Yoshi's Island (Super Nintendo) Review

 (Originally posted on January, 2014)

                                       

(1995, Super Famicom)
(Note: Though I own the cartridge, the game was played in an emulator due to an expired cartridge battery.)

I still remember the moment I caught my first glimpse of Yoshi’s Island. An issue of Nintendo Power showcased both this game and Donkey Kong Country 2 right next to each other. Like so many others, I was immediately struck by the very unorthodox graphics. I had a wonderful time renting and beating the game shortly after it was released. After 18 years, it more than deserved another play through.

Whether or not you consider it a true sequel to Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island is unarguably ambitious and far different from past Mario games. On a quest to reunite baby Mario with his brother, Yoshi has been given all sorts of new abilities. He can convert enemies into a reserve of eggs for aiming and tossing around the level, alter terrain with his ground pound, flutter through the air and morph into vehicles. Feeling slightly less nimble than Mario, Yoshi is almost ‘tank’ like in his handling, but by no means unresponsive.

While most of the levels are focused on platforming, they’ve been designed to be completed at a slower pace than traditional Mario games. Seamlessly transitioning between vertical and horizontal progression, the stages have a sense of vastness and unpredictability that are difficult to map out in one's head. Although the levels are a joy to leisurely explore, I still had little in interest in collecting the dozens of stars, coins and flowers hidden throughout each stage to unlock the hidden levels. Fortunately, the game is still extremely enjoyable even if all the collecting is ignored.

One of the major mechanics setting Yoshi’s Island apart is that besides pit deaths, Yoshi does not directly take damage. When hit, Mario goes floating about the top of the screen in a bubble (???) and a now disheveled Yoshi must manage to touch him before the timer runs out. When this occurs, the combination of enemies, environmental hazards, the timer countdown and Baby Mario’s crying makes you feel like you have one foot in the grave and one foot on a banana peel!

Some various highlights:

-    In 1995, I was amazed by the giant chain chomps lurking miles in the background, suddenly hurling themselves towards the front of the level, burrowing into the earth in an attempt to eat me. Even nearly 20 years later, it’s hugely charming.

-    The boss fights are some of the most creative in all of gaming, feeling more like a reward in themselves than just a challenge.

-    Even though I didn’t care for the slow-paced cavern stages, the combination of the waterfalls in the background, music and strange enemies gave off a wonderfully eerie mood.

It sounds cliché at this point to praise Yoshi’s Island graphics, but they really are that amazing. Besides the game’s wonderful crayon style still looking more beautiful than many PS4 or XB1 games, I’m hugely impressed with the richness of the backgrounds. You almost feel teased by the fact that you can’t venture out into the miles of strange hills, vast oceans and dense forests buzzing with activity. But, having one’s own imagination stimulated to such a degree might just be the greatest thing a game can do. The Super FX 2 chip took the SNES’s scaling/rotating abilities, already a big deal at the time, to a whole new level. Besides memorable new characters such as Fuzzy, Poochy and Bandit, it’s a huge treat to see all old characters return in their most artistically unique and stylized forms yet.

Not to be outdone by the graphics, the soundtrack stands among the greatest that the SNES has to offer. While I’m not nearly enough of a writer to properly describe the music, I feel I can say that it’s exactly what you would expect to hear if you found yourself in a crayon world filled with Yoshis. Usually giving off a fun sense of energy and exploration, the music can also get surprisingly mysterious and tense. The “Athletic Theme” sticks out as overflowing with joy and the essence of play itself. The “Cave Theme” is wonderfully busy yet no less mysterious. No matter which piece of music you listen to, it will quickly stick in your brain for years.

I can best sum up Yoshi’s Island in one word: Refinement. Even if some parts of the game aren’t quite what you expect from a Mario, it’s still easy to get the sense that this is one of Nintendo’s most polished masterpieces. With the Super Nintendo/Famicom’s time in the spotlight about to end, the game feels like the company was celebrating all they’ve done with the system. I imagine Miyamoto and his staff treating the game’s development as a leisurely yet highly creative party that occurred over many months, where they were almost indifferent as to whether the game achieved it’s well deserved 4 million+ in sales. A must play for everybody.