You’ve probably seen the box art. Mario is frantically juggling trays of Goombas and Boos while a hungry green dinosaur looks on. To the casual observer, it looks like just another "Mario" spin-off meant to cash in on the Super Mario World hype. But honestly, Mario & Yoshi NES (simply titled Yoshi in North America) is a weird, frantic piece of history that most people completely misunderstand.
It isn't a platformer. It isn't exactly Tetris. And surprisingly, it was the first time a little indie studio called Game Freak—you know, the Pokémon people—worked with Nintendo.
The Game Freak Connection Nobody Talks About
Before Pikachu was even a sketch in a notebook, Satoshi Tajiri and his ragtag team at Game Freak were trying to prove themselves. They had just finished Mendel Palace, and Tajiri was looking for a way to get his foot in the door at Nintendo.
He didn't just walk in and ask to make a Mario game. Basically, Tajiri pitched a unique puzzle mechanic to Shigeru Miyamoto, and Nintendo liked it enough to let them use the Mario license. Imagine that: the creators of Pokémon cut their teeth on a NES puzzler featuring Mario.
It was a massive deal for them. It wasn't just a gig; it was the foundation of the Nintendo-Game Freak relationship that eventually gave us Red and Blue. If this game had flopped, who knows if Nintendo would have ever funded Tajiri’s "bug collecting" RPG idea years later.
How the Hell Do You Actually Play This?
If you go into Mario & Yoshi NES expecting to clear lines like Tetris, you’re going to lose in about thirty seconds. The logic is inverted.
Usually, in puzzle games, you move the falling pieces. Here, you control Mario at the bottom of the screen. He holds two trays. When you press the A or B button, Mario swaps the position of those two trays. You aren't moving the Goombas; you’re moving the floor they land on.
It feels counter-intuitive at first. Your brain wants to guide the falling Bloopers, but instead, you have to shuffle the columns beneath them.
- Matching: Two of the same enemies in a column make them vanish.
- The Egg Mechanic: This is the real hook. Lower egg shells fall, then top egg shells follow.
- The Sandwich: If you have a bottom shell and you pile six enemies on top of it, and then land a top shell, the whole column disappears, and you hatch a massive Yoshi.
It’s about greed. You’ll find yourself purposefully letting the screen fill up with junk just to wait for that one top shell to clear a massive stack. It’s high-risk, high-reward, and frankly, kind of stressful.
Regional Name Confusion
If you grew up in Europe or Australia, the game was Mario & Yoshi. If you were in the US or Japan, it was just Yoshi (or Yoshi no Tamago).
Why the change? Marketing, mostly. In 1992, Yoshi was still a brand-new character for Western audiences. Nintendo of Europe felt adding "Mario" to the title would help people actually pick it up off the shelf. It worked, but it also created decades of confusion where kids would argue about whether "Mario and Yoshi" was a secret sequel to Super Mario World. It wasn't. It was just this little 8-bit puzzle game.
Why It Actually Matters in 2026
Retro gaming usually focuses on the "big" hits—Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man. But Mario & Yoshi NES represents a specific era of Nintendo experimentation. It’s a 1991 release on a console that was already supposed to be dead.
The Game Boy version is also out there, but the NES version is superior purely because of the screen real estate. On a Game Boy, the columns feel cramped. On the NES, you can actually see the disaster coming from the top of the screen.
The music, composed by Junichi Masuda (who later did the iconic Pokémon themes), is surprisingly catchy for such a simple game. You can hear the early DNA of the Pokémon sound in the way the tracks loop. It's that upbeat, slightly frantic 8-bit energy that defined Game Freak's early style.
Is It Actually Fun?
Look, honestly? It’s a 6/10 if you’re playing alone. The "A-Type" endless mode gets repetitive fast. But the "B-Type" mode, where you have to clear a specific number of enemies to see a tiny cutscene of Yoshi eating things, has a weird charm.
The real magic is the multiplayer.
Playing against a friend is where the tray-swapping mechanic shines. You can send "garbage" to your opponent's side by hatching large Yoshis. It becomes a game of speed and sabotaging your friend’s stacks. It’s less about deep strategy and more about fast thumbs and shouting at the TV.
Actionable Tips for New Players
If you’re firing this up on Nintendo Switch Online or an old cartridge, keep these things in mind to avoid immediate frustration:
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- Don't match two-by-two. It’s a waste of time. Always try to "sandwich" at least two or three enemies between egg shells. It scores way higher and keeps your columns lower.
- Focus on the center. The two middle trays are easier to manage. Try to keep your "messy" stacks on the far left or right so you have room to breathe in the center.
- Watch the shadows. The game shows you where a piece is going to land. Use that half-second of hang time to swap Mario’s trays. You can move the trays while the piece is landing.
- Hatch the Star Yoshi. To get the maximum 500-point bonus, you need to sandwich seven enemies between two egg halves. It’s nearly impossible without hitting the top of the screen, but it’s the ultimate flex.
Mario & Yoshi NES isn't a masterpiece, but it’s a fascinating historical artifact. It’s the bridge between the 8-bit era and the birth of the most successful media franchise in history. Plus, hearing Mario’s little feet pitter-patter as he swaps trays is still satisfying thirty years later.
If you have ten minutes to kill, give it a shot. Just don't blame me when the "Star" theme gets stuck in your head for the next three days. It’s an earworm of the highest order.