“This paradise is Yoshi's Island, where all the Yoshies live. They are all in an uproar over the baby that fell from the sky. Wait! The baby seems to know where he wants to go... The bond between the twins informs each of them where the other one is. The Yoshies decide to carry the baby to his destination via a relay system. Now begins a new adventure for the Yoshies and baby Mario.”
- Opening cutscene
The Facts
Release Date: August 5, 1995 (Japan) October 4, 1995 (North America)
Original Platform: Super Famicom (Japan), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (USA)
Director: Takashi Tezuka, Toshihiko Nakago, Shigefumi Hino, Hideki Konno
Producer: Shigeru Miyamoto
Also Playable On: Game Boy Advance (remake), Virtual Console (Wii U, 3DS), Super NES Classic Edition, Nintendo Switch Online
What's the Deal
A long time ago, the stork was delivering two baby boys to their parents' home in the Mushroom Kingdom, when he's attacked by the Magikoopa, Kamek, who steals one of the babies. The other baby falls towards Yoshi's Island, where he safely lands on the back of a Yoshi walking by.
The Yoshis figure out that the baby's brother was taken by Kamek to King Bowser's Castle. They decide to use a relay system to transport the baby across Yoshi's Island so they can go to Bowser's Castle and reunite him with his brother.
Oh, and by the way, the baby that the Yoshis are transporting? His name is Mario.
Background/Development
During development of Super Mario World, Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to make a game starring Yoshi, and stated in an interview later that he didn't care much for the previous games with the character's name in the title, like Yoshi (AKA Mario & Yoshi, Yoshi's Egg), Yoshi's Cookie, and Yoshi's Safari.
I haven't played Safari, but the NES and Game Boy Yoshi puzzle game isn't that good, so I understand where he's coming from. Yoshi's Cookie is all right, though.
So, here's where things start getting a little weird.
In summer of 2020, a prototype and development materials were found for an unfinished SNES game under the working title Super Donkey.
It seemed to be a complete revamp/reinvention of a 1981 Nintendo arcade game titled Sky Skipper, about a biplane pilot rescuing animals captured by evil gorillas.
The title and bringing back the gorillas from Sky Skipper seemed to indicate that they were attempting to integrate the then-mostly-dormant Donkey Kong brand into it. The fact that a few sets of graphics for the player character are Mario himself (who, as we all know, first debuted in the arcade Donkey Kong) lends more credence to this hypothesis.
Also, there's a set of graphics of Link, from the The Legend of Zelda series. It's unknown if he was being considered to be playable, too.
The way I laid these graphics out makes it look like Link is ready to attack Mario, perhaps for his lack of limbs, or maybe his cool dance moves
The protagonist was further redesigned into being what appears to be the pilot from Sky Skipper, and only a handful of levels were finished.
I bring this up because Super Donkey uses a very similar art direction to Yoshi's Island, and it's generally believed that Yoshi's Island is what Super Donkey eventually became.
source: tcrf.net
Steven L. Kent's 2001 book The Ultimate History of Video Games states that an early version of Yoshi's Island was demoed to Nintendo, who felt that the graphics “lacked punch” compared to the pre-rendered 3D models of Donkey Kong Country, and giving the game a hand-crafted, crayon-drawn look was Miyamoto's solution.
A 2017 interview revealed this was a mistranslation. The team was trying to “push back” against 3D rendered graphics in general with this game, and weren't pressured by anyone, nor was it a response to any specific game.
Artist Hisashi Nogami (later best known as the creator of Animal Crossing and Splatoon) said that the graphics for the game were drawn on paper, scanned into computers, and recreated pixel-by-pixel.
Development materials for Yoshi's Island show that, instead of the baby Mario we got, Yoshi was originally going to be carrying around a baby wizard, and later a...mustached baby Mario.
Graphics for the adult Mario we know and love were also made. According to a 1995 interview, instead of the baby Mario gaining a cape after touching the invincibility star, he was originally planned to turn into his grown-up form.
