Besides being an obvious bit of product placement for Domino's, the other curious aspect to this title is that it's actually a Dolled-Up Installment of a Famicom game, Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru. In that game, you played a ninja who, instead of a yo-yo, flung his bird at enemies. The pizza eating contests were originally traditional battles but played out in the same card-battle format. And the setting and story was completely different, with kids going missing from Fun Island and Hanamaru having to find them and stop who's behind it.
Has a Fan Sequel called Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void. The Noid would not appear in another video game for a further 31 years, later starring as a minion in, of all games, Crash: On the Run!, as a cross-promotional tie-in with Domino's. ...We're not sure either.
This game contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: In the commercials, the Noid was generally a nuisance obsessed with ruining pizzas. Here, he is trying to save the city.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Level 7 takes place in a carnival. In addition to other rides that can be seen in the background, carousel horses get in the Noid's way, though he can also stand on them, and enemies include cymbal-banging monkeys standing atop rubber balls, among other things.
- Art Shift: For some reason, the Noid's character design is slightly different in level 12, with a puffier face.
- Auto-Scrolling Level:
- Level 7 automatically moves to the right, and it's quite fast, so the Noid has to keep on the move if he wants to keep up.
- Midway through level 13, the screen starts automatically moving upward, and the Noid has to quickly hop between the platforms falling down if he hopes to avoid falling from the building.
- The Bad Guys Are Cops: In Level 13, which takes place in the scaffoldings between buildings, police officers roll barrels down stairs to stop the Noid, before charging after him to attack.
- Bears Are Bad News: Hockey-playing Polar Bears attack the Noid in Level 2.
- Big Applesauce: The whole game takes place in New York City.
- Big Bad: Mr. Green is responsible for the attack on the city, and the focus of the game is to stop him.
- Big Rotten Apple: New York City has become this thanks to Mr. Green and his goons.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: One of the weapons that can be used in the pizza-eating contests. It automatically cancels whatever move the opponent made, which is incredibly useful if they chose a "5" card.
- Bottomless Pits: All over the place.
- Checkpoint Starvation: There are none; if you die, you go back to the beginning of the level. Even worse, if you lose the pizza-eating contest, you also have to start the level again!
- Conspicuous Electric Obstacle: Factory has electric bolt emitters that turn on and off in regular basis.
- Deadly Droplets: Sewers feature water droplets that can kill Noid upon contact.
- Down the Drain: Level 5 is located in an underground sewer. The place is flooded with grimy water, so the Noid has to ride wooden crates across in order to avoid falling in.
- Eating Contest: The pizza-eating contest is a Bonus Round that happens at the end of every odd-numbered level.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: To the point where a balloon can kill you.
- Evil Counterpart:
- The villain in the game is named Mr. Green, a duplicate of the Noid who - naturally - wears green.
- Seven other Noids make up the opponents for the Pizza-Eating Contest leading up to Mr. Green, colored pink, olive, periwinkle, orange, navy, grey, and magenta in that order.
- Eviler than Thou: While the Noid just likes to ruin pizzas, Mr. Green is attacking the city.
- Excuse Plot: In Yo! Noid. Mr. Green is causing havoc in New York City. The Mayor calls upon the Noid (of all people) to stop him.
- Fair-Play Villain: All of the Noid's clones agree to surrender if he beats them in pizza eating contests.
- Flame Spewer Obstacle: Sewer level has a flame outlet.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Just like in the ads, the Noid has these. Same goes for his clones.
- Game-Breaking Bug: In level 1's pizza contest, there's a bug
where the game freezes if the opponent uses all their cards but you still have some. The only option is to reset your NES. - The Goomba: Guys who slowly march toward the Noid while carrying a weapon of some kind. They undergo a Head Swap in each of their appearances, but their behavior doesn't change.
- Green and Mean: Mr. Green is an evil Noid dressed in green trying to take over New York City.
- Head Swap: There is one single enemy type that attacks the same way but goes through different looks throughout the game. Fishermen, Hockey Players, and Plumbers, to name a few. The weapon they carry is changed between their different looks as well.
- Killer Yo-Yo: The Noid's weapon of choice is a "super yoyo". He can throw it ahead of him, but being attached to a string, it only has so much range.
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Most of the factory is filled with conveyor belts in form of Malevolent Architecture.
- Levels Take Flight: The eighth and final levels have the Noid on his helicopter pack flying over New York City. He has to dodge spikes, balloons dropping bombs, and guys carelessly flying their mini-planes towards him. In the final level, he has to deal with a guy with a vacuum cleaner and another fellow who attacks the Noid with electric sparks from his electrodes.
- Meaningful Name: Mr. Green is green.
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Nintendo Hard: One-hit deaths, no mid-level checkpoints, bottomless pits, limited lives and continues, and pizza battles that are sometimes won by pure luck... - One-Hit-Point Wonder: Where the majority of the challenge comes from.
- Palette Swap: The opponents in the pizza eating contests are all different-colored Noids, including the final boss, Mr. Green.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Most of the music from Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru was used for Yo! Noid, though Noid had a few new BGM pieces, such as the title theme, the first two level themes and the pizza-eating contest theme.
- Red Is Heroic: While Mr. Green is green, the Noid is red.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: "Mayor" is misspelled as "mayer" in the intro.
- Scenery Porn: The first level in Yo! Noid, taking place on a rising-and-sinking dock, is gorgeous, for NES standards.
- Skate Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Level 3 takes place in a park (Or it could be Central Park). The Noid rides a skateboard and has to avoid birds and football players on flying packs dropping exploding footballs.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Level 2 taking place inside an ice rink All the platforms are covered in slippery ice, and he must contend with enemies including polar bears with hockey sticks and men in parkas that slide curling stones across the ground.
- Skyscraper City: Level 4 has the Noid jumping between the skyscrapers of New York. Watch out for the balloons.
- Super Drowning Skills: The Noid dies if he makes contact with water.
- Temporary Platform: Level 2 has some stationary floating ice tiles the Noid has to traverse. If he stands on one for too long, it will start to crack, and staying on it too long after that will make it break apart and send him plummeting.
- Timed Mission: Every level in the game has a time limit, and the Noid loses a life if he takes too long to reach the end.
- Turn-Based Combat: The battles at the end of every other level. The opponent always goes first, then the player is allowed to combat their move.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change:
- Level 3, is the only level where the Noid rides a skateboard. He can't use his yo-yo like this, and instead has to attack enemies by building up speed and jumping into them.
- Levels 8 and 14 feature the Noid riding a gyrocopter through the sky and having to keep tapping jump to stay afloat. Once again, he can't use his yo-yo here, and must avoid any dangers he comes across if he doesn't have any magic power.
- Unwinnable by Design: The opponents in the pizza eating contests from the start have much stronger decks than you do, and they only get better as the game goes on. You won't stand much of a chance against them if you fail to collect enough special cards in the levels beforehand.
- A Winner Is You: As typical for a lot of NES games, the ending is very short, just the Noid walking to a pizza parlor and then pulling his ears goofily in joy, followed by "E N D".
