Yoshi's Cookie

Yoshi's Cookie (also known in Japan as Yoshi no Cookie) is a puzzle game, similar to Tetris, developed by Nintendo R&D 1 (NES and Game Boy) and Bullet-Proof Software (SNES) and published by Nintendo (NES and Game Boy) and Bullet-Proof Software (SNES) in 1992 for the NES, SNES, and Game Boy. It received a Japan-only remake for the Nintendo GameCube, called 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. Upon its release, Yoshi's Cookie received mixed to positive reviews.

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 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, donuts, and Yoshi Cookies (shaped like Yoshi's head). The game consists of three modes: Action, VS, and Puzzle.

Action Mode
Action Mode 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. After the player beats a certain stage, who can view a short, humorous cutscene with Mario. Rounds 11-99 are also unlockable, and within them the cookies are replaced by Mario enemies (except for the Yoshi Cookie).

VS Mode
VS Mode is a simple 2 player/1 player vs. COM game. The player starts off by picking one of four characters: Mario, Peach, Yoshi, or Bowser. The goal of the game is to keep a lit fuse higher or it runs out and all the player's pieces go away. To keep the fuse higher, the player have to consistently clear rows of 5 against the player's opponent. Getting 5 Yoshi cookie's in a row would often give the player a special, such as the players covering up the player's opponent's screen with question mark blocks or taking control of the opponent field.

Puzzle
The objective of Puzzle Mode is to clear the field with a limited number of moves. The puzzles range from simple to complex.

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. Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris, designed the puzzles.

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 afterward 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 was made for the SNES prototype of the game, but was taken out for final release.
 * 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 All-Stars, 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 stage from this game makes an appearance in Tetris DS.