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

You see, here’s the trick. You’ll read everywhere that C!T!Y! is a prime example of how the DS can be enjoyed by everyone because it’s so accessible. This is as wrong as wrong can be. It’s super inaccessible. Would you say Ikaruga is accessible because a non-gamer can grasp the basic concept and play for a minute before being wiped out? No, of course you wouldn’t.



Catch! Touch! Yoshi! is hardcore. As hardcore as a game gets. For instance, you have to start with the falling stage every time. This forces you to get better at the game. And incredibly in these times of pussyfoot gaming, you only get one life in the main game. One mistake. One slight error of skill or judgement per seven minute level. That is unremittingly hardcore gaming.

And herein lies a gaming secret either forgotten or ignored in the mainstream since the days of the Dreamcast. Casual gamers enjoy hardcore gaming, ironically more than the hardcore elements of gaming in some cases. You have to ask yourself why non-gamers want to play this game for hours on end. It’s because they fail by making a single mistake. A mistake they know they can avoid next time around. So they try again, make it to the next checkpoint and continue.



So we have a single life on-rails shooter/platformer. How could it be made more hardcore? Nintendo made it more hardcore by removing all story, all fluff and implementing a time-attack option that is totally rigid.

There is a scoreboard. You want your name at the top. Well actually icon – there is a selection of generic faces and even some old Nintendo sprite-grabs for your avatarial pleasure. You want it at the top because it’s a scoreboard. The scoreboard tells you nothing except who is the best player. Ask yourself, when was the last time you played a game with a scoreboard. SPOnG’s last scoreboard obsession was with the wages-stealing Outrun 2. Although strictly this was a timeboard, the gaming pride principal still applies.