I honestly forget where I got this game, but I remember it was one of the first SNES games I ever played. The first was Super Mario World and I absolutely adored it. Because of that game, I got really into retro Nintendo games and some time after, I bought Yoshi's Island. Part of me thinks I bought this at my local flea market because it always reminded me of going there on the weekends. Yoshi's Island in general, is a big weekend game. I remember just playing it on my days off from school, and because of that it always gave off that vibe. Either way, I played through the game and loved it. I think since then, I only 100%ed it one other time or maybe not at all. So this was only, potentially, my 2nd time fully beating this game. I'm glad I did because just like Super Mario World, it's absolutely wonderful.
The most striking aspect of the game that you'll notice right away, is just how visually appealing it is. Its crayon-like artstyle is super pleasing to the eyes, and it also makes the most of the console and the newly created FX chip at the time. The FX chip was an add on to carts created by Argonaut Games (my beloved Croc developer). Basically, created to enhance the graphics of certain SNES games, and Yoshi's Island was one of the few games to use it. The FX chip, along with the wonderful artstyle, just gives the game this timeless look. Best looking game on the SNES imo, with Kirby's Dreamland 3 right behind it.
The gameplay itself is much more complicated than Mario World. In Yoshi's Island, you can run and jump and all that, but you can also create/throw eggs. Eating an enemy, and pressing down on the d-pad, let's you create eggs. These can be tossed at enemies and items and greatly enhances the regular Mario gameplay. You can have the eggs bounce off walls and based on the angle you threw it at, collect items you wouldn't have otherwise been able to get. You can have eggs skip across water. You can have eggs reflect against or be obtained by certain enemies and then thrown/hit back at you to get collectables. The egg mechanic gets utilized super well. This along with the varied level design makes the game a blast. Cuz yeah, the level design is super good in this game and is always throwing new things at you. Whether its the fuzzy enemies that make the screen all trippy, to the ski slopes in world 5, to the temporary platforms that disappear if you jump on them too much. And that's not even getting into the Yoshi transformations which are all fun too. Never was I bored with any level. Frustrated though? Maybe a little.
This is a good segway into the other half of the gameplay I wanted to talk about, the 100% requirements. See, unlike Super Mario World, you don't just have to beat each and every level and get all secret exits. You have to get a score of 100 in each level. There are three collectables that contribute to a score. Red coins, flowers and Yoshi's health. You must get all 20 red coins, all 5 flowers and have 30 health by the end of a level to get a score of 100. Then you do this in each world, 6 times for the normal levels and two times for each boss level. Then you unlock a bonus game and a bonus level. So why is this frustrating to do? Well, first it depends on the level. The early levels aren't too bad but some of the later levels are quite hard. The red coins appear as normal coins (tho there is a redness to them that is quite visible) so these can be tricky to find. The flowers are very obvious, you just have to be sure to find them. They hide both of these kind of collectables in some devious places sometimes. Usually it's not too bad but rarely, even now after having played the game before, I had to look them up because they're obtuse. This is all fine and dandy but the real hard collectable is the health. It all depends on how easy the stage is and how often they give you health in the stage, but sometimes it can be super difficult to have 30 star points (that's what the game calls the health) by the end of the game. Especially in that last world, hoo boy did I have to use an star point item in almost every one of those levels.
That's another thing the game has, you can get items (and live) from minigames at the end of stages. When you jump through the goal, and the ring stops on one of the flowers you collected in the stage, you can play a minigame. Like I said, it can give you lives but more importantly items. Some of these items suck but 2 of them give you +10 and +20 star points respectively. Seeing as, as long as you're alive, your star count always goes back up to 10. You can get hit as much as you want, get to the end of a stage, and pop a +20 and have full star points before ending a stage. Getting these items can be quite hard depending on the minigame, but the match cards game makes it super easy to grind these items out. You can replay this minigame as much as you want with the world 4 bonus game, so as long as you can 100% that world, going back to 100% every other level will be that much easier if you suck. Overall, I think the collectables are fun to collect and 100%ing the game isn't that bad because of the item system. The game can just be somewhat devious with its hidden collectables and its difficulty near the end game (that world 5 bonus level can suck it) which is why I found it a bit frustrating at points and not as replayable as Mario World. However, once I remembered you could at least cheese the star points in the endgame, this issue lessened a bit.
Something else I really liked were the bosses. Honestly, they're not all winners but they're probably better than any 2D Mario game. They all take full advantage of Yoshi's move set and egg mechanics and are also a treat to the eyes since they're usually so flashy looking too. I can really commemorate how creative they got with them. Like one of them has you getting eating by a frog and throwing giant eggs at the frog from within its stomach. There's a boss where you must use the egg water bounce mechanic to defeat it (or you can defeat it by killing it before the fight even begins, and Kamek has his own unique dialogue for doing so, so it's not even an exploit...it's a cheeseable method the developers put in which is hilarious). Just unique bosses all around. Baby Bowser at the end is one of the best final bosses in the series too I'd say. It takes a little getting used to with the whole change in perspective but its badass nonetheless. Also, the ending after that is so very heartfelt and feels good every time, I love it.
One other thing I wanted to mention was the game's OST. It's incredibly hard to dislike it, it's so happy and upbeat a lot of the time. The entire soundtrack is awesome but my two favorite songs are the Athletic Theme and the Underground Theme. They're my most listened to songs in the entire ost, and the underground theme especially is my absolute favorite in the game. That one always spoke to me and it out of any song in the game, gave me that whole weekend feeling I talked about earlier. I really don't know why, but I love it.
I originally had this game at a 9, and even despite my small criticism of the collectables, I can't help but bump this to a 10. I'd say I love Super Mario World slightly more but this is one of my favorite games ever and my 2nd favorite SNES game now. It's amazing, it's fantastic, it's wonderful. Go play it.
The most striking aspect of the game that you'll notice right away, is just how visually appealing it is. Its crayon-like artstyle is super pleasing to the eyes, and it also makes the most of the console and the newly created FX chip at the time. The FX chip was an add on to carts created by Argonaut Games (my beloved Croc developer). Basically, created to enhance the graphics of certain SNES games, and Yoshi's Island was one of the few games to use it. The FX chip, along with the wonderful artstyle, just gives the game this timeless look. Best looking game on the SNES imo, with Kirby's Dreamland 3 right behind it.
The gameplay itself is much more complicated than Mario World. In Yoshi's Island, you can run and jump and all that, but you can also create/throw eggs. Eating an enemy, and pressing down on the d-pad, let's you create eggs. These can be tossed at enemies and items and greatly enhances the regular Mario gameplay. You can have the eggs bounce off walls and based on the angle you threw it at, collect items you wouldn't have otherwise been able to get. You can have eggs skip across water. You can have eggs reflect against or be obtained by certain enemies and then thrown/hit back at you to get collectables. The egg mechanic gets utilized super well. This along with the varied level design makes the game a blast. Cuz yeah, the level design is super good in this game and is always throwing new things at you. Whether its the fuzzy enemies that make the screen all trippy, to the ski slopes in world 5, to the temporary platforms that disappear if you jump on them too much. And that's not even getting into the Yoshi transformations which are all fun too. Never was I bored with any level. Frustrated though? Maybe a little.
