Yoshi's New Island

Yoshi's New Island is a 2.5D platform game developed by Arzest for the Nintendo 3DS and the third game in the Yoshi's Island series. It is a sequel to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island in which the stork attempts to find Baby Mario and Baby Luigi's real parents after it learns they were delivered to the wrong couple. Mid-flight, the stork is attacked by Kamek, who captures it and Baby Luigi while Baby Mario is dropped on Egg Island. There, a group of Yoshis discover the baby and set out to carry him back to the stork.

The game retains many key elements from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, such as Yoshi's Flutter Jump, eating and egg-throwing abilities, and the time-based health mechanic. Many familiar objects, enemies and sceneries make a return, despite the game's main setting being a location separate from Yoshi's Island. The highlighted features of Yoshi's New Island are two new types of eggs called Mega Eggdozers and Metal Eggdozers, which allow Yoshi to destroy rows of enemies, pipes and rocks in his path. Additionally, Yoshi's New Island introduces the Flutter Wing and Golden Flutter Wing items, which help struggling players beat levels they find too difficult, functioning similarly to the Invincibility Leaf from Super Mario 3D Land. This game is the first Yoshi's Island game to have characters and objects live-rendered with 3D models, and the game takes advantage of the Nintendo 3DS effects with gyroscopic control and stereoscopic 3D.

The game was eventually rereleased as a Nintendo Selects title in Europe, North America, Australia, and South Korea, being one of the best-selling titles on the Nintendo 3DS.

General
After the events of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the couple to whom the stork delivered Baby Mario and Baby Luigi allege that the brothers are not their babies. The stork then flies away to search for the real parents, when it clashes with Kamek and his goons once more. Kamek proceeds to defeat the stork in a fight and kidnap Baby Luigi, but Baby Mario slips and falls on the nearby Egg Island. He is found by a group of Yoshis who decide to take him to his brother and defeat Baby Bowser, now that he is planning to turn Egg Island into his resort.

After Baby Bowser is defeated at his castle, Yoshi and Baby Mario head over to the stork and Baby Luigi to rescue them. However, an adult Bowser travels through space and time and disrupts the reunion, challenging Yoshi to another battle.

After Bowser loses to Yoshi once again, Baby Luigi and the stork are rescued, and peace is restored to Egg Island. The stork then leaves the island in a spectacle of fireworks to resume its job of delivering the brothers to the right parents. After a long journey, it eventually arrives at their house and leaves the babies at the doorstep, where the couple discovers them shortly after. The cutscene fades to black and another ensues, where Mr. Pipe is seen revealing his true identity in the shadows before warping back to his time.

In-game
From the first cinematic of Yoshi's New Island: Narrator: This is a story that takes place a long, long time ago... Way up in the sky is a magical, cuddly land where babies come from. Storks come here to pick up infants for delivery to their soon-to-be parents. The stork has plenty of memories from his time with these special babies... Now he's off to deliver Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to their new happy home... Parents: "Huh?!" Parent: "Excuse me, but... who are these babies?! We're not expecting any babies!" Narrator: The couple is surprised and confused by this unexpected delivery. It seems our silly stork has delivered the babies to the wrong house! Stork: "The wrong house?! OH NO..." Narrator: Oh my word! We must get Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to their rightful parents! The stork rushes off in search of their true home. But then... HUH?!? WHOA!!! It's...it's Kamek! He's back to steal those babies once and for all! The dastardly Kamek swiftly nabs the brothers from our frantic stork. Stork: "NOOO!!" Narrator: What terrible luck! Baby Mario has fallen down toward the big, blue sea... From the second cinematic of Yoshi's New Island: Narrator: Welcome to Egg Island. The floating paradise was once a peaceful second home for the Yoshi clan. Until one day... Baby Bowser took over deciding the island would be an epic vacation home. The Yoshi clan searched all over but couldn't find Baby Bowser's hideaway. Now they live in fear of the evil power terrorizing their once-peaceful home. These Yoshis are all abuzz about where Baby Bowser and his castle might be. WHAT'S THIS?!? Suddenly, a baby with a red hat floats down from the sky. Thank goodness! Little Mario seems to be unharmed by the fall. Without skipping a beat, Baby Mario begins to crawl with determination... Wow! Using some kind of brotherly telepathy, Mario can sense Luigi's location! The Yoshis agree the island is too dangerous for a little baby. They decide to help by taking turns carrying the little guy on their backs. With Mario settled, the first Yoshi takes off. And so their adventure begins... Can Mario and the Yoshi clan rescue poor Luigi? Let's find out!

