Hi there, cute little Yoshi! Does Baby Mario want to go to Bowser's castle?
Yoshi's Island opens with a stork carrying two babies, as is a conventional make believe story on the subject of a babies origin. Magikoopa emerges and steals Baby Luigi, knocking his older brother to an island inhabited by Yoshi dinosaurs. Mario, landing on the trademark Green Yoshi, is taken back to the rest of his clan, where they decide to rescue Luigi from King Bowser, who is also a baby at this time. Evidently at the end the player sees the brother's house, which is a rare sight in the Mario series.
The game plays very similarly to the rest of the Mario games, moving horizontally across a screen with a scrolling camera that follows the player. The main aspect of travelling is once again jumping, with Yoshi having the added ability to remain in the air for several seconds by holding the jump button, which was always handy if the player jumped towards something too soon.
A way of combating enemies in the franchise has always been to jump on enemies heads, which is still present in this game however with the addition of other powers. The player can shoot out Yoshi's tongue and swallow enemies, turning them into eggs, which can be shot out or aimed towards something, which was generally used for hitting switches, clouds with powers and other such things. Yoshi is also capable of finding various transformation cubes which will turn the dinosaur into a variety of different vehicles to suit certain situations such as a car capable of digging through stone or a helicopter.
Heath in the Mario franchise has always been quite inspired; the player starts off as a smaller sprite and can grow larger with the help of pick-ups, where contact with an obstacle would take some height away. There is a very different approach however to the health system in Yoshi's Island in that when Yoshi is hit by something; Mario is knocked off its back, which triggers a small time limit to retrieve him, the child at this point will be flying around within a bubble. Once the time limit runs out Magikoopa will swoop in and take Mario, causing a restart screen. Other hazards however, such as spite pits or drops off the screen are instant kills to Yoshi.
Within the title there are several enemies that have once made appearances in other Mario games such Boo, a white ghost that plays Grandmother's Footsteps with the player, remaining idle when facing it however creeping ever closer when the players backs are turned. Chain Chomps are always a fan favourite, effectively being an aggressive dog tied up by a chain. Chomps are large black balls, similar to canon balls, with huge white eyes and sharp teeth which snap and 'bark' at the player as they pass it. The Guy variants of enemies are also very remembered, Shy Guys, Sky Guys and Boo Guys, in fact made their first canonical appearance in this game, with them being foot troops, flying enemies and similar to the Boo enemies, respectively. In appearance they are small people wearing white masks with black holes for a mouth and eyes. Koopa's are another enemy that make an appearance. Being regular enemies with several variations, similar to the Guy class there are foot solders or flying enemies. The Koopa's basically look like turtles, and simply change colour to enhance the differences in type.
The worlds within Mario have always been something worth commending due to their unique design and stunningly simple visuals. The first world is a grassy type area, using heavy greens to fill the pallet it gives a nice urban feel to the environment. The second world is a more mountainous area, allowing for more puzzles to involve climbing rock surfaces with precarious drops, causing instant kills. The third world has more water sections involved in the level design as it is a forest-urban type area. World four is a trap encrusted desert with a massive increase in the difficulty of the enemies the player faces, while World five is split into two sections, the first being the ascension of an icy mountain which then moves into the sky. Finally World six takes place in Bowser's Castle, containing fire pits, darkly lit rooms and various spike traps.
There are six worlds, each with eight levels. Whenever the player reaches the end of level four, a boss battle will occur, and then again at level eight. The bosses tend to be larger versions of enemies encountered in that world, such as Burt The Bashful, whom is defeated by shooting eggs at him, causing size to be lost with each hit, which is generally the premise for defeating all the bosses. The only exception in this is the boss Prince Froggy; as opposed to Magikoopa making the boss bigger, Mario and Yoshi and shrunk down, to which Froggy then swallows the pair, the battle taking place within its stomach.
For its time, Yoshi's Island is a fantastically well made game, being well designed and polished. However from a technical viewpoint there are some faults and certain glitches are present. None are specifically game breaking, however due to them being there, the experience is weakened if ever any are encountered. Some of the glitches include being able to 'eat' Baby Mario at a certain point in the game or cause the screen to glitch out, forcing the player to reset their console.
With most Mario games in the series being a platformer in that the player controls the plumber himself, Yoshi's Island is one of the most unique due to the fact that the player controls Yoshi, the fan favourite dinosaur. Controlling Yoshi through environments has a very different feel to controlling Mario due to the abilities he has and the enemies he can fight however, the game is still a side scrolling 2D platformer. As enjoyable as the game may be, the differences between Yoshi's Island and every other Mario game in terms of game play are rather limited.
In conclusion, Yoshi's Island is one of the best retro Mario games ever released. Offering a unique chance to play as Yoshi and literally carry the plumber through several stunning environments on an epic quest to save his brother is an inspired idea. Frankly the graphics, for its time, are quite remarkable, the sound truly adds a great atmosphere keeping upbeat music when necessary and using dark and dank sounds for the more evil looking areas, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is an incredible title that not just fans of Mario, but fans of retro games, should certainly give a chance.