Yoshi’s Cookie is an easy game, maybe too easy. It works well for the Game Boy, where you are trying to waste some time, but it would be disappointing on a console. I have played it on the NES and thought it was fine. Not full price fine, but acceptable as a used game I bought because I had a few extra dollars.
This could have been anything. It didn’t need to be branded as a Yoshi game. It does make me wonder if anyone bought it because it had Yoshi on the cover.
Games like Yoshi’s Cookie and Yoshi are decent entry points for people wanting to get into puzzle games. Both are easier than Tetris but suffer from a lack of game modes. You have to be interested in trying to get a high score!
TLDR: Yoshi’s Cookie is an easy game and might be too easy for most players.
History
The NES and Game Boy versions of the game were developed by Tose and published by Nintendo. Japan got the games in 1992, North America in 1993, and Europe in 1994.
There is a SNES port that was developed and published by Bullet-Proof Software. It was released in Japan, North America, and Europe in 1993.
Yoshi’s Cookie was initially released in the arcades as Hermetica and was developed by Home Data. The game did poorly, and the rights were sold to Bullet-Proof Software.
Gameplay
This is a simple matching game. You must line up the cookies and clear the board to advance to the next level. You can move a row of cookies vertically or horizontally to line up two or more of the same cookies.
It is very straightforward. There are a few types of cookies, and they all look different, so it is easy to tell them apart. There is also a wild cookie that can act like any other.
Here are the cookie types as best as I can describe them:
- Yoshie Cookie (This is the wild cookie)
- Dimond
- Square (This looks a bit like a checkerboard)
- Jewel (These have a big red or back circle in the center)
- Heart
New cookies come into the playfield from the top, right, and upper right corner. They move slowly at first. As the game continues, more cookies are on the screen from the beginning, and the incoming cookies move faster.
If you let the cookies reach the edges of the screen, then you lose the game. This is how the other puzzle games work. I never ran into this issue while playing, even as the game was going on, and I occasionally got into trouble.
Visuals
You get some visual cues in the game. Mario and Yoshi can be seen on the right side of the screen. When you speed things up, either Mario or Yoshi will push a button. You also see the number of each cookie that you have collected.
Your score is shown on the screen, but it is largely irrelevant. You don’t need to know what it is until you lose.
Each of the cookies looks different and is easy to identify. They are also big enough to have the detail to make them look different. This was part of the problem with Dr. Mario.
The game does look good for a Game Boy game. Both Mario and Yoshi look good, the animations that both characters do are simple, but they don’t need to be much more than what they are.
Replayability
This game is all about the high score and trying to get a little further than last time. If there was another game mode to the game, like a story mode, then I think this game would have been better, and you would have more of a reason to play it again.
I do like the game. I did want to see if I could make it further than the last time. However, it was more out of a desire to see how much I could take. It probably should have been more challenging.
7/10. Yoshi’s Cookie is a fun puzzle game that is probably too easy. I enjoy it, but it is an entry-level puzzle game that might not offer enough of a challenge for most players.
Pros
- Easy to play
- Visuals are good
- Pick up and play game
Cons
- Too easy for most players
- Lack of game modes
- It can get boring after a short time
Conclusion
I like this one more than the other Yoshi game. It is an interesting puzzle game, but there isn’t much to it. If there were more game modes, then it would be better.
While playing this game, I kept thinking about other games I would rather play. I think I still like Tetris more than this game. I also think Kwirk was better than Yoshi’s Cookie as well.
It’s a good game. I do like the game, but I think I would prefer other puzzle games.