Yoshi's Story

What is a Yoshi? Yoshi is a happy little dinosaur, who has a very agile tongue (like a frog) and likes to eat fruit! A very cute little guy and one of the Mario set of characters.

The introduction to Yoshi's Story is a delightful rhyming explanation of how Baby Bowser (the bad guy) somehow caused Yoshi's Island to be transformed into a picture book, and the Super Happy Tree to disappear. Luckily, Yoshi's eggs survived and hatched into 6 little Yoshi's who will save the day!

They just have to follow the fruit trail to the Super Happy Tree - they need to eat lots of fruit to make them happy of course. Pick one of the Yoshi's (his lucky fruit is indicated) and get going. Collect eggs to pop bubbles and destroy enemies like the Shy Guys, Bowser's cohorts. Your lucky fruit restores health, coins give extra points, a heart gives temporary invincibility, Poochy gives directions and reveals secrets, and so on.

There is an excellent Practice Mode which provides a detailed tutorial to help get started. For example, it tells you all you ever wanted to know about how to jump higher in a Flutter Jump! Story Mode is the real game, with 6 major levels. Beat each level by collecting a certain amount of fruit. The scenes are varied and interesting with great graphics, and the bad guys are not frightening.

This game is suitable for young children, as long as they can manage the controls - probably 6 and up. Some reading is required, but could be explained by an older child or adult. My 9 and 10 year olds still enjoy Yoshi's Story and go back to it, but have not played it with the same passion as other games that they enjoyed more.

A fun game for the younger crowd!