~ YOSHIMOTO COMEDY ~
Hudson Soft / Red
Super CD-ROM
1994
I wasn't expecting Mario World here, but I was still surprised by the straightforwardness (to put it euphemistically) of Yoshimoto's main running/platforming parts. The designers obviously put a lot of effort into mini-games and comedic antics, but the actual stage processions are about as vanilla as run-jump-bounce sequences can be. Variety in the environments is commendable, with cities and jungles and deserts and snow lands all on the game's itinerary, and some levels do present slides and moving platforms and the simple like to give off the impression that attention was indeed paid to their construction, with one strip "even" featuring a raft ride. But it all feels very basic, never at all tough or tricky or thrilling.
Yoshimoto puts all its eggs in two baskets, both of which it drops. A few of the mini-games are moderately enjoyable (Wild West showdowns, snowball shoot-outs) or at least interesting ("totem robo" fighting), but too many are dull (bamboo slicing) or all too typical (who the hell needs janken or whack-a-mole?).
By paying so little attention to the core gameplay and presenting but a mixed bag with the mini-games, the Yoshimoto brain trust left comedy as the title's only hope for really making a mark. Sadly, most of the "skits" fall flat for me.
Don't get me wrong; for the $3-5 it costs, Yoshimoto provides a reasonable amount of entertainment, and I suppose that belaboring its inadequacies would kind of be to miss the point. But when a platformer foregoes attention to action in the name of placing its focus on mini-games and comedy, the mini-games had better be as memorable as It Came from the Desert's antdroid shooting scenes, and the antics had better be as hilarious as a Viking Warlord Odin bashing. Yoshimoto doesn't come close in either respect and ends up feeling like a grand waste of time.
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