I had never played the SNES Yoshi's Island, but did get around to playing its re-release on GameBoy Advance. I enjoyed the game and was looking forward to this sequel when I heard about it last year. If there's one thing I can thank the DS for, it's giving traditional side-scrolling 2D games a place to still be made for.

The new feature of this game is that Yoshi can now carry different baby's on his back - each with their own abilities. Mario allows Yoshi to run fast and hit 'M' blocks, while Peach lets Yoshi float longer and pick up wind currents with her umbrella. Baby DK can climb on vines and throw eggs with a more powerful punch, Baby Wario carries a magnet to suck in coins for his greedy little fingers, and Baby Bowser breathes fire.

The new babies are all fun to use, and are cute and funny in their own ways. Switching between them is a little annoying however, as you must find "Stork Stops" to change babies. Which raises the question: if the point of the game is having these Yoshi's carry the babies back home, then why don't we just have these storks fly them there?

Beyond the new babies and abilities, it's sad to say that there's very little that's "new" to the universe. All of the original sprites are still used, all of the same characters and enemies, all of the same power ups, all of the same items, and all of the same sound effects are still used.

It felt more like I was playing through a redesigned version of the original more than I was playing a sequel. Perhaps this is why they chose to call it Yoshi's Island DS rather than Yoshi's Island 2. This game feels more like a re-made version than a sequel.

You spend a lot of your time doing the same things you did in the original. Still find the same keys, still break the same flower pots, still make the same sunflower's grow.... it's just a little numb. There was really no imagination to this one. Unfortunately it felt like a lot of copy and paste.

You could probably throw an argument that you shouldn't try to fix what isn't broken, but what about simple things such as the title screen and the level selection? They could have at least made a new way to present them rather than using what seems like the exact same art.

Baby DK looks a little weird, but his climbing skills are very enjoyable.

None the less, this is still a solid game. There's around 50 levels to play through, which are a bit of a challenge at times. I always felt New Super Mario Bros. was a bit of a push-over and lacking some real depth. Well - this is the certainly the answer to that problem.

You're given a score after completing each level which is based on what you collected. There's twenty red coins, five flowers, and thirty star points. The star points are your life, when you get hit - Baby Mario falls off your back and the points start counting down until you grab him again. The red coins aren't actually visibly red - they're hidden behind normal coins. So there's now a purpose for trying to collect every coin - you never know which one will be red.

This idea of collecting everything in a level for a score of 100 sounds fun, but it quickly becomes painfully obvious that it will drive you insane for later levels. As much as I love collecting things, I do not want to have to hunt down every single coin wondering which one is red, and I certainly hate having to earn 30 star points and then not get hit a single time. In fact, this is one of the few times where I've had to buy a strategy guide for the game. Which is great. It's a lot more fun knowing where those red coins are. It's not worth it trying to hunt down everything on your own. The guide helped me find the collectible items that are invisible. Yeah, good luck finding those.

For as much as this game asks of you, it sure doesn't cut you much slack. You have to finish a boss battle without being touched to maintain that 100 - but if you do, there's no "restart from check point" in the pause menu. You have to sit and watch your baby cry for 30 seconds and lose, and watch the losing animation sequence before you're given the option. Annoying.

Mario music tends to be pretty good, but this stuff just sucks. They have some laid back songs, and that's about it. The castle themes are something you could read a bed time story to, and the boss battle songs are laughable with how happy they are. Artoon really missed the mark on the music, because the melody they use is great - but it never gets used the way it should have.

I know most of this review I've only complained, but this game is a lot of fun if you don't try to get 100s - then it becomes a frustrating and unforgiving mess of a challenge. It'll last you a lot longer than you expect, but the lack of change from the original will leave you wanting a real sequel.