Completed on GBA.
I am always appreciative towards experimental games. It may seem odd, these days, to consider Yoshi's Island an experimental game. By experimental, I do not mean the most original, odd or avant-garde thing, that completely changes our definition of a video game. Rather, a game that's willing to stray a little from it's predecessors and influences, and create something that's just enough new to be interesting.
Yoshi's Island ticks the "original" criteria, in both aesthetics and gameplay. With it's pastel, crayon-drawn aesthetic, and it's novel concepts of Yoshi's health bar/indicator being his protection of baby Mario. Even though it's not exactly reinventing the wheel, it was enough to create a whole new IP: the Yoshi's Island series or the Yoshi series of platformers more generally. I find it very cool that it started off as the sequel to Super Mario World, and became it's own series.
It's not discovering a new planet, but rather discovering a new country. It doesn't throw away the map entirely, it's just using it to discover new things. That's what Yoshi's Island is.
It's experimental nature is both it's curse and it's charm. It seems like a "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" kind of scenario, where Nintendo was just trying stuff. I appreciate that, but it doesn't all work out as intended.
To start with the pros: the music, art, and most of the levels/mechanics are charming and original. The map screen theme is one of my favorite video game tunes ever, and one of the most iconic. The whole aesthetic just feels like a warm, comfy blanket that you tuck into during a snowy, winter day.
Cons; The music and artstyle, while great, does tend to wear thin later on, with a lot of the backgrounds and music being recycled. This shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, because most of the Super Mario Bros. games do the same, having the same music for caves, underground areas, etcetera. However, I think in this game, it wouldn't hurt to have original music for each area, with how much the aesthetics play a role in this game, although that might not be possible within the SNES 's limits.
But my biggest problem with the game is some of the level design. The level 5-4 being the biggest example of this; it's a good contender for the worst level in the game, just because one frustrating segment. A lot of the time the mechanics of the game, which started out original, don't always work. During that level, there was a part where I needed to remove spikes by throwing my eggs at them, to get on this moving platform. I only got it about 15 lives later, because the moving platform goes pretty quick, and doesn't come back.
There is many other examples of frustrating level design in this one, be prepared to get used to the SFX of baby Mario crying.
However, I can forgive all of this, simply because I appreciate how Nintendo was willing to experiment a little on this game, and it's a charming game despite that it doesn't all work that well. It also is the first start in a series I wanna experience more of: the Yoshi platformers.
I can imagine it being the kind of game where I would play it alongside a sibling, if I grew up with this game. It gets a little tiring playing it in long sessions, back-to-back, so I think it works perfect as a collaborative game.
I am always appreciative towards experimental games. It may seem odd, these days, to consider Yoshi's Island an experimental game. By experimental, I do not mean the most original, odd or avant-garde thing, that completely changes our definition of a video game. Rather, a game that's willing to stray a little from it's predecessors and influences, and create something that's just enough new to be interesting.
Yoshi's Island ticks the "original" criteria, in both aesthetics and gameplay. With it's pastel, crayon-drawn aesthetic, and it's novel concepts of Yoshi's health bar/indicator being his protection of baby Mario. Even though it's not exactly reinventing the wheel, it was enough to create a whole new IP: the Yoshi's Island series or the Yoshi series of platformers more generally. I find it very cool that it started off as the sequel to Super Mario World, and became it's own series.
It's not discovering a new planet, but rather discovering a new country. It doesn't throw away the map entirely, it's just using it to discover new things. That's what Yoshi's Island is.
It's experimental nature is both it's curse and it's charm. It seems like a "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" kind of scenario, where Nintendo was just trying stuff. I appreciate that, but it doesn't all work out as intended.
To start with the pros: the music, art, and most of the levels/mechanics are charming and original. The map screen theme is one of my favorite video game tunes ever, and one of the most iconic. The whole aesthetic just feels like a warm, comfy blanket that you tuck into during a snowy, winter day.
Cons; The music and artstyle, while great, does tend to wear thin later on, with a lot of the backgrounds and music being recycled. This shouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, because most of the Super Mario Bros. games do the same, having the same music for caves, underground areas, etcetera. However, I think in this game, it wouldn't hurt to have original music for each area, with how much the aesthetics play a role in this game, although that might not be possible within the SNES 's limits.
But my biggest problem with the game is some of the level design. The level 5-4 being the biggest example of this; it's a good contender for the worst level in the game, just because one frustrating segment. A lot of the time the mechanics of the game, which started out original, don't always work. During that level, there was a part where I needed to remove spikes by throwing my eggs at them, to get on this moving platform. I only got it about 15 lives later, because the moving platform goes pretty quick, and doesn't come back.
There is many other examples of frustrating level design in this one, be prepared to get used to the SFX of baby Mario crying.
However, I can forgive all of this, simply because I appreciate how Nintendo was willing to experiment a little on this game, and it's a charming game despite that it doesn't all work that well. It also is the first start in a series I wanna experience more of: the Yoshi platformers.
I can imagine it being the kind of game where I would play it alongside a sibling, if I grew up with this game. It gets a little tiring playing it in long sessions, back-to-back, so I think it works perfect as a collaborative game.