Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: A Look Back at Yoshi's Best Game

Since his debut in Super Mario World, Yoshi the dinosaur has been a fan favorite, not just because he is adorable, but also because of his large appetite and his willingness to aid Mario in a variety of situations. Not only has he co-starred with Mario in a variety of games, but he was also spun off into a series of games of his own. By far the best of Yoshi's games came out in 1995, when Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was released for the Super NES. Even though Mario's name was in the title, Yoshi clearly was the star here, and many features that would become commonplace in later games debuted here. This amazing platform game is still a classic fifteen years later, and today, I shall tell you more about Yoshi's greatest adventure.

The story takes place years before Mario and Luigi became the Mushroom Kingdom's greatest heroes. One night, a stork is busy trying to deliver a pair of infants, when suddenly, he is attacked by Kamek the Magikoopa, who wishes to kidnap the babies upon learning that they will one day mean a lot of trouble for the Koopas. He snatches one infant, while the other one falls onto an island, landing on Yoshi's back. The baby, named Mario, can sense where his twin, Luigi, is being held, and so Yoshi and his friends decide to reunite the twins. The journey will not be easy, though, as Kamek's minions are everywhere, hoping to abduct Mario and ensure that they will never grow up to become a threat to the Koopas. For once, the tale delivers some urgency in that, if the twins are not reunited, it could affect the Mario Bros. history as we know it for the worse.

As a variety of different-colored Yoshis, your mission is to protect Baby Mario as you make your way through 48 stages spanning six worlds. Yoshi has a variety of moves at his disposal. He can eat enemies, of course, but moves that would show up in later games made their debut here. When Yoshi eats an enemy, he can change it into an egg, and then throw it at other foes as well as objects such as clouds that hold useful items. To cross gaps, Yoshi can use his flutter jump, which extends his basic jump slightly (though it lasts a bit longer after he jumps off of an enemy). To stomp on foes, he can pound the ground, and doing so can also get rid of stakes that are in his way. Mastering Yoshi's moves is simple, and they are needed if you wish to get the highest score in every stage.

Rather than simply going through the levels, you can choose to gain 100 points by grabbing certain items. First, there are stars that are added to a timer that begins to tick down when Yoshi is hit and Baby Mario falls off of his back and becomes encased in a protective bubble. Yoshi must reach Mario before the timer reaches zero, or else the baby will be kidnapped, and you will lose a life. A maximum of thirty stars can be held, and they are gained by hitting some clouds with an egg or by passing through a sparkling ring that acts like a checkpoint. Each star is worth one point, for a maximum of thirty points. Next, there are red coins, which are hidden among the normal coins. Each stage has twenty of these coins, each worth a single point, for a maximum of twenty points. Lastly, there are flowers hidden in various spots. There are five flowers in each level, and each of them is worth ten points, for a maximum of fifty points. The flowers can also help you enter the bonus stages at the end of most stages, on which more later. If you complete all of the stages in a world and get 100 points in each, you will unlock harder stages and bonus levels that you can play at your leisure.

When you pass through the goal ring, it will spin around, and if it lands on a flower (provided that you have collected it), you will head to one of six bonus stages, ranging from a slot machine to a game of concentration. By playing these games, you can win extra lives as well as items that are stored in an inventory slot accessible from the pause menu. Some items can be found in the stages, such as watermelons that enable Yoshi to spit seeds, fire, and ice at his foes. Other, such as the magnifying glass that reveals where the red coins are, cannot be obtained any other way. Some stages also have huts where you can play additional bonus games for a chance to win lives and items, but they require you to obtain a key from elsewhere in the level before you can enter them.

As for other features, Yoshi can sometimes touch a bubble and change into a vehicle. As a helicopter, submarine, train, car, or mole-like tank, he can cross the terrain in various ways, but the effect is only temporary. Yoshi can change back by either waiting for the spell to wear off or by touching a box with his face on it. Sometimes, Mario can get in on the action by touching a star that makes him invincible for a short time and also enables him to run up some walls and enter small gaps that are too big for Yoshi. Every fourth stage ends with a boss fight, where Yoshi must defeat a normal monster that becomes enormous because of Kamek's magic. While you never actually fight Kamek, the game's final boss battle is nothing short of epic, though saying anything more about it would be spoiling it for you.

For a platform game, Yoshi's Island is full of charm, with plenty of difficult tasks, especially if you are going for 100 points in every level. The game saves automatically after each level, so you will not have to worry about repeating a lot of stages just to get back to where you left off. If there is one problem, it is that the game can be beaten in a relatively short amount of time, though getting the maximum score in each stage and tackling the harder stages can take a while to master. As a whole, however, the game is another masterpiece from Nintendo, and helped to make Yoshi the beloved character he is today.

One may argue that this is where Nintendo's supposed method of catering to younger audiences originated on account of the cartoon-like graphics. These graphics, however, add to the game's charm, and with some images appearing as if they came straight out of a coloring book, it proved that Nintendo was willing to push the Super NES to its limits in order to provide visuals that were not only impressive, but added to the game instead of detracting from it. The soundtrack sounds like it came from a Saturday Morning cartoon, and it, too, is appealing, with plenty of happy tunes and a fittingly spooky theme for the castle levels. Considering that the SNES was four years old by the time the game was released, it should not come as a surprise that its graphics and music are superb, since by this time, Nintendo had just about perfected the system's capabilities, even as the Nintendo 64 was waiting in the wings.

Yoshi's Island remains fondly remembered, and is a winner both on the SNES as well as on the Game Boy Advance, the latter of which omitted the Super Mario World 2 subtitle, which is just as well since Yoshi is the real star here. Unfortunately, one will have to track down a copy for either system, as for some reason, Nintendo has yet to release the game on the Wii Shop Channel. Maybe it will be the 400th game for the Virtual Console, or perhaps it will be a holiday release. I hope that Yoshi's Island will make it onto the Virtual Console someday, as it is a masterpiece through and through. For those who cannot wait for that to happen, turn to e-bay or Amazon and get your copy, and see how a game from fifteen years ago can still hold up marvelously well today.