoshi's Island DS was designed as a new, original adventure built specifically around the DS's dual screens, which together form a tall, vertically extended play field — a meaningful design choice that allowed levels to be taller and more layered than anything possible on a single screen. The game retains the signature Yoshi gameplay loop: swallowing enemies to produce eggs, aiming and throwing those eggs to hit targets and collect items, and fluttering to extend jumps. A central new mechanic is the introduction of multiple babies beyond just Baby Mario. Baby Mario, Baby Peach, Baby Donkey Kong, Baby Wario, and Baby Bowser each ride on Yoshi's back and grant distinct abilities — Baby Mario enables a dash and wall-jump boost, Baby Peach allows Yoshi to catch wind currents and float, Baby Donkey Kong lets Yoshi grab and swing on vines and ropes with greater ease, Baby Wario uses a magnet to attract metal objects and coins, and Baby Bowser can breathe fire. Levels are structured across five worlds plus a final confrontation, each world containing multiple stages and a boss encounter. The scoring system from the original game returns: players collect red coins, flowers, and stars (which serve as a health buffer) within each level, aiming for a perfect 100-point score on every stage. This completionist layer significantly extends the game's replay value beyond a straightforward run to the credits. The touch screen and microphone features of the DS hardware are used sparingly and mostly in minigame contexts rather than core traversal, keeping the primary experience grounded in traditional d-pad and button controls. Upon release, the game was received positively by critics and players who appreciated its faithfulness to the SNES original's feel, the visual charm of its art style, and the variety introduced by the baby-swapping mechanic. Some criticism was directed at the level design being perceived as less inventive than the 1995 original and at Baby Wario and Baby Bowser feeling underutilized compared to the other babies. Nonetheless, it stood as one of the more polished platformers available on the DS at the time of its launch and found a solid audience among fans of the Yoshi series and Nintendo platformers broadly.