Gameplay
Yoshi's New Island is a platform game which plays the same in style as its predecessors, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Island DS. Much of the scenery and moves from the game are similar, as well.

The main addition to gameplay is the ability to swallow extremely large enemies and turn them into colossal eggs called Mega Eggdozers, which are bigger than Giant Eggs. When thrown, they function similarly to Mega Mushrooms, wrecking everything in their path, the accumulating damage filling a meter that can provide Yoshi with up to three extra lives. Poochy is also present and is able to walk on hazardous obstacles as before.

Minigames

 * Ground-Pound Pop
 * Tulip Toss
 * Flutter Fortune
 * Enemy Eat-Off
 * Eggy Pop
 * Flutter Finish

Characters

 * Yoshi
 * Green Yoshi
 * Pink Yoshi
 * Light-Blue Yoshi
 * Yellow Yoshi
 * Purple Yoshi
 * Orange Yoshi
 * Red Yoshi
 * Blue Yoshi
 * Super Yoshi
 * Baby Mario
 * Baby Luigi
 * Kamek
 * Baby Bowser
 * Bowser
 * Stork
 * Poochy
 * Blarggwiches
 * Mr. Pipe

Transformations
Upon entering a Whirly Gate, the Yoshi is led to a course and transforms into different things. Once he is transformed, he must go through a small course that uses the new ability, while watching out for the timer and collecting clocks to replenish it. At the end of the section, there is one or more rings that, if touched, Yoshi turns back to normal and leaves the place. The following are the forms Yoshi can take in the game:

World 1

 * Little Eggs, Big Eggs
 * Chomp Rock 'n' Roll
 * Cave of the Nipper Plants
 * Fort Bucket Booby Trap
 * Heads Up, Hop Up
 * Bouncy Beanstalk Walk
 * Ground Pound Rebound
 * Big Beanie's Castle
 * Diagonal Valley Rally (Special)

World 2

 * Koopa Canyon
 * Inside the Outside
 * Seesaw Scramble
 * Beware the Boo Brigade
 * Lantern Ghost Grotto
 * Gusty Glory
 * Hidey-Hole Hooligans
 * Count Fang's Castle
 * All Aboard the Terrain Train (Special)

World 3

 * Rise of the Nasty Nep-Enuts
 * Ukiki Jammin'
 * Harry Hedgehog's Labyrinth
 * Slime Drop Drama
 * Don't Fear the Spear
 * Ukiki Trouble in Clawdaddy Cove
 * Lose the Lunge Fish
 * King Clawdaddy's Sewer Castle
 * Ride the Blarggwich (Special)

World 4

 * Hop 'n' Pop Till You Drop
 * Underground Pokey Patrol
 * Spin-Lift Drift
 * Fort Key Calamity
 * Metal Eggdozers on a Roll
 * Chomp Shark Chase
 * Flatbed Ferry Freefall
 * Furious Fred de Fillet's Castle
 * See Poochy Run! (Special)

World 5

 * Brave the Bumpty Blizzard
 * Fine Feathered Friends or Foes?
 * Ski Lift Leap
 * Ready, Steady, Go!
 * Cruise the Clouds
 * Fire Watermelon Wonderland
 * Eggstraordinary Terrain
 * Punkey the Pokey Prince's Castle
 * Snow Go Mountain (Special)

World 6

 * Chomp Rock Challenge
 * Bandit Valley
 * Gargantua Blargg Attacks!
 * Spray Day Mayday
 * Hotfoot Hurdle
 * Pyro Guy Peak
 * Crumble Rock Rumble
 * Bowser's Castle Break-In
 * Make Way for King Bowser!
 * Leapin' Lava Meltdown (Special)

New

 * Door Heihō
 * Fake Yoshi
 * Fire Wanwan Dosun
 * Mame-san
 * Metal Guys
 * Mega Kantera
 * Slave Basa
 * Tetu Kantera
 * Tree Heihō
 * White Pokeys that move along the ceiling

Mid-Boss

 * Kamek (All Towers)

Bosses

 * Big Beanie (World 1)
 * Count Fang (World 2)
 * King Clawdaddy (World 3)
 * Furious Fred de Fillet (World 4)
 * Punkey the Pokey Prince (World 5)
 * Baby Bowser (World 6)
 * Bowser (World 6)

Reception
Yoshi's New Island has garnered mixed or average reception. Critics praised the visual style, but were heavily divided on whether the overreliance on its predecessor's gameplay aspect made the game itself successful or unoriginal and outdated. It currently holds a 64 average based on 72 reviews in Metacritic and a 65.80% based on 49 reviews on GameRankings.

