Announced at Nintendo's E3 press conference in May 2006,[2] the game was well received by critics, scoring an average of 81% on Metacritic's aggregate.

[3] The game was originally to be titled Yoshi's Island 2, though its name was changed one month before its North American release.

In April and May 2015, the game was made available for the Wii U via the Virtual Console service, shortly after a Nintendo Direct presentation.

[4] The game's story focuses on the Yoshi clan as they attempt to rescue newborn children who have been kidnapped by Kamek.

[5] The game does not make use of the bottom screen's touch sensitivity for basic gameplay, though it is an option for selecting levels and in some mini-games.

These are totaled at the end of each stage and a score is given depending how many of each were collected[5] (a maximum of 30 stars, 20 red coins, and 5 flowers).

He and Bowser traveled back in time in search of the "star children" – seven babies whose hearts possess unimaginable power necessary for him to conquer the universe.

[2][8] The developer, Artoon, founded by Sonic the Hedgehog co-creator Naoto Ohshima, has made one other Yoshi game—Yoshi's Universal Gravitation—for the Game Boy Advance.

Universal Gravitation veered away from the "Nintendo" design; but for DS, Artoon stuck close to the original concept.

[6] Small changes are noticeable: water animation has been improved, the black outlines around objects are not as thick, and the backgrounds are less cluttered.

[3] GameSpot's review commented that the developers have "produced a sequel that seems fresh and new while remaining every bit as awesome as the original".

[5] Multimedia website IGN called it "a solid recreation of the Yoshi's Island elements in a two-screen-high format",[7] and GamePro in their review said that "it's fun and light-hearted play".

One problem critics identified is the blind spot created by the gap between the Nintendo DS's two screens.