Yoshi's Story - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Upon its initial release, critics were generally displeased with Yoshi's Story. As a spiritual and literal successor to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the game was seen as being comparatively smaller in size and scope. Critics noted many disadvantages with the level design: there were only 24 courses in the game (in contrast to the 50+ courses of Yoshi's Island); each of them could be completed within minutes; and only six of them needed to be completed to clear Story Mode. The critics also disliked many other things about the game, such as the graphical details, the music, and the absence of vehicle morphing. Joe Fielder of GameSpot noted 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." GameSpot thereby rated the game a 5.3 for "Mediocre", while Allgame and Games Domain both awarded Yoshi's Story a 5 out of 10. Amongst the few more positive reviews, IGN gave a score of 7.0 for "Good", while Game Informer gave the game a "Very Good" score of 8.5 out of 10. As of February 2012, Yoshi's Story maintains a metascore of 65 (out of 100) on the Metacritic website, and 62.40% on GameRankings, based on a total of 8 reviews each.

On September 17, 2007, Nintendo made the initial release of Yoshi's Story on the Wii's Virtual Console service. The game made second place in Virtual Console downloads on the week of its release, behind Super Mario Bros. However, the critics' reviews for the VC release of the game were lower than those of the N64 release. GameSpot gave the VC download a "Poor" score of 4.0; 1.3 points lower than the previous Nintendo 64 review. The updated review gave Yoshi's Story five demerits: "Derivative", "Shallow", "Short", "Stripped" and "Too Easy". In IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas' review for the VC release, he gave it a 6.0 for "Okay", saying that the gameplay was "nonsensical" and "unengaging." Thomas commented that the game's "system of grocery-hunting was far and away removed from the style of play presented in the SNES Yoshi's Island, and far and away removed from that game's sense of fun." He also felt that the absence of Baby Mario and 50+ levels made the "premise disconnected. Boring." and that Yoshi's Story was "not the sequel to Yoshi's Island that it could have been."