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Yoshi's Island

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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
File:Yisland box.jpg
North American box art
Developer(s)Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Takashi Tezuka
Toshihiko Nakago
Shigefumi Hino
Hideki Konno
Producer(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Artist(s)
Composer(s)Koji Kondo
SeriesMario
Platform(s)Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy Advance
ReleaseSNES
Game Boy Advance
Genre(s)Platforming
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, originally released as Super Mario: Yossy Island (スーパーマリオ　ヨッシーアイランド, Sūpā Mario: Yosshī Airando) in Japan,[2] is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the SNES console. While featuring Nintendo's trademark Mario character, the game's graphics and gameplay differed from all previous Mario games in that players control various Yoshi dinosaurs rather than Mario himself, who appears as a helpless infant. This game is a prequel to Super Mario World and the entire Mario series.

Yoshi's Island was released on August 5, 1995 in Japan, October 4, 1995 in North America and October 6, 1995 in Europe. A port was made for the Game Boy Advance as Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3. A sequel for the Nintendo DS, Yoshi's Island DS, was released in 2006. The game is slated for re-release for the Nintendo 3DS.

Gameplay

The main goal for each level of Yoshi's Island is to reach that level's end with Baby Mario safely on Yoshi's back. Baby Mario is then transferred to the back of a differently-colored Yoshi, who will carry him through the next level. Between levels, players are presented with the map screen, which allows them to select the next level, or replay previous ones for a better score. There are enemies and obstacles that endanger Yoshi and Baby Mario on each stage. If Yoshi is struck by an enemy, Baby Mario will be sprung from Yoshi's back and float around in a bubble crying while a timer counts down; if Yoshi does not reunite with Baby Mario before the timer reaches 0, Baby Bowser's minions will fly on screen and kidnap him, ending the level and reducing the player's chances to retry by one. The gameplay of Yoshi's Island bears some superficial similarities to other games in the Mario series, such as the ability to defeat (some) enemies by jumping on them, keys required to open doors in castle levels, and a generally linear level structure. However, aside from these and a few other minor similarities, its gameplay is considerably different. Yoshi's main mode of attack is using his tongue to pull his foes into his mouth, either to spit them out or swallow them to create eggs, which can be used as projectile weapons. The game also has more of a focus on puzzle solving; for example, one level might require a player to enter a cave from a different opening in order to find the right path. The game's levels do not have a countdown timer, as previous Mario games had, allowing players to take as much time as is needed to solve a puzzle without penalty.

File:Yoshi's Island screenshot.jpg
A screenshot of level 4-1 in Yoshi's Island

Power-ups are not commonplace in Yoshi's Island, and are only occasionally found in specific places in certain levels. One power-up, similar to the Starman from previous Mario games, turns Baby Mario into "Super Baby Mario", making him invincible and fast enough on his own two feet to run directly up walls, all while protecting Yoshi inside of a large egg. Like the Starman power, the effects are temporary and wear off relatively quickly. Yoshi also has the ability, at various points in the game, to transform into different vehicles, such as a car or helicopter. The vehicle transformations are temporary as well. At the end of each level, the player is scored on a scale of 1-100, with 100 being a perfect score. Unlike other games in the Mario series that allow a player to "warp" ahead to higher levels, Yoshi's Island is the first game in the series that requires the player to complete all 48 regular stages linearly to finish the game. In addition to these, there are six bonus levels—one for each world, which are unlocked by achieving perfect scores on all of the world's levels.

Plot

A stork carries two babies across the sea, but the evil Magikoopa Kamek emerges, and steals Baby Luigi, and Baby Mario falls onto an island in the middle of the sea, called Yoshi's Island, home to all Yoshis. He lands on a green Yoshi, who was apparently taking a walk and Mario and the rest of the Yoshi gang must journey through the game's six worlds to rescue Baby Luigi and the stork back from Baby Bowser and Kamek. Throughout the quest, Kamek tries to stop Yoshi by transforming normal enemies with his magic, thus setting the stage for several boss fights.

When he finally reaches Bowser's Castle, Kamek demands that Yoshi gives back Baby Mario. Suddenly, Baby Bowser wakes up and tries to ride Yoshi, but Yoshi knocks him off. Kamek then enlarges Baby Bowser to a gigantic size, destroying most of the castle in the process. After fighting and defeating him, Bowser is reverted to his normal size and is unconscious. Kamek is horrified and says that they will return before flying off with Baby Bowser into the night.

Yoshi then frees the stork and Baby Luigi. The stork then flies the reunited twins far away to the village where their parents live. Here, it shows that Mario and Luigi's parents live in the Mushroom Kingdom in a house which is incidentally shaped like a Mushroom. Their parents then emerge from their home at dawn to see a pair of not quite new-born babies at their porch.

