(released in North America as ''Yoshi Topsy-Turvy'') is a 2004

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

that was developed by

Artoon Artoon Co., Ltd. (株式会社アートゥーン Kabushiki-Gaisha Ātūn) was a Japanese video game developer established in 1999. It became a subsidiary of AQ Interactive in May 2004 and became a wholly owned subsidiary in June 2005. The team w ...

and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

. It features a built-in tilt sensor, which is used to manipulate the game's environment. By tilting the Game Boy Advance left or right, the player can tilt the game area, causing enemies and other objects to slide as the direction of

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

changes. This gameplay mechanic is used to solve puzzles or aid

Yoshi Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Yoshi debuted in '' Super Mario World'' (1990) on the SNES as Mario and Luigi's sidekick. Throughout the mainline '' Super Mario'' series, Yoshi typically serves ...

in completing levels. The game received mixed reviews.

Gameplay

Each course is controlled by a spirit, each with an obsession—one loves money, one loves fast things, one loves friendliness, one loves strength, etc. They will set out guidelines for the course, such as collecting fruit to free a certain number of Egglings, finishing a course before time runs out, finding a certain number of coins or defeating—or not defeating—a certain number of enemies. By satisfying that spirit's requirements, players pass the course. Yoshi can jump and stick out his tongue to eat fruit or enemies. After eating an enemy, Yoshi will produce a small puff of air instead of making eggs. The main feature of the game is the tilt mechanism. By moving the Game Boy Advance side to side, players tilt the world around Yoshi, causing enemies to roll around, swinging ships and

pendulum A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...

s, and bouncing items all over the place. An impassable wall will become a climbable slope, or a rolled-up carpet will become a long platform. Each environment requires players to master not only button presses but also tilt movements to progress.

Plot

When

Bowser , also known as King Bowser or King Koopa, is a Character (arts), fictional character and the Antagonist, main antagonist of Nintendo's ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise."The Top 100 Videogame Villains". IGN. Retrieved October 8, 2010. ...

starts wreaking havoc on Yoshi's Island, a book spirit named Hongo traps the island within the pages of a storybook. Only by locking Bowser away can Yoshi convince Hongo to release the rest of the island. So he sets out to progress through the chapters of the book.

Reception

At the time of its release, most critics thought of ''Yoshi's Universal Gravitation'' as a mediocre title. The game's score of 60/100 from the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, indicating "mixed or average" reviews from critics, is the lowest for any ''Yoshi'' title. Craig Harris of ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' said the game was too short, and most critics thought the other Game Boy Advance game to use a tilt sensor, '' WarioWare: Twisted!'', was a better example of tilt-sensing technology in video games. '' 1UP.com''s Jeremy Parish called the tilt controls "graceless and clumsy" and the character animations "choppy", concluding that it was a "mediocre" and "boring" game. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''s Justin Calvert thought the tilting worked alright and enjoyed the graphics and difficulty curve, but overall found the game to be "repetitive and disappointingly short". ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'' is an American monthly Video game journalism, video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and video game console, game consoles. It debuted in August 1991, when the video game reta ...

'' enjoyed the tilt sensing, calling it a "neat" and "inventive" mechanic that "breathe new life into the latformergenre", but was disappointed by the level designs, which were mostly "pretty standard fare."

Notes

References

External links