Yoshi Touch & Go (known as Catch! Touch! Yoshi! in Japan), is a Nintendo DS video game released within the handheld's launch window. The game is noteworthy as being controlled entirely by the DS's unique features including the touch screen and mic. It was developed by the people behind the Super Mario Advance series, and was relatively successful. The game was succeeded by the DS game Yoshi's Island DS.
Plot
Directly from the instruction booklet:
"A lone Stork flies hastily through the darkened pre-dawn skies. Held firmly in its beak is a very special package; a pair of newborn twins, which the Stork is hurrying to deliver to their parents!
Just as the Stork races through the skies over Yoshi's Island, something terrible happens! A dark shadow rushes toward the stork with tremendous speed and crashes into it! The startled Stork drops the twin babies..."
Characters
Playable
- Yoshi - Yoshi will come to the rescue and save Baby Mario from falling during the second half of the gameplay. The Yoshi will be able to jump, flutter kick, throw eggs, and more.
- Green Yoshi: 20 Eggs, Extremely Slow
- Light Blue Yoshi: 25 Eggs, Very Slow
- Pink Yoshi: 30 Eggs, Slow
- Blue Yoshi: 35 Eggs, Medium
- Yellow Yoshi: 40 Eggs, Fast
- Red Yoshi: 45 Eggs, Very Fast
- Black Yoshi: 50 Eggs, Extremely Fast
- Orange Yoshi* 50 Eggs, Fastest
- Glowing Yoshi** 50 Eggs, Extremely Slow, Can throw eggs for free
- Orange Yoshi appears after traveling 10000m on Marathon.
- Glowing Yoshi is very rare and only appears for one kilometre.
- Baby Mario - Baby Mario will start to float down the sky in the first half, when Yoshi will then catch you.
- Super Baby - Upon reaching 100 points a star will appear. When this star touches Yoshi, you get to play as Super Baby for a while. Super baby is invincible, moves fast, jumps high, climbs walls and throws stars instead of eggs, which are free. After the short time is up, Yoshi will be invincible for a second before resuming normal gameplay.
- Baby Luigi (Through Multi-Player) - Baby Luigi will be playable through Multi-player, and will also appear in some of the modes as you have to go and save him from the Toadies.
Non-Playable
- Kamek - Kamek will try multiple times to steal the babies from the stork, or from Yoshi.
- The Stork - The stork will be caring the two babies when he drops baby Mario.
Enemies
All enemies will instantly kill Yoshi if they touch him or hit him with a projectile. All enemies also grant points if defeated by stomping or by egg. Enemies defeated by catching them in bubbles turn into coins worth the same amount as the enemies.
- Shy Guy 1p - Walks slowly in one direction. Turns around if it hits a wall or comes to a cliff.
- Fly Guy 2p - Flies around in a circle.
- Green Fly Guy 2p - Flies up and down While moving in one direction. Turns around if it hits a wall.
- Blue Fly Guy 2p - Flies slowly until it suddenly dives down towards Yoshi. Flies away shortly after diving.
- Gold Fly Guy 2p - Flies similar to a Green Fly Guy while carrying a coin or a fruit. The item carried will fall if it or Gold Fly Guy is hit by a bubble, clouds or an egg. After losing the item, it will fly away.
- Cannon Fly Guy 2p - Flies towards Yoshi, spits out a single projectile* and flies away. Ignores terrain. Stops eggs.
- Toadie 2p - Flies towards Yoshi. Stops eggs.
- Cheep Cheep 2p - Swims in water, jumping out straight up or in an arc. If it lands it will splash around staying relatively still.
- Bat 2p - Flies up and down while moving in one direction. Ignores terrain.
- Monkey 2p - climbs up and down a tree, throwing projectiles* at Yoshi and occasionally throws edible bananas. If hit by a bubble or a cloud, it falls down and starts jumping on the ground while moving in a random direction. Stops eggs.
- Mole 2p - Jumps up from the ground destroying clouds when Yoshi gets close enough. Runs to the left after landing. Turns around when it hits a wall. Stops eggs.
