The player can choose between two different game modes from the game's main menu. These modes are called Story Mode and Trial Mode. After the player chooses a mode, they can choose a course to play and choose which Yoshi they would like to play as. Trial Mode does not have any courses to play at the start of the game. The player must beat a course in Story Mode before they can play it in Trial Mode.
On each course, the goal is to fill the Fruit Frame by eating 30 pieces of fruit.[1][2] There are a lot of fruit in each level. Fruits can be found lying around, floating in bubbles, and carried by some enemies. The player needs to apply strategy to get a high score.
The courses are spread across six pages. Each page has four courses. The courses are sorted by difficulty, and the choice of which course to play is made individually for each page. While the first page will always show all four courses, the other pages will only show one course at first. The player must collect Special Hearts to unlock the other courses.[2] Each course has three hearts to collect, and the number of hearts collected decides the number of additional courses that are unlocked on the next page. For example, if the player collects two hearts during a course, they will be able to choose from course 1, 2, and 3 on the next page.[1]
The abilities of the playable Yoshis include running, ducking, jumping, ground pounding, temporary hovering, and throwing eggs.[2]
