Last Saturday, Nintendo invited members of the press to wake up at the butt crack of dawn and join it for a little Yoshi's Island DS action, and while the thought of dragging myself into NYC at 8:00 AM (ok, not exactly the butt crack of dawn) wasn't very appealing, I was intrigued by Yoshi's latest outing. Besides, the company advertised a Mario-themed continental breakfast. Getting up early on a weekend isn't my idea of a good time. That is, unless golden coin pancakes and Bowser bacon are involved.

The food was fantastic, but it wasn't the primary reason why I braved a chilly morning and hundreds of sweaty commuters. I was here for Yoshi's Island DS, the sequel to one of the most beloved SNES games of all time. Heck, it's our number one Mario game of all time! I wasn't about to let such an opportunity escape me. Well thankfully, the game delivers. It's just a shame that Nintendo wasn't fully prepared.

The good news is I got to play Yoshi's Island DS for about an hour. The bad news is it was a timed demo and not the final version of the game. NOA had hoped to snag the latest build, but mysterious forces shut that window of opportunity, insisting that it was busy tinkering and tossing new content into the mix. Hey, that's cool. I feel a lot better knowing that the developers are working hard to ensure that this game lives up to its storied predecessor. But having gotten up at 7:00 AM, after going to bed at 3:00 AM, just to have the game repeatedly fade to black after oh, I don't know, fifteen odd minutes of play... is just a bit annoying.

Much like its prequel, Yoshi's Island DS is a 2D side scrolling adventure game in which you control Yoshi. He's been charged with caring for baby Mario as well as babies Peach, DK, and Wario, and throughout the adventure he'll always have one of them riding his back. Get hit just once, and the baby is knocked off and trapped within a bubble that slowly floats away. If that happens, you've got to go grab the bubble and return the wailing infant on his back. Otherwise, it's game over. And similar to the original. The DS sequel features very attractive graphics, wondrous 2D art that's been created using a series of bright an cheery pastels. It definitely sets the games apart from the rest of the Mario library.

This time around, a strange castle has floated over Yoshi's Island and some creep called Kamek has captured baby Luigi (that character just can't catch a break). Yoshi springs into action along with the three other babies, all of which possess special abilities. I wasn't able to harness the power of Wario or DK, but Mario allows Yoshi to dash about and Peach (via her trusty parasol) lets him float through the air. There are in fact special checkpoints or stork stations set up, and by walking near one, you have the option of switching babies on the fly. And in the levels that I played, the switching is justifiable. Right next to each station, I could see puzzles that required one baby's ability, whether it was a bunch of item boxes with Ms inside (M for Mario, of course) or visible gusts of wind that would take me to a high ledge if I had Peach on board.

Aside from those special moves, Yoshi has his own unique arsenal of familiar attacks and what not. Not only can he flutter jump, but he can also use his long red tongue to gobble up enemies. In typical Yoshi game fashion, you have the option of spitting them out and using them as weapons, or digesting them and making eggs, except in this case, after the egg has been created, you can bring up a targeting cursor that lets you aim and shoot the eggs on an angle, thus allowing you to hit switches that have been carefully placed about the levels. This is done by pressing A twice, once to bring up the cursor, and again to fire the egg.

Unlike most DS titles, this one doesn't make much use of the touch screen. I was able to access some menus and advance the demo by pressing a Start icon with my thumb, but during play, it was all d-pad and face buttons. I'm sure Nintendo could've shoehorned touch screen shenanigans into the game (and it may have done so, given this short demo), but it's really unnecessary. The same goes for microphone support, of which, there is none. But I love how the levels have been stretched across both screens. Similar to Yoshi Touch & Go, you're able to move between the top and bottom screen, and this makes each environment feel especially huge. Given the amount of secret items advertised (supposedly, there's plenty to uncover), I'm almost positive that I'll spend an innumerable amount of minutes combing every inch of the game.

The short demo aside, I really like the game and I'm looking forward to its November 15 release, which is just four short days before the Wii hits the States. It'll definitely be a sweet appetizer to Nintendo's main course. I just hope it's as good, if not better than its prequel.