Honestly kind of excited to play the later Yoshi titles, just because I wanna see how hard the ball gets dropped after making a really good first installment.

Seriously though, had a really great time with this one! For being a sequel to Mario World, it certainly felt like it in terms of its smooth control, and the abilities Yoshi gets to himself compliment them really well! Eating enemies is the standard, but throwing eggs and seeing them ricochet off walls was immensely satisfying. Even the somewhat scattered usage of the transformation power-ups are kinda neat, almost wish they were used more.

Don't think every level was especially good; in fact, I think a lot of them ran on too damn long, but a few of the puzzles on offer were actually pretty interesting. And those good levels? Damn, they were good! For me, though, the real highlight was some of the boss fights, surprisingly. As a stan of NSMB DS, I love the gimmick of the bosses being "Bigger version of a regular enemy that has its own unique defeat conditions". It was honestly just cool to see the proper debut of so many basic Mario standards, like the red coins, the ground pound, Yoshi's flutter jump. Very neat as a longtime fan who only sampled this one on an emulator many years ago.

Also gotta give serious praise to the artstyle and OST! The visuals are so damn vibrant and pop in all the best ways, feeling like a really nice contrast to Mario World's more traditionally "Mario" aesthetic, if that makes sense. And the soundtrack had me tapping my foot the whole way through; one of the best OSTs of the 16-bit era, no doubt. The Overworld, Athletic theme, underground, the boss track, and that damn map music, all of it was fantastic, bouncy and fit the game like a glove. If only Baby Mario wasn't such a fucking blight, because he had to have been made the most obnoxious little shit of all time on purpose.

I'm usually pretty lucky when it comes to not being too annoyed by these really infamous parts of video games that got talked up over the years. Beat Jasper Batt Jr from No More Heroes 2 first try, thought Big's campaign in Sonic Adventure was passable at best but not some irredeemable blight on the game, and I've rarely had a problem with Ashley in RE4. But Baby Mario was testing my patience something fierce, both in terms of taking care of him, and not shutting up. He only made some of the game's overly long levels even more annoying. The 30 star requirement was basically enough for me to not be bothered by 100% completion at all. Not like it's needed unless you want a couple extra levels, but still. Kinda a bummer.

Either way, though? Yoshi's Island's a damn good time! Thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, and if anything, it almost sucks knowing that the rest of the series apparently kinda blows ass, barring Woolly World. Ah well, at least he got one, and it's a top notch one at that!