Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

"Yoshi's finest achievement to date"

Story – 10/10

This game takes place when Mario and Luigi are little babies and a stork is delivering them to their parents. Sounds a little cheesy, huh? Well yeah, I guess it is. What bothers me is the fact that Mario and Luigi come from Brooklyn, yet here we have a stork delivering them to their parents-to-be in the Mushroom Kingdom. My guess, and other people's, is that Mario and Luigi were sucked up into the plughole in the bath or something and ended up in the world we see them today. Yes, well anyway, that's a whole different story, isn't it?

So a stork is carrying Mario and Luigi to their parents when all of a sudden, Kamek, the evil wizard koopa, appears from out of nowhere and tries to snatch the babies from the stork's grasp. He only manages to grab the bag with Luigi in and Mario falls to the sea below… Amazingly, Mario lands right on the back of Yoshi who's taking a stroll on Yoshi's Island. A map fell with Mario and Yoshi decides to take them both to his friends. The Yoshis decide on what to do and Mario senses his kidnapped brother. The Yoshis agree to help save Luigi and return the babies to their parents.

And so begins Yoshi's first adventure.

Gameplay – 10/10

You probably know that this is a port of the original game released on the Super NES. And what a fine game that was. The GBA version is everything the SNES game was and more. But for those who haven't played the SNES game, here's a run-through of how this game really is.

It's a 2D side scrolling platformer. Something the SNES and GBA have a lot of. But Yoshi's Island is one of the best for both consoles. You play through huge levels across 6 worlds, with each world containing 8 levels. But there's more because each world contains 2 extra unlockable levels which are extremely difficult. The SNES game had one unlockable level for each world. That's probably one of the biggest changes for the GBA version; the extra unlockable level for every world. But they provide one heck of a challenge, especially if you want to get 100%.

That's right, 100% in a level. You see, Yoshi's Island is different to other platformers in that you have to try and collect items that add to your final score at the end of the level. These include collecting giant flower, jumping stars and red coins. The red coins are secretly disguised as yellow coins so you have to get all the coins you see in order to find out if it's a red one or not. There are 5 flowers dotted throughout every level and they are hidden in some very hard-to-reach places in the levels. You gain stars from defeating enemies or popping floating cloud bubbles. You lose stars every time Mario is knocked off of Yoshi's back. If Yoshi takes damage from an enemy, the stars counter will decrease and if it reaches zero before Yoshi manages to get him back again, you lose a life. You lose lives in various other ways too, such as falling down pits or landing on spikes. Getting 100% in every level is a real challenge but it's the only way to unlock the secret levels.

All your old favorite enemies return from previous Mario games like koopas and goombas, as well as a host of new ones too. There are 2 bosses per world and each one very unique, and they're bound to give you a hard time. You switch to a different colored Yoshi at the end of every level so you won't get sick of good old greenie either, just to let you know. There are also a ton of mini-games on offer which you can play at the end of each level if you manage to get lucky. They range from games like match a pair to slot machine and are a great chance to gain extra lives. There are even bonus games that are secretly hidden away in the levels where you have to fight a bandit. One of the best bonus games is the watermelon shootout where you both have to spit seeds or fire at each other. Great fun.

Yoshi's Island is one of the biggest platforming games for the GBA and will last you ages.

Controls – 10/10

Very simple for anyone to get to grips with. Naturally, the D-Pad moves Yoshi across the screen and A makes him jump. B sticks out his tongue so you can swallow enemies. When you have an enemy in Yoshi's mouth you can hit down on the D-Pad to turn it into an egg to throw at things like cloud bubbles or even more enemies. In most cases, bosses can only be defeated with eggs. A simple click of the R shoulder button will bring up a cursor to aim your egg and tapping R again will throw it in that direction.

The controls are perfectly mapped to the GBA buttons and you won't have any problems whatsoever.

Graphics – 10/10

Yoshi's Island was one of the first games to use cel-shading. It might not look like what you see cel-shading as today on home consoles but back in the days of the SNES, this was how it was. It was beautiful. Nothing like it had been done before on a console. The backgrounds were literally hand drawn and it was a brilliant effect which blended in perfectly with the very colourful surroundings of the characters and foreground. The foreground is actually something that might get a little overlooked because you are constantly concentrating on the game. Outlined plants and flowers hang over in front of you and Yoshi passes behind them giving the game a great 3D effect.

All of this has been retained for the GBA port. Everything is as beautiful as it was back then and to see it so perfectly on a handheld console is just fantastic.

Sound – 10/10

Yep, nothing to fault here either. Catchy, happy tunes burst out of the speakers and you will quickly find yourself humming away to the music. A nice feature that Nintendo has added to its other ports is voices. The previous Super Mario Advance games have Mario and Luigi shout out their famous phrases and Yoshi's voice has been added to this game too. His groaning during the flutter jump and ground pound quirks come right out of his mouth and sound great on the little handheld. Everything's crisp and clear and it sounds so much better to hear Yoshi with a voice.

Overall – 10/10

A perfect game for the perfect system. It was only a matter of time before Yoshi's Island got the GBA port treatment but you can see why Nintendo did it. Having this amazing game in the palm of your hand to take with you anywhere is just brilliant and deserves to be owned by every GBA owner. And the extra levels are enough for players of the original to buy this version too, because they are so challenging.

This game is every platformer player's dream. If you don't own it already, then I strongly suggest you go buy it now.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/05