This is a good segway into the other half of the gameplay I wanted to talk about, the 100% requirements. See, unlike Super Mario World, you don't just have to beat each and every level and get all secret exits. You have to get a score of 100 in each level. There are three collectables that contribute to a score. Red coins, flowers and Yoshi's health. You must get all 20 red coins, all 5 flowers and have 30 health by the end of a level to get a score of 100. Then you do this in each world, 6 times for the normal levels and two times for each boss level. Then you unlock a bonus game and a bonus level. So why is this frustrating to do? Well, first it depends on the level. The early levels aren't too bad but some of the later levels are quite hard. The red coins appear as normal coins (tho there is a redness to them that is quite visible) so these can be tricky to find. The flowers are very obvious, you just have to be sure to find them. They hide both of these kind of collectables in some devious places sometimes. Usually it's not too bad but rarely, even now after having played the game before, I had to look them up because they're obtuse. This is all fine and dandy but the real hard collectable is the health. It all depends on how easy the stage is and how often they give you health in the stage, but sometimes it can be super difficult to have 30 star points (that's what the game calls the health) by the end of the game. Especially in that last world, hoo boy did I have to use an star point item in almost every one of those levels.
That's another thing the game has, you can get items (and live) from minigames at the end of stages. When you jump through the goal, and the ring stops on one of the flowers you collected in the stage, you can play a minigame. Like I said, it can give you lives but more importantly items. Some of these items suck but 2 of them give you +10 and +20 star points respectively. Seeing as, as long as you're alive, your star count always goes back up to 10. You can get hit as much as you want, get to the end of a stage, and pop a +20 and have full star points before ending a stage. Getting these items can be quite hard depending on the minigame, but the match cards game makes it super easy to grind these items out. You can replay this minigame as much as you want with the world 4 bonus game, so as long as you can 100% that world, going back to 100% every other level will be that much easier if you suck. Overall, I think the collectables are fun to collect and 100%ing the game isn't that bad because of the item system. The game can just be somewhat devious with its hidden collectables and its difficulty near the end game (that world 5 bonus level can suck it) which is why I found it a bit frustrating at points and not as replayable as Mario World. However, once I remembered you could at least cheese the star points in the endgame, this issue lessened a bit.
Something else I really liked were the bosses. Honestly, they're not all winners but they're probably better than any 2D Mario game. They all take full advantage of Yoshi's move set and egg mechanics and are also a treat to the eyes since they're usually so flashy looking too. I can really commemorate how creative they got with them. Like one of them has you getting eating by a frog and throwing giant eggs at the frog from within its stomach. There's a boss where you must use the egg water bounce mechanic to defeat it (or you can defeat it by killing it before the fight even begins, and Kamek has his own unique dialogue for doing so, so it's not even an exploit...it's a cheeseable method the developers put in which is hilarious). Just unique bosses all around. Baby Bowser at the end is one of the best final bosses in the series too I'd say. It takes a little getting used to with the whole change in perspective but its badass nonetheless. Also, the ending after that is so very heartfelt and feels good every time, I love it.
One other thing I wanted to mention was the game's OST. It's incredibly hard to dislike it, it's so happy and upbeat a lot of the time. The entire soundtrack is awesome but my two favorite songs are the Athletic Theme and the Underground Theme. They're my most listened to songs in the entire ost, and the underground theme especially is my absolute favorite in the game. That one always spoke to me and it out of any song in the game, gave me that whole weekend feeling I talked about earlier. I really don't know why, but I love it.
I originally had this game at a 9, and even despite my small criticism of the collectables, I can't help but bump this to a 10. I'd say I love Super Mario World slightly more but this is one of my favorite games ever and my 2nd favorite SNES game now. It's amazing, it's fantastic, it's wonderful. Go play it.
For years I considered myself not a fan of Yoshi's Island, where was the fluid momentum driven platforming of Super Mario, why had it's taut level design (already beset by the tyranny of ghost houses) been replaced by this sprawl? But one of the things I value most about Super Mario is the way it gives you more tools than you need to succeed, in a genre where often feels that you are simply playing Simon Says with the game developer, the fluid physics, the clever level design and numerous power ups allow you to believe that you are beating your own path through the games many challenges, and in Yoshi's Island this feeling remains, the accident (in the Aristotelian sense) changed, but the substance remains. As such, the ineffable quality of Super Mario is wholly intact, that quality that leaves you asking your own game design questions every time; What if the whole game was a single big level? What if it were two player and you could pass eggs or even baby Mario between yourselves as a means of overcoming obstacles? What if Yoshi swallowed you and turned you into an egg, how would that feel? What if after eating a watermelon, Yoshi spit the seeds at me, and tender welts rose on my porcelain flesh? What if Yoshi became the mother-father to my own children, as he was the surrogate to Mario? Why does he wear shoes all the time, I would like to take them off, and give his aching feet a much needed massage after a day of adventuring around his island with our child, we would be so happy.
One of the big names of the 16-bit generation. The three years in development must have been spent mastering pure magic to get this game to look as ahead of the time as it does. The closest comparison I can make is probably Kirby's Adventure in terms of visuals, seeing just how far they could go with the hardware to make something truly whimsical. The soundtrack has continued to make waves in internet circles and memes for decades, and while I'm not terribly fond of it, it's packed to the brim with earworms and is definitely so well remembered for a reason. The gameplay, mechanics and score system are all very engaging to play around with and sure to keep somebody coming back for more. There isn't much that sticks out quite like Yoshi's Island for the time.
Only problem, it's a bit stretched thin. It clocks in at about twice as long as Super Mario World, and for 90s platformer standards it's just a tad overkill. Not really helping is World 6 containing a lot of the game's weakest levels, though I will say the final boss is superb. I think you could safely trim this down to about six levels per world, maybe one castle each instead of two. I suppose another more minor nitpick is that the 3D rendered sprites that occasionally show up (such as the cutscene of the toadies taking Mario away, or the post-credits cutscene) clash really hard with the art style the rest of the game establishes, though they would soon improve at these and veer harder into that style for Yoshi's Story.
While not one of my all time favorites, there's no major weak points here. It definitely earns its place as one of the titans of the SNES lineup. I would recommend this to pretty much anybody, not over Super Mario World, but still. Not sure why it took me this long to get around to.
Only problem, it's a bit stretched thin. It clocks in at about twice as long as Super Mario World, and for 90s platformer standards it's just a tad overkill. Not really helping is World 6 containing a lot of the game's weakest levels, though I will say the final boss is superb. I think you could safely trim this down to about six levels per world, maybe one castle each instead of two. I suppose another more minor nitpick is that the 3D rendered sprites that occasionally show up (such as the cutscene of the toadies taking Mario away, or the post-credits cutscene) clash really hard with the art style the rest of the game establishes, though they would soon improve at these and veer harder into that style for Yoshi's Story.
While not one of my all time favorites, there's no major weak points here. It definitely earns its place as one of the titans of the SNES lineup. I would recommend this to pretty much anybody, not over Super Mario World, but still. Not sure why it took me this long to get around to.
Tight controls, nice visuals, great power ups.
What is there not to love? Yoshi's Island is one great platformer and anyone who has never played it is doing a disservice to themselves to have never touched it.
What is there not to love? Yoshi's Island is one great platformer and anyone who has never played it is doing a disservice to themselves to have never touched it.
Does this count as my favorite 2D mario game? if it does this is it, amazing artstyle, bubbly music, fun levels i love this game to death, extremely charming
My favorite 2D platformer of all time. Not sure if this qualifies as a 2D Mario game, but the wikipedia list said it did, so I am gonna count it. Great art style, great gameplay, and (not so) great baby Mario!
