Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is a platform action game developer and published by Nintendo for the SNES on 1995-08-05. The game uses the Super F2 chip for more impressive graphics than stock SNES games.
In the game, baby Mario and Luigi are being delivered by a stork to their parents, but Kamek, wants them for himself. He's able to capture baby Luigi, but baby Mario falls down to Yoshi's Island, and Yoshi and his friends agree to follow the stork's map and carry baby Mario to his parents all the while keeping him safe from Kamek's minions.
Contents
Personal
Although most of my friends owned a SNES, and all of them loved the original Super Mario World, nobody I knew owned this game, so I never played it when it was still popular. It was only after SNES emulation became mature that I was able to try it out, and I found it to be very underwhelming. However, I really loved Tetris Attack, and the various characters seen in that game always made me want to give Yoshi's Island another chance. So, many years later, I finally did.
Status
I don't own this game, but I'm playing it.
Review
Good
- Yoshi has a lot of new controls that really adds to the game play. Floaty jumps, stomping, throwing his tongue upward, etc.
- The game makes good use of the Super FX2 chip. The 3D rendering stands out simply because you know the SNES shouldn't be able to do it, but it still fits into the game organically.
- The artistic painted backgrounds give the game a very creative look.
- The various new characters, and the expansion of existing characters, really adds a lot of life to the setting.
- The metamorphoses, although not very thematic, add some nice variety to the game.
Bad
- For an action platformer, the game is too slowly paced. Having to slowly load up on eggs, then stop, aim, and throw them so frequently really makes the game crawl. Also, although you can run many levels pretty quickly, heavy emphasis is put on collecting out-of-the-way objects and finding hidden objects, which slows it down even more.
- Several of the collectibles are positioned in very frustrating ways. Stars explode in all directions over pits making them difficult to get, shy guys fly off with red coins leaving you only a brief moment to get them, flowers placed low down in pits requires precision jumps where a mistake kills you, etc. And, if you want to unlock the hidden levels, you have to get all of them. I found this game design to be especially tedious, and, not very far into the game, I gave up on idea of collecting entirely.
- Yoshi's control is a bit lacking. He can't run or fly, he doesn't have a variety of jumps, etc. There are some interesting power-ups which give unique controls, but they're fixed to certain areas in certain levels. The lack of power-ups make the harder levels that much more difficult.
- Baby Mario's crying is really annoying.
- Although I love the creativity of the art style, the low resolution of the SNES makes the painted backgrounds look far less impressive than they could.
- Most of the bonus games are purely random, and, therefore, not fun.
- It's a quibble, but the Japanese title, "Super Mario: Yoshi's Island," should have been used in the USA since, other than having Yoshi and a few monsters, the game doesn't really have anything to do with Super Mario World.
Ugly
- While there isn't really anything awful about the game, for the vast majority of the time I was playing it, I was not enjoying myself.
Media
Box Art
Documentation
Manual - Japan - Digital.
Manual - USA.
Manual - USA - Digital.
Videos
Titles
| Language | Native | Transliteration | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island | ||
| Japanese | スーパーマリオ ヨッシーアイランド | Supa Mario Yosshi Airando | Super Mario: Yoshi's Island |
| Korean | 슈퍼 마리오 월드 2: 요시 아이랜드 | Syupeo Malio Woldeu 2: Yosi Ailaendeu | Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island |
Links
