This is Lena's Retro Junk Review of the Nintendo Power Player's Guide to Yoshi's Island!
This guide actually came free with the copy of Yoshi's Island I got for Xmas 95. It was all packed in a BIG ol' box.
I don't like the idea of owning a game's guide the MOMENT you own the game, I think it spoils the game, so this was a weird package to have.
However, Yoshi's Island wasn't the sort of game that a guide would spoil, like Zelda or Portal. It stayed fun even if you knew the secrets.
I was at the peak of my Mario fandom as a seven-year old and LOVED Yoshi, but I knew VERY little about Yoshi's Island when we bought it.
The game was one of those "be good at school all year and you'll get a game for Xmas" presents. I chose it at random because Yoshi.
(Thank GOD I didn't ask my parents that Xmas for Mario's Picross because Mario.)
So I was in this weird situation of "here's a game you know nothing about AND a book that will instantly reveal ALL it's secrets. Go play."
I've never had that situation with any other guide I've bought, where it's truly (if inadvertently) played the role of COMPANION to a game.
So when I review this guide, I'll be reviewing it partly in that context; as something that assists my first experiences of Yoshi's Island.
Was this a GOOD guide? Did it help drill the magic of Yoshi's Island into my head more? Would I have been better off without it? Let's see!
Now THIS is how you write a description on the back of something! This blurb makes the guide sound like SO much fun!
Naaaw! These Yoshi's on the cover of the guide look SO cute. So many different colours! I WANT THEM ALL!
This guide needs to drive home the appeal of Yoshi as much as possible if Yoshi's Island is to sell a truckload. This cover is a good start.
The guide starts with this neat little introduction.
Reading THIS was how I first learned who Shigeru Miyamoto was!
Yoshi's Island was made by "a dream team of more than THIRTY ace artists, musicians and programmers."
Laughably small by today's standards!
This is beautifully written. Shame I skipped over it the first time I read the guide. I was like "Screw the writing! Show me the MAPS!"
This was an odd little trope of 90's game guides/instruction books: Quirky re-written versions of the in-game story.
Are these really necessary? We'll know what the story is when we play the game. You're just re-telling the story, not ADDING anything to it.
But even when these stories were flushed out with extra details, like in the Zelda: Link To The Past instruction book, I still didn't care.
The story the game provides is enough to get us playing. We don't need to read a longer or more detailed version of the story ALONG WITH IT.
Also, in most Nintendo games, the story was never the focal point. It was only ever used to give context. Who cares what Ganon's surname is?
There are some excellent ways in which this guide flushes out the Yoshi's Island universe, but this re-telling of the story isn't up-there.
As a kid, I didn't know what statements like "Tongue-Tied" and "The Fall Guy" meant until my parents clued me in.
"More uses than aluminium foil on a camping trip."
Hey, as a grown-up, I get what that means now!
"BABY GOT BACK"
Um... are you sure a Yoshi's Island guide is the most appropriate place to reference Sir Mix-a-Lot?
Looking through these moves pages, I realise just how much cool stuff Yoshi can do. He can transform, throw eggs, spit seeds AND butt-pound!
My dad used to tell me not to call it a "butt-pound." I didn't get why until now.
Just don't draw attention to it! Kids aren't gonna know!
Reading the egg-throwing instructions:
"Like a canny, big-league pitcher with a fastball and change-"
Erm... Help me out here, America.
I didn't realise until I saw the dollar signs and 1-800 number in the back pages that this was an American guide packaged with the UK game.
This was before The Simpsons first aired on non-cable TV in the UK, so the Americanisms in this guide confused the HELL out of child-me!
This is SO weird. Just below the Sir Mix-A-Lot reference is a Star Trek prime-directive reference! Who references THOSE TWO THINGS together?
References and Americanisms aside, this is such an easy-to-understand writing style. Kid-me had no trouble learning the key moves from this.
The best thing though is that these first few pages get you SO excited about playing as Yoshi. They make Yoshi look cool, cute and VERY fun!
To put this much appeal on playing as Yoshi straight away, AND get you to understand the controls and Yoshi's key skills so clearly? Bravo!