Rocky Wrenches (from Super Mario Bros. 3) as well as skeletal Yoshis (that would possibly have a Shy Guy riding on its back, parodying Yoshi and Mario) were enemies cut from the game.
The final boss had a much creepier design early on, too.
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| For maximum effect, read all of Kamek's dialogue in the voice of Kevin Michael Richardson doing an impression of Peter Lorre. |
My History With It
I wanna say I first saw this game on a shelf in the Electronics department of my local Walmart in about '98 or so. The things that really caught my attention about the box art were the title (“there's a Super Mario World 2?!”) and Mario not having a mustache (I guess I didn't notice that he was a baby)
One of my best friends back then had a copy of the game, and filled me in on it. Around this time is when I got a copy of the Nintendo Power Player's Guide for the game (I tended to do that a lot back then: get strategy guides for games I didn't own. Always felt it was the next best thing. It was, at the very least, a lot cheaper)
Sometime later, I rented the game from a local video store, and made it to about...The Potted Ghost's Castle, I think? My friend always had trouble with Naval Piranha.
I do remember playing the direct sequel, Yoshi's Story, on N64 a few times in '99 at my other friend's house, as well as renting it, too. I also owned the Player's Guide.
My younger brother somehow got the GBA port (Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island) in late '03, and I remember playing it a bit.
When I got my second-hand SNES in spring 2006, my then (and current!) best friend loaned me his copy, which I remember finishing in a single evening (and yes, 16-year-old me cried at the ending. I promise I won't do it this time, though).
I emulated it a few times after that, I admit, until Christmas 2017, where the best friend who loaned me his copy a decade earlier bought me a SNES cart of the game (as well as New Super Mario Bros. 2 on 3DS) to complete my Super Mario collection.
Playthrough
Played On: SNES
First thing to note here: this game is gorgeous. The whole thing has a sketchy, hand-drawn look to it, with backgrounds looking like they were made with paint, pastels, or even crayon. Character designs are very expressive, with lots of fun animations and faces. It uses a very distinctive style compared to the games before it, and I've always wanted another mainline Super Mario game to go in a similar style.
The opening cutscene uses pre-rendered graphics, giving everything a diorama look. It totally works.
How do you pronounce “Kamek”, anyway? A recent Nintendo Direct pronounced it like “comic”, but I've always pronounced it like “Cam-mick”. The 2023 movie features Kamek as a minor character, but his name is never said out loud.
The beginning of the tutorial level resembles Yoshi's House from Super Mario World. Cute.
When playing this game as a child and teenager, muscle memory caused me to hold the Y button to run, even though I knew Yoshi runs automatically. I managed to avoid it on this playthrough, though.
By the way, I'm not shooting for 100% completion here, and will thus miss out on the bonus levels.
The Incoming Chomps in 1-2 are such a cool concept, and very intimidating. Gigantic unchained Chomps jumping from the background and trying to crush Yoshi and Mario, while also being able to rapidly chew through the ground? Sheesh!
The Morph Blocks are the only real power-up in this game, turning Yoshi into vehicles like a helicopter, car, submarine, train, and...uh, Mole Tank. It's pretty cool.
The early-to-mid 90s had a fascination with the concept of morphing, I think. Like, the word popped up a lot, especially compared to synonyms like “change” or “transform”. I remember the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie mentioning the “morphing” effects in its advertising, as did the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie. And of course, you've got the entirety of the Power Rangers franchise, which translated “henshin” as “morph”, particularly Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Chomp Rocks are odd to me. Are they naturally-formed? Why do they look like Chain Chomps, especially if they're just stones that don't have jaws and can't actually, y'know, chomp?
Defeating Burt the Bashful by gradually pulling his pants down and leaving him naked always bothered me a little bit.
Still a fun boss fight.
Hop! Hop! Donut Lifts is the first level that started giving me some trouble.
