Another incredible Yoshi's Island game, introducing fun mechanics that aren't forced on you too hard.
The music is a little unmemorable but still fits very well.
Controls and movement feel super clean and I feel like I need to check out the speedrun for this game as it feels very technical.
My main complaint is that it doesn't add much from the original SNES title, and feels a lot like an adapted port.
Getting to play this on my old DS was a nice experience and a bit of a throwback though, so can't complain.

Originally named Yoshi Island 2, Yoshi Island DS is the sequel to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island though relates more closely to Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island.

What's new?

You can play as baby versions of other characters like DK, Wario, and more. Overall, this change was done wrong and doesn't really add anything to the gameplay except annoy players. The way you change babies is to stand below a stop sign looking object which is annoying as you have to stop off and on again to change babies, which are done in a rotation order. This should of been via a menu from a button press rather than resembling Donkey Kong 64. The characters also should of been used for exploration/alternative pathways like a metroidvania rather than being required to travel in the main game.

The levels feel a lot safer than the ones done in the original game, with them taking either taking a lot of influence gimmick-wise (and are basically the same level) or just staying bland without anything interesting happening. This applies to the bosses as well including the final boss.

The new Gimmick for this game is that the game now uses two screens, which doesn't add much but it makes the game really hard to look at sometimes, I only have 1 pair of eyes, not two. This new gimmick also makes levels seemingly longer, though there is less levels in this than the original by a whole world.

My final note is that the graphics resemble those of the GBA port of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island) so they're not bright and colour like the original game. Any new graphics as well, look out of place and like they don't belong, most likely due to it being over 10 years since they created the original graphics.

Overall, if you're a fan of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island you will be disappointed by this game, but if it's your first Yoshi Island game it's decent, but the other two games are better.

I have a soft spot in my heart for this game so maybe I'm biased, but Yoshi's Island DS is a fantastic attempt at making a new Yoshi's Island game but with different mechanics. I will say it's not perfect and there's some levels in which it's just a confusing pain to switch between the different babies, but as a whole it's unique and mostly fun to play with. I just like the variety and the fact that there is such a good variety is what makes it so fun. Never did I think a Yoshi's Island game would include Baby Wario or Baby DK as actual playable characters, it's funny and the attention to detail and the charm behind it is worth it's praise alone. The art and OST is still top notch, it just has a few levels that are frustrating and don't make use of the mechanics well.

With the exception of the entirety of the Lost levels, World 5 of this game has some of the most obnoxious level design I've ever seen in a 2D platformer. The rest of the game has decent level design but oh my god World 5 SUCKS. That, and while the baby switching mechanic is a really cool idea, it honestly feels half baked. Hell, Baby Wario and Baby Bowser are only available for a grand total of 5 levels each in the main story. Other than those two gaping holes, it's still more of Yoshi's island, which is why I can't call it an outright bad game. Yoshi's Island DS is still a fun-ish game at its core

i played this when i was younger, but never finished it.

for the most part, its a fine game, because it plays just like yoshi's island (a fun game i like a lot). the addition of the new babies is a neat idea and is sometimes cool, but other times you get to a new area and the only practical choice (or only required choice) is a specific baby so you switch to it and thats that. fine, i guess, but just not very interesting.

level design is fine and not very memorable until you get near the end of world 4 (out of 5) when the game starts throwing incredibly stupid levels at you. theres stupidly slow autoscrollers where nothing is happening so you just wait for like 30 seconds for the screen to move for anything interesting to come up (spoiler: nothing interesting does come up) and if you accidentally mess up then you can feel free to restart and take like a minute to get back there in the most painfully slow way possible. one level has bouncy enemies that bounce off you and walls fall from the sky while you move on incredibly precarious platforms, which just feels unfun. all the late game levels are memorable just because of how frustrating they are, and i was super happy to just at least finally be done with the game.

i'd rather just be playing the first game on the snes.
also why does bowser kinda look like he was ripped from a flash game?? lmao?

Genuine contender as one of the worst Nintendo sequels ever made.

I had this game as a kid, hated it day one. As an adult, I decided to finally replay it in full after a decade and stream it to some friends, not only to see if my opinion would change on it, but if there's anything I can appreciate from it today.

The backgrounds are nice. That's a new thing I can say. Everything I didn't like about the game then, I still don't like now: The music sucks (2-3 good tracks), the baby swapping mechanic was a good idea in concept but in execution it just bogged the pacing down to a halt whilst also being situational, visually the game is a mix between looking good and looking pretty bad with stylistically clashing sprites, bosses weren't fun either. Oh and the game just loved slamming auto-scrollers at you, a LOT.

As a game on its own it's very mediocre and could keep a kid busy, but as a sequel to arguably one of Nintendo's best games, it falls so short and face flat on the ground.

It plays and controls fine but the pace breaking moments are all too severe. Not worth your time.