Review: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, or SNES, is considered by those disappointed with the 3D games today, to be the last great system. And one of the last games to appear on that system is also one of its best: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island.
In terms of chronology, this game is the first in the timeline. In this game, you do not play as either of the famous Mario brothers. Rather, you play as one of the dinosaur steeds who had been their good friends in the first Super Mario World: the Yoshis. And it is an adventure that can be enjoyed by all.
The story is fairly simple…the evil wizard Kamek sees the Mario Brothers posing trouble in the future, and orders his flunkies to capture the stork, who is delivering the two babies to their parents, and bring them back to him. While the grunts do capture the stork, they lose one of the babies, Baby Mario, who falls onto the back of a green Yoshi. The green Yoshi, alongside his friends, who are Yoshis of other colors, decide to reunite the two babies and free the stork.
The first impression given is the graphics.And this game SCREAMS “kiddy”. Its graphics are colorful, bright, and often cute, even in the creepier castle levels. But it is an example of some of the most beautifully done graphics ever done for this system. Turning away from this game just because it looks kiddy will be denying yourself one of the best 2D platform adventures ever designed.
The sound, along with the graphics, also is pretty kid-friendly. Many of the tunes are frightfully catchy, ranging from the sedate lazy tunes of the game’s first level, “Make Eggs, Throw Eggs”, to the upbeat, energetic and extremely catchy theme in the game’s fifth level “Hop! Hop! Donut Lifts!” and right up to the game’s final battle, which hits you with a punk rock and electric guitar theme. And when Yoshi touches one of the white puffballs known simply as Fuzzies, the music slows down as Yoshi stumbles about in a wavy and distorted level in what may be the closest thing to depicting an actual drug “trip” you’ll ever see in a kid’s game, which can create a sense of ilinx, or sensory disruption.
The gameplay, of course, is central. And it does not disappoint. Your mission in each level is to get to the goal with Baby Mario on your back so you can pass him to the next Yoshi, in sort of a relay. You drop Baby Mario if you get hit, and the combination of a ticking timer and an incessantly crying Baby Mario motivate the player to get him back.
There are several ways to go through this game: you can blaze through the levels and get through as fast as possible. That’s all well and good, but this game also rewards exploration and a good deal of thinking with a points system. In every level there are 20 Red Coins (camouflaged as regular coins) and 5 special Flowers. These, along with remaining Stars on the meter, contribute to the score for the level. To ensure getting a perfect 100 points (30 Stars, 20 Red Coins, 5 Flowers), the player must explore almost every nook and cranny of the level and try everything. Many levels hide Flowers and Red Coins in secret areas that most would ignore, and a few levels are only beaten by a little thinking, as well as trial and error.
The game’s learning curve is pretty gradual, telling you about abilities just as they’re about to come into play. While using the abilities is easy enough, knowing how to make the most of them can confound some players. The difficulty progression is very good…it starts off easy and ends on a reasonably difficult way, making it enjoyable for players of all ages.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island is a game for the Super Nintendo that should be in every gamer’s library, as it is the gold standard of what a good 2D platform game can be. Though it may be difficult to find the original outside of Ebay, you can also pick up Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, for the Game Boy Advance, which is a portable remake of the game, with another set of special levels that are unlocked after beating it.
