Reviews// Catch! Touch! Yoshi! (DS)

So Baby Mario falls, held up by three life balloons, and you must shield him from harm by drawing clouds. Then you must ensure Yoshi doesn’t come a cropper by drawing clouds and firing eggs.



And in an eggshell, that’s the entire game explained. There is no story, no conclusion. Twists include the fact that Baby Mario in the falling game is always on the upper screen, forcing the player to anticipate somewhat in advance. Performance in the falling stage decides the difficulty level of the walking sections.

So onto the bad. And there is bad in Catch! Touch! Yoshi! A lot of it. Perhaps the most telling is the almost complete lack of level design. Earlier games in this line were entirely underpinned by design aspects mind-blowing in their sophisitication and logical but frenetic pace.



The level design in this DS re-work is almost non-existent. There is a floor, with holes in it and enemies. The game randomises much of the game, utilising algorithms that ensue completion is at all times possible. But that’s it. Either you are watching Mario fall or watching Yoshi walk. And this is a great shame. Nintendo seemingly abandoned its design principals in favour of delivering an unusual gameplay proposition.



C!T!Y! could almost be a mouse controlled freeware offering for PC knocked up in Flash by a Nintendo fan. This friends, is a real problem with emerging DS software that Nintendo must address. The novelty of being able to do with a stylus what was once only possible with a mouse will wear thin extremely quickly, highlighting to the world what the DS really represents – A rushed console in danger of becoming a once-trick pony.

So why can’t we put Catch! Touch! Yoshi! down? Really, it’s addictive, an adjective so often applied to many games incorrectly. “This game is really addictive!” No it’s not, it’s quite good and you enjoy playing it. It’s not addictive. C!T!G! is. Very! Everyone SPOnG has let play the game has wanted to play it more. This is where the good begins.