Yoshi, Mario and Luigi, and Link show why Nintendo still has it when it comes to handhelds.
In the year of Luigi, the game Mario and Luigi: Dream Team was available to play. In the game, you control both Mario and Luigi to rescue the Princess from the “dream land.” Will Kirby be there to help out? It plays like the other Mario and Luigi games in the series. Mario goes into the dream land and gets the help of dream Luigi’s because the only way to enter the dream land is through Luigi dreams. Mario can borrow Luigi to use dream moves which include Luigi doing things he normally couldn’t do.
For example, Mario piles up several Luigi on top of each other and then jumps on the enemies. Mario can also gather up Luigi’s in a ball shape and roll them into enemies. There are also dream boss battles and regular boss battles. It will interesting to see how the game differentiates between the regular world and the dream land. Hopefully, the dream land doesn’t have parts that just feel thrown in like Bowser’s Inside Story did, in my opinion.
Yoshi is going to be starring in two games in the future but at E3, Nintendo is showing off the 3DS game, Yoshi’s New Island. Yoshi in yarn form will just have to wait. Yoshi’s New Island plays similarly to the classic SNES game. Similar game mechanics as well. You get hit by an enemy, Baby Mario cries and goes flying in a bubble. Yoshi can eat enemies and make eggs to shoot at question clouds among other enemies and items. New to the franchise is the binoculars that allow Yoshi to see things further away and giant Yoshi eggs to shoot at pipes and ground. The game has more items to collect in the game such as more flowers to collect in the level. Red coins return to the Yoshi’s Island franchise and the game looks like it is just the SNES version put into the 3DS. I was disappointed with Yoshi’s Island DS but from what I’ve seen and played with Yoshi’s New Island, it has the building blocks to be something special. The game doesn’t have too much to collect or other babies that have abilities, like Yoshi’s Island DS did.
The 3DS doesn’t need much help in terms of sales and making money but it looks like Nintendo is giving it help anyway. Yoshi, Link, and Mario/Luigi are setting the bar for 3DS games for the year. Also don’t forget there will be a new Smash Brothers for 3DS and Wii U coming soon and that will add to the stranglehold the 3DS has in handhelds and start getting the Wii U back on track.
