Ever since I bought my Nintendo DS, I have not once removed the Game Boy Advance cartridge I first put in it. The cart contains one of my favourite games of all time and I use it as the benchmark whenever I buy a new DS product. It gives me the opportunity to say at any point when playing any game, "Would I prefer to switch this off and reboot my DS, then play Super Mario Brothers 3?"

Many people would say that is the most ridiculously high demand of a product they have ever heard. Super Mario Brothers 3 is among the most celebrated videogames, after all. Isn’t this asking too much? To this I would reply, "No, actually" and proceed to tell these people Nintendo learned how to construct the perfect Nintendo game nearly twenty years ago, so why should they not incorporate these lessons into current products? I would then cite one of the many examples already in the DS’s product range as an example of their failure, including Yoshi’s Touch and Go.

Originally, Yoshi was nothing more than a tech-demo for the Nintendo DS at E3 and boy, does it show. Forget the wonderful structure of past Nintendo games; there are essentially two levels to this game and not in the way that Super Mario Brothers 3 only had variations of one level. Baby Mario drops from the sky. Yoshi takes him back to the stalk that dropped him. That’s it. Gone is the sense of progress and achievement through different zones, now all you get a score. This is the DS’ Mario 64?

Maybe I’m looking for too much. After all, the simplicity of the game is deceiving. It feels more like a Nintendo product than anything I’ve played on the GameCube recently. The touch screen once again shows how the immediacy of control brings you closer to the game. Novelty value alone cannot explain the inherent joy gained by using the stylus to draw clouds and trap enemies. In fact, it demonstrates yet another possibility for the unique input. After having immediate control over Yoshi for the duration of the second level, a feeling of helplessness overwhelms you when he wonders on to the top screen and you can do nothing but watch. It’s a strange sensation and something I imagine Hideo Kojima could capitalise on with great success.

Yet, it only shows these possibilities and fails to act on them. Not since Tetris has a games boundaries been apparent so quickly. Of course, this is exactly where Nintendo want to go. Nintendo say they want to take gaming back to games, but for a group of gamers brought up on exploration games (pioneered by Nintendo, no less), the need to explore is inherent to our gaming nature. Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, Metroid. These were all titles where the enjoyment came from exploring and conquering the environment. For many, Nintendo were gaming’s Yoda to their Luke Skywalker. Playing Yoshi’s Touch and Go feels like you returned to Dagobah to see the green hermit playing with lightning and screaming, "Screw the rebellion. Join the dark side you must!"

That is not to say Yoshi’s Touch and Go cannot be enjoyable. The basic game dynamics are engaging and interesting. The sound design is vintage Nintendo. The levels look and function like those from the Super Mario series.

Therein lies the problem.

Other DS games – WarioWare Touched and Project Rub, for instance – are so different to other games that it is hard to question what else they could have done with the project. Yoshi, however, feels, looks and sounds like a Nintendo platform game. It should have been the perfect blend of innovative technology and old school platforming. And for two levels, it is.

For two levels.

There is no getting away from it. Like the double screen pocket games, there is only two variations with Yoshi’s Touch and Go. If you survive the falling down, you must then survive walking right. If you do, congratulations, you’ve won! Game over.

In desperation, some people have even claimed that Yoshi is not a platform, instead labelling it a hybrid of platform, shooter and puzzle game. To a large extent, they are right, but to an even larger extent they are irrelevant. Yoshi, regardless of genre, is no more than an extended Game & Watch. Yes, you can play these two levels countless ways, but when all is said and done, it’s still the same environment.

I’m sick of hearing excuses for the Nintendo DS’ software. I’m sick of hearing it’s only supposed to be simple, that it’s just a handheld game. You can make all the justifications you like, but for all its many faults, the PlayStation Portable is producing games that do not seem like their content is limited by 1980’s memory limitations. Super Mario Brothers 3 is an excellent game, regardless of where it’s played. Yoshi’s Touch and Go is an excellent tech demo that should have never been released to the public, never mind cited as the DS’ Super Mario 64.

Ultimately, this score reflects not only the game, but also its position as the killer-app for the DS and its potential. This isn’t really fair – after all, Yoshi is a fun little title – but I don’t care, I’m making a stand. Nintendo can continue to release tech demos for their DS if the like, I just won’t buy them. But I won’t sit back and listen to their press releases cite this initiative as a pioneering movement to return gaming to games. Pure gaming is Super Mario Brothers 3, with its complexities, subtleties and polish that all add up to make a wonderful, engaging title. If Nintendo really wanted to return gaming to these ideals, they would have made Yoshi’s Touch and Go properly, instead of the two-level demo it is.

Chris Hicks