I've noticed that levels in this game tend to be really long. There were several times where I'd lose a life shortly before reaching the Middle Ring checkpoint, and just didn't have the desire to play all that level again, so I'd turn off the SNES and try again later.
Shy Guys in general have long been my favorite Super Mario enemy. So, seeing all these adorable variations debuting in this game makes me very happy.
It's especially charming how dopey the normal variant seems to be. Such as when they come out of a Warp Pipe. They'll pop out, stand there, and just look back and forth for a moment before walking a random direction.
What can be said about Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy that hasn't already been said?
While the Fuzzies are clearly hallucinogenics, controlling Yoshi while under the effects of one is a surprisingly accurate approximation (for a sidescrolling platformer) of trying to walk while drunk.
In German, the level is called Lustiges Sporen Drama . Subtle.
Something I've noticed is that while all of the fort/castle bosses are giant versions of regular enemies, most of those regular enemies don't even debut until you reach that fort/castle, or at the very least close to it.
So, Salvo the Slime...I'm sorry, but he looks delicious. Reminds me of vanilla pudding.
Visit Koopa and Para-Koopa is a level with a lot going for it.
It introduces Poochy, Yoshi's pet(?) dog(?). Poochy is weird looking, but oddly cute. I like him.
It introduces the Super Star item, which gives Mario a cape, makes him invincible, sticks Yoshi inside a large egg, and lets the baby tear through enemies and obstacles, while a new arrangement of the classic Super Star theme playes. It's awesome.
This game doesn't seem to like the word “Troopa”, because I don't believe it's used anywhere.
Allegedly, he ain't stupid
Green Gloves and Sluggers in The Baseball Boys are a cool mechanic/enemy. If Yoshi throws an egg at the former, the Green Glove will catch it, and throw it back. Likewise, a Slugger will hit any eggs nearby with his bat, which is actually handy for grabbing a Special Flower at one point.
I really like the way Boos are drawn in this game, with wider mouths, and a visible upper lip. Definitely looks better than they did before.
The Blind Boo's Bluff enemy is hilarious to me. It's just a normal Boo...but with a blindfold.
The Train transformation only works on walls that have tracks drawn on them (presumably in chalk), and you have to avoid chalk Shy Guys as well. I swear, every new idea this game introduces is better than the previous.
The official name for this is just “Train”, but I vastly prefer how an Australian Nintendo magazine called it a “Loco-Yoshi”.
This game's twist on Lakitus' throwing of Spiny Eggs by having them imitate Yoshi, with the crosshairs and everything is inspired.
I can't look at the Pokeys in this game without thinking of a friend I had on a forum about fifteen years ago, who had named herself “sad cactus”, after the Pokey's reaction to the defeat of the Needlenose it was happily bouncing on its head.
Lakitu's Wall is a memorable setpiece, and features the only appearance of the Car transformation.
As a fat guy myself, I don't know how to feel about the corpulent Shy Guy enemies known as “Fat Guys”.
All in all, you're just another creep in the wall
I can't say I ever actually fell for the Dizzy Dandies posing as Special Flowers...but I will admit I came close a few times.
Gotta love that the final boss of World 2 is an evil spirit that breathes fire...and he's named Roger...Roger the Potted Ghost.
You gotta love how those little Shy Guys are trying their hardest to push Roger towards Yoshi...because Roger has no limbs. And since he's haunting a flower pot, he's got a bouquet on his head. And his confused expression at being pushed is funny.
Also, the flames he spits out are hitodama, which are the souls of humans that have left their bodies, which you might remember from our 6 Golden Coins discussion.
World 3 starts ramping up the difficulty. Welcome to Monkey World! gave me a lot of trouble. The Grinder enemies are cute and all, but they're really annoying. The level looks gorgeous, though!
Jungle Rhythm... introduces the Spear Guy enemies, as well as the Dancing Spear Guys, who admittedly seem a little stereotypical as a concept to me. But the Dancing Spear Guys' chanting is really catchy, and got stuck in my head a lot.
