20 Essential N64 Games You Must Play Before You Die

16. Yoshi's Story

Nintendo

Yoshi's Story: the most underrated Nintendo game ever? I'm not about to go trawling through nearly 30 years of company history for an objective answer, but Yoshi's solo N64 adventure is certainly right up there for being unfairly overlooked on almost every level.

From the cutesy patchwork-themed visuals to the level structure promoting exploration rather than reaching a static end goal like other Mario games, Yoshi's Story was berated by critics for essentially being too easy, too different and too devoid of Mario. Come on, am I the only one who remembers how nails-on-a-chalkboard irritating Baby Mario's constant crying in Super Mario World 2 was?

It took almost 20 years for Yoshi fans to get a home console sequel with Yoshi's Woolly World on Wii U, but that didn't exactly set the world on fire with its content either.

You poor dinosaur, Yoshi. Don't worry, I still love you.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.