Yoshi's Island is something genuinely special to me. There's many reasons it is one of my favorite games of all time that I don't even know if I could begin to properly put in to words. The main reason that comes to mind of why I think this game is so special really just comes back to how genuine and experimental it is within its simple framework.
It is almost the anti-Mario Mario game, it builds upon the formula and design sense, but mostly reinvents the entire gameplay loop and formula of the series up until that point. If Super Mario World advanced the ideas of the first 3 games to a new generation, Yoshi's Island almost rejects them. The fact that Nintendo ultimately followed Super Mario World with this specifically is truly a special moment in time.
Everything from the music, the art direction, the level design, the gameplay itself, is such a step away from the rest of the series that I can understand why it can be a divisive game for some people. However, it is for these exact reasons Yoshi's Island manages to do things that no other Mario game, no other Nintendo game, and just about no other video game period has done for me personally. It is simple, but so nuanced in all creative aspects it has and manages to be something truly special.
Yoshi's Island is unbridled, but somehow still immensely refined, creativity incarnate, and these fun creative aspects it innately hold make it a game that I can come back to whenever I want or need to and it has remained close my heart for a long time and probably will continually.
It is almost the anti-Mario Mario game, it builds upon the formula and design sense, but mostly reinvents the entire gameplay loop and formula of the series up until that point. If Super Mario World advanced the ideas of the first 3 games to a new generation, Yoshi's Island almost rejects them. The fact that Nintendo ultimately followed Super Mario World with this specifically is truly a special moment in time.
Everything from the music, the art direction, the level design, the gameplay itself, is such a step away from the rest of the series that I can understand why it can be a divisive game for some people. However, it is for these exact reasons Yoshi's Island manages to do things that no other Mario game, no other Nintendo game, and just about no other video game period has done for me personally. It is simple, but so nuanced in all creative aspects it has and manages to be something truly special.
Yoshi's Island is unbridled, but somehow still immensely refined, creativity incarnate, and these fun creative aspects it innately hold make it a game that I can come back to whenever I want or need to and it has remained close my heart for a long time and probably will continually.