There's a secret area here with a Message Block that says “We, the Mario team, poured our hearts and souls into creating this game for your entertainment. It is full of secrets. Enjoy!”
I appreciate the thought, it's very nice...but we're about halfway through the game at this point. It's a little late to be telling us about the secrets hidden throughout it.
Fun fact about the Nep-Enut enemies (they're the large, blue Blarggs), their name is an anagram of “Neptune”, the Roman god of the sea. Did not realize that until recently.
I love the sunset background of Prince Froggy's Fort.
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In Japanese, the bosses are usually named “Big ___” (like “Big Burt”, “Big Slime”, ect), while Prince Froggy's name in Japan would be translated as “Frog Pirate”, the same as the generic frog enemies...because Kamek doesn't use his magic to make Froggy big, instead shrinking down Mario and Yoshi.
Another really cool, albeit gross boss fight. Tiny Yoshi and Mario are swallowed by Froggy, and have to attack his uvula from inside his stomach, while dodging gastric acid and the Shy Guys that Froggy apparently eats.
After defeating Froggy, we see Yoshi drop down from his stomach, and with a disturbed expression on his face, he grows back to normal size, heavily implying how they got out.
Mario's too young to have really registered what just happened, but that Yoshi? DEFINITELY traumatized
Having trouble thinking of things to say about some of these levels. They look gorgeous and are both difficult and fun, but...I've got nothing else to add.
The Harry Hedgehog enemy...he's a blue hedgehog in a mid-90s Nintendo game that's antagonistic to Mario. Is this supposed to be a playful knock against Sonic the Hedgehog and SEGA's aggressive mockery of Nintendo at the time?
I'm not entirely sure, because the official artwork (and later in-game appearances) for Harry Hedgehog has him as purple instead of blue, and I'm not sure if SEGA of Japan was as aggressive with the anti-Nintendo marketing as their American branch was.
...and now I'm on the Super Mario Wiki, reading about the Porcupo enemy from Super Mario Bros. 2, and how the Wiki considers it to be the same as the porcupine enemies from Mario Kart 64...which does not sit right with me. But that's beside the point. Let's get back to Yoshi's Island!
Monkeys' Favorite Lake...stunning to look at, but those Grinders are really getting on my nerves, as are the Lunge Fish.
Naval Piranha's Castle is, as expected, filled with Wild Piranha Plants, but it's also mostly a sewer, and is very cramped. The Caged Ghosts are a bit annoying, and I think I ran out of eggs near the end, but didn't have a way to make any more...so I had to let Yoshi take the hit and recover Mario several times until I ended up on the other side of the Wild Piranha.
I wonder what exactly Kamek's feelings on Yoshi are? They're enemies, sure, and Kamek is always threatening him...but he also calls him “Yoshi-baby” at one point (which I can see as mocking)...but before this boss, he calls Yoshi “a cutie without a navel” before cutting himself off and saying “forget it”.
I get that the latter is supposed to be a hint about how to defeat Naval Piranha, but still. Sounds like Kamek might have a crush.
Notably, this line was changed in the GBA version.
There's an Easter Egg to bypass the Naval Piranha boss battle, which is really funny, but the boss battle itself is really fun (skipping eggs across the water after ricocheting them off walls to hit the boss's belly button), so I resisted the urge to do it.
GO! GO! MARIO!! is one of my favorite levels, because it feels like a throwback to the previous Super Mario games.
It's the only level that Goombas and Wigglers (albeit flying ones) appear in. Most of the other enemies in it are Koopa Troopas, Paratroopas, Bullet Bills, and Piranha Plants...all Super Mario staples (with a few Bandits, Shy Guys, and Fuzzies around as well).
