Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

"A Faithful Conversion of the Super FX Classic!"

INTRODUCTION:
The sequel to the SNES and GBA, Super Mario World, is here. Actually, it's more like a prequel instead. Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island is the follow-up to Super Mario World in the Super Mario Advance series. And, of course, it's another rehash. Yoshi's Island was a unique and exciting one. The storyline is different from the usual ''defeat Bowser and rescue Peach'' formula. This time, it actually takes place before any of the other Mario games. Yoshi's Island was one of those games that utilized the Super FX Chip for the SNES. A chip that was specialized to help the SNES to create 3D worlds made by shaded polygons and texture mapping and light source shading. Also, to handle extensive sprite capabilities, such as: sprite rotation, sprite scaling, morphing, and much more. Interesting, huh? Yoshi's Island is the follow-up in Nintendo's rehash list.

STORY:
A stork carrying Baby Mario and Baby Luigi gets attacked by Kamek, one of Baby Bowser's evil Magikoopa. Baby Luigi gets kidnapped, but, Baby Mario manages to escape and lands right in the middle of Yoshi's Island and in the middle of the Yoshi group. And, it is now up to the Yoshis to try and bring Baby Mario back to Baby Luigi to return peace for the brothers.

GRAPHICS:
The graphics in Yoshi's Island look beautiful. The backgrounds are very unique, featuring a coloring book style theme that fits very well into the game's design. The original had some very intense graphical moments such as, some polygonal effects, and some morphing. Though, the GBA hardware still manages to handle most of them, there of some that didn't quite execute as well, which should be a concern. The GBA's hardware is superior to the hardware found in the SNES, so, it should've been able to execute those special effects perfectly. It was most likely an issue due to lazy programming, but, it's not really that big of a deal. Anyway, since this version of the game was meant for the small screen, you won't see as much as you did from the original version. But, it still manages to look clear. Overall, judging this game in comparison to some of the modern GBA titles, I would have to say that the visuals in Yoshi's Island have aged extremely well.

SOUND/MUSIC:
Over here are the soundtracks and sound effects heard in the game. Yoshi's Island has a wide variety of them. The GBA sound/music hardware is inferior to the one found in the SNES. But, the GBA was able to faithfully recreate most of them, while some of them came out a little weak. For the better, Nintendo even threw in some sound effects for the characters replacing the ones heard from the original. Thankfully, they are not as annoying as the ones heard from the previous Super Mario Advance games. Everything else seems to be quite decent. In the end, Yoshi's Island had some very enjoyable music. And, the GBA was able to recreate them just as well.

GAMEPLAY:
Entertaining! The game puts up quite a challenge and still manages to be fun. There are six worlds to explore and in each world there are 8 levels, one of them being a sub-boss while the other being the real-boss. In addition, new levels have been added to each world as bonus levels making the game last a bit longer than the original. Every level starts out with a theme. Meaning what the stage is going to be all about. Jungles, Volcanoes, Blizzards, Mountains, Clouds, Caves, Castles, Etc. Controlling Yoshi on the GBA is just as easy as it was on the SNES. All his moves are back and are executed just as well. Nothing seems to be missing in the translation. The entertainment is still there, although, it does seem to be just a tad bit easier than the original. Overall, a BLAST!

REPLAY VALUE:
High! It just doesn't end there once you beat the game. Not only do you want to go back and play some more, but also, there's something else that needs to be done. You'll have to go back and achieve a perfect score in each and every level by collecting all of the red coins, star points, flowers, etc. It's something that extends the game over Super Mario World for sure. And with the new addition of the brand-new levels, you'll keep coming back for more.

CONCLUSION:
Overall, the game has it all. It's a faithful conversion of one of the last games ever to hit the SNES. We still have yet to see an original brand-new Mario title, though. But, this game really does show us what makes up a great side-scroller and deserves to live up there as one of the greatest side-scrolling games of all-time.

FINAL SCORE:
9 OUT OF 10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/30/03, Updated 12/30/04