{"id":9077,"date":"2017-12-29T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/12\/soapbox_yoshis_woolly_world_mended_my_rocky_relationship_with_yoshi"},"modified":"2017-12-29T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T22:00:00","slug":"soapbox-yoshis-woolly-world-mended-my-rocky-relationship-with-yoshi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/12\/29\/soapbox-yoshis-woolly-world-mended-my-rocky-relationship-with-yoshi\/","title":{"rendered":"Soapbox: Yoshi&#8217;s Woolly World Mended My Rocky Relationship With Yoshi"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"picture embed centered picture-900x img-900x\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a title=\"Yoshi's Woolly World - Loading Screen\" href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/12\/untitled_yoshi_woolly_world_thing\/attachment\/0\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/12\/untitled_yoshi_woolly_world_thing\/attachment\/0\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Yoshi's Woolly World - Loading Screen\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Yoshi has been my favourite character from the Super Mario series since he made his dino-riffic debut in <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/super_mario_world\">Super Mario World<\/a><\/strong> back in &#8217;91. I was so fond\u00a0of him at that time that I convinced my parents to name our new Bichon Frise puppy in his honour. To this day, when I play <strong>Mario Kart<\/strong> or <strong>Mario Party<\/strong> with friends, I selfishly rush to select Yoshi before anyone else can. When I stumble on a new Yoshi figurine at the store, I usually cough up the plastic quicker than Yoshi devours and expels his enemies. Even though my prehistoric pal has a history of disappointing me (which I\u2019ll get to shortly), he and I have developed a seemingly unbreakable bond, one that keeps me saddling back up whenever he flutter jumps back into town asking for money.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a short tale that should shed some extra light on the impact of this character&#8217;s presence in my life.<\/p>\n<p>About a year after the Nintendo 64 launched, Taco Bell gave away Nintendo-themed toys with its kids meals. One of those toys was a rubber-ish, vinyl-like Yoshi figurine, perfect for displaying in a bedroom or office. So that&#8217;s what I did with it. For the next 10 years of my life, that same Yoshi toy was a constant fixture on either my\u00a0desk or TV stand. When I moved on from my parent&#8217;s house in my early 20s \u2013 bouncing between places to live at least once a year \u2013 the toy joined me on my travels. I didn&#8217;t have any other significant childhood mementos with me during that era of my life, but I always kept that cheap figurine on display in the basements, bedrooms, and small living spaces I temporarily called home. In retrospect, I&#8217;d like to think it served as a daily\u00a0reminder of my youth, ensuring that, even though I was growing up, I never lost sight of my childhood views and ambitions.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<p>Here&#8217;s a glimpse of the Yoshi figurine (as well as the other N64-themed Taco Bell Toys)<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Sadly, the figure was eventually stolen (long story), and I\u2019m now realising it&#8217;s about time I visit eBay and seek out a replacement. But I digress.<\/p>\n<p>With such a profound\u00a0effect, I&#8217;m sure you can see why I&#8217;m so attached to the\u00a0Yoshster. That&#8217;s why\u00a0it&#8217;s been heartbreaking\u00a0to be an unwavering participant\u00a0in his inconsistent\u00a0video game career.\u00a0During the SNES era, we had Super Mario World and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/snes\/super_mario_world_2_yoshis_island\">Super Mario World 2:\u00a0Yoshi&#8217;s Island<\/a><\/strong>, which were absolutely stellar, imaginative games. After that, however, things have been much more&#8230; mediocre. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/n64\/yoshis_story\"><strong>Yoshi&#8217;s Story<\/strong><\/a> for N64 was a fun but half-hearted\u00a0successor to Yoshi&#8217;s Island. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/ds\/yoshis_island_ds\">Yoshi&#8217;s Island DS<\/a><\/strong> was modelled after the original, too much so, and it failed to\u00a0evolve its concepts in an exciting, meaningful way. The two spin-offs, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/ds\/yoshi_touch_and_go\"><strong>Touch &amp; Go<\/strong><\/a> and <strong>Topsy-Turvy<\/strong>, were bite-sized distractions\u00a0that couldn&#8217;t substitute for the absence\u00a0of the real deal. And don&#8217;t even get me started on <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/3ds\/yoshis_new_island\">Yoshi&#8217;s New Island<\/a><\/strong> for 3DS (Check out my <a class=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/reviews\/3ds\/yoshis_new_island\"><strong>review<\/strong><\/a> if you want to know more). In summary, even though most Yoshi games have at least been competent and mildly amusing, they&#8217;ve lacked the same level of magic and wonder that cemented the aforementioned-SNES games as classics.