Also, there's a lot of Warp Pipes scattered around as platforms and decoration, instead of being used mostly as transportation, like in the rest of the game. Some of the Wild Piranhas are sitting on top of Warp Pipes, too, invoking the classic imagery of Piranha Plants emerging from pipes.
There's a large section of the level featuring Powerful Mario, thus the player controls Mario directly.
And lastly, the name of the level is the same as a song released to promote the original NES game in Japan, which I quoted in my very first article.
Don't Look Back! is a cool level, where most of the terrain is composed of Countdown Platforms, which disappear once the number on them hits 0. There's also a theme in this level of gradually ascending, with most of Yoshi's progress here being diagonally upwards.
Marching Milde's Fort begins with Yoshi being chased by a gigantic Shark Chomp that eats the level as it pursues the player...before cracking its teeth on a stone platform, causing it to shed a tear and fall off the level.
Once you enter the fort itself, there's a “lobby” of sorts with four paths to take, and all four need to be taken in order to complete the level. Checkpoint starvation is kind of a problem here, because there's no Middle-Ring in any of the four rooms, so if you lose a life in this part, you have to do those four rooms all over again.
The green blocks that change color with each egg ricochet before breaking feels like an homage to Atari's 1976 arcade game, Breakout.
Marching Milde herself is kinda neat: Ground Pound her, and she splits into two smaller selves. Ground Pound those, and they each split into two smaller versions. Keep going until there's just a bunch of regular Mildes walking around, and defeat them the normal way.
There's a cool section in Ride Like the Wind where Yoshi has to pump up a giant balloon, then ride on it.
Hookbill the Koopa's Castle is pretty standard stuff until you get to the Boss Door, which takes the player outside and onto the roof.
Hookbill gave me a bit of trouble, because I remembered that I had to knock him over and then Ground Pound his belly, but I ran out of eggs pretty quickly because I wasn't throwing them in the right place.
He's got a unique design. A lot of these bosses are just “the enemy, but bigger”, however, Hookbill has a wild-eyed smile, and looks kinda...mutated (he's a mutant turtle, no word on if he's a teenage ninja, too). It's also kinda creepy the way he smiles as he coughs up eggs for Yoshi to use. It's really weird, but I like it.
Did you know that the artwork of Hookbill for the SNES game miscolored part of his shell? Probably not.
Do you care that most of the art in this article is from the GBA remake, which fixes mistakes like that and adds shading? Probably not.
BLIZZARD!!! reminds me a lot of the first level of Donkey Kong Country's “Gorilla Glacier” area, with the snowfall. It looks great.
I really want to say that Ride the Ski Lifts was difficult because of the percision platforming involving the titular ski lifts...but it was probably because I was distracted by the little Bumpty enemies, especially the way they fly. It's just...adorable.
I really love penguins, you guys.
LOOKIT FLAPPIN' ITS LITTLE WINGS TO FLY
Danger – Icy Conditions Ahead is a level that really stuck out in my mind from reading about it in the Player's Guide. Stuff like sailing across icy water in a bucket or using a red watermelon to melt large blocks of ice is neat...but the skiing section at the end is what really cemented it in my memory.
Yoshi's got skis, and Mario's wearing a little Santa Claus-like snow hat, the snow starts to let up, and you can see the sunrise in the background. It is awesome.
Sluggy the Unshaven's Fort is, hands-down, my least favorite part of this game. It's a massive labyrinth, with Middle-Rings placed what feels like miles apart from each other, and the last stretch has the player riding atop a platform on the head of a ghost that moves without any input from the player. I had to play and replay the level on and off for, like, two days before I finally made it to the boss.
The boss himself is odd. He's a giant (and hairy?) slug that just oozes slowly towards Yoshi, seemingly trying to push him off the platform. To attack him, you have to throw enough eggs to make a dent in his gelatinous body to hit his heart.
According to the Player's Guide, "Sluggy’s actually glad to see you (and he wants to give you a hug) but the only way you’re going to survive this diabolical dwelling is to break Sluggy’s little heart."
