I read many reviews of this game, and they're all over the place. The most consistent criticism is that it's not as clever or as innovative as the 1995 original and that somehow makes it a disappointment. Now, I'm no stranger with disappointment from this series considering how mediocre Yoshi's Story was, and how way off the mark Yoshi's Island DS was, so I understand there's a solid history of games in this series being let downs. That being said, I played through the first world of Yoshi's New Island, and I have to say that it's a lot of fun. The reviews are completely right that it's not as clever or innovative as its 19-year old progenitor, but I'd argue that it doesn't have to be in order to still be fun. A large chunk of this game's target audience wasn't even born when that game came out, and for them this may be their first experience with the series, and I think it's a good one.

The key to enjoying the game, like many Nintendo games with aesthetics aimed at children, is to grasp that these games are consistently designed for two levels of experience.

One: Being able to finish the game and see the credits. Like with the Kirby series, this is intentionally designed to be easy so that young children can feel a sense of accomplishment. Seeing professional game reviewers with decades of game playing experience piss and moan about how it's not challenging enough to do this makes me roll my eyes, especially considering Nintendo just gave them two super challenging platformers in the last year with New Super Luigi U and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.

Two: Being able to complete the game with all of the collectibles. This is where the rewarding gameplay, challenge, and clever level design come from. This is what seasoned players with lots of platforming experience under their belt should be playing this game for. Trying to get all of the red coins, stars, and flowers on each stage is challenging and rewarding, and playing with this goal in mind makes the game much more interesting.

Again, I had a lot of fun playing Yoshi's New Island yesterday. It might not be the sheer genius that the original Yoshi's Island was, but it's a fun game, and I like it.

Is the music okay?  Yoshi's Island DS was atrocious in that regard and the preview videos with this don't inspire me with confidence that this won't be just as disappointing...

To be honest I'm very hesitant on this one... but that's because I wasn't too big on the original which I played last year for the first time.

I don't really know what my beef is with the original. It's not bad by any stretch but it was... kind of tiring I guess. Couldn't imagine going for the red coins...

Musically however I think the original game was stretched a little thin... while I liked the music there weren't enough tracks IMO.

Got to admit, I wasn't a massive fan of the original either. It looked gorgeous of course and, yes, it was fun but I found the egg throw mechanic fiddly and, for me, it caused regular stalls in the gameplay. I also found the levels to be very basic. So a good game but, for me, it wasn't a patch on Super Mario Bros 3 or World. Still, it's disappointing to read the negative reports and yet encouraging to read XLord's first hand experience. It could be one I pick up down the line if I've exhausted the games I have.

Confession: I have never touched this series of games. Shocking. The whole Baby Mario thing was never really appealing, so I skipped the original back in the day and I was too busy with Peach and NSMB on DS that I never got to it. I probably should give it a more of a look one of these days.

Haven't played it yet, but a lot of the reviews I've seen complain about the music.
Apparently the same theme is used over and over again...

First, to those of you ambivalent about the original: It is, IMO, the finest 2D platformer ever made, an utterly fantastic game. I encourage you to give it another shot, preferably on SNES hardware and not through emulation, GBA, or 3DS as none of those versions are quite faithful to the original cart. None of the other games in the Yoshi series reach its heights, but I'm pleased that Yoshi's New Island is quite fun, something that the two in the middle are not.

As for the music in YNI, I can confirm that it is at least passable and fits the game well. It's not as good as the music in the original, but it doesn't make you want to rip kill yourself like the ear-splitting garbage that helped make Yoshi's Island DS unplayable. I haven't played far enough to know if the same theme is overused yet.

I read that they didn't have a touch fuzzy thing in this new one?  Sacrilege!  heh