I love a good dad pun, so when I saw Yoshi in a Pokémon ROM hack with the word 'eggcellent' in the title, I was already hooked. It makes sense; Yoshi is one of Nintendo's cutest characters, and pretty much every Pokémon apart from Grimmsnarl (sorry dude) raises an 'aww' whenever someone sees it. Still, it's a mash-up that feels like it was always meant to be, and I'm here for it.
So what happens in Yoshi's Eggcellent Adventure? Well, you're not in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore, that's for sure. You've been sent to a new world after one of Kamek's spells went wrong. Now, you've got to use egg-shaped projectiles that have been luckily placed in key areas to use when battling the critters you come up against.
This is a Pokémon Emerald ROM hack, though it's got custom tiles thrown in from the Minish Cap, Pokémon Emerald, Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen, A Link To The Past, and Stardew Valley. The whole thing feels like a bit of a Nintendo homage, with the intro graphics coming from Yoshi's Island and fonts and themes coming from the best of the Pokémon and Mario games over the years, as well as some custom sprites made by the hack's creator, kasen, and their fellow hackers.
Instead of eating berries and using potions, you'll rely on Mushroom Kingdom items like the Super Mushroom to get healthy back, though those teeth definitely don't look like they're friendly like Yoshi. I mean, he obviously has teeth as he's a dinosaur, but they look like they could take your arm off!
Hackdex shows AI disclaimers on all of their projects, and it tells you that Kasen has just used AI for menial tasks to speed up the workflow and set up placeholder tables. No AI has been used in the graphics, story, music, translation, or events.
You'll need a legally acquired ROM of Pokémon Emerald to patch onto Yoshi's Eggcellent Adventure to start playing. Head to Hackdex to download the hack patch and take Yoshi out into Pikachu's world!