Aww. That's kinda sad.
Sluggy's hairy heart is a reference to a Japanese idiom about being shameless, “to grow hair from the heart”
Goonie Rides! reminds me of the Parabeetle levels from Super Mario Bros. 3. I also really dig the animated Goonies in the background.
The back half of World 5 continues the theme of ascension, with Welcome to Cloud World and Shifting Platforms Ahead taking place in the sky.
So does Raphael the Raven's Castle, in fact. The first section of the level is set in the clouds (at night, which is a neat visual), and Yoshi has to ride platforms upwards in order to enter the castle itself.
Inside the castle, large portions of the walls have been cut out, leaving the night sky, as well as the sea (with some scattered small islands) visible in the background, really selling how high up Yoshi and Mario are. The level still has a vertical layout, so you gotta keep climbing upwards even further...making one think that the background may not have the night sky in the background, but what you're seeing may be outer space!
Turns out...it is. Kamek makes a Raven grow gigantic, and Yoshi has to fight him...on the moon. Albeit a very small moon, but it's an epic setpiece and the way the gravity allows both Yoshi and Raphael to walk all over the surface is really impressive.
Raphael the Raven is one of the best boss fights in the game, if not the SNES as a whole.
Only one boss fight can compare to the coolness of this one...but we'll get there.
- The first few levels of World 6 (the Koopa Kingdom) are placed at
sunset, which is lovely.
The Cave of the Bandits is exactly what one would expect from something with a name like that. However, there's an extended section at the end where Powerful Mario is required to go through, which might be the longest Powerful Mario section in the game? So, that's cool.
Tap-Tap the Red Nose's Fort has a neat gimmick near the end, involving a pipe maze.
Did I say “neat”? I meant that, but it's also fairly frustrating, since the key to unlock the final Warp Pipe is guarded by a Slime that's the size of Salvo, from way back in World 1...and is required to be defeated the same way.
The problem, however, is that while smaller Slimes fell off of Salvo when attacked, or fell off the ceiling, allowing Yoshi to eat them and make eggs...that's not the case here. You can only use the eggs you have with you. And it takes exactly six eggs (the maximum Yoshi can carry) to defeat this Slime, so if you miss or the Slime deflects the egg even once, you gotta leave the room, make more eggs and battle the Slime again. It's incredibly tedious to keep doing it over and over again. I probably spent close to a half-hour on this one room.
The battle against Tap-Tap himself plays out on those Breakout blocks I mentioned earlier, and clearing them away by ricocheting eggs off them is very satisfying and a lot of fun.
The Very Loooooong Cave is a slowly autoscrolling level that lives up to its name.
Presumably due to a programming oddity (since the GBA version fixed it), the introduction screen for this level stays up longer than it's supposed to. Considering what level it is, it's appropriate.
The Deep, Underground Maze is also pretty self-explanatory. But it's not nearly as frustrating as Sluggy the Unshaven's Fort, though.
A type of enemy appears here called Spooky. It looks like a large ghost, with a kinda creepy face. Out of curiosity, I attempted to have Yoshi eat it...which worked. Yoshi eats the sheet disguising the real enemy, which turns out to be a Shy Guy.
The fact that this intimidating-looking ghost turned out to be a regular Shy Guy that just stood there for a moment before wandering around aimlessly after I removed the disguise got me to laugh out loud.
KEEP MOVING!!!! is a good time. Lots of platforming challenges, with those Countdown Platforms, as well as a giant Shark Chomp to chase you.
It's very long, however, but the background changing from a forest, to a riff on Van Gogh's The Starry Night, to the outside of King Bowser's Castle is wonderful. There's even one final Powerful Mario section at the end.
Here we go! King Bowser's Castle!
A Helicopter Yoshi transformation starts things off, with Kamek flying by trying to take you out directly.
