Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

"The classic sequel to Super Mario World arrives on the GBA!"

I really loved Yoshi's Island on the SNES. To me, it was an excellent platform game with great pastel/crayon-like graphics, excellent control and numerous innovative features. Imagine my delight when I heard it was ported to the GBA. Finally I could take this classic everywhere I wanted. Yoshi's Island is nothing like the other Mario games. Mario is actually a baby in this one, and Yoshi saddles up to carry Mario to meet up with baby Luigi. The GBA is the ideal system of choice as its 2D powers have been proven with Castlevania: Circle of the Moon/Harmony of Dissonance and hopefully with Metroid Fusion.
This is more than just a port. New features have been added too.

The storyline of Yoshi's Island deviates from the usual Mario formula of rescuing Peach and fighting Bowser. Unfortunately for some, Princess Peach is nowhere to be found in this game, and Bowser also has been baby-ised, much like Mario and Luigi. Since all the characters are babies, I'd assume this game takes place before any other Mario game. A stork carrying Mario and Luigi gets intercepted by Kamek, Bowser's evil Magikoopa lackey, and baby Luigi is taken away. Mario manages to escape, as usual, and lands in the middle of a group of Yoshis. The Yoshis try to bring Mario back to Luigi in Baby Bowser's castle by going through numerous levels along the way. Nothing special, kind of expected of a Mario game.

Yoshi's Island is easily one of the best and most fun 2D Mario games, and my personal favourite. This game is totally different from any game before, with many innovative features. Yoshi has to bring baby Mario through the many levels of this game, and every 4th and 8th level, meet up with a boss in its castle. The castles usually have challenging puzzles in them, ranging from the easy to the frustratingly difficult. Bosses usually are just giant sized normal enemies, but the usual tactics don't work. Throwing eggs at them are mainly the tactics used though.

Eggs are just one of the numerous innovations of Yoshi's Island. Yoshi has to swallow enemies to make eggs, which are in turn used for shooting other enemies, destroying breakable walls or getting coins and flowers in hard-to-reach areas. Falling into pits or into lava means instant death for Yoshi and Mario, but getting hit by enemies makes baby Mario go into a bubble. Yoshi has to get Mario down by any means necessary, using his tongue, jumping to touch him or throwing eggs at him. It has to do this before the timer of usually 10 seconds runs out, or Mario is taken away by Kamek's lackeys and the game is over. The timer can be increased by getting small stars which are usually found in ? Clouds activated by shooting them with eggs. Another innovative feature by Nintendo, and it is much better than the traditional 1-hit death of previous (or story-wise future) Mario games.

Yoshi's Island is more of a collecting game than any else. Throughout each level you can collect red coins, small stars which increase the timer and flowers. Collecting 20 red coins, making your timer go to 30 and getting all 5 flowers increases your score of that level to 100. Red coins are disguised as normal coins, so getting them involves trial-and-error. Getting 100 in the first level is a piece of cake, but in further levels, you'll have to look high and low for the collectables. If your timer goes down below 10, it'll recharge back to 10 over time, but if you have above 10 and it goes down, it's gone permanently, so if you're looking for the 100, you'll need to avoid encounters as much as possible. Getting 100 on every level in the world opens a bonus level at the end of the world, so it is worth collecting.

The replay is this game is pretty good. 8 new levels have been added to the GBA port, which add to the overall lastibility. You'll have to go through each level at least twice to collect everything if you rush through the first time. The bonus levels at the end of the worlds and the mini-games which range from popping balloons to find a star to spitting watermelon seeds at each other are also good additions.

Controls are also excellent, expected of a Nintendo game. Pressing A once is to jump, and holding it down afterwards results in a short hover by Yoshi's flapping legs. B shoots out Yoshi's tongue to grab fruit or enemies, R is to make the target appear, and pressing R while the target is on the screen shoots out an egg. Easy controls, nothing complicated.

The graphics in Yoshi's Island are excellent. The backgrounds look hand-drawn in crayons which add a great touch to the game, making it look a little kiddy, but not in a bad way. The worlds and levels look extremely colourful, but not enough to distract you from the main task. The enemies aren't dull and are as colourful as the worlds. Each has their own great design and colour. You'll almost regret making them eggs, almost. One of the best features of this game.

Sound in this game is just exactly the same as the SNES game, with one or two additions, the most being Yoshi's voice. Nothing much to note here. The music is bright and cheerful, much like the rest of the game. The tunes aren't the kind that will have you whistling even after you turn off the game, unlike Zelda or other Mario games.

One flaw is that again, the classic Mario Bros multiplayer game is included. For someone who has all 3 Mario Advance games (like me), it has gotten boring. Include something else, Nintendo. It's getting old.

With a Nintendo 2D game, you can't go wrong, and with one of this quality and caliber, you'll have a great time fetching Mario to Luigi in Baby Bowser's castle. The vibrant graphics, the well-designed levels and the challenging puzzles in some of the later boss castle are just 3 of the many good features in Yoshi's Island. If you're looking for a good GBA game, get this one, especially if you missed it the first time round on SNES. Worthy of anyone's money.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/02, Updated 10/14/02