For the longest time I refused to acknowledge this as a "Mario game" because it barely has anything in common with them aside from the annoying little shit screeching every time I so much as graze a thorn bush. Alas, it does share more similarities with traditional Mario games than I'd wanted it to, mainly in how little music there actually is. What music it has is typically very good, but by area 3 I was getting tired of it.
There's also some really janky interactions like if an enemy hits me and makes me spin, I'll stop at the ledge, only for Yoshi to go flying off the side at mach 3 once he's actionable again, sending me plummeting to my death.
It also has some of the worst mandatory autoscrollers I've ever seen in a 2D platformer, one of which has almost no checkpoints at all in the part that matters.
It also gives SMB3 and SMW a run for their money for most pathetic bosses, with the potted one in particular feeling less like a boss and more like a deliberate joke, whereupon entering I immediately held right, and just held right, and before I knew it the fight was over. Just hold the one input. :|
That's all for outright negatives, a more middlig thing to me is just the pacing of the game difficulty/level design-wise. It feels like it does next to nothing for the entire first half of the game, then when you get to world 4 there's a massive difficulty spike into the realm of what I'd have expected 2 worlds earlier, then another spike in 5-6 that feels borderline unfair at times. I can't imagine going for the 100% in this legitimately.
On the brighter side of things, I fucking love Yoshi. I'm probably the only freak on this planet who outright would rather play Yoshi's Story over Island any day of the week purely because it feels even more Yoshi-centric and heartwarming and bubbly and whimsical and more fluffy buzzwords etc. But my love does extend to this, it shares a lot of that same aura.
It should go without saying but the visual design is masterful (barring red coins being evil to find sometimes, the only outright bad choice imo), like every aspect of it. Visually it is probably my favorite SNES title alongside Super Mario RPG.
The audio design was really goofy to me, seeing sounds from SMW reused in different contexts felt so alien but gradually I not only got used to them but loved them.
I felt pretty ready to be extra mean and give this a 6 by the end of it, mainly because the game is very long in the tooth while dragging its feet for difficulty, a huge fuck-you to "The Very Loooooong Cave" in particular, which I would have appreciated as a joke in like world 3 but not near the very end of the game in world 6 :(; but the reason I'm settling in with a 7 and have half a mind to bump to an 8 is because of the final boss and credits, mostly the latter. This is top 20~ credits for me probably, tugging on strings I thought only Yoshi's Story could do in the face of such wholesomeness.
There's also some really janky interactions like if an enemy hits me and makes me spin, I'll stop at the ledge, only for Yoshi to go flying off the side at mach 3 once he's actionable again, sending me plummeting to my death.
It also has some of the worst mandatory autoscrollers I've ever seen in a 2D platformer, one of which has almost no checkpoints at all in the part that matters.
It also gives SMB3 and SMW a run for their money for most pathetic bosses, with the potted one in particular feeling less like a boss and more like a deliberate joke, whereupon entering I immediately held right, and just held right, and before I knew it the fight was over. Just hold the one input. :|
That's all for outright negatives, a more middlig thing to me is just the pacing of the game difficulty/level design-wise. It feels like it does next to nothing for the entire first half of the game, then when you get to world 4 there's a massive difficulty spike into the realm of what I'd have expected 2 worlds earlier, then another spike in 5-6 that feels borderline unfair at times. I can't imagine going for the 100% in this legitimately.
On the brighter side of things, I fucking love Yoshi. I'm probably the only freak on this planet who outright would rather play Yoshi's Story over Island any day of the week purely because it feels even more Yoshi-centric and heartwarming and bubbly and whimsical and more fluffy buzzwords etc. But my love does extend to this, it shares a lot of that same aura.
It should go without saying but the visual design is masterful (barring red coins being evil to find sometimes, the only outright bad choice imo), like every aspect of it. Visually it is probably my favorite SNES title alongside Super Mario RPG.
The audio design was really goofy to me, seeing sounds from SMW reused in different contexts felt so alien but gradually I not only got used to them but loved them.
I felt pretty ready to be extra mean and give this a 6 by the end of it, mainly because the game is very long in the tooth while dragging its feet for difficulty, a huge fuck-you to "The Very Loooooong Cave" in particular, which I would have appreciated as a joke in like world 3 but not near the very end of the game in world 6 :(; but the reason I'm settling in with a 7 and have half a mind to bump to an 8 is because of the final boss and credits, mostly the latter. This is top 20~ credits for me probably, tugging on strings I thought only Yoshi's Story could do in the face of such wholesomeness.
Yoshi Shit Flinging Simulator
So close to a masterpiece but that baby crying is the worst sound ever
This game is fucking insane, I kind of can't believe how good it is and I feel like a moron for having not played through it until now. This really feels like the first Modern Nintendo game, all about inventive and visually varied levels, cycling through awesome level ideas and almost making it look easy. Also how did they do this on Super Nintendo lmao
Yoshi's Island is without a doubt the best looking game on the SNES. The visuals are outstanding and adapt an art style that will stand the test of time, utilizing a lot of really smart techniques to even incorporate some "3D" visuals. The music is as good as Mario games can get, with a wonderful touch of adding elements to the main map theme with every new world. Gameplay incorporates a lot of unique elements like storing, aiming, and throwing eggs as well as power-ups like the horrific helicopter.
However, I cannot in good conscience give a perfect rating to a game that punishes you for taking damage with loud beeping and literal baby crying. It is one of the most bafflingly poor game design decisions to ever come out of Nintendo games. Yoshi's Island is a firm 4/5.
However, I cannot in good conscience give a perfect rating to a game that punishes you for taking damage with loud beeping and literal baby crying. It is one of the most bafflingly poor game design decisions to ever come out of Nintendo games. Yoshi's Island is a firm 4/5.
It should be illegal for a video game to have this much charm and personality
I got over halfway through the third world when I decided that I just did not have the patience to finish this.
Yoshi feels too floaty to control. Some levels overstayed their welcome by making me search for a key which only served to erode my patience further.
Don't get me wrong, I wanted to love Yoshi's Island and I expected that I would. I'm gonna have less time to play any games as I get older so that means I'll have to put down games I'm not vibing with in order to make time for the game I do vibe with. I hope you all understand where I'm coming from.
Yoshi feels too floaty to control. Some levels overstayed their welcome by making me search for a key which only served to erode my patience further.
Don't get me wrong, I wanted to love Yoshi's Island and I expected that I would. I'm gonna have less time to play any games as I get older so that means I'll have to put down games I'm not vibing with in order to make time for the game I do vibe with. I hope you all understand where I'm coming from.
While I wouldn't call Yoshi's Island one of my favorite platformers, I certainly wouldn't bat an eye at the many who do. Yoshi's moveset is fairly complex, and the level design built around it is consistently inventive throughout the game's six worlds. I'm less convinced of the need for the need for, say, Yoshi's helicopter powerup or super baby Mario than Mario's various suits and hats in the older Mario games, but it's not a huge issue. The much-derided crying Mario "health" mechanic is one of the game's bigger strokes of core design success, providing leeway for mistakes in a way that's a bit more interesting—and less punishing—than in earlier Mario games, while still enforcing a degree of consistency and quick, smart responses from the player. If the level themes get a little repetitive at times, the art and especially the backgrounds are consistently beautiful. Whether it's the best-looking Mario game probably comes down to personal aesthetic preference (there's something to be said for the constrained strangeness of the NES visuals, especially in SMB3), it's certainly the most impressively detailed.
