Everybody has the perfect game made just for them. This one is mine.
User Rating: 10 | Super Mario: Yoshi Island SNES
A perfect ten is not something one should give out lightly to a video game. Most video games are not perfect, and a fault can be found in every one. However, this is the one game that I’ve played that’s the closest to perfection. Why? Because it’s fun. Everybody has the perfect game made just for them. This one is mine. Long story short – as the stork is delivering baby Mario and baby Luigi, baby Bowser’s caretaker kidnaps Luigi and looses Mario to the Yoshi’s. Thus the Yoshi’s carry Mario one by one to the castle, battling all kinds of things and overcoming this and that. The main weapon is Yoshi’s abbility to eat things and make them into eggs, then using those eggs as a projectile. So what makes it good? To start off, Yoshi’s Island (which has little to do with the first Super Mario World game other then having Yoshi in it) has something most games don’t have – a recognizable art style. The game supports a unique and refreshing design that makes the world looks like everything was made by crayons and colored pencil. This is what really brought the game to life. Forget about everybody else going for realistic graphics, Yoshi’s Island wanted to make you play in a world that you haven’t seen before. It’s also a world we really haven’t seen again since as well, mainly because the game came out at the end of the Super Nintendo’s life. Also if you enjoy playing games that use sprites, you’ll be pleased to know that this game pushed them in animation and spinning in ways that were unseen then, but are now more common on the Gameboy Advance. Another strong point in the game is its sound design. The music is all quite memorable, from the catchy theme world, to the beautiful underground levels, to the frantic boss music, to the majestic end theme. The boinging, slurping, and popping sound effects fit right in. Many cite that when baby Mario cries, you want to put a DS stylus in your ear, but I’ve never found it that bad. Your lifeline has been knocked off, so you’d think it would be annoying. And of course, the strongest point of the game I’ve already told you about – it’s fun to play. The controls are tight, responsive, and give you all the control you could ask for. The platform elements are creative and varied. The egg throwing mechanism is used creatively and efficiently. The enemies are full of life with expressions and sometimes even some personality. The boss fights are huge and diverse. The bonus of getting 100% on all the levels is challenging but not impossible (though you’ll swear it on a few levels). The game is fun, and I still play it to this day. Perfect? Many might say no. It is rather easy to breeze through. But unlike the Nintendo 64’s Yoshi’s Story which tried to make it harder with “find all thirty melons”, Yoshi’s Island’s “find all the flowers, red coins, and complete the level with perfect health” actually works and makes it a fun challenge. And that’s the key, fun. I find this game to be very, very fun. Since I haven’t found a game that can hold my interest for, what, ten years, I think it deserves a perfect. 
