# Yoshi (Puzzle Game) ## Overview Before he starred in his own platforming adventures, Yoshi was the main attraction in this fast-paced puzzle game for the Nintendo Game Boy. Known as *Mario & Yoshi* in Europe, this title puts a unique spin on the falling-block genre. Players control Mario at the bottom of the screen, frantically swapping stacks to match falling monsters. The objective is to clear the board, rack up a high score, and, most importantly, hatch Yoshi eggs by trapping other enemies between the two shell halves. ## Background Developed by Game Freak—the very same studio that would later create the global phenomenon *Pokémon*—and published by Nintendo in 1991, *Yoshi* was an early and important puzzle title for the Game Boy and NES. Its simple-to-learn but hard-to-master gameplay made it a perfect fit for on-the-go gaming. It offered a charming and accessible alternative to *Tetris*, leveraging the immense popularity of the Super Mario characters to create a highly addictive and memorable puzzle experience. ## Gameplay The gameplay in *Yoshi* is deceptively simple. The playfield consists of four vertical columns. Various Mario-universe enemies (like Goombas, Boos, and Piranha Plants) fall from the top of the screen in pairs. The player controls Mario, who is positioned below the columns and can swap the position of any two adjacent stacks. The goal is to get two matching monsters to land on top of each other, which clears them from the screen. The real strategy comes from the Yoshi eggshells that also fall. If you can trap a stack of monsters between a bottom eggshell and a top eggshell, the shell will close, consume all the monsters inside, and hatch a Yoshi for a massive point bonus. The game ends if any of the four columns fills up to the top of the screen.