My biggest gripe with the game come down to the persistence of arcade-style design conventions (coin collecting, limited lives, etc). While I don't have any issue with these conventions per se, provided they are smartly integrated into the game design as a whole, here they feel almost vestigial. It smarts especially when the reward for unlocking a semi-hidden door turns out to be a slot machine minigame. This stuff feels strange in an otherwise (relatively) slow-paced, exploratory game, and gets at why my favorite SNES games tend to be the ones that abandon these conventions in favor of something else. Then again, the games I'm thinking of have direct antecedents back on the NES which I've never played, so back to gamer college for me I guess?
My biggest gripe with the game come down to the persistence of arcade-style design conventions (coin collecting, limited lives, etc). While I don't have any issue with these conventions per se, provided they are smartly integrated into the game design as a whole, here they feel almost vestigial. It smarts especially when the reward for unlocking a semi-hidden door turns out to be a slot machine minigame. This stuff feels strange in an otherwise (relatively) slow-paced, exploratory game, and gets at why my favorite SNES games tend to be the ones that abandon these conventions in favor of something else. Then again, the games I'm thinking of have direct antecedents back on the NES which I've never played, so back to gamer college for me I guess?
Waaah waaaah waaah
Every journey has a beginning. Whether it be a monumental journey that tells of some great hero setting out to accomplish some goal or to defeat a big bad guy, or rather it be something as simple as how one decided to go to the post office that day, there is always a beginning to every story, and that definitely rings true when it comes to video games. Some of us may have played thousands of games at this point in our lives, while others are merely starting to get into the hobby, but one thing that remains consistent between all of us is that we all had a first video game, the one that would introduce us to this vast, creative and limitless medium, one that either fully enraptured us to the point of seeking out what else you could find, or leaving a simple, yet enjoyable enough impression to where you wouldn’t mind trying anything else out in the future. So, I figured, for the 600th review that I am making on this website (I might be slightly insane), I figured it was about time that I covered the very first video game I ever played in my life, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island.
I don’t remember the exact, precise details of how I ended up with this as the first game I would ever play, but I do have a bit of a brief summary based on what I do remember, which will do a good enough job at painting a picture. Back in 2003-2004, when I was around 3-4 years old as well, I was a dumbass little kid, not knowing what a video game even was, and most likely doing the things that most toddlers were doing back then, such as running around, yelling, eating weird stuff off the floor, and receiving plenty of injuries. One day, my Mom and Dad came home one day with a little present for me, which just so happened to be a gray Game Boy Advance SP, one that I still own even to this day, and one that I share a lot of fond memories with throughout my life. With this, I also managed to get two games, those being Pokemon Blue and Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, and with all of these things in hand, I had… absolutely zero clue as to what I was supposed to do with it. After messing around with the things for a bit, most likely opening and closing them, chewing on the sides of them, and so on, I then found out I can shove that weird gray rectangle thing into the big gray brick, while also finding a power switch on the system, leading to it turning on, and from that moment on, I was never the same.
So yeah, obviously, I have a lot of nostalgia towards this game, and while those early experiences were with the GBA port of the game rather than the original, it was still pretty accurate to that of the original game, to the point where I fondly remember several memories of me playing it as a kid, including one instance where I got so angry when I lost to the second phase of the Baby Bowser fight. It was my first instance of rage… you love to see it. But anyways, you all obviously didn’t come here to listen to me babble on about the past. You all came here to hear my opinion of this game, and if you couldn’t tell already at this point, I do still hold a soft place for it in my heart, and I love it tremendously. I can’t say it is perfect by any means,as it does have problems I will get into, but it was still fantastic all the way through, not only as one of the first proper Yoshi games ever made that wasn’t a puzzle game or whatever else, but also as the game that would drag me into the world of video games as a whole.
The story is very simple, yet very charming at the same time, where one night, while a stork is delivering two baby brothers by the name of Mario and Luigi to their parents, he is attacked by an evil sorcerer named Kamek, who kidnaps Baby Luigi and causes Baby Mario to fall down into the depths of the island below. Down on said island, a green Yoshi is taking a nice, leisurely stroll, until he then finds Baby Mario falling right on his back, while also dropping the map that the stork was using to deliver the kids. After gathering with several other Yoshis on the island, they then deduce (somehow) what happened to Baby Luigi, so they all then set out, with Baby Mario alongside them, to go and rescue Baby Luigi from Kamek’s evil clutches, while he and his lackeys plot to take Baby Mario as well to succeed in their ultimate goal. It is somewhat of an odd story, considering how it de-ages the Mario bros. and shifts the focus onto the Yoshis, but it is one that you can easily get behind and want to see through, as you don’t wanna see Baby Luigi get hurt by Kamek……… he can hurt Baby Mario instead, considering how much you have to put up with him in this game.
The graphics are still absolutely amazing even to this day, being one of the best looking games from the SNES library, let alone the best looking platformer on the system, having a very unique art style and plenty of vibrant colors, wonderful character, enemy, and boss designs, as well as plenty of vibrant environments that you will travel through for your whole journey, the music is fantastic, having incredibly up-beat and iconic tunes like this one that will play throughout the game, mixed in with some more “menacing” tunes like this one, most of them being a joy to listen to even after all this time, and the gameplay/control is mostly stuff that we have seen before from the Mario franchise, but not only does it remain really fun to play, but there are several different gimmicks that are present in the game that you wouldn’t typically find in other games.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of one of many different colored Yoshis at a time, go through plenty different levels across many different standout locations amongst Yoshi’s Island, take out plenty of enemies either by jumping on them, swallowing them whole, or throwing others’ dead remains at them to drive the point home, protect Baby Mario at all times to not only prevent Kamek’s cronies from taking him, but also to make sure you won’t be listening to this sound for too long, gather plenty of different eggs to help you defend yourself, solve puzzles, and take down foes, while also gathering plenty of collectibles along the way, and take on some goofy, yet at-times threatening bosses, which range from being big, intimidating foes that can definitely give you a run for your money to……. this guy, who you defeat by just simply holding right…….. fucking flawless. Much of it is your standard platforming affair, even for those who are very familiar with Mario and his past adventures, but rest assured, despite the fact that it carries the name “Super Mario World” in its title, Yoshi’s Island manages to have plenty of unique elements that distinguish itself from Mario quite a bit, both in terms of its presentation and gameplay.
A lot of elements in this game have been done to death over and over again in many other games, such as going from left to right to the end of the level, defeating enemies, getting coins, and so on, but one of the ways that makes this feel much different than that of a typical Mario game is how you are playing as Yoshi the entire time. Naturally, he does not go about his business the same way Mario does, being able to swallow enemies and throw them around as eggs, and as such, this changes up how the game expects you to approach many situations, and it is great because of it. There are many instances in this game that can’t be cleared through just by running and jumping, but instead, you may need to figure out a different way to defeat an enemy or solve a puzzle using your flutter jump or your eggs, and while some of it can get tedious at times, most of it is incredibly solid, still feeling natural and just as fun even after all of these years.
