Hello everyone, this is Particular Mushroom,
and today is a story of Yoshi’s. Yoshi’s Story is a game I played many years
ago but just couldn’t beat. However, I knew the game was short so I had
my eye on it; I barely talked myself out of the Wii Virtual Console release, so when it
rolled around on the Wii U this year I caved. And of course as soon as I buy it I get a
discount on My Nintendo—oh come on I finally had something to spend these platinum coins
on and I—*sigh* What’s interesting is while I recall struggling
with this game, online reviews like to state pretty much the opposite. So is my younger self just terrible at video
games? Well, let’s see what this game dishes out
now shall we? On the surface, the game definitely looks
lackluster. The premise of the story is Baby Bowser has
stolen the “Super Happy Tree” and it’s up to six baby Yoshi’s to save the day by
staying “Super Happy”. Well whatever, Mario games have hardly been
big story-tellers, but then you get into the first level and find out that you “beat”
said level by scarfing down 30 pieces of fruit. That’s it. This isn’t very difficult; and with some
levels beatable within five minutes and the first level being practically impossible to
lose, the game is certainly not going for good first-impressions. As far as collectibles go, there are three
big hearts in every stage which unlock more levels, white shy guys that only show up if
you need to save some dead Yoshi’s, and one time unlockable Black and White Yoshi’s. These provide a decent distraction, but other
than a few big hearts there’s no real challenge to them. So while the graphics and sounds might strike
chords with some, the gameplay seems pretty sparse, and after completing the story mode
once, I believe many people assume this is all the game has to offer. But it’s not. There’s a catch. And this isn’t a small catch, no, this is
a big catch; it’s like reeling in a magical genie fish that grants you a wish you never
asked for. I know exactly what you want! A life-time supply of donuts! Blalublublublublublub… This catch is the melon. No, this melon. That’s confusing right? This is a watermelon and this is a melon. That’s, what the game actually calls them. Anyway. What do melons do? Why are they important? You could figure it out based on the fact
that melons are worth more points than any other fruit on the score tally, but that raises
another point. In the SNES game Yoshi’s Island, the score
tally puts “you got all these” and “you missed these” in your face after every level,
so you KNOW what you missed. In Yoshi’s Story, all you get is a cap-less
score tally; so yeah, maybe you know that melons are good, but this doesn’t tell you
how many melons are in each level. In fact, the only time the game mentions this
detail is in 1-2, Surprise!!, inside one help box where it simply mentions “All courses
have 30 melons.”, and adds that they’re worth 100 points. This small, five word sentence is a game-changer. Quite literally. Yes, it’s still the same level, the same
enemies, the same layout, but your playstyle… couldn’t be more different. Instead of scarfing down into the void of
Yoshi’s stomach everything and anything that’s dares to enter your tongue’s range,
you must instead be a little more prudent, a little more strategic…and well, freakin’
good at the game! This, is what I like to call, the 30-Melon
Challenge. The concept is simple: eat all 30 melons in
each stage; I also add as an additional requirement collecting all 3 big hearts. Execution, however, is difficult, and this
is when the game goes from soft lullaby to hard rock. First thing you’ll notice when playing the
30-Melon Challenge is eating any fruit besides a melon immediately ends your 30 melon run. That makes sense…but’s it’s incredulously
difficult. "Yeah get out of here shy guy, alright, let me have these melons here and uh... Oh come on, you've gotta be kidding me, that's ridiculous What am I supposed to do? I guess I'll just—just try and uh See what happens here. Alright, uh, good gravy.” And this situation is just unlucky. The classic example I always think of is in
5-2 Lots O’ Fishes. There’s a segment where a horde of cheep-cheeps
swipe across the screen carrying some melons, and eating all the fish grants you a Big Heart. It’s really not that difficult; even if
you get poked in the face by one you gulp up some more of 'em up and get your life back. However, there are 3 “water”melons perpetually
floating there. If you accidentally scarf one down, your 30
melon run is over. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Melons are different than other fruit in that
they can be completely hidden. Many are hiding in the ground, waiting for
a Yoshi ground pound to launch them out. However, these are just the simple ones. The game throws bizarre and frustratingly
snide challenges at you to get some of these melons. Take this situation for example; you pushed
these two boxes together and two melons came out! Yay, right? Well guess what, you actually just lost the
30 melon challenge, because the middle one always has a melon, while the left and right
one only poof out a melon if you slide them together. You’re supposed to sniff the boxes to see
which one to smash, but if you never figure that out, you’ll be forever wondering why
you can’t find that last melon. And that’s the other thing. Many melons are one attempt only, and if you
miss your chance, that melon is gone for good. Any of the question mark bubbles, for example,
are one-time events, so you’d best be ready for whatever pops out of there. Oh. Then there’s this. Ok friends, throw out your best guess. What is the most difficult part of the 30-melon
challenge? Pause the video if you need more time. Got your answer? Alright. The most difficult part of the 30-melon challenge
is: The Mini-Game. I wish I was joking. You might be tempted to think otherwise because
the mini-games in the first two worlds are walks in the park, but these things world
4 on are brutal. You must master the controls in this game
if you expect to complete all of them. See, at the end of each mini-game, you get
