Yoshi

If you are a fan of puzzle games, you need to seriously consider adding this game to your collection, not necessarily because it is the best puzzle game on the NES, but because it is one of the most creative and it is very fun.

Yoshi isn't much to look at and the music is only fair, but a game like this doesn't require a lot of flare. Several skill levels and speed variations are available. There's a two-player head-to-head mode, but it's flawed. Instead of competing for score, the winner is the player who lasts longest, which does not encourage competitive play. Even so, Yoshi is a charming little title that should appeal to fun-loving gamers of all ages.

It's great to see a new puzzle game arrive for the Virtual Console – the genre is known for its great replayability, and its games represent an unbeatable value for Wii owners. But not Yoshi. While other contemporary designs like Tetris, Dr. Mario and Tetris Attack have become classics since their early '90s debuts, Yoshi has been left behind and forgotten. It's just not as fun. Not as engaging, and not home to nearly as much depth. Pick up Yoshi only if you're a dedicated puzzle fanatic – otherwise, save your 500 Wii Points for a more notable game.

As the title suggests, Yoshi (or Mario & Yoshi if you're in Europe or Australia) is a puzzle game featuring Mario's green dinosaur buddy. Yoshi was very much overlooked when it was first published in 1992 because it was so late in the Nintendo Entertainment System's console's life cycle, but now Nintendo is giving the game a second chance to find an audience by making it available for the Wii's Virtual Console service. While the game's design certainly is unique, most players will probably deem it too shallow to warrant serious attention, especially those weaned on A-list puzzlers, such as Tetris, Puyo Puyo, and Puzzle League.

That's about all there is to say about Yoshi. The graphics are expectedly simple, and the choice of three musical tunes to play to aren't adequate. If I sound like a disgruntled gamer, that's because I am. I don't like games that spend more time in the marketing department than in the programming lab, and Yoshi certainly falls into that category.