Not to mention, there are plenty of things that this game has that expands upon elements seen in previous Mario games, all to its benefit. There are many different bonus games that can be accessed throughout the game, each granting you the chance of getting a GARGANTUAN amount of lives to use for the future, right alongside several items as well, which you can use at any time while in a level. Most of these items aren’t really all that useful, just being a means of helping you get to 100%, and the bonus games themselves aren’t anything too useful after beating them once or twice, but they can still be pretty helpful whenever you get the chance to participate in any of them, and in some instances, they can definitely get you out of a bind that you are in. Aside from that though, there are also the powerups in this game, which, rather than being the traditional ones we see all the time in typical Mario games, are instead a bunch of different transformations that Yoshi can take on for a brief period of time. You can become a helicopter, a submarine, a robot mole, and there’s even a powerup that allows you to play as Baby Mario by himself, running around and going up walls, because who gives a fuck about logic! Granted, not all of these powerups are fun to use, with some like that robot mole I mentioned earlier having some pretty awkward handling at times, but they are a nice change of pace whenever they pop up, and it is always really neat seeing just what kinds of things that they are willing to transform Yoshi into next.
So yeah, the game does have a lot going for it in the gameplay department, being very fun even all the way to now, but a lot of the reason why this game does hold up also has something to do with its presentation. The game was made with the Super FX chip, one that was able to do a whole lot more then what games like Star Fox could, and when you play the game for yourself, you can really see it working perfectly in harmony. Sprites will frequently change sizes to fit the situations, enemies will jump from the background to the foreground, there are 3D objects that can be interacted with, and the way that some enemies and sprites move around looks much more impressive then any other game from the SNES at that point. Hell, even just by watching the intro sequence, you can see just what kind of stuff this game was capable of, and while it does look a little rough nowadays, I can imagine this kind of thing blowing peoples’ minds back in the day, and it has aged pretty wonderfully overtime. Not to mention, the general art style of the game is perfect in every way, making everything look so vibrant, lively, and adorable, to the point where I want to live on this island and never come back to civilization.
However, with all of that out of the way, I can’t let my nostalgia goggles blind me for too long, because I am well aware that this game is not perfect, despite it being very, VERY close to that point. While most of the game is extremely fun to play, great to look at/listen to, and has plenty of charming elements that makes it a must-play for any Nintendo fan, there has always been one element of the game that I never really liked, and that is going for 100%. For those that aren’t aware, in order to 100% Yoshi’s Island, you have to collect plenty of items in every single level, such as 30 stars to max out your life, all of the red coins, and the five smiley flowers for the chance at a bonus game at the end of the level. That doesn’t sound that bad, but trust me, completing these tasks is MUCH easier said than done, not only because of how hard it can be in plenty of places, but also because of how tedious it is. Getting a lot of these collectibles can be quite a gamble, especially in plenty of areas where you have to have perfect precision when it comes to throwing your eggs, or even in life-or-death situations where you can’t screw up, or else you would have to die or start the level over again.
That’s not even bringing up the fact that, once you do 100% the main levels in a world, you then unlock an extra stage to play for that world, and these stages can be quite the pain in the dino-ass if you aren’t prepared for them. This can be seen even as early as the first world’s extra stage, where for most of the stage, you are riding along the back of Poochy, Yoshi’s dog companion who is also be goodest good boy of them all, while going across a lot of precarious lava and tight jumps, while also having a very small platform to go back to every time you land. All of this and more awaits you when you decide to go for 100%, and while I myself usually tend to 100% the games that I play, I just simply don’t like doing that with Yoshi games. I dunno, maybe it’s because of how it was a series I grew up with, and is near and dear to my heart, but I have always found this games to be a “chill” series, one that I could just play, run straight through a lot of the time, not having to worry about much else, and I don’t think I will ever change my mind on that stance. To be fair though, I am not saying that going for 100% in this game is a bad thing at all, because it is still perfectly doable, and quite the challenge, if you so wish to go for it, but it is just something I don’t think I will ever be likely to do that much whenever I go back to one of these games. Not to mention, the last time I did 100% percent a Yoshi game was with Crafted World, and, ah hah……………… NEVER AGAIN.
Overall, despite me not really getting into the whole idea of 100% this game at many given times, I am eternally grateful that this managed to be the first video game I ever played in my life, as not only is it a wonderful place to start for anybody, but it is also a fantastic game in many ways, having a wonderful art style, fantastic music, addicting and satisfying gameplay, and a sense of identity that the series would carry on its shoulders all the way to this day, which is all for the best in my opinion. I would definitely recommend it for those who have never played any Yoshi game before, as well as those who are just big fans of Yoshi in general, because if you somehow haven’t gotten the chance to play this for yourself, then you are clearly missing out, because it truly is one of the finest platformers from the 16-bit era. happy sigh..... man, it feels great to finally get to this game, after I had been planning it for so long. Although, now that I am done with all my gushing, I don’t have any funny gag to end the review on. Uh… obligatory Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy reference. There ya go, is that good enough? Have I won the Yoshi’s Island internet prize, and will people like me now?
Game #578
I don’t remember the exact, precise details of how I ended up with this as the first game I would ever play, but I do have a bit of a brief summary based on what I do remember, which will do a good enough job at painting a picture. Back in 2003-2004, when I was around 3-4 years old as well, I was a dumbass little kid, not knowing what a video game even was, and most likely doing the things that most toddlers were doing back then, such as running around, yelling, eating weird stuff off the floor, and receiving plenty of injuries. One day, my Mom and Dad came home one day with a little present for me, which just so happened to be a gray Game Boy Advance SP, one that I still own even to this day, and one that I share a lot of fond memories with throughout my life. With this, I also managed to get two games, those being Pokemon Blue and Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, and with all of these things in hand, I had… absolutely zero clue as to what I was supposed to do with it. After messing around with the things for a bit, most likely opening and closing them, chewing on the sides of them, and so on, I then found out I can shove that weird gray rectangle thing into the big gray brick, while also finding a power switch on the system, leading to it turning on, and from that moment on, I was never the same.
So yeah, obviously, I have a lot of nostalgia towards this game, and while those early experiences were with the GBA port of the game rather than the original, it was still pretty accurate to that of the original game, to the point where I fondly remember several memories of me playing it as a kid, including one instance where I got so angry when I lost to the second phase of the Baby Bowser fight. It was my first instance of rage… you love to see it. But anyways, you all obviously didn’t come here to listen to me babble on about the past. You all came here to hear my opinion of this game, and if you couldn’t tell already at this point, I do still hold a soft place for it in my heart, and I love it tremendously. I can’t say it is perfect by any means,as it does have problems I will get into, but it was still fantastic all the way through, not only as one of the first proper Yoshi games ever made that wasn’t a puzzle game or whatever else, but also as the game that would drag me into the world of video games as a whole.
The story is very simple, yet very charming at the same time, where one night, while a stork is delivering two baby brothers by the name of Mario and Luigi to their parents, he is attacked by an evil sorcerer named Kamek, who kidnaps Baby Luigi and causes Baby Mario to fall down into the depths of the island below. Down on said island, a green Yoshi is taking a nice, leisurely stroll, until he then finds Baby Mario falling right on his back, while also dropping the map that the stork was using to deliver the kids. After gathering with several other Yoshis on the island, they then deduce (somehow) what happened to Baby Luigi, so they all then set out, with Baby Mario alongside them, to go and rescue Baby Luigi from Kamek’s evil clutches, while he and his lackeys plot to take Baby Mario as well to succeed in their ultimate goal. It is somewhat of an odd story, considering how it de-ages the Mario bros. and shifts the focus onto the Yoshis, but it is one that you can easily get behind and want to see through, as you don’t wanna see Baby Luigi get hurt by Kamek……… he can hurt Baby Mario instead, considering how much you have to put up with him in this game.