After that, there's a roulette of doors (a twist on how Bowser's Castle in Super Mario World required the player to choose which door to enter), each one taking Yoshi and Mario to a different room.
My first time through, I ended up in the room containing every single Shy Guy variant, but lost a life in the area following it.
The second time, I ended up in Door 3, which took me to a room with a Message Block that yells RUN AWAY, HURRY!!!
Which was quite the startling message, lemme tell ya.
Almost a jump scare
What followed that was a lava-filled cave where Yoshi is pursued by a giant, golden Tap-Tap. It was pretty intense, but fun.
The autoscrolling room where Kamek flings magic blasts at Yoshi, transforming scenery blocks into enemies, is very reminiscent of encountering Magikoopas in Super Mario World. Neat.
And now, we meet the King of the Koopas! Bowser...who is a bratty little toddler, throwing a tantrum after being awoken from his nap (the crayon scribbles on the wall are a cute touch). However, he finds Yoshi to be fascinating (calling him a “gween donkey”), and tries to ride him.
It doesn't take, and thus Yoshi has to battle Bowser. I tried everything I had in my arsenal: throwing eggs, jumping on him, ground pounding him...nothing worked, until I missed my ground pound and saw that I was able to create the same kind of shockwaves in the floor that Bowser was causing from his Ground Pounds, and that was the way to defeat him.
D'aww. Who's a cute little evil turtle-dragon?
But then, Kamek shows up with his magic wand, and causes Bowser to grow. And grow. And grow. To the point where he grows too big for the castle.
Time for the final boss, and my favorite boss in the game: Big Bad Baby Bowser!
Yoshi and Mario are on the roof of the castle, as a kaiju-sized Bowser approaches slowly from the background. The giant toddler will cause rubble to fall through the roof (giving Yoshi less room to stand) and breathe three massive fireballs to dodge.
Giant-sized eggs are floating around (Who cares why? It's rad!). Yoshi has to collect the eggs, and throw them at Bowser in the background before he catches up to the foreground.
All the while, a heavy metal music track plays. This is just a perfect storm of silliness and awesomeness.
Bowser is defeated for the first time, Mario and Luigi are reunited, and the stork is free.
The credits roll over the stork flying the Baby Mario Bros. home. The stork drops them off at a mushroom-shaped house (I guess confirming that Mario and Luigi were born in the Mushroom Kingdom). Their parents answer the door, and hold the babies up above their heads as the narration announces “Heroes are born!!”, while a slowed-down version of the level clear fanfare from the original NES game plays, and I burst into tears despite promising myself I wouldn't do it this time.
Items
Returning:
1-Up (sorta. There's no Heart or Mushroom to represent it, instead you'll just...get an extra life by meeting certain criteria)
Key
! Switch
Super Star
Lakitu's Cloud
POW Block
New:
Flashing eggs
Giant eggs
Hidden coins
Watermelons
Stars
Special Flowers
Tulip
Morph Bubbles
Yoshi Blocks
Milestones
First Yoshi's Island game, as well as the first Yoshi platformer in general.
Much like how Wario Land quickly spun off into its own unique thing, I won't be covering the other Yoshi games here because they're not part of the main Super Mario series.
Shy Guys and Snifits return for the first time since Super Mario Bros. 2.
First appearance of Mario, Luigi, and Bowser as babies.
Debut appearance of Kamek the Magikoopa and his Toadies.
First time Yoshi attacks by throwing eggs as projectiles
First Pink, Cyan, Purple, and Brown Yoshis.
Debut of Poochy and the Stork
“Poochy and the Stork” sounds like the name of a 90s rock band
First final boss battle against a giant Bowser.
Only Super Mario game to use the SNES' Super FX chip
First time any backstory for Mario and Luigi was given within the Super Mario games proper
Debut of Raphael the Raven
(I wouldn't consider this notable if not for the fact he later shows up in the first Paper Mario and gets a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee. I understand, though. It IS one of the coolest boss battles of the 16-bit era)
The second and final SNES Super Mario game.
