Thursday 7 February, 2008

GAMEPLAY:
I'm not sure if I got more annoyed at the game while trying to collect all of the items, or if I was excited about the challenging aspects of the game. Sometimes I would be missing ONE star at the end of the level and there would be no way to retrieve it. There were other levels that required me to use babies in a specific order to carry out tasks to get a flower or some other item. If I messed up one transition I'd have to start the level over to get it or die and start at the check point. It was frustrating!

The secret levels are way too challenging to complete. It is already hard enough to pass through the series of platforms and enemies, so imagining collecting all 30 stars, 10 red coins, and 5 flowers seems impossible. What skill is needed to do everything perfect?!

I think I focused too much on collecting items and forgot the main storyline and purpose of my goal of even playing the game. I sort of created a new goal of "COLLECT ALL ITEMS" and lost touch with the original purpose. I'm not sure if that makes the game good or bad, but I think it's neat that the designers allowed the players to recreate goals while using the same rules of gameplay (even if it was on accident or not).

DESIGN:
This game obviously focused a lot on level design. The placement of each item in the game was specifically designed to challenge the player to the extent of anger. The designers made the levels difficult by requiring a huge amount of accuracy while throwing eggs and calculating timing at the same time. Obviously the player can make gameplay less interesting by not focusing on item collection, but the designers kept their minds open to the people who would force their limits and do every single thing possible in the game... to the extent of exhaustion. This makes gameplay challenging if the player decides to have his/her experience that way.

There were a variety of platforms and objects used to help the player travel through the levels, ie: rotating wheels, platforms fixed on a path, vines, magnetic powered platforms, wind travel, temporary platforms powered by a button, and etc. All of these created interesting forms of gameplay while being experienced by the player. The player can spend as much time on a fixed/static platform while he/she talks to friends about other things in real life, but if the player is on a time-based platform, his/her attention is undivided.

Having the choice of switching between five babies (Mario, Peach, DK, Wario, and Bowser) made gameplay especially interesting. Some levels required certain babies to be chosen to get past obstacles, but it was free reign otherwise. Gameplay experience differs from one baby to the other because each baby has his/her own abilities. This either made gameplay more simplistic or challenging, depending on what the level required from the player.

The item collection in the game created a lot of challenges for the player. The replay values of levels are quite high when the player did not collect all of the items possible. The levels are saved with the best points scored so far, so the player is never docked for playing poorly.

The wacky color crayon graphics adds warmth to the game. The music is very whimsical. All of the art aspect of the game may seem simple, but it suits the mood of the entire game very well. The player is emerged within this fantasy land while playing with Yoshi and the babies because the visual features bind so flawlessly with the audio provided. When Yoshi is attacked by an enemy, the baby on his back cries endlessly until saved. Each baby has his/her own unique and character independent cry. Each action in the game has its own sound effect, which adds a lot of subtle depth to the game.

This is satisfactory, with a good description of the gameplay and thoughts on challenge. Some of the thoughts in design, like the platforms, feel a little too obvious, and probably could've been taken out. The rest, though, is just fine. Good job.

Amy Leek (grader)