The graphics are still absolutely amazing even to this day, being one of the best looking games from the SNES library, let alone the best looking platformer on the system, having a very unique art style and plenty of vibrant colors, wonderful character, enemy, and boss designs, as well as plenty of vibrant environments that you will travel through for your whole journey, the music is fantastic, having incredibly up-beat and iconic tunes like this one that will play throughout the game, mixed in with some more “menacing” tunes like this one, most of them being a joy to listen to even after all this time, and the gameplay/control is mostly stuff that we have seen before from the Mario franchise, but not only does it remain really fun to play, but there are several different gimmicks that are present in the game that you wouldn’t typically find in other games.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of one of many different colored Yoshis at a time, go through plenty different levels across many different standout locations amongst Yoshi’s Island, take out plenty of enemies either by jumping on them, swallowing them whole, or throwing others’ dead remains at them to drive the point home, protect Baby Mario at all times to not only prevent Kamek’s cronies from taking him, but also to make sure you won’t be listening to this sound for too long, gather plenty of different eggs to help you defend yourself, solve puzzles, and take down foes, while also gathering plenty of collectibles along the way, and take on some goofy, yet at-times threatening bosses, which range from being big, intimidating foes that can definitely give you a run for your money to……. this guy, who you defeat by just simply holding right…….. fucking flawless. Much of it is your standard platforming affair, even for those who are very familiar with Mario and his past adventures, but rest assured, despite the fact that it carries the name “Super Mario World” in its title, Yoshi’s Island manages to have plenty of unique elements that distinguish itself from Mario quite a bit, both in terms of its presentation and gameplay.
A lot of elements in this game have been done to death over and over again in many other games, such as going from left to right to the end of the level, defeating enemies, getting coins, and so on, but one of the ways that makes this feel much different than that of a typical Mario game is how you are playing as Yoshi the entire time. Naturally, he does not go about his business the same way Mario does, being able to swallow enemies and throw them around as eggs, and as such, this changes up how the game expects you to approach many situations, and it is great because of it. There are many instances in this game that can’t be cleared through just by running and jumping, but instead, you may need to figure out a different way to defeat an enemy or solve a puzzle using your flutter jump or your eggs, and while some of it can get tedious at times, most of it is incredibly solid, still feeling natural and just as fun even after all of these years.
Not to mention, there are plenty of things that this game has that expands upon elements seen in previous Mario games, all to its benefit. There are many different bonus games that can be accessed throughout the game, each granting you the chance of getting a GARGANTUAN amount of lives to use for the future, right alongside several items as well, which you can use at any time while in a level. Most of these items aren’t really all that useful, just being a means of helping you get to 100%, and the bonus games themselves aren’t anything too useful after beating them once or twice, but they can still be pretty helpful whenever you get the chance to participate in any of them, and in some instances, they can definitely get you out of a bind that you are in. Aside from that though, there are also the powerups in this game, which, rather than being the traditional ones we see all the time in typical Mario games, are instead a bunch of different transformations that Yoshi can take on for a brief period of time. You can become a helicopter, a submarine, a robot mole, and there’s even a powerup that allows you to play as Baby Mario by himself, running around and going up walls, because who gives a fuck about logic! Granted, not all of these powerups are fun to use, with some like that robot mole I mentioned earlier having some pretty awkward handling at times, but they are a nice change of pace whenever they pop up, and it is always really neat seeing just what kinds of things that they are willing to transform Yoshi into next.
So yeah, the game does have a lot going for it in the gameplay department, being very fun even all the way to now, but a lot of the reason why this game does hold up also has something to do with its presentation. The game was made with the Super FX chip, one that was able to do a whole lot more then what games like Star Fox could, and when you play the game for yourself, you can really see it working perfectly in harmony. Sprites will frequently change sizes to fit the situations, enemies will jump from the background to the foreground, there are 3D objects that can be interacted with, and the way that some enemies and sprites move around looks much more impressive then any other game from the SNES at that point. Hell, even just by watching the intro sequence, you can see just what kind of stuff this game was capable of, and while it does look a little rough nowadays, I can imagine this kind of thing blowing peoples’ minds back in the day, and it has aged pretty wonderfully overtime. Not to mention, the general art style of the game is perfect in every way, making everything look so vibrant, lively, and adorable, to the point where I want to live on this island and never come back to civilization.
However, with all of that out of the way, I can’t let my nostalgia goggles blind me for too long, because I am well aware that this game is not perfect, despite it being very, VERY close to that point. While most of the game is extremely fun to play, great to look at/listen to, and has plenty of charming elements that makes it a must-play for any Nintendo fan, there has always been one element of the game that I never really liked, and that is going for 100%. For those that aren’t aware, in order to 100% Yoshi’s Island, you have to collect plenty of items in every single level, such as 30 stars to max out your life, all of the red coins, and the five smiley flowers for the chance at a bonus game at the end of the level. That doesn’t sound that bad, but trust me, completing these tasks is MUCH easier said than done, not only because of how hard it can be in plenty of places, but also because of how tedious it is. Getting a lot of these collectibles can be quite a gamble, especially in plenty of areas where you have to have perfect precision when it comes to throwing your eggs, or even in life-or-death situations where you can’t screw up, or else you would have to die or start the level over again.
That’s not even bringing up the fact that, once you do 100% the main levels in a world, you then unlock an extra stage to play for that world, and these stages can be quite the pain in the dino-ass if you aren’t prepared for them. This can be seen even as early as the first world’s extra stage, where for most of the stage, you are riding along the back of Poochy, Yoshi’s dog companion who is also be goodest good boy of them all, while going across a lot of precarious lava and tight jumps, while also having a very small platform to go back to every time you land. All of this and more awaits you when you decide to go for 100%, and while I myself usually tend to 100% the games that I play, I just simply don’t like doing that with Yoshi games. I dunno, maybe it’s because of how it was a series I grew up with, and is near and dear to my heart, but I have always found this games to be a “chill” series, one that I could just play, run straight through a lot of the time, not having to worry about much else, and I don’t think I will ever change my mind on that stance. To be fair though, I am not saying that going for 100% in this game is a bad thing at all, because it is still perfectly doable, and quite the challenge, if you so wish to go for it, but it is just something I don’t think I will ever be likely to do that much whenever I go back to one of these games. Not to mention, the last time I did 100% percent a Yoshi game was with Crafted World, and, ah hah……………… NEVER AGAIN.
Overall, despite me not really getting into the whole idea of 100% this game at many given times, I am eternally grateful that this managed to be the first video game I ever played in my life, as not only is it a wonderful place to start for anybody, but it is also a fantastic game in many ways, having a wonderful art style, fantastic music, addicting and satisfying gameplay, and a sense of identity that the series would carry on its shoulders all the way to this day, which is all for the best in my opinion. I would definitely recommend it for those who have never played any Yoshi game before, as well as those who are just big fans of Yoshi in general, because if you somehow haven’t gotten the chance to play this for yourself, then you are clearly missing out, because it truly is one of the finest platformers from the 16-bit era. happy sigh..... man, it feels great to finally get to this game, after I had been planning it for so long. Although, now that I am done with all my gushing, I don’t have any funny gag to end the review on. Uh… obligatory Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy reference. There ya go, is that good enough? Have I won the Yoshi’s Island internet prize, and will people like me now?
Game #578
Thirty star points short of absolute perfection.
"We, the Mario team
poured our hearts and souls
into creating this game
for your entertainment.
It is full of secrets.
Enjoy!"
"We, the Mario team
poured our hearts and souls
into creating this game
for your entertainment.
It is full of secrets.
