Yoshi's Cookie

Yoshi's Cookie is a puzzle game, similar to , developed by Nintendo R&D 1 and published by Nintendo for the NES and Game Boy in 1992, and developed and published by Bullet-Proof Software for the SNES in 1993. Upon its release, Yoshi's Cookie received mixed to positive reviews.

The SNES version received a Japan-only Super Famicom re-release, titled Yoshi no Cookie: Kuruppon Oven de Cookie with an added mode. Additionally, a Japan-only remake for the Nintendo GameCube was included in Nintendo Puzzle Collection, where it was bundled alongside Dr. Mario 64 and Panel de Pon. The remake added a story mode the previous three versions lacked. Yoshi's Cookie was later ported to the Wii's Virtual Console in 2008, but it was delisted from the service on October 2013 in all regions except South Korea. Eventually, the game was later delisted from South Korea in 2019 due to the closure of the Wii Shop Channel. Yoshi's Cookie was also originally planned to be released on the Wii U's Virtual Console, but this ultimately never happened.

Gameplay
The objective of the game is to clear the stage of cookies, which appear from the top and the right of the screen. To clear cookies, the player needs an entire row of the same cookies (at least two) either horizontally or vertically. To move the cookies, the player has to press // on a cookie and press a direction on the directional pad. Depending on the direction the player presses, the row the cookie is on is then moved either vertically or horizontally. There are six types of cookies: heart cookies, sunflower cookies, green cookies, checkered cookies, ring shaped cookies, and Yoshi Cookies (shaped like Yoshi's head). The Yoshi Cookie can be used as a substitute for other cookies, allowing the player to eliminate rows of cookies without the proper piece(s). The game consists of two modes: Action and VS. The third mode, Puzzle, is exclusive to the SNES version.

Action Mode
Action Mode or 1P is a game consisting of 10 rounds, with each round containing 10 stages. Before the game starts, the player can set the round which who wants to play in, the falling speed of the blocks and the music. The player must clear all of the blocks to clear a stage. As time passes, more cookies appear from the top and the right, which speeds up the longer the player is in a stage. If a row or column of cookies at any time contains more than seven cookies, the game is over.

After the player beats a round, who can view a short, humorous cutscene with Mario.

Clearing 15 cookies of one type in the same stage causes a Yoshi Cookie to generate, and that cookie's counter resets to zero.

Rounds 11-99 are also unlockable; within these rounds, the cookies are replaced by Mario enemies (except for the Yoshi Cookie), resembling the graphics from the original Yoshi game. These rounds also add Koopa Troopa shells; the Koopa tiles do not materialize from the corners of the screen, and as such, can only be eliminated via the Yoshi-shaped cookies. To access the later rounds in the NES and Game Boy versions (as revealed in the game's ending), the player must do the following:
 * Set the music type to "Off".
 * Set the speed to "Hi".
 * Set the round to "10"; then hold Up + Select to advance to round 11.

VS Mode
VS Mode is a simple 2 player game, with the player also able to challenge the computer in the SNES and Game Boy versions. The player starts off by picking one of four characters (except in the NES version): Mario, Princess, Yoshi, or Bowser. The GameCube version can be played with up to four players.
 * Mario is a balanced character.
 * Yoshi has stronger defenses against attacks, with the length of effects received from other players halved. The event shown appears for a longer time as Yoshi.
 * The Princess has weaker defenses, meaning that events received from other players will have a longer duration on the Princess. The event shown appears for a shorter time as the Princess.
 * Bowser has more powerful attacks, but the timer drains faster.

Each player has a 5×5 board. The goal of the game is to accumulate 25 points (with each match worth one point) before the opponent to win, although a handicap adjustment exists to start with more points. The player must make a match within the time limit, as allowing the time bar to fill up (or the fuse to run out) will result in a loss for the player.

The first player to win three rounds takes the match.

Aligning Yoshi Cookies will either benefit or harm the player. Depending on the special shown, the player should be careful not to penalize themselves.
 * List of Yoshi Cookie effects
 * Blind: The player is temporarily unable to see the middle nine tiles of their board.
 * Panic: The player's board is shuffled and cannot take action while the board is being shuffled.
 * Slave: The player temporarily loses control of their board as it is being controlled by the player who triggered it (copying exactly what the player is doing). Nothing happens if Slave targets themselves.
 * −3: Subtracts three points.
 * +3: Adds three points.
 * −7: Subtracts seven points.

Puzzle
This mode appears only in the SNES version of the game. The objective of Puzzle Mode is to clear the field with a limited number of moves. The puzzles range from simple to complex. There are a total of 100 puzzles, with ten rounds of ten puzzles each. Each puzzle is associated with a password, allowing the player to continue where they left off by inputting it.

Staff
The Game Boy and NES versions were developed by Nintendo R&D 1 and published by Nintendo, with Gunpei Yokoi acting as the producer.

