Coming from an IGN interview with Takashi Tezuka.

"It’s just been a long time since there’s been a Yoshi game, so I wanted to put another one out there. The first time you see Yoshi is in a Mario game. [I thought] it would have been ideal if there was a Yoshi game first, where you would get to know Yoshi, and then you could see him appear in a Mario game. That’s something I’ve thought about as I look back and reflect on the series. So that’s one reason I really want to put out another Yoshi game, so people will get to know Yoshi as a character again. This new 3DS game is a sequel, basically, to the first Yoshi’s Island. It takes place after that.

When it comes to the graphics for Yoshi, one thing I’m conscious of is having that kind of handmade feel, a kind of handicraft feel. In the previous one, we had this hand-drawn style, but now we’re moving on to create something new, leaving that behind. There’s still a lot of hand-drawn stuff. Like with the yarn thing, it’s also more like something physical, with the weight of something hand-crafted. We’re trying to create more variations like that."

- StreetPass or multiplayer functionality are yet to be decided