Yoshi's Cookie - Review and Info

Gameplay Basics:

In Yoshi's Cookie you do not drop pieces into a well. Instead, you shift cookies around on a grid, similar to Tetris Attack. You move a cursor freely around the board, and you can shift rows and columns up, down, left, and right. If an entire row or column of cookies matches up, then the cookies disappear. This means that in a 5x5 grid, you need to match up 5 cookies, but in a 2x2 grid, 2 is enough. In the 3x4 grid shown to the right, you can either line up 3 cookies horizontally, or 4 cookies vertically. Eliminating cookies horizontally means less to match up vertically, and vice-versa.

When playing solo, the grid will start out anywhere between 3x3 and 7x7. After a few seconds, more cookies will be added from the sides. The less cookies you have left, the faster cookies are added. When you have no cookies left, you win. Occasionally Yoshi Cookies are given to you, which act like "wild cookies", matching with any other cookie.

Chain reactions are a little less intuitive in Yoshi's Cookie than in other games, but you will get used to them with practice. An example is given on the left. You can see in the left picture that there are five checkered cookies together, in the same column, When those five checkered cookies are destroyed, two rows will contain only heart cookies, so those two rows will be destroyed. Setting up complicated combos in this game is similar to solving a rubik's cube: In order to set up one half of a combo, it seems you will have to destroy the other half. But as I said, you get used to it.

Two Player Mode:

Two player mode is completely different, a screen shot is given to the right. Each player is given a 5x5 grid of cookies, and whoever matches up 20 sets of cookies first is the winner. You also win if your opponent takes too long to match up a row of cookies. Your cookie board is always 5x5, it does not shrink like in other modes. If you take too long to eliminate a row of cookies, you lose, but this does not happen often.

Each time you match up a set of cookies, you get a special Yoshi Cookie. Eliminating two or more sets of cookies simultaneously gives you five Yoshi Cookies. If you match up 5 Yoshi Cookies, you perform whatever attack is written on your side. Often, attacks on your side are be harmful to you, so you have to be very careful when you choose to eliminate your Yoshi cookies.

In the SNES version of Yoshi's Cookie, you can play as different characters who each have four characteristics. Offense controls how long their attacks last against other people. Defense how long other people's attacks last against them. Message controls how often your attack changes. Limit controls how long you have to eliminate a match.

Strategies:

20 cookie sets is not very many! Just race to eliminate as many cookies as you can. Try and eliminate Yoshi Cookies as soon as you can eliminate them without them helping your opponent.

Blind only actually blocks out about 1/3 of your field. If you work along the edges, it will not affect you at all. As you can see on the right, even if this player does not know what is under the question-mark squares, they can match up 5 heart cookies easily.

When using the slave attack, you should either eliminate your opponent's Yoshi Cookies at a bad time for them, or you should just try and get as many matches on your side during the time provided. Mixing up your opponent's field on purpose is illogical.

A bad habit of many players is to line up four Yoshi Cookies, then sit and wait for 8-10 seconds for a good attack to come up. Remember that battle mode is a race, and if your opponent is matching up cookies for 8-10 seconds while you're just sitting there, then he has a good chance of catching up!

Do not try to set off more than 2 cookie sets at a time. You only get 5 Yoshi Cookies no matter how complex the combo, and you still only get 1 point for each row you match up. There is really no incentive for you to waste brain cells setting up big combos.

If you are much better than your opponent, and feel like showing off, you can try to set off multiple rows of Yoshi Cookies at a time, by using combos. This will multiply the effect of your attack! If you eliminate 2 rows of Yoshi Cookies with the "-7" attack on your board, this gives your opponent -14! If you eliminate 3 rows of Yoshi Cookies with the "Slave" attack on your board, then instead of getting control of your opponent's board for a mere 6 seconds, you will get control for 18 seconds! Yow!

Review:

The one player mode is extremely tedious. Generally, you spend about 4 seconds eliminating all of the cookies except for a 2 by 2 square, like the one on the right. Then you just have to wait for the right set of cookies to be added. Even when you get down to a 1x2 rectangle of cookies, you would think the game could end there - But it doesn't. Generally you will spend between 2-10 minutes on each level with 4 or less cookies remaining, knowing you can't possibly lose, just waiting for the right cookies. Blech.

Multiplayer mode is definitely more playable, and seems more interactive than most puzzle-fighting games, because of the different types of attacks you can do. It would be nice if they rewarded you more for high-level combos, because it seems that a fast combo-less strategy is the best way to go, if you are playing to win.

The NES version of the game has decent music, the graphics are good enough, and the control is excellent. The 1 player mode is awful, so make sure you have a friend to play with.

The SNES version of the game has much better music, the graphcs are great, but the control is much worse. It also features puzzle mode and 2 player game against the computer, both are good alternatives to the regular 1 player game. Also it adds several pointless features to the 2 player game (choosing your player, entering your initials) which makes it so that it takes about 3 minutes to start playing a game. Barf.

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