Something AWESOME that SNES Mario games had were monsters that looked fun to DRAW. I use to draw the BEJEEZUS out of these adorable creeps!
Roger The Potted Ghost?
No, Lena. Don't even THINK about it, Lena. Resist the urge to make a mean ageist joke about Roger Moore.
Is this at least visually the first appearance of Bowser Jr?
You can tell I'm old. I have this parental need to rub that snot off his face.
MAPS! Look at the MAPS! This was HUGE when I first saw it as a kid. Seeing a pixel-perfect map of the levels I was playing was MIND BLOWING!
As spoilery as guides were, they DID give me the confidence to try beat a game 100%. Thanks to the guide, I never had to fear getting stuck.
These hints are clear, concise and to-the-point and the maps are detailed, accurate, useful and most importantly, FUN to pore over! Love it!
Another great thing about guides is how well they advertise stuff you haven't unlocked yet. I WANTED these secret levels more than ANYTHING.
As tools for marketing, guides are good at making players continue to consume a game even when they're not playing it. I read guides in bed!
And when you have areas as dizzying and detailed as THIS one, you're going to be absorbing this guide for HOURS, thus these areas stand out.
Seriously, I'm starting to think that my school books should've taken a cue from guides like this!
HEY SCIENCE. BE FUN LIKE YOSHI'S ISLAND.
Towards the back, there are indexes about enemies and quirky objects seen throughout the game. All is once again laid out nice and clearly.
You gotta love guides trying to give official names to a game's nameless objects.
NO-ONE calls those platforms "Flatbed Ferries."
Knowing each monster's name made Yoshi's Island more goofy and endearing. It also helped you tap into your Pokédex impulses years too early.
After the monster index, the guide just... ends. No pomp or circumstance, no "thank you for reading," that's that!
Meh, still a GREAT READ.
Having spent so many years going to Gamefaqs and similarly dull-looking sites for gaming help, this guide was a visual breath of fresh air.
I wasn't just reading a guide, I was being led through the dizzying world of Yoshi's Island in an imaginative, detailed and delightful way.
It wasn't enough to just use this guide whenever I was stuck on the game. I HAD to absorb every scrap of information these pages put forth.
This guide showed me how wonderful and rich Yoshi's Island was. I wanted to know ALL this island's secrets and this book gave a vivid means.
Having said that, you'd think this guide would spoil the whole game. It didn't! It made you work harder than before to unlock everything.
Reading about the full Yoshi's Island experience wasn't a patch on actually playing it. The guide simply made the 100% finish more possible.
As a guide, all the advice you could possibly need for ANY point of the game is easy to look up, clearly laid out and excellently explained.
The thing I appreciate most about this guide though is that it truly understands and captures the bouncy, youthful spirit of Yoshi's Island.
A lot of guides I've read lay out info in a rigid, sterile way. They're a chore to read and it feels like the writers don't enjoy the game.
Every page of this guide jumps out at you and takes you bounding through the game's many pleasures with the joyous vibrancy of Yoshi itself.
All in all, this guide is FANTASTIC, but there IS something about it that's NOT so praiseworthy, and that's how much it annoyed my grandma!
You see, I was so enthusiastic about this game as a kid that I yearned for any opportunity to tell others about it, in RIDICULOUS detail!
Since my grandma was patient enough to listen to anything I had to say whenever she babysat me, I'd tell her about Yoshi's Island for HOURS.
The guide filled me with SO MUCH Yoshi trivia that I HAD to transmit it to whoever would listen. I was THAT into the guide's myriad details.
My poor grandmother couldn't share my enthusiasm though and finally said to me "WOULD YA SHUT YA FLAMIN' MOUTH ABOUT YOSHI'S BLOODY ISLAND?"
I've not mentioned Yoshi to her since!
So as a kid, you may enrage others with your obsession of this game, which this guide WILL NOT help!
But if you HAVE to be obsessed with ANY game as a kid, I can think of no better game than the rich, imaginative and POSITIVE Yoshi's Island.
So, in conclusion: GO OUT OF YOUR WAY TO READ GUIDES LIKE THESE, especially if you're a young person. You will thank yourself later in life!
That's my Yoshi's Island Guide Retro Junk Review done and dusted! Check back soon for... well, wait and see!
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