Yoshi (1992)
Party - Puzzle

Publisher	Nintendo of America, Inc.
Developer	Game Freak, Inc.

You have to help Mario cope with falling Goombas, Bloopers, Boo Buddies, and Piranha Plants. As they fall, catch them on trays. Switch and shuffle them to save the day. Stack two of a kind and they both disappear. Or capture a whole bunch between two eggshell halves. A different kind of Yoshi will appear depending on how many enemies are between the eggshell halves. There is a password feature to save your progress.

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We have already established that Nintendo was looking to continue its success in the falling-block-puzzle genre following the release of Tetris. Their first attempt, Dr. Mario, was quite successful. Now it was time to build on that.

The Super NES had just been released, and gamers had been introduced to Mario's new dinosaur steed, Yoshi. Super NES gamers, anyway. Those stuck with NESes and Game Boys didn't have the opportunity to meet Yoshi yet. And so Nintendo killed the "market our new character" bird and the "make a new falling block puzzle" bird with this one stone: Yoshi, the game.

THE GAME
Yoshi is unique for the time, in that you don't actually manipulate the falling blocks. Instead, you manipulate where they land. The blocks are enemies from Super Mario Bros games: Goombas, Boos, Piranha Plants and Bloopers, along with top and bottom halves of yoshi eggs. There are four "columns" that these blocks can fall down, and they (typically) fall two at a time. At the bottom of each column is a "tray," and beneath those, Mario, holding two trays in his hands. You move Mario left and right, and push A to make him switch the positions of the two trays he's holding, which of course moves the stack of blocks on each of those trays. In this way, as I said, you decide what the fallings blocks will land on. Matching vertical pairs disappear, causing everything on top of them to fall.

The yoshi egg pieces are special. Any two egg pieces form a match and disappear, but top halves do not stay onscreen to join the stack once they land; they simply pop out of existance. Putting a top half on a bottom half makes a complete egg, from which a yoshi hatches. Also, if you "sandwich" enemies between a top and bottom half by stacking enemies on a bottom half and then putting a top half on top, all those enemies are also cleared out. The more enemies you eliminate this way, the more points you get, and the bigger the yoshi that hatches. The game keeps track of how many eggs you've made, just because, and the more you make, the fatter and droopier the picture of Yoshi on the right side of the screen becomes.

There are two types of game. In A Type, you just try to go as long as you can, with the blocks falling faster the longer you play, and with the blocks coming in sets of three rather than two and falling extra fast every so often. Like Tetris, kinda. In B Type, you start with some blocks onscreen, and you have to clear them. Like Dr. Mario. Oh, it's so obvious that I forgot to mention it, but the game ends when a stack reaches past the top of the screen.

There is a two-player game, which is like B Type, and the first player to clear their screen wins the round. It's a best three of seven thing. Unlike some puzzle games, there is no way to dump garbage blocks onto your opponent. You can set handicaps by having one player's speed and starting level higher than the other's. Oh, and player two has to be Luigi.

THE GOOD


Fine for what it is.

Controlling where the blocks land is a neat twist on the concept.
THE BAD


The graphics which were not directly lifted from Super Mario Bros. 3 (namely the images of Mario, Luigi and Yoshi) are a little weak.
TIPS & TRICKS


If a falling enemy is right beside a stack which is higher than it, the enemy is switched with the stacks if you switch the column its falling in with the taller stack. I know, that sounds complex, but it's the best I could do. It's very simple in practice, and if you think about it.
FINAL ANALYSIS
There's nothing wrong with Yoshi, but as far as falling block puzzles go, it's pretty forgettable. Still, that doesn't make it a bad game.

Thumbs up for Yoshi.