#748 – Yoshi’s Cookie

The sweeter, superior sequel to Yoshi.

PLAYERS: 1-2 simultaneous

PUBLISHER: Nintendo

DEVELOPER: TOSE

GENRE: Puzzle

RELEASE DATE: April 1993

Yoshi’s Cookie is broken, has jarring difficulty spikes, and is a really stupid idea for a puzzle game. Yet so help my sweet tooth, I enjoyed arranging similarly shaped cookies next to each other; much more than connecting eggshells over Mario franchise baddies. Each round starts with a 4×4 column of cookies of all shapes – hearts, diamonds, circles, etc. Hold the ‘A’ button to re-arrange the randomly placed cookies so that their shapes match in a horizontal or vertical line. As you’re doing this, rows of cookies will emerge from both the top and the right hand-side to add to your pile. The greater the amount of cookies, the harder it is to arrange them properly.

Now, the majority of well-designed puzzle games – Tetris, Puyo Puyo, Puzzle Fighter – will usually leave you with a slight way out when the screen is overflowing with puzzle pieces. With Yoshi’s Cookie, the controls are too sluggish to maneuver large amounts of cookies in a timely fashion; even on slower cookie-launching speeds. Even if your brain can organize 6×6 rows of cookies with “Famous Amos” results, often the controls won’t be able to keep up with your moves, leading you to death or “a halt in production.” The good news: there are unlimited continues, and once you die, the level you restart at is made slightly easier. There’s also a two-player mode if you can convince another friend to sling sweets with you. Yoshi’s Cookie might be a hard sell, but beneath all the flaws and stale crumbs is one of the NES’ last solid puzzle outings.

Grade: B+