Enjoy!"
this is probably the only perfect game ever made in the whole history of videogames and it's not even boring perfect it's tons of fun
it's also never gonna be between my top 10 favorite videogames ever
it's also never gonna be between my top 10 favorite videogames ever
Being homeschooled, this game was my only friend when I was little. Couldn't have asked for a better friend, really. Yoshi's Island never stole my legos or threw up on my moms bed.
10/10
10/10
Fucked up that this is the sequel to Super Mario World in the same way it's fucked up that Sonic 4 is the sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles.
I will not be taking comments.
I will not be taking comments.
Algo que só percebi nessa rezerada é como Yoshi’s Island consegue ser, de maneira genial, ser simultaneamente um dos Marios mais acessíveis e mais hardcores. Zerar as fases é algo relativamente fácil, ainda mais com o moveset quebrado do Yoshi, que pode engolir inimigos, atacar à distância com ovos e flutuar por pouco tempo; e mesmo que você leve algum dano, tem pelo menos 10 segundos para recuperar o Baby Mario e evitar um game over, além de vidas serem bem abundantes caso tudo falhe.
Por outro lado, fazer 100% do game é bem trabalhoso e exige precisão e persistência. As fases são longas e é preciso vasculhar cada cantinho para conseguir pegar tudo, e ter que chegar até o final com 30 estrelas é particularmente desafiador em algumas fases, com um deslize mínimo no final podendo por tudo a perder. Teve fase que levei mais de meia hora para conseguir fazer direito. Isso não é uma crítica: Yoshi’s Island é um dos Marios mais “densos” e mesmo com apenas seis mundos de oito fases é um dos jogos da série que dá para mais aproveitar.
Sem contar que é lindo de morrer.
Por outro lado, fazer 100% do game é bem trabalhoso e exige precisão e persistência. As fases são longas e é preciso vasculhar cada cantinho para conseguir pegar tudo, e ter que chegar até o final com 30 estrelas é particularmente desafiador em algumas fases, com um deslize mínimo no final podendo por tudo a perder. Teve fase que levei mais de meia hora para conseguir fazer direito. Isso não é uma crítica: Yoshi’s Island é um dos Marios mais “densos” e mesmo com apenas seis mundos de oito fases é um dos jogos da série que dá para mais aproveitar.
Sem contar que é lindo de morrer.
I know what to say but if I say it it’s going to end with SMBW and SMB3 fans coming together to destroy my home and everything I love
This is one of, if not the best 2D platformer i've ever played.first Mario World was pretty fun, but this one just improved upon it in every aspect in my opinion.In the first game, a lot of the levels used generic and same backgrounds for levels, but every background in Yoshi's Island is literally a work of art. This game's art direction and presentation is top notch,i absolutely adore childish and charming aesthetic of the hand drawn visuals. Every level feels like a part of the island, rather than just a videogame level
Also, this game's design philosophy is quite a lot different than your average platformer. There are your typical, fast paced platforming levels, but also a lot of exploration based levels too, which are a lot larger and complex than fast paced platforming levels. I can understand the people who didn't like these, since they can be too long and tedious for some people. But i really enjoyed the exploration and level of complexity these levels had, also game is paced really good between both style of gameplays.Most of the time you get fast paced platforming, then a slower, exploration based platforming, then right after, another pair of fast levels. Exploration never become too tedious for me because of this
My only problem with the level design is one hit kill traps,especially in the endgame, they feel really cheap in an otherwise excellently designed game
Also, there are way more interesting mechanics in levels, like turning into o helicopter, digging machine or skiing through a mountain, i don't want to spoil too much, but i am really impressed by the amounts of mechanics an SNES game had
Another big change is the life system, getting hit has no negative effect on Yoshi outside of a few seconds of staggering, but you lose the Baby Mario you are carrying throught all game. If you can't take him back in a limited time, it's game over. The problem is, every time you lose Baby Mario, he has a really loud and annoying crying noise, sure, this adds to the sense of urgency of the system, but it could have handled better imo. Outside of this little issue, i think this is a very unique take on the life system, it didn't bother me all that much, and it works quite good throught the game.
I wasn't really drawn by the idea of playing as Yoshi instead of Mario, but his buttery smooth controls and excellent moveset quickly changed my opinion. Swallowing enemies and turning them into eggs, then throwing those eggs is a major mechanic and it's really fun to use,gives a different way to tackle enemies, and boss fights really benefit from this mechanic, you are requiring to do more different things than just stomping their head three times
Another new mechanic is floating in the air for a short time, there ain't so much to say about this one. It's sometimes gives another way to approach levels. Are you going to play safe and take safe jumps,or trust to floating and took longer, risky jumps? It's a nice choice to have
Music adds a lot to the game's charm and presentation. Soundtrack is most of the time playful, cathy and perfecly catches the mood of the game, especially 'Athletic Theme' will probably live in my head rent free for some time
You can really feel the amount of charm, creativity and love developers poured into this game, if you're mario, or simply a platforming fan, don't overlook this excellent title
Also, this game's design philosophy is quite a lot different than your average platformer. There are your typical, fast paced platforming levels, but also a lot of exploration based levels too, which are a lot larger and complex than fast paced platforming levels. I can understand the people who didn't like these, since they can be too long and tedious for some people. But i really enjoyed the exploration and level of complexity these levels had, also game is paced really good between both style of gameplays.Most of the time you get fast paced platforming, then a slower, exploration based platforming, then right after, another pair of fast levels. Exploration never become too tedious for me because of this
My only problem with the level design is one hit kill traps,especially in the endgame, they feel really cheap in an otherwise excellently designed game
Also, there are way more interesting mechanics in levels, like turning into o helicopter, digging machine or skiing through a mountain, i don't want to spoil too much, but i am really impressed by the amounts of mechanics an SNES game had
Another big change is the life system, getting hit has no negative effect on Yoshi outside of a few seconds of staggering, but you lose the Baby Mario you are carrying throught all game. If you can't take him back in a limited time, it's game over. The problem is, every time you lose Baby Mario, he has a really loud and annoying crying noise, sure, this adds to the sense of urgency of the system, but it could have handled better imo. Outside of this little issue, i think this is a very unique take on the life system, it didn't bother me all that much, and it works quite good throught the game.
I wasn't really drawn by the idea of playing as Yoshi instead of Mario, but his buttery smooth controls and excellent moveset quickly changed my opinion. Swallowing enemies and turning them into eggs, then throwing those eggs is a major mechanic and it's really fun to use,gives a different way to tackle enemies, and boss fights really benefit from this mechanic, you are requiring to do more different things than just stomping their head three times
Another new mechanic is floating in the air for a short time, there ain't so much to say about this one. It's sometimes gives another way to approach levels. Are you going to play safe and take safe jumps,or trust to floating and took longer, risky jumps? It's a nice choice to have
Music adds a lot to the game's charm and presentation. Soundtrack is most of the time playful, cathy and perfecly catches the mood of the game, especially 'Athletic Theme' will probably live in my head rent free for some time
You can really feel the amount of charm, creativity and love developers poured into this game, if you're mario, or simply a platforming fan, don't overlook this excellent title
about as perfect as a 2d platformer has ever been. yoshi's island achieves on every level what its contemporaries and successors in the medium never quite stacked up enough to equal. the level designs are memorable with a sensible pace and feeling of progression through the island - from the grasslands to the swamps, up to the clouds and eventually the enemy's fortress - without feeling like running through the typical mario series enforced pastiche of water world, desert world, lava world, etc.
