Let’s Play Yoshi’s Cookie! Yoshi’s Cookie is one of the more fun and easy to pick up and play puzzle games for the NES, combining presumably two of every little kids favorite things in one title (sugar and big green dinosaur). Plus I think it teaches good hand eye coordination as you work at a feverish pace to fill up your bar before your opponent/friend.
The goal is of course to just line up 5 of the same type of cookie in a row. To make things more interesting, you have “Yoshi Cookies” which are related to whatever fluctuating special play is up when you line 5 of them up. These special plays or bonuses can either help you or make things more difficult for your opponent in the form of giving you extra notches on your bar or taking away from your opponent’s, mixing their board up, covering their board up, or even taking control of their board. I especially like the latter option because sometimes, not often but sometimes, you can take 5 of their Yoshi’s Cookies and activate THEIR special play to reward yourself or hurt them, you’re a special kind of player if you can engineer that.
Not to toot my own horn, but this has become my puzzle game for the NES (along with Anticipation I suppose). I’ve found that I have an inherent ability to recognize similar shapes and line them up quickly, at least compared to most of the people I play this against.