<\/p>\n<p>For many, many years, I held out hope that the <em>next<\/em> Yoshi game would be the one to make up for past letdowns,\u00a0but I&#8217;d be lying if I said my attitude wasn\u2019t pessimistic for quite some time.\u00a0That is, until\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wiiu\/yoshis_woolly_world\">Yoshi&#8217;s Woolly World<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0wrapped my jaded adult heart in a layer of the coziest, fuzziest yarn known to man.<\/p>\n<p>While not a perfect\u00a0game, Yoshi&#8217;s Woolly World is the most creative, charming, and memorable platformer to star Mario&#8217;s preferred method of transportation since the original Yoshi&#8217;s Island. Quality-wise, I&#8217;d say Woolly World is a notch or two below <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wii\/donkey_kong_country_returns\">Donkey Kong Country Returns<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wiiu\/donkey_kong_country_tropical_freeze\">Tropical Freeze<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0but a bit better than the best entry in the <strong>New Super Mario Bros.<\/strong> series. It successfully marries a gorgeous yarn aesthetic with inventive gameplay themes, offering something fresh with each successive\u00a0level. While World 4, and beyond, can present some turbulence due to an occasional\u00a0disparity between the stop-and-shoot mechanics and escalating\u00a0platforming intensity, which will likely only cause problems for completionists, it doesn\u2019t tarnish what makes this game so overwhelmingly delightful.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"object object-youtube\">\n<div class=\"youtube\">[embedded content] <\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>From the moment the title screen took over my\u00a0television, accompanied by the serene, innocuous sound of acoustic guitars, I knew Woolly World\u00a0was going to be a charmer.\u00a0And by the end of the first world I was entirely confident it was going to be the best Yoshi game since the Super Nintendo was considered current-gen. I wasn&#8217;t wrong. While I certainly could aim a very tiny, mostly yolk-less egg\u2019s worth of criticism its way, the important thing is that the game is <em>so<\/em> good that the past two decades of\u00a0disappointment have <em>mostly<\/em> faded from memory. Yoshi can once again puff out his chest with pride, and I no longer must sigh whenever I mention I&#8217;m a fan.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I know Yoshi\u2019s Woolly World released on the 3DS in the form of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/3ds\/poochy_and_yoshis_woolly_world\">Poochy &amp; Yoshi\u2019s Woolly World<\/a><\/strong> earlier this year, and there\u2019s an all-new Yoshi game, tentatively titled <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/yoshi\">Yoshi<\/a><\/strong>, in the works for Switch, but Woolly World is a game I think would fit marvellously on Nintendo\u2019s latest console at some point down the road. Between the stunning HD visuals of the Wii U version, the two-player local co-op, and the many objectives required to achieve 100% completion, this would be a sensible addition to the Switch library for play on the TV or on-the-go,\u00a0<em>especially<\/em> if it comes with the additional Poochy content in tow.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/12\/yoshis_woolly_world_rekindled_my_love_of_yoshi\/attachment\/2\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/12\/yoshis_woolly_world_rekindled_my_love_of_yoshi\/attachment\/2\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"A brilliantly-realized world of yarn\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>A brilliantly-realized world of yarn<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But, even if it doesn\u2019t make it over to Switch, I\u2019ll remain a happy guy. After years of flirting with fossilization, Yoshi\u2019s name is attached to one of the best side-scrolling platformers in recent memory \u2013 and for now, that\u2019s more than enough for me.<\/p>\n<p>Now let\u2019s just hope that the forthcoming Yoshi game continues this upward trend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yoshi has been my favourite character from the Super Mario series since he made his dino-riffic debut in Super Mario World back in &#8217;91. I was so fond\u00a0of him at that time that I convinced my parents to name our new Bichon Frise puppy in his honour. To this day, when I play Mario Kart [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}