awarded anywhere from zero to seven fruit based on how well you did. That’s all fun and games until you realize…the
fruit, are melons. Meaning in the 30-melon challenge, you have
to ace the mini-game. And that’s on top of making sure you collect
the stage’s other 23 melons all in the same attempt! It’s a load of melons! You might be wondering, how are the mini-games
so difficult; well, let’s go over them. There three different types: Melon Race, Broad
Jump, and Special Delivery. Melon race is the most straightforward: Get
from start to finish as fast as you can, particularly before this little chain chomp gets to eat
any of your melons. You're such a cute little obnoxious punk! Stop eatin' my melons! And while you might guess Melon race is difficult
because they allow little room for error, what you probably didn’t know is that two
of the races are so difficult that I can’t even beat them unless I use a hidden exploit
on each one! Namely, jumping out of the water here like
so, and getting a super happy fruit from this melon. And this doesn’t make the platforming any
easier, good gracious. Now Broad Jump is a special little cantaloupe. Again, a simple concept: get awarded melons based on how far you travel without touching the ground. Broad Jump is actually the easiest of the
three types, but, it’s downright devious to learn. When I got to my first one…I tried a fruit
basket FULL of attempts, and I utterly could not make it to seven melons. Again and again, what was it, I couldn’t
figure it out, I got so desperate I used a restore point just so I wouldn’t have to
reset the level every single time! When I finally did it once, I had no idea
how. So I had to practice more, to finally figure out, that I simply wasn’t pressing B fast enough. I figured out there is no delay between when
you finish fluttering and when you can flutter again, other than how fast you re-press the
button. I thought I was pressing fast enough, but
as it turns out, lifting your finger off the button is plain too slow. I can beat this mini-game pretty reliably
now, but I still need to mentally prep myself; it’s not natural to press buttons that fast. Finally, we have Special Delivery. And if you thought they would get any easier;
that’s a cute thought. With this one, you stack a set of seven packages
on your back, and try to reach the finish line while keeping them all balanced. There are a few obnoxious ones, but the last
one is just absurd. First off, in the last world of the game,
Special Delivery decides to be, well, extra special, and only drop one package at a time. So now you’re playing a balancing mini-game
inside the balancing mini-game. Balancing packages isn’t difficult, but
doing so while in the same spot is a completely different story. So great, you’ve got all the packages. Well now you get to start the mini-game, which
is as follows: There’s a Thwomp-carrying Shy Guy which you can either jump over or
run underneath IF it’s up high enough. Then after that, do it again…on a moving
platform. And in case you were thinking “That’s
not so bad I can do that easy”, let’s not forget that you need to eat the other
23 melons in one of the hardest stages in the game, and if you lose a single melon you
have to restart the entire level from the beginning. Isn’t this fun aren’t we having fun yet? And that’s, basically, the 30-Melon Challenge. Game’s not so easy now is it? And in retrospective, the fact that this cutesy,
simple looking game hides a sinister challenge right in front of your face, is to me, brilliant. I’ve read websites that say the game lacks
Nintendo’s usual polish, but this game couldn’t be more Nintendo. If you turn off easy mode for only a minute
(other than maybe the first level), you’ll see just how specific and deliberate the design
is. And, you have to pay attention
to everything because otherwise you might miss an important detail, and on top of that,
a melon could be hiding anywhere. At the end of the day, I am 100% fully engaged
with this game. I’m not trying to say this game is perfect
by any means; there are many questionable design choices, uninspired platforming segments, and not even the 30-Melon Challenge can save the bosses. But the 30-Melon Challenge is so engaging
that I can put aside everything this game does wrong, and enjoy this wonderful, frustrating,
experience. Well, almost everything. There’s one thing in this game that’s
everyone’s nightmare. If you’ve played this game enough you know
what I’m talking about. No, it’s not the nightmare bouncy balls,
lava spooks or gargle blarggles. It’s this giant fish. This massive, invincible fish that instantly
kills you, jumps at random intervals, and obsessively follows you is one of the worst
enemy designs I have ever seen in my life. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s a blue
one that doesn’t jump, but never, ever, stops harassing you, and is pretty much designed— designed, to annoy you so much that you give up and let it eat you. Seriously. No one should ever be unfortunate enough to
play 4-2, Jungle Puddle, and it’s only remotely saved by the fact that you can get 26 fruit
in the first area. Even then, you’ll still probably die once
trying to get those last 4 fruits. I still managed to complete the 30-Melon Challenge
on it, but, never again… So yeah that’s Yoshi’s Story. Pretty, uh, interesting game. I apologize for how long this video took to
get out, but unfortunately I can’t say that all of a sudden going to start making
videos faster or anything. The scripts…scripts take forever. But, in light of that, if you would like me
to do some lower maintenance videos like let’s plays, let me know. I could very easily churn out a simplistic
video every week, but I’m not going to bother if no one is interested. Also I just got a new mic, so let me know if like, the bass is to high or the treble's too high so I can go and fix things around a little bit. You can click on any Yoshi to subscribe,
and yes, I still have plans for sunshine videos. Alright-y, see you guys later. The funny thing about this game is I still
actually like 4-2 for some reason, but that enemy design is so bad.