- Spike Thrower 2p - Peeks out from a hole in the background, throws a projectile* at Yoshi and hides again then repeats. Pops bubbles and stops eggs.
- Thorn ball 2p - Stays still. Pops bubbles and destroys clouds. Stops eggs if hit while thorns are out.
- Seagull ?p - Flies high up in the sky. If hit, it loses its wings and falls down and starts running in one direction turnig around when it hits a wall.
- Skeletal Seagull 2p - Drops Shy Guys from the sky until shot down. Stops eggs.
- Blob 2p - Flies up and down or left and right.
- Sparkling Fly Guy 4p - Flies up when Yoshi gets close enough. Pops bubbles and destroys clouds. Stops eggs.
- Blue Cheep Cheep 4p - Like a Cheep Cheep, but pops bubbles, destroys clouds and stops eggs.
- Dormant Piranha Plant 1p - A small Piranha Plant waiting for Yoshi. It becomes a Piranha Plant when Yoshi gets close enough if it hasn't been defeated. Cannot be caught in a bubble.
- Piranha Plant 2p - When hit by an egg, it awards 1 point and dies after the third hit (the third hit doesn't award an extra point). Pops balloons, destroys clouds and stops eggs.
- Spitter Piranha Plant 2p Similar to Piranha plant, but spits out projectiles* that travel at an arc.
- Iron Guy 4p - Jumps repeadtedly. If hit by an egg, awards one point and rolls backwards for a short distance. Can be defeated by knocking it into another Iron Guy, a Gold Iron Guy or a Thorn Ball or by knocking another Iron Guy or a Gold Iron Guy to it. Pops bubbles, destroys clouds and stops eggs.
- Gold Iron Guy 4p - Similar to an Iron Guy, but walks forward turning at walls instead of jumping.
- Sparkling Spike Thrower 4p - Throws projectiles* faster than the Spike Thrower.
- Streamlined Blob 4p - Flies fast across the screen.
- Lakitu 5p - Flies fast from the left side of the screen to the right high up in the sky. Stops eggs.
- All projectiles pop bubbles and destroy clouds. Projectiles can be blocked by tapping them with the stylus or by throwing an egg at them.
Cameos
There will be many cameo appearances from classic Mario characters.
- Mario - Mario will appear as a reward Icon
- Luigi - Luigi will appear as a reward Icon.
- Peach - Peach will appear as a reward icon.
- Bowser - Bowser will appear as a reward icon.
- Toad - Toad will appear as a reward icon.
- Koopa Troopa - Koopa Troopa will appear as a reward icon.
Development
Yoshi's Touch & Go initially began as a tech demo that showcased the Nintendo DS's abilities at E3. It was then titled Balloon Trip and would involve only Baby Mario as he dropped from the sky. Balloons would be on his back, and the player would have to guide him to safety using the stylus to draw clouds to make sure that he didn't run into any obstacles. When the title became very popular, Nintendo gave the green light to make this out into a full title, which would eventually bring the introduction of Yoshi. According to game designer Keizo Ohta, the game was influenced by the original Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
While the overall game originated from Balloon Trip, the developers were originally thinking of concepts for a Yoshi platformer on the GameCube. As in the original game, the goal was to control Yoshi and protect Baby Mario. It was, as he described, a puzzle platformer that made use of the GameCube's controller. Shigeru Miyamoto, however felt that the game would make a bigger impact if it were released on the forthcoming Nintendo DS, and thus they abandoned the GameCube idea and focused on a new title for the handheld. While the GameCube idea was intriguing, they knew that after the E3 2004 demo was created, they would have to create a Yoshi game for the Nintendo DS.
According to the game's developers, there were no major problems in the development of the game in terms of developing on new hardware. The team, who had previously worked on the Super Mario Advance series, were all very excited to work on the new platform and implement features that could only be done on the DS such as touch screen control and blowing into the mic. Hiroyuki Kimura explained that after the core concept of the game was set in stone, they faced no major problems or set backs as you would occasionally encounter in creating a video game.