Poor old Yoshi. Mario's little green dino friend debuted in Super Mario World on the SNES, as a ride-on for Nintendo's famous portly plumber. Playing second fiddle to Mario in a quest to rescue his dinosaur companions (and the perpetually kidnapped Princess Peach), the game was beloved by many fans - but perhaps not by Mario's noble steed. While Yoshi did everything for the guy, from carrying Mario's large mass through umpteen stages, to swallowing all kinds of bad guys to protect his master from harm - that podgy guy in red overalls still turned around and stabbed him in the back, using his loyal companion as nothing more than a bounce pad to get to higher ground, leaving the poor little green guy to fall to his doom (leading to this sniffle worthy bit of fan art). The swine.
Even if Mario thought Yoshi was a throwaway partner, it seems the fans didn't, as the little green dino has since appeared in many a game of his own - the most recent of which is the upcoming knitted Wii U adventure, Yoshi's Woolly World. A platformer constructed entirely from wool, fabric and other such crafty supplies, with nary a murderous Mario in sight, developed by the team that brought us Kirby's finest adventure, Kirby's Epic Yarn - and coming complete with two player co-op to boot - it shot to the top of our wishlist when it was first rumoured, way back in 2011. It may have seemed like an eternity since then, but Yoshi's latest adventure is now (nearly) upon us - and it seems the lovable lizard man has made a new friend.
It's himself!
It's a steed-ride-steed world out there (at least in Nintendo platformer land), and in continuing the Nintendo cycle of ride-on partners, Yoshi himself now has his own mode of transport - a goofy dog called Poochy. A seemingly invincible little sidekick, he first makes his appearance in the second world of the game - but thanks to Woolly World's badge system, you can take him with you into literally any level you wish. Working as little modifiers for your game that do things like make all of Yoshi's wool ball 'eggs' giant, give you the ability to shoot infinite watermelon seeds from Yoshi's mouth, or up the dino's defence, in exchange for a set amount of the game's bead currency, for a bargainiferous 500 beads you can buy the 'Play Alongside Poochy' badge - and we guarantee you won't want any other badge ever again. But let's rewind a little - to the level when we first discovered the doggie-shaped Easter egg.
Going for a bit of a Ronseal name for the stage, 'Spiky Stroll' was a level littered with spikes - spikes which were a bit on the extreme side for Yoshi's seemingly tender feet, knocking off a chunk of your health whenever you landed on them. But that's where Poochy comes in, who, despite his total lack of discernable feet, can seemingly stroll over the spikiest of spikes without feeling a thing. Handy really, because we're not sure how we'd have got to the end of the level if we couldn't sit on the guy's back and ride our way to the end.
Poochy really is a multi-purpose sidekick too - not only is he cute and pudgy, but he can also obliterate pretty much every enemy in the game with ease, as we found out in the following level - Lava Scarves and Red Hot Blarggs - a lava-filled stage with some pretty nasty bad guys wanting to singe our woolly hides. In our excitement at unlocking the Poochy badge, we didn't really think too much about how well the level would work for a slightly daft dog, and very nearly cried real tears when the stupid mutt ran straight off a cliff at the start of the level, straight into a pit of steaming lava. Not only had we wasted 500 beads, we'd also killed a dog.
But, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, our spirits soared again when Poochy leapt from the fiery depths, totally unscathed, with the same goofy expression. So, not only was he spike-proof, but he's also unfazed by fire - to the point where he seemed to actively seek out fiery pits to land in throughout the level, sometimes leaping into the stratosphere to escape them. But, where he really came into his own was later on in the stage, when we were faced with a giant flaming face thing, who was intent on chasing down Yoshi and gobbling him up - or he would have been, if Poochy hadn't ran straight through him, beating what we originally thought was an unbeatable bad guy, and turning him into a small, defeated pile of wool.
Shaken by our near-Poochy-death experience, we decided to back track a little and replay a stage from the first world - a nice beachy stage, where we were missing a fair few collectable Wonder Wools and Smiley Flowers (which unlock new Yoshi costumes and bonus stages respectively). It was here we came across yet another of Poochy the Super Dog's talents - sniffing out hidden stuff. Much like our real-life hound when the postman appears, Yoshi's pet starts to bark like crazy when a collectable is in range, whether it's a skein of Wonder Wool, a Smiley Flower or one of the many, many invisible question mark clouds that usually hide something good - meaning that it's much easier to find all the stuff you missed the first time through. Totally unrelated to collectables, but we also discovered that Poochy doesn't appreciate Yoshi trying to lick him with his extendo tongue - the poor thing whimpers like a little Labrador puppy with a painful paw. Awww.
But there are a few things Poochy can't do - the number one being boss fights. Presumably banned from taking part because of how deadly he is in certain situations, you're pretty much on your lonesome when it comes down to taking on the game's big bad guys. However, that doesn't stop Poochy reappearing just as you land the final blow to try and steal the glory right at the end. He's a proper glory hound, that Poochy.
Yoshi's Woolly World is out later this month, on the 26th June - just in time for a Poochy-tastic summer holiday! After all, what more can you want for an English summer than a cuddly, woolly jumper of a game? Make sure you keep checking back in the coming weeks too, as we have more Yoshi stories on the way!
