So far, we’ve had plenty of decent games on Nintendo’s DS handheld, yet very few games released so far seem to live up to the promise that the handheld itself offers. Interactive menus, for example. Joy. Perhaps the developers lack inspiration. Perhaps they need someone, something, to show them how it’s done. To show both developers and gamers alike how the DS can really enhance gameplay. Step forward, Nintendo.
Yoshi’s Touch & Go (or ‘Catch! Touch! Yoshi!’ as it’s known in Japan) on the Nintendo DS is Nintendo’s (metaphorical) Super Mario 64 to the N64. Originally nothing more than a tech demo at E3 (then known as ‘Balloon Trip’), which has since been made into a full game, Touch & Go is a game that looks to have been crafted around the very system it has been designed for. From what we know so far, no buttons are required for the game, so all of those with thumbs too broad to accommodate the DS’s tiny buttons should be able to rest easily. The game is formed of two parts – the first of these has Baby Mario falling from the sky on the top screen. Using the stylus on the bottom screen, you have to draw lines of clouds so that Baby Mario slides down them and collects the coins that, for some reason, are left floating across the sky. Enemies stand in your way, which have to be taken care of with the stylus, and the game even makes good use of the DS microphone – by blowing into it, a gust of wind clears the playing space allowing you to draw more clouds. It looks very simple – but simple has never meant the same thing as ‘challenging’, and we’re sure that the game will be much more difficult than it sounds on paper.
The second part of the gameplay involves Baby Mario eventually coming to a rest on Yoshi’s back. Yoshi then sets off across the level, and we are basically left with a horizontal version of what we have just experienced – drawing bridges with the stylus, tapping Yoshi to make him jump, defeating enemies with the stylus (tapping the stylus on the screen causes Yoshi to fire an egg) and making sure that Yoshi gets to the end of the level safely. This simple gameplay (something which Nintendo are renowned for) makes Touch & Go an ideal DS game – easy enough to grasp, a great deal of that ‘pick up and play’ factor that is ideal for any handheld game, and excellent use of the features that the DS has to offer. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – it’s only the software that can make the DS a ‘revolutionary’ handheld console. But never fear, you sceptical gamers – with games like this on the horizon, you needn’t worry about a lack of innovative games on Nintendo’s dual screened delight.
James Hamilton