Trivia
There seems to be some debate about whether or not this counts as part of the Super Mario series, officially.
The Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia doesn't include it, nor does the official Mario Portal site.
However, the game went under the name Super Mario Bros. 5 in development, while the international releases call it Super Mario World 2.
The Japanese release is titled Super Mario: Yoshi's Island. As far as I'm concerned, that makes it count for this project (if you disagree, well...it's my blog. So there).
If you think about it, technically, the GBA port of this game is Super Mario Advance 3: Super Mario Bros. 5: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
The original version of this game was never released on the Wii or Wii U's Virtual Console, but the latter got the GBA port. It's unknown why, but it's suspected that it might have been due to legal or hardware difficulties involving the SuperFX chip, possibly explaining why Star Fox and Stunt Race FX never hit those platforms, either.
However, Yoshi's Island, Star Fox (plus the previously-unreleased Star Fox 2) were released on the SNES Classic mini console in 2017, with all three games (and the aforementioned Stunt Race FX) available on the Nintendo Switch Online service as of this writing.
The game received several sequels, with two (Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's New Island) being direct follow-ups to this one. DS is all right, a decent (albeit overstuffed) attempt at replicating the first one. Apparently New is pretty average as well, but I refuse to play it since the opening cutscene undoes the beautiful ending of this game for a gag.
Conclusion
I'm just gonna cut to the chase here: this game is an absolute masterpiece.
The graphics are terrific, with its hand-drawn aesthetic, and charming art direction. Again, I would love to see another Super Mario game that looks like this. In fact, I think it might be the best-looking 2D Super Mario.
Almost every level has a unique background, which I feel is rare for a game of this size and time period.
The music is all very pleasant, with the Athletic theme being particularly popular, for good reason. It's very catchy.
I, as mentioned before, am more partial to the final boss music.
The levels are long, and it's one of the more difficult games we've played so far, but it never stops being fun.
Though, I admit, it did get a bit frustrating at times.
Yes, Mario does cry when he's knocked off Yoshi. People act like it's some unbearable screeching (I've heard it called “the best argument for birth control”), but it didn't bother me that much. If anything, it sounded more like a child saying “Hey! Hey!” (but Navi from Ocarina of Time also said “hey!”, and we know how people reacted to her.)
Maybe people just don't like adorable characters in Nintendo games saying that one particular syllable.
Much like SMB3, Yoshi's Island throws new concepts at the player almost constantly, be it enemy types, variations in level layouts, transformations, a different twist on a concept you've already seen, boss gimmicks...new stuff around every corner.
The controls are tight, especially compared to other Super Mario games. Yoshi doesn't have a run button, and he has different attack options besides “stomp”, “kick object”, or “fireball”.
Egg-throwing in particular is used to great effect, for not only attacking enemies, but solving puzzles and uncovering secrets, too.
Yoshi doesn't shrink upon being hurt, but instead, most instances cause Mario to start floating away in a bubble, and Yoshi is unharmed apart from the Countdown Timer activating. As long as you retrieve the baby before the timer hits 0, Yoshi can take as many hits as you want (aside from stuff like lava, spikes, or bottomless pits being one-hit kills).
The twist on the tried-and-true Super Mario gameplay mechanics is refreshing, while still feeling like a Super Mario game.
The boss battles are all excellent, Big Bad Baby Bowser and Raphael the Raven being my favorites.
A fantastic game overall. Highly recommended.
“Thus, due to the marvelous teamwork of the Yoshi clan, the twins are reunited.
The captured stork is freed by Yoshi, and sets about his duty and finally makes the long-awaited delivery!
Thank you, Yoshi! The twins will meet the parents soon!”
- Ending
Next time: This series starts to gain some depth... kinda literally! Get ready to become very acquainted with Princess Peach's Castle and Mario's new voice as we enter the third dimension with Super Mario 64! Let's-a go!
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