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Classic Game of the Week  Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- By Eric Tajchman
The 16-bit competition has been fierce. The Sega Genesis started out with a two-year head start over the Super NES, but Nintendo’s reputation for great, quality gaming has kept it in the race, and now the Super NES has started to pull more gamers back from the Sega. The games for the system have been stellar, and while some old franchises have returned, many new games have been released this generation to eager fans waiting to play and enjoy. Nintendo has also been releasing new titles along with outstanding upgrades to familiar game series, and the gaming public has responded with satisfaction. However, a true Mario sequel has yet to be released, though Mario did make an appearance in some spin-off titles such as Super Mario Kart, Mario Paint, Mario is Missing, and Mario’s Time Machine. But now the time had come for the plumber to make his return . . . sort of.
A word to describe Shigeru Miyamoto would be unpredictable. You never know just what to expect when he announces a new game. We’ve seen time and time again, most recently with the cel-shaded Zelda and quirky Pikmin, how he likes to mix things up and never simply repeat an idea. In this case, though, it was the announcement of Super Mario World: Yoshi’s Island. This game would feature the new Super FX2 chip, which allowed for any character on the screen to stretch, grow, or shrink.
Gaming Guru, Shigeru Miyamoto
The game is about two twins who are being delivered home to their parents by the stork (we all know the story about babies and the stork, right?), when suddenly the bird is attacked by some evil baddies and end up dropping the twins. One of the twins happens to fall right on top of Yoshi’s back, saving it from disaster, while the other twin is captured by Bowser’s henchmen and the evil wizard Kamek. While the other twin is rushed back to Bowser’s Castle, the other Yoshis come to investigate the baby from the sky and discover that the baby, named Mario, can detect where his brother is by the bond between the twins. They eventually decide to travel across the island, reunite the twins and defeat Kamek and Bowser. One Yoshi, though, can’t make it all the way to Bowser’s Castle, so they decided to use a relay system where one Yoshi takes Baby Mario after another one has completed a level.
Yoshi is equipped with an arsenal of bizarre attacks to get him and Baby Mario safely across the island. Yoshi can use his red, sticky tongue for the job it was meant to, grabbing and swallowing enemies, obstacles, and items. Yoshi can also make eggs out of most enemies and items, and chuck them at other enemies or to traverse obstacles to progress through the game. Yoshi comes equipped with a ground pound, which has become a staple move in many Mario and Yoshi games, and the resourceful dino can even morph into different vehicles, such as a helicopter, car, submarine, and train, to complete levels and find secret items.
Each Yoshi must protect Baby Mario, who rides upon his back, while traveling across six different worlds on the island and fighting all sorts of enemies, such as watermelon seed-spitting monkeys and tribal Shy-Guys. If Baby Mario happens to get knocked off by getting hurt or stolen, Yoshi has a limited amount of time to retrieve him before Kamek’s flying troops come and snatch the baby away. Yoshi can collect stars to increase that time to a maximum of thirty seconds. Unlike most Mario games, the usual point system is gone, and there is no timer, though coins are still around, and as always, collecting 100 of them will yield a 1-UP.
However, there is a score system for each level. Hidden throughout each level are twenty red coins, and five Sunflowers. At the end of the stage, the points for red coins, worth one point each, Sunflowers, worth ten points each, and Timer Stars remaining, worth one point each, are added together for your level score. The maximum score for each level is 100, which means you completed the level perfectly. You can also go back to completed levels and try again to gain a perfect score.
At the end of every level, there is a roulette goal to jump through. Once you’ve jumped through, the roulette will begin to stop and the Yoshi will pass Mario on to the new Yoshi. If the roulette stops on a Sunfflower, (collecting Sunflowers in the level increases your chances), you can play a Bonus Game. There are different types of Bonus Games, such as a matching game where you can win items and extra lives, a lottery type scratch-off game where you can win extra lives, and a flip-the-card type game where you find items while avoiding the Kamek card.
Yoshi’s Island is graphically different from any Mario game before it. The game has a hand-colored look to it, as if the entire game was drawn using pastel chalk and crayons. But that’s not to say that Yoshi’s Island looks bad. Quite the contrary, the game is one of the most vibrant and beautiful Mario games ever. The animation is very fluid and natural, which gives the game a polished, entertaining feel to it.
Yoshi’s Island sold very well, though not as well as the original Super Mario World. It was an addictive game with unique and creative level design and simple but captivating gameplay. To some, it was not regarded as a true Mario sequel because of Yoshi being the main character, but it was a hit nonetheless, and fans enjoyed it. If you wish to play the game, the only copy is available for the SNES, though Nintendo has announced plans to release a port of the game entitled Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island on the Game Boy Advance, available this fall. Overall, this is one of the most beautiful games on the system and deserves to be played just to see the scenery, but the addictive and entertaining gameplay will keep you coming back for much, much more.
Pictures courtesy of The Mushroom Kingdom.
- 8.20.2001 |
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