This is easily one of the best platformers and games ever made. A personal favorite, and a classic!
Gameplay: Have you ever played a Mario sidescroller? Well, that won't help. Mainly because those games were based on getting from left to right in an action-based way. This time around, you have to think more. There's puzzles abound and the games just doesn't allow to only go mainly left to right. In fact, this game takes the sidescroller genre so differently, you'll swear you've never played a title that took an age old genre and made it so new again. However, let's get the story straight. One day, the stork, delivering one of his many babies to a happy couple, is struck down by your favorite villain. Out of his grasp drops two babies. One Mario, One Luigi. Mario, with his superstar luck, makes his way down onto Yoshi's Island, a place where the kind Yoshi's dwell doing whatever they like. The yoshi's find Mario and decide to take him home. However, the meet the stork and find out that they need to save his brother first, who has landed within Bowser's castle. It's up to your band of Yoshi's, with Baby Mario, to find Luigi, defeat Baby Bowser and his mentor Kamek, and let the stork finish his delivery. Yes, that is deeper than the usual Mario setup and turns out to be quite touching towards the end, but it really doesn't effect gameplay much. The gameplay is like Mario, although it takes level design to so many different areas I don't want to get into it. The game has you, a different colored Yoshi, shooting eggs, finding keys, defeating amazingly designed bosses, and saving Baby mario. This all works cohesively to create a fantastic and unforgettable experience. In fact, this is one of the few games I can say does the gameplay perfectly. There are NO problems with the game in this department. None. 10/10
Graphics: Never before have I been so in love with an art style. The game looks so different and so great that you can't find problems with it here. The way it looks it seems as though it was hand drawn. This style works with vivid colors, unique enemy design, and levels that look like nothing you've seen before, yet they do seem somewhat familiar. The animation are also really amazing. Oh, and the effects fit together well, too. Again, another department that this game does flawlessly. 10/10
Sound: Here is another category that I feel in love with. Why? The music is so amazing. It is indeed one of the greatest game soundtracks scored yet. The music is upbeat, unique, and will get stuck in your head, causing you to hum and whistle it whenever you can't hold it any longer. Plus, the sound effects are also top notch. It's hard to tell if the sound department or graphics department is done better in this game. 10/10
Value: Okay, I only gave it a ten here since I didn't want to sound hypocritical giving it a nine here, causing the score to be a 9.9. However, the levels are very long and are always tons of fun with you always doing something that feels like a lot of fun. Plus the game is very replayable with tons of stuff you can collect and find. Here, I would give it a nine since the game seems bittersweet since it is shorter than I wanted, but I can't complain since the game feels overall so perfect and I don't want to be a hypocrite. 10/10]
Overall, I find this to be easily one of the best games of all time. I love this game so much it's hard to say that there's anything wrong with it. I recommend this to anyone who wants to discover something new in a tried and true genre. Truly, an unforgettable and amazing game that I'll never forget.