Every time I've ever seen Yoshi's Story for the N64 mentioned, it's always been presented in a very negative light.  For instance, take this excerpt from the SMW 2: Yoshi's Island page in IGN's "Top 100":

Am I the only person that really enjoyed Yoshi's Story?  I rented it, loved it, and later bought it.  I may not enjoy it as much now, but it's still fun, and at the time it was great.

Btw, the white and black Yoshis were the best. 

yes

I liked it...

Oh man. I feel like a wimp :(

My girlfriend aboslutely loved Yoshi's story. I had never played it before, suprisingly, and a couple months ago she found it. She no longer had an N64 (her brother sold the family n64 years ago) so she asked if we could play it on mine. She had a very bizarre emotional attachment to the game.

She wouldn't let me actually beat any of the levels because it would override the highscores her and her friends set when they used to play it. Most of the friends she had played it with have moved away. If a yoshi got captured, she immediately screamed and turned the n64 off, because she couldn't bare to watch them get taken away. Even though she turned it off when they got captured, she would never let me use the black or white yoshi's anyways, just in case we for got to turn it off.

This is probably her favorite game of all time, and it really makes me happy that she can adore a videogame so much. She's not really a diehard videogamer or anything, her brothers always played videogames so she's always been exposed to them, but this game really seems to mean a lot to her.

Yeah, the black and white yoshi's were a pain because of that. They looked so cool, but if they were captured, you had to go and find them again. I usually saved them for last. :)

I hated Yoshi's Story. It is probably my most hated game of all time.

I liked it, but probably because I played that before Yoshi's Island. And my little sister loves it, so she still plays it sometimes.

Don't those rainbow colored Nerds look like lil Yoshi's?

I liked it as well. I think the harsh judgement it has received has been generally unfair. It's a fun and amusing game, which is enough to make it worthwhile.

At least I'm not alone.