Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

"Yoshi's Island does everything its predecessors did right and more, making it without a doubt one of the best Mario games ever made."

If you ever needed proof that games don't always stick to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" concept, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is a prime example. Yoshi's Island is a game that requires you to forget almost everything about what you've seen before. It's still a platformer, but it has numerous departures from the older Mario games. The biggest switch is that for the first time in the series, you don't control Mario, or even Luigi. Instead, as the title implies, Yoshi is the protagonist. The other major alteration is, though technically the Mario games were never really considered to have a timeline, Yoshi's Island is actually a prequel to all the other games. Mario is a baby, Luigi is a baby, and even Bowser is a baby (seemingly, Princess Toadstool hasn't been born yet). But even with all these departures, Yoshi's Island manages to hold true to the series' roots and become an amazing game in its own right.

Graphics/Design: 10/10
SMW was a great graphics standard for SNES games. Yoshi's blows away that standard. The graphics, though clearly designed with younger gamers in mind, are astonishing. The game even incorporates numerous 3D elements, such as spinning blocks and falling walls. Those people who dislike games geared toward a young audience will greatly dislike the game's visuals, as they have many “kiddie” touches (quite a few areas are made to look like they're drawn with crayon, and the whole game is meant to look very similar to a pop-up book kind of art style). However, those who choose not to be so shallow will find a hugely rewarding game behind all the visual fluff.

Design-wise, the game is the best Mario title to date. The environments are large, creative, and even utilize puzzles. That's right, puzzles in a Mario game. The many new abilities that appear in Yohsi's Island, as well as the multitude of new foes allow for some pretty smart secret-hiding techniques, and there are quite a few of them to be hidden. Familiar areas, such as caves and fields, return in a colourful, organic way, and Yoshi's Island introduces new locales such as slippery, muddy jungles and even a level made almost entirely out of destructible rock. These are just a few examples of the creativity that has gone into this game.

Music/Sound: 9/10
Arguably the best music to originate from a Mario game, Yoshi's Island has some of the best tunes ever created on the SNES. Humming along will quickly become second nature to those who play the game. Like the YI's graphics, its music is generally very cheerful, and therefore might turn off those too ignorant to appreciate it past appearances.

The sound will also not disappoint. Most sounds are true-to-life, though are comical, which suits the game perfectly as well. However, possibly too realistic are the cries of Baby Mario when he gets hit off Yoshi's back, making for one of the most annoying game sound effects ever.

Gameplay: 10/10
Yoshi's Island's gameplay, though drastically different, retains the series' penchant for being very, very fun. The basics return; you go through 48 levels of platforming and increasing difficulty (as well as 8 extra levels), and take on 12 bosses, all in an effort to reach Baby Bowser and thwart his and Kamek's plan to kidnap Baby Mario, and get back Baby Luigi from his grasp. Everything else changes. You control Yoshi, who controls in pretty much the same manner as his SMW counterpart, albeit with quite a few added abilities. Most basic of which is a sort of second jump which just allows him to hover a little higher than usual. Second, he retains the extendible tongue, and still eats enemies. This time, however, he also has the ability to transform eaten enemies into eggs for use as a projectile attack. Your main attack in SMW 2 will not be jumping, but egg throwing. The new weapon is a huge jump forward for Mario games, and makes the game feel entirely different than any other game in the series.

The levels all have a bizarre twist to them. Yoshi's Island, however, puts all other Mario games to shame in this respect. Some of the crazy ideas for areas include a level where Fuzzies, which will make Yoshi dizzy for a large amount of time on contact, constantly fly around in the air, and a level where Chain Chomps will randomly jump from the background and actually eat a portion of the ground. These twists add huge variety, and make the game a blast to play. Even more of a treat are the boss battles. From facing off against a giant boo that can only be hurt when you face away from it, to a battle that takes place inside a frog's stomach, they will never disappoint, and are incredibly fun.

Even the method of losing has changed. Whenever you take a hit, Baby Mario will be encased in a bubble and float off. If the timer (which you can bring up by collecting stars) drops to 0, Kamek's henchmen will swoop down and grab him. This is a very interesting idea that will always keep you on your toes. To top all this off, Yoshi can transform into 5 different vehicles at certain points in the game. They're mostly great new power-ups, and provide not only a new level of fun, but a whole lot more puzzle elements. Add it all up, and you have the coolest SNES Mario game on the market.

Play Control/Innovation: 9.5/10
The controls, for the most part, are great. Controlling Yoshi feels perfectly natural instantly, although aiming eggs takes some getting used to, due to how it is executed. You bring up a crosshair by pressing a button. The crosshair will then move up and down automatically while you move around on foot. When the crosshair is where you want it to be, time it and press the button again to fire. It becomes easy after the first castle or so, but in the beginning, it's quite confusing. In addition, although most of the vehicles are fine, the Mole Tank (used to dig through dirt and rock) never really turns the way you want it to, and therefore can get very frustrating when used in a limited amount of time.

While it may have fallen behind Mario's standards in that department a tad, it blows all others out of the water when it comes to sheer innovation. Between vehicle transformations, protecting Baby Mario, and multiple new attack methods, Yoshi's Island is very different from any other platformer, and that's a good thing.

Replay Value/Challenge: 9.5/10
The game is a decent length, as the levels are generally a bit longer than typical platforming fare, and you'll definitely want to replay the game to get perfect scores on each level. Speaking of which, Yoshi's Island also introduces a new scoring system. In addition to being graded on having a full timer, players can also collect red coins and flowers to increase their score. There are 20 red coins, and 5 flowers, each worth 10, adding up to a score out of 100, a full timer being 30. This new system is then used to unlock secret levels and minigames. The new system lends the game a bit more replay value, although with only a handful of those said unlockables, it still doesn't quite match up with other titles in terms of length.

The difficulty is absolutely perfect. It starts out very easy, and steadily grows. With this game, Nintendo has captured exactly what it means to be easy to learn, hard to master. The really hardcore will still be able to beat the game with ease, however it's likely they'll meet their match when it comes to getting 100% completion.

Overall: 9.6 (not an average, rounded to 10)
This is one of the best Mario games ever, and possibly the best platformer on the SNES. In a nutshell, you will not be disappointed with Yoshi's Island.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/06, Updated 05/22/08

Game Release: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (US, 10/04/95)