Development

The game uses the Super FX 2 microchip to create sprite scaling, polygon effects, and pre-32-bit computer effects called "Morphmation" (in American commercials) that are relatively advanced for a SNES game (a preliminary version of the boxart featured the Super FX 2 logo). The game's unique graphical style is said to have resulted from a conflict with Nintendo's internal evaluation committee; impressed by the recently released Donkey Kong Country, which sported pre-rendered graphics, they ordered the game's producer, Shigeru Miyamoto, to move the visuals in this direction.[3] Miyamoto altered the graphics to look as if they had been drawn with crayons and felt-pens, and more cartoonish, and resubmitted it to the evaluation committee, who passed the game. At one point the game even draws inspiration from Vincent van Gogh's painting The Starry Night.[4] Some of the cut scenes do, however, show pre-rendered graphics, done in a rather different form that looks more like the gameplay graphics. Eventually the sequel, Yoshi's Story made full use of digitized 2D graphics of high resolution 3D models like Donkey Kong Country did.

Reception

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Yoshi's Island its award for Best Action Game of 1995.[5] GamePro gave the game a 4.5/5 rating.[6] GameRankings.com gives Yoshi's Island a composite review score of 94%, based on five reviews.[6] Yoshi's Island sold about four million copies.[7] The game placed 22nd in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time.[8] Next Generation magazine called it the "high-water mark in 2D gaming." The game has garnered a huge cult following since its release.

Yoshi's Island also proved to be a critical and commercial hit in its Game Boy Advance version, Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, which was released in 2002.[9]

Sequels and spin-offs

The semi-sequel Yoshi's Story was released for the Nintendo 64 and featured similar gameplay, but is generally considered to be of a lower quality.[10] The series has seen two spin-offs: Yoshi Touch & Go for the Nintendo DS and Yoshi's Universal Gravitation for the Game Boy Advance. While unrelated in basic gameplay, the characters and graphical style are heavily based on those of Yoshi's Island.

Yoshi's Island DS, released on November 13, 2006 for the Nintendo DS, is the most direct sequel and incorporates many of the same gameplay aspects. Unlike Yoshi's Island, it now also features Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Wario joining Mario as babies.

Yoshi's Island, the location of Super Mario World 2's action, is also used as the backdrop for the SNES and Game Boy puzzle game Tetris Attack.

Several of Yoshi's moves that debuted in Super Mario World 2 appeared again in later games. These include the Egg Throw, which has been used by Yoshi in the Super Smash Bros. series, the Flutter Kick, which has been used by him in later Mario games, and most notably, the Ground Pound, which has been used not only by Yoshi but also by almost every playable character since then, from games such as the Mario Party series to Super Mario 64. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a stage heavily based on the version of Yoshi's Island portrayed in Super Mario World 2 was revealed.

A tech demo titles Classic Games was unveiled at E3 2010, showing multiple Nintendo games being played on the Nintendo 3DS with enhanced 3D features. It was revealed by Reggie Fils Aime that these titles, specifically mentioning Yoshi's Island, Mega Man 2, and The Legend of Zelda will appear on the 3DS."Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said not to think of them as remakes." Shigeru Miyamoto said that these classics might be "using new features in the games that would take advantage of the 3DS’ capabilities."[11]

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was ported by Nintendo R&D2 to the Game Boy Advance as Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 with added features.

The game featured no changes to its basic formula besides that voice samples from Yoshi's Story were used. There were two major additions, however: six new levels called "Secret levels" could be unlocked after beating the game,[12] and the Mario Bros. mini-game that appeared on all the Super Mario Advance series. If a player completes the game and gets 100 points on all 60 levels in the game, a secret ending will occur.[13]

Like its two predecessors, Super Mario Advance 3 had generally positive reviews, and sold 1.6 million copies in the US; however, most critics thought Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 was better.[14] Super Mario Advance 3 was re-released in 2006 as a Player's Choice title.

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References

  1. ^ "Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3". Nintendo Australia. Retrieved 2010-03-03.
  2. ^ "SNES Cover Art". MobyGames. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  3. ^ Kent, Steven. "The "Next" Generation (part 2)". The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. p. 518. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. When Shigeru Miyamoto first demonstrated the game to Nintendo's marketing department, it was rejected because it had Mario-related graphics rather than the waxy, pre-rendered graphics of Donkey Kong Country
  4. ^ Kent, Steven. "The "Next" Generation (part 2)". The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze that Touched our Lives and Changed the World. Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. p. 518. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4. Rather than change to an artistic style he did not like, Miyamoto made the game even more cartoon like, giving it a hand-drawn look. This second version was accepted.
  5. ^ "Electronic Gaming Monthly's Buyer's Guide". 1996. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ a b "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island". GameRankings.com. Retrieved 2008-12-24.
  7. ^ "The Nintendo Years - Edge Online". Edge: The Global Game Industry Network. Retrieved 2008-12-24.
  8. ^ "40-21 ONM". ONM. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  9. ^ "Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island". Retrieved January 3, 2009.
  10. ^ "Yoshi's Story Review". IGN.com. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  11. ^ http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/06/mega-man-2-yoshis-island-among-teased-3ds-sorta-remakes/
  12. ^ [1] Official Website - information is in the fifth paragraph
  13. ^ [2] Information in 16th (or second to last) paragraph
  14. ^ [3] Same as above, but for Super Mario Advance 2
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