Yoshi's Cookie
A tile-matching puzzle game featuring Yoshi and cookies.
In 1992, Nintendo and Tose brought Yoshi's Cookie to the NES and Game Boy, a tile-matching puzzle game. Bullet-Proof Software handled the 1993 SNES version. Critics liked its simple, addictive play and presentation.
Quick Facts
- Producer
- Gunpei Yokoi
- Developer
- Tose (NES, Game Boy); Bullet-Proof Software (SNES)
- Publisher
- Nintendo (NES, Game Boy); Bullet-Proof Software (SNES)
- Designer
- David Nolte, Alexey Pajitnov (puzzles)
- Artist
- Shigefumi Hino
- Chieko Matsumoto
- Mika Inoue
- Composer
- Akira Satou
- Nobuya Ikuta
- Noriko Nishizaka
- Tsutomu
- Series
- Mario; Yoshi
- Genre
- Puzzle
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Yoshi's Cookie is a tile-matching game where the player clears a rectangular grid of cookies by rotating individual rows or columns, similar to a Rubik's Cube. When an entire row or column consists of cookies of the same type, that line is cleared. Cookies enter from the top and right sides, causing the grid to grow; the game ends when the grid overflows. A sixth cookie shaped like Yoshi's head acts as a wild card. The game includes a single-player Action Mode with progressively complex levels, and a multiplayer VS Mode for two players on split-screen. The SNES version adds a single-player VS Mode against a computer opponent and a Puzzle Mode where each level has a predefined cookie grid that must be cleared within a maximum number of moves.
Development
Yoshi's Cookie began as an arcade game called Hermetica, developed by Home Data. After poor location test results, Home Data sold the rights to Bullet-Proof Software, which produced an SNES version designed by David Nolte and shown at the 1992 Consumer Electronics Show. Nintendo obtained the licenses for the 8-bit versions and developed them into Yoshi's Cookie, featuring Mario characters. The soundtrack was composed by Akira Satou, Nobuya Ikuta, Noriko Nishizaka, and Tsutomu, and includes a rendition of Csikós Post by Hermann Necke.
Release
Yoshi's Cookie first released in Japan on November 21, 1992, for the NES and Game Boy, followed by North America in April 1993 and Europe on April 28, 1994. The SNES version launched in North America in June 1993, in Japan on July 9, 1993, and in Europe the same year. A special Super Famicom version, Yoshi no Cookie: Kuruppon Oven de Cookie, was released by National to promote a microwave oven, limited to 500 copies and including cookie recipes. A copy was valued at ¥157,500 in 2010. The game was remade for the Nintendo Puzzle Collection on GameCube in 2003, adding a story mode and four-player multiplayer, and included an NES emulated version transferable to Game Boy Advance.
Reception
Contemporary reviewers in Weekly Famicom Tsūshin commented positively on the Famicom version, with one comparing its single-player addictiveness to Dr. Mario and another noting it was less addictive than Tetris. They found it most enjoyable as a two-player game due to disruptive mechanics. Reviewing the Game Boy version, they noted cookies were harder to decipher on the smaller screen but found it superior as a multiplayer game, supporting up to four players with hidden screens increasing intensity. The Washington Post in 1993 called it simple but addictive. Nintendo Power ranked it the fifth best NES game of 1993. IGN placed it 50th on their Top 100 SNES Games, and GamesRadar ranked it 48th on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
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