The SNES version was developed and published by Bullet-Proof Software as they retained the rights for the SNES version and Nintendo licensed the characters and allowed them to use the "Yoshi's Cookie" Branding. , creator of , designed the puzzles.

Cutscenes
The round completion cutscenes for Action Mode are as follows:


 * Round 1: Mario chases after a rolling ball (presumably cookie dough) and catches it, striking a pose.
 * Round 2: Mario chases after the rolling ball, only ends up rolling with the ball when grabbing on.
 * Round 3: Mario chases after the rolling ball, only to be humorously chased away by a larger bouncing ball (implied to be its parent)
 * Round 4: The ball bounces before hitting a wall, which then causes it to roll backwards into Mario (who was right behind it), knocking him over while the ball spins erratically.
 * Round 5: The ball spins erratically as Mario chases after it, only to end up eaten by Yoshi, to Mario's shock and Yoshi's amusement.
 * Round 6: Mario chases the ball down a slope, only to end up overtaking it in speed.
 * Round 7: The ball rolls then hits a wall and rolls back, with Mario proceeding to jump, only to end up squishing the ball.
 * Round 8: The ball falls down a ledge after rolling. Mario chases after it, only to find himself tripping due to unknowingly being on the ball, and the ball rolling away as Mario falls onto his back.
 * Round 9: The ball rolls to a cliffside as Mario chases after it, only for the ball to fall off the cliff, and ascend as an angel, with Mario looking sheepishly at the player.
 * Round 10: The ball is rolling and Mario and Yoshi, from opposite sides of the screen, proceed to grab it and then strike poses alongside the ball.

In the SNES version, the ball was revealed to be part of the Yoshi Cookie sign that fell off, and also has a slight animation of what occurs, and in the final one has Peach and Bowser joining the celebration during the credits.

Development
Yoshi's Cookie started as an arcade game named Hermetica (later renamed Archimedes) developed by the company Home Data. This incarnation of the game featured alchemy-themed graphics. The game received a very poor reception when it was location-tested at arcades in Kansai and Tarumi, causing Home Data to abandon further development and sell the rights to the game to Bullet-Proof Software. Outside of answering design questions from designer Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Hermetica had no involvement in the game's reworking as Yoshi's Cookie.

It appears that, before Yoshi's Cookie ' s production, B.P.S. developed a generic version of "Hermetica" known as Inaro in 1991; a sample of this game was on the Blue Planet Software website in the 2000s. Several home ports of Yoshi's Cookie feature copyright information referring to Inaro, namely the Wii Virtual Console version.

References in later games

 * Game & Watch Gallery 3: The Modern version of Egg has a Yoshi consuming various cookies, their designs coming straight from Yoshi's Cookie.
 * Game & Watch Gallery 4: Due to the Modern version of Mario's Cement Factory replacing cement creation with cookie baking, Mario is creating Yoshi Cookies as a result.
 * Tetris DS: A stage from this game makes an appearance.
 * Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario: One of the cookies in the Zess Cookie and Sweet Cookie Snack icon resembles the checkerboard cookie from Yoshi's Cookie.
 * Yoshi's Woolly World: The Yoshi and Cookies stage is a reference to the game, and Yoshi Cookies appear as elements in the level.
 * Super Mario Odyssey: In this title, Mario can wear a chef outfit that is identical to the one depicted in the NES version of Yoshi's Cookie.
 * Mario Kart Tour: The chef outfit from Super Mario Odyssey reappears in this game as the outfit for Mario (Chef). A glider named Yoshi's Cookies, based off of the cookies in the game, is also featured.

Trivia

 * In the NES and Game Boy versions, there was a cutscene at the title screen where Mario would walk onto a screen with a jar of cookies. He would then try to open it, to no avail. He then gets an idea and walks off the screen. Yoshi comes up soon after and eats the jar whole. Mario then reappears with a hammer and begins chasing Yoshi off the screen. Later, he returns back on screen holding the cookie jar, which was empty to begin with. This, however, bears no influence on the game itself. This intro (slightly expanded to show Yoshi and Mario re-congregating and then striking a pose before walking off) was made for the SNES prototype of the game, but was taken out for the final release.
 * The backgrounds used in the SNES version resemble those from Super Mario World.
 * The SNES version of Yoshi's Cookie featured a slightly-updated version of Yoshi's appearance, in which he has a bigger head, longer and more human-like arms and shorter neck. This appearance would be later used in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and later games. This game also marks the first time in-game that Yoshi's speech comprises of his name, a trait later used in Yoshi's Story and popularized by Super Smash Bros.
 * The title screen in the SNES version is a parody of the logo.
 * Hello Kitty no Beads Kōbō (ハローキティのビーズ工房), a Japan-exclusive Game Boy Color game, is effectively a sequel to Yoshi's Cookie; however, it lacks any Super Mario elements. Its gameplay is derivative of the original game; the player must create lines of one specific type of tile, rather than clearing out all of the pieces. The copyright screen of the game states "©1992 Nintendo", referring to Yoshi no Cookie ' s release date.