the graphics ARE in fact experimental and boundary pushing through the use of wildly unique art design and finely-aged spots of mode 7 here and there - see donkey kong country as an example of another artistically passionate game whose art direction, while good and stark, still feels some age and rust this doesn't. gimmicks are never intrusive and the levels they appear in feel like landmark moments in the story, memories you'll hold with you years down the line - note the "touch fuzzy get dizzy" style levels, 4-1's super mario bros. inspired layout and enemy choices, or the world 5 skiing level - typically, gimmick levels in platformers before and after yoshi halt progress and demand an attention shift before allowing you to play the game again (note sky chase zone from sonic 2). and of course, the fact that its collectathon elements are really only icing on the cake, and not demands to be met in order to experience a true ending - see sonic 3 & knuckles.
the only areas where i feel yoshi's island may slightly falter are a fairly sudden steep in difficulty around world 5 (though the challenge never gets unfair, just a bit of sudden jank) and the placements of some middle rings feeling a bit counterintuitive (such as the dungeon where you need to go through 4 doors and solve 4 puzzles to continue). otherwise, it's the clear high mark of the super mario 2d platforming series and likely my favorite 2d platformer of all time, and has been for many, many years.
also, thanks to the few who stayed up until 3 am with me last night watching me rip through that fucking penguin level.
the graphics ARE in fact experimental and boundary pushing through the use of wildly unique art design and finely-aged spots of mode 7 here and there - see donkey kong country as an example of another artistically passionate game whose art direction, while good and stark, still feels some age and rust this doesn't. gimmicks are never intrusive and the levels they appear in feel like landmark moments in the story, memories you'll hold with you years down the line - note the "touch fuzzy get dizzy" style levels, 4-1's super mario bros. inspired layout and enemy choices, or the world 5 skiing level - typically, gimmick levels in platformers before and after yoshi halt progress and demand an attention shift before allowing you to play the game again (note sky chase zone from sonic 2). and of course, the fact that its collectathon elements are really only icing on the cake, and not demands to be met in order to experience a true ending - see sonic 3 & knuckles.
the only areas where i feel yoshi's island may slightly falter are a fairly sudden steep in difficulty around world 5 (though the challenge never gets unfair, just a bit of sudden jank) and the placements of some middle rings feeling a bit counterintuitive (such as the dungeon where you need to go through 4 doors and solve 4 puzzles to continue). otherwise, it's the clear high mark of the super mario 2d platforming series and likely my favorite 2d platformer of all time, and has been for many, many years.
also, thanks to the few who stayed up until 3 am with me last night watching me rip through that fucking penguin level.
WAAA WAAA WAA all i heard in my Playthrough but genuinely just one of the most pleasant games I’ve replayed and growing up this game was hard as shit to me
WAAAAA
WAAAAA
WAAAAA
WAAAAA
WAAAAA
WAAAAA
WAAAAA
Yoshi's Island is one of the best examples of a sequel creating its own identity while also continuing the main idea of the original.
The storybook art style is one of the most obvious changes, giving the game a unique "arts and crafts" appearance. Everything has a surprisingly tactile look to it, like creating the pages of a journal in real time. It's still one of the best-looking pieces in the entire medium of video games. Likewise, the soundtrack takes a more "relaxed" approach compared to the original's energetic songs. The world map in particular has one of the most satisfying instances of a medley that adds instruments as you progress. Combined with a few remixes, the original pieces perfectly capture the "feel-good" atmosphere of Yoshi's Island.
Another key difference is the shift to Yoshi as the main character. Yoshi's hopping feels just as tight as Mario's jumping in the original Super Mario World, but the new moves offer some great variety in any situation. The flutter jump is an ideal jump assist for either extra distance or readjusting a landing. Now able to throw eggs, Yoshi has projectiles to ricochet all around the room as long as he keeps eating and aiming properly. Even with all the options, Yoshi's moves of stomping, eating, and tossing eggs are perfectly balanced, and it never felt like I was only using one approach.
If Super Mario World was all about diverse 2D platforming with fun power-ups, Yoshi's Island adapts the formula to a new character and offers a perfect range of playstyles during every minute. Even with Baby Mario's occasional crying, Yoshi's Island is a treat to play.
Part of the Glitchwave Top 100 Project (#78/100)
The storybook art style is one of the most obvious changes, giving the game a unique "arts and crafts" appearance. Everything has a surprisingly tactile look to it, like creating the pages of a journal in real time. It's still one of the best-looking pieces in the entire medium of video games. Likewise, the soundtrack takes a more "relaxed" approach compared to the original's energetic songs. The world map in particular has one of the most satisfying instances of a medley that adds instruments as you progress. Combined with a few remixes, the original pieces perfectly capture the "feel-good" atmosphere of Yoshi's Island.
Another key difference is the shift to Yoshi as the main character. Yoshi's hopping feels just as tight as Mario's jumping in the original Super Mario World, but the new moves offer some great variety in any situation. The flutter jump is an ideal jump assist for either extra distance or readjusting a landing. Now able to throw eggs, Yoshi has projectiles to ricochet all around the room as long as he keeps eating and aiming properly. Even with all the options, Yoshi's moves of stomping, eating, and tossing eggs are perfectly balanced, and it never felt like I was only using one approach.
If Super Mario World was all about diverse 2D platforming with fun power-ups, Yoshi's Island adapts the formula to a new character and offers a perfect range of playstyles during every minute. Even with Baby Mario's occasional crying, Yoshi's Island is a treat to play.
Part of the Glitchwave Top 100 Project (#78/100)
Great game but the levels are waaaay too long and repetitive and the level design gets a bit too confusing at times for a game like this. Other than that, a very creative and stellar game with some beautiful pixel art. Definitely ahead of its time.
I hate the phrase "get good" but if you seriously chip points off this game because baby Mario's crying is annoying I'm gonna find your address.
One of the most significant moments in anyone's life is the self-realization that you don't have to 100% a game, and that's okay.
I like mostly everything about the game except for the fact that it exists. I wish they hadn’t actualized a baby Mario, because by necessity it means Mario has to age and then Mario has to die. He’s no longer a larger than life archetype in a mythical other-world, he is no longer a Greek demigod, he is just like us, no worse but certainly no better. The last thing I want to think about when I boot up a Mario game is my own mortality, so thanks for that Nintendo.
Could be a little shorter too! There’s a stage called “the very looooong cave” and it’s like hey man, I’m the one trying to stick it out here, you want me to turn this fucker off for the night, fine by me! And as if I didn’t want to get 100% enough already, what do you actually get when you do for each level? More levels to play! Come on guys, wrap it up!
Finally, don't underestimate the power of a simple "turn off baby Mario's crying" patch. It's worth at least an extra half star!
I like mostly everything about the game except for the fact that it exists. I wish they hadn’t actualized a baby Mario, because by necessity it means Mario has to age and then Mario has to die. He’s no longer a larger than life archetype in a mythical other-world, he is no longer a Greek demigod, he is just like us, no worse but certainly no better. The last thing I want to think about when I boot up a Mario game is my own mortality, so thanks for that Nintendo.
Could be a little shorter too! There’s a stage called “the very looooong cave” and it’s like hey man, I’m the one trying to stick it out here, you want me to turn this fucker off for the night, fine by me! And as if I didn’t want to get 100% enough already, what do you actually get when you do for each level? More levels to play! Come on guys, wrap it up!
Finally, don't underestimate the power of a simple "turn off baby Mario's crying" patch. It's worth at least an extra half star!