Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
From Freepedia
| Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island | |
| Image:Yisland box.jpg | |
| Developer(s) | Nintendo |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date(s) | 4 August 1995 (NA) 5 August 1995 (JP) 6 October 1995 (EU) |
| Genre | Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Super Famicom/Super NES |
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, most commonly referred to as Yoshi's Island, is a Super Famicom/Super Nintendo game released in Japan on 5 August, 1995. It was released in Europe and the US in October 1995. Later (in 2002), it was released with extra stages and improved sound effects as Super Mario Advance 3 for the Game Boy Advance. In March 2005, a game in the style of Yoshi's Island was released for the Nintendo DS under the name Yoshi Touch & Go.
In 1998, Nintendo released an N64 sequel to the game called Yoshi's Story. The sequel, which was a noticeably shorter and less complex game than its SNES predecessor, was panned by critics and had limited success commercially.
Contents |
Story
The game begins with Baby Mario and Baby Luigi being delivered by the stork to their parents in the Mushroom Kingdom. Kamek the Magikoopa senses that the brothers will cause great trouble to the Koopas, so he attempts to kidnap them. Kamek captures the stork and young Luigi, but Mario (along with the stork's map) falls to the ground and lands on a Yoshi's back. The Yoshis decide to protect Baby Mario and take him to the location marked on the map. Along the way, they must fight through Kamek's creatures and the inhabitants of the island.
Graphics
Image:Yoshi2-title.jpgThe game uses the Super FX 2 microchip to create sprite scaling and polygon effects that are relatively advanced for a Super Famicom/SNES game.
The game's unique graphical style is said to have resulted from a conflict with Nintendo's internal evaluation committee; impressed by the recently released Donkey Kong Country which sported pre-rendered graphics, they ordered the game's designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, to move the visuals in this direction. Upset at this, Miyamoto instead altered the graphics to look as if they had been drawn with crayons and felt-pens and resubmitted it to the evaluation committee, who admitted their mistake and passed the game.
Gameplay
Yoshi's Island made Yoshi the main playable character for the first time in a Mario game. Baby Mario is passed between different-colored Yoshis at the beginning of each new level. All the Yoshis have a range of moves, such as stomps and tongue-licks. If the player held down the jump button the Yoshis would pedal their legs furiously in the air to achieve a floating effect which allowed them to stay airborne for a few more moments.
Yoshis could collect eggs during their travels across the levels by utilising their unique metabolism to almost instantaneously digest enemies that they had swallowed. These eggs (up to six at a time) would follow Yoshi along until they were thrown. Many of the game's puzzles involve bouncing eggs around the levels or skimming them over water to hit distant enemies or switches. In addition to eggs, Yoshi could also collect keys, which could be used to open locked doors.
There are 6 worlds in Yoshi's Island. Worlds 1, 2, and 4 don't have particular themes, but World 3 has a jungle theme, World 5 has a snow theme, and World 6 has a fire theme. In both Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for SNES and the Super Mario Advance 3 version of the game, there is a stage before the players starts world 1 that the player must get through (and will never be reached again unless the game is reset). In the Game Boy Advance version, if the player presses select, at the top of the screen it will say "World 0-0". In the SFC/SNES version, there are 9 stages in every world (8 regular stages and one unlockable extra stage) but in the Game Boy Advance version, a new "special" stage was added to each of the 6 worlds, making it 10 stages per world, for a total of 61 stages (including world 0).
This game also marks the debut of Poochy, a happy dog-like character who will let Yoshi ride him — in effect making Baby Mario riding Yoshi riding Poochy. Poochy shows up in later games as well.