Jose Otero of IGN praised the solid gameplay, but criticized the game for reusing ideas from the original and its soundtrack, while its new ideas do not stand out. He ended with, "Yoshi's New Island ' s inconsistent art and tacked-on new ideas are all layered on top of the same strong platforming and level design that made the original great.", giving the game a 7.9 out of 10. Edge lambasted the game, giving it a 4 out of 10, heavily criticizing the game's reliance on throwback to the original Yoshi's Island. Susan Arendt of Joystiq gave the game a 4 out of 5 stars, praising the solid gameplay. Jim Sterling of The Escapist says the game "boasts some charm and is certainly inoffensive, it's just not all that exciting." He praised the solid gameplay but criticized the tedium and difficulty. He gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. Dave Letcavage of Nintendo Life gave the game a 5 out of 10. He also criticized the game for being not being necessarily bad, but being "dull" and "unimpressive". He stated that the game is playable but is mostly filler. GameXplain gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying it was more of the same but that that was a good thing while stating that the soundtrack was often subpar.

References in later games

 * Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS - A trophy based upon Yoshi and Baby Mario's appearance in this game alongside a Mega Eggdozer appears, titled "Yoshi's New Island".
 * Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - The main theme and the music for Bandit Valley appear as songs for the Woolly World stage.
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - An arrangement of the main theme appears as a new song for Yoshi series stages.

Pre-release and unused content
In the announcement of the game during the Nintendo Direct of April 17th, 2013, coins and Red Coins were slightly bigger and had a different design. A level that is designed similarly to Make Eggs, Throw Eggs appeared in the footage. In the E3 2013 trailer build, the logo and the title screen were much simpler, as the final logo features a texture pattern as opposed to the simple gradient of the first logo.

Glitches
NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all names are conjectural.

Fall Through Platform
If Yoshi goes to Bouncy Beanstalk Walk and enters a pipe that infinite Shy Guys come out of, they have to jump to the right side or the left side along while touching the ceiling, Yoshi will fall through the platform.

Inside Smiley Blocks
This glitch is only found on Beware the Boo Brigade. If the player jumps when a smiley block is about to crush him, Yoshi will go inside the smiley blocks.

Fall Out of the Stage
The player must do the glitch and jump while they're in. Yoshi will fall out of the stage.

In the Wall
If Yoshi goes to Beware the Boo Brigade and stands on an edge of a smiley block, sometimes he might go through the wall.

Staff
Yoshi's New Island was developed by Arzest, the successor company of Artoon, along with some of staff for Nintendo. The game was directed by Masahide Kobayashi and programmed leading by Yuki Hatakeyama, music composed by CHAMY.Ishi and sound directed by Kazumi Totaka, and was produced by Naoto Oshima and Takashi Tezuka.

Nintendo eShop description
''Yoshi™ is back and he's bustin' out the big eggs. Crush your surroundings and create paths with his new Mega and Metal Eggdozers in a brand-new platforming adventure! It'll take more than egg tosses and flutter jumps to lead fledgling Mario™ through a dangerous new island littered with inventive power-ups. Can you save poor Luigi™?''
 * NA Version

''Guide Yoshi and a young Mario through all-new stages, from slippery slopes to watery wonderlands. New transformations turn Yoshi into Helicopters, Mine Carts, Jackhammers, and more—all steerable with gyro controls. There's even a special multiplayer mode where you face off with friends in six fast, fun competitions.''

''But as Yoshi fans know, it's all about the collectibles and they're more enticing than ever to find. You'll need the new Metal and Mega Eggdozers to beat puzzling platforming moments and locate every collectible and surprise. They're hiding—are you seeking?'' Yoshi's New Island is the first instalment in this series since Yoshi's Island DS was created in 2006.
 * EU Version

''Yoshi's good old Flutter Jump, Ground Pound and egg-throwing return, along with new abilities and challenges that take advantage of the features of the Nintendo 3DS. You can use massive eggs called Mega-Eggs to destroy blocks and pipes, revealing secrets such as coins and hidden keys. The more things you destroy, the higher the Mega-Egg gauge goes, netting you extra lives in the process!''

The beautiful art is based on many classic styles, such as oil painting, watercolours and crayon drawings.

Trivia

 * This is the only Yoshi's Island game thus far not to feature Yoshi's Island.
 * The game led to the release of a Play Nintendo game in 2014 called Yoshi's New Island Match-Up.