Yoshi's New Island review: bringing up baby

Its pastel-hued aesthetic suggests that a very talented crayon-wielding child drew the entire thing and animated it by hand. But beneath the twee exterior lies a well-designed platformer that takes advantage of its unique features, separating it from other Nintendo mascot platformers. It takes many of the sensibilities of the older games in the series — including an experimental streak and a focus on exploration — and updates them for Yoshi's 3DS debut. And it wisely trades on nostalgia for previous titles. The result is a game that's equal parts smart and sweet.

As in three previous Yoshi's Island games, Mario's sidekick Yoshi is the star of the show here, carrying an infant version of Mario across a series of 2D stages while running, jumping and spitting eggs at enemies. Whenever Yoshi is injured, Mario floats away in a bubble and sobs — a shrill shriek that will haunt your nightmares — leaving players with a limited time to get the baby back onboard or fail the stage.

There are still plenty of white-knuckle moments in Yoshi's New Island. While the pace is a touch slower than some of the more manic platformers released of late, the platforming is challenging throughout. Stages are peppered with vehicle sections — obstacle courses that see Yoshi transformed into a mine cart, bobsled, helicopter or other improbable transmogrifications. These exciting palette-cleansers are the only motion-controlled sections of the game, and they work well. With one exception — the submarine.

The infuriatingly slow submarine sections gave me a headache. Though they were extremely rare, these segments stood out in an otherwise well-paced experience, resulting in a string of expletives that seemed a little harsh, aimed as they were at such a sweet, dopey character. Sorry, Yoshi!

The game at large has a similarly gradual learning curve. Yoshi's New Island ramps up slowly, starting with gentle courses and evolving into stages that require perfectly timed jumps and throws over lava or bottomless pits. And if you start dying in any given level, the game offers help in the form of a pair of optional "flutter wings." If you still have trouble, a golden version of the wing spawns in, giving you an infinite jump and invincibility. I didn't need these aids often, but I was glad they were there when I did. They kept things moving when I got stuck, and kept frustration to a minimum, even in the toughest stages.