"The fun Yoshi Island gameplay you love, but it sometimes gets too familiar for its own good..."

Now I love Mario games. I grew up on them. I've played and enjoyed every Mario platformer that exists, from Super Mario Bros to New Super Mario Bros, from Lost Levels to Sunshine. And Yoshi's Island (SNES and GBA) was no exception. So after years of dissecting old games and beating Kamek and Baby Bowser multiple times, how does this new entry hold up?

Not as well as the original. It's still a great game, with the gameplay you know and love. But it simply borrows off of the original game too much in places, to the point of where it actually ticked me off.

The graphics are great. Here Artoon gets kudos. The graphics in the original Yoshi's Island were great and they could have easily ripped many of the Yoshi or enemy sprites from them and no one would complain, but instead they decided to remodel Yoshi, the babies, and pretty much everything else. Whether all the remodels are better or not is debatable, but just that fact that they are new and had effort and thought put into them gives them a 9 out of 10.

The sound is, well... I keep on reading reviews saying that sound is a weak point in the game. Quite frankly, most video game tunes sink into the background to me and I rarely pay them much attention. But I guess I'm not singing these out loud like some Mario tunes, (Do-do-do-do, doot-do-duh-doot-do, do-do-do-do, doot-do-duh-doo!) so I'll give them an 8 out of 10.

The core gameplay is pretty much untouched. You'll eat bad guys, make eggs, throw eggs, lose babies in bubbles, hover, and ground pound just like you did ten years ago. Of course, this is entirely expected, and the mechanics still hold up plenty well.

The new babies are fun, each bringing their own gimmick. They are implemented well and work with some fun puzzles. They're the main new feature, and the plot that surrounds them is simple and fun to follow. You'll be using each new baby a lot, even if Mario, Peach and DK are the only ones you can take everywhere.

Morphing, on the other hand, has been toned down heavily. Only helicopter, mole machine and submarine (sans torpedoes) can be found in this game, and they each appear so scarcely that they probably could've been left out altogether. It's a shame really, I would've loved to find some new vehicles to morph into.

Item cards were taken out as well, but they won't be missed too much. Aside from the 10- and 20-star cards, they were never very useful. Almost all the old card- and roulette-based are back from the original game, with no exciting additions or changes, except now they only award extra lives.

Super Baby Mario is back from before, but the superstar power-up doesn't effect any other babies, which is kind of a disappointment. On a side note, fuzzy and his famed dizziness has been removed, which may also disappoint some. At least the game introduces some new interesting features, such as a rocket ship and mine cart.

The replay value is huge. 10 out of 10 here. There are 100-point scores to earn on every level, and some of these levels were difficult just playing through normally. Also, there's a new special coin to grab, which tends to be character specific. And don't forget about the all new enemy zoo for you to build up. Any true Mario fan buying this game won't feel justified until he beats the game perfect. It may take a while...

Even once you get perfect, there's still more to play. You can get and subsequently perfect records on any of the six all-new minigames that test your skills in hovering, eating enemies, aiming eggs, etc. Which in turn each have a hard mode to unlock. And then they go and up the ante even more by adding an unlockable time trial for every level in the game! You can try beating levels as fast you can, but gathering stars, red coins and flowers decrease your time further, so it becomes a strategy game of what can you afford to grab. It's pretty addicting, especially when you have a sibling or friend to compete with.

This sounds great and all, so where's the problem? Well, it's all in the familiarity factor. Now, I understand that Artoon may of wanted to keep players in familiar environments. Technically both games take place on the same island, after all. There are a few new environments such as some very clever ship/island levels, but for the most part you'll be exploring through the same flower patches, green fields and wooden castles you've seen before. But this is all forgivable, and there are enough new backgrounds to satisfy.

What isn't forgivable is when they copy LEVEL DESIGN from the previous Yoshi's Island. Really, I haven't seen any blatant level design laziness in a Mario game ever before. Sure, there are many all new challenges and surprises, but they're overshadowed by the periodic shows of unwelcome level familiarity that shows every now and again.

The game gives off a bad first impression with Level 1... which is pretty much an exact copy of the previous game's Level 1. Not just in the flowery field, but I mean in the design. The enemies are basically in the same places. The tubes are in the same places. The obstacles are in the same places. It's... I'm not sure if it was done for nostalgia factor or pure laziness, but it's not fun when you get such an identical level in a supposedly all-new game.

And you'll keep running into them throughout the game. Pieces of levels that you know were taken from the old game. Remember when you got that fun first helicopter ride in the old Level 2? Well, it's back. That midway segment of Shy Guys on Stilts? Check. Would it really be so much trouble to design all the new levels from scratch? I mean, on the final world, all of a sudden you're warped back to the flowery chomp zone of the old Level 2. That really annoyed me that they'd go out of theme to blatantly rip off an old level.

The bosses suffer from the same problems as well. There are plenty of fun unique bosses (including one that takes place in freefall! Wheee!), but then there are those ones who feel like they ripped you off... Get this. The first boss isn't one, but two Burt the Bashfuls! Wow, how creative! There's also your standard Slime, Piranha Plant and Ghost bosses, but they at least play differently than the originals. But the first phase of the final boss plays a bit too much like the giant Koopa, and the real final boss uses the same theme as that of the original's.

This is very good game that any fan of the original should be able to enjoy for a while, but at times you'll be attacked by vicious deja vu. The reused levels appear frequently enough for me to drop the overall rating to 7/10, but don't get me wrong: I still recommend it to anybody who enjoyed the original and wants more. Just prepare yourself.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/06, Updated 12/12/06