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RR Week: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Started by Double, October 22, 2008, 09:02:26 PM

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Double

October 22, 2008, 09:02:26 PM Last Edit: October 22, 2008, 10:30:50 PM by Jesuszilla
Intro: Yoshi's Island, AKA Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was a prequel spinoff of the Mario series starring Yoshi. The game however has mechanics that are quite different from a regular Mario game. This is of the original SNES version, not the GBA version.

Gameplay: While Yoshi can jump on enemies to kill them, this is not preferable. Instead Yoshi eats enemies so that he can turn them into eggs to throw. This is the game's major point that makes it different than the rest of the Mario series. Yoshi can throw his eggs to not only damage enemies but to collect items and can even ricochet them off of walls. Yoshi also has a hovering jump, which he can use to slow his descent, or if you're good enough, ascent.

Yoshi has no health meter; instead when he is hit, Baby Mario flies off his back and a timer goes down. If it reaches zero, MARIO GETS KIDNAPPED BY *shot*. Yoshi can reach Mario faster by using his tongue or by shooting an egg at him to cause him to drop.

Occasionally Yoshi will turn into a vehicle and you'll have different controls for awhile. For example one is  a heli-copter that you can fly around with. These are timed and in most cases if you fail you just get sent back to the start (there is one NOTICABLE exception in one of the special stages where failing will kill you). However, these all seem pretty underutilized, especially the care which you see all of once in the game. Also because I'm lazy there are skiing sections, which are kind of similar to mine carts from the DKC games. Those are also pretty underutilized, I think they're used twice.

Each level in Yoshi's Island is scored when you complete it, to 100 % a level you need*:
-20 red coins
-5 flowers
-30 stars
Stars are what power the Baby Mario timer, and are actually quite common... they only become a hassle in boss fights. The flowers aren't too difficult to find, and finding five gives you a 1-up. The red coins however are the most challenging among the objects as they are hidden among regular coins (those with good eyes will note red coins DO have a slight red tinge to them). There is an item which makes finding them easier too the magnifying glass.

*While you can compare this to the list from Mario 64 if you want this is not why I asked you to remember it.

On the subject of items, in a few levels you can enter mini-games to try and win an item, these include giving Yoshi stars, full eggs, the magnifying glass, watermelons that give him special powers, and two items that kill all enemies on the screen. Needless to say these make certain parts of the game easier. In addition to the above Yoshi will occasionally enter a mini-game after a stage, which is determined by a roulette which has the amount of flowers you collected in the level on them, another incentive for you to find them. The more observant player will find a code in the game that lets them do the mini-games whenever they want. There are also bonus games you can do at the end of the level depending on the amount of flowers you got, however half of them are for lives.
20 out of 20

Music: Yoshi's Island's music is fine, and actually quite good. However, and because there is no other space for it must be addressed here: the Baby Mario sound effect is the most grating thing you will ever hear in a video game. Oh god it hurts. Also,

This is the last time this week I'm posting final boss music as justification of a score, I promise.
13 out of 15

Translation: What little text there is, the intro, ending and Kamek's bitching, is translated fine.
10 out of 10

Length: The game has 48 regular stages, and 6 hidden ones. That's actually not too bad for a platformer, the problem is that everyone looks at six worlds and concludes it is smaller than most.
15 out of 15

Rehash Factor: Being a Mario spin off a few Mario enemies return such as Goombas** and Koopa Troopas. However, Yoshi's Island has a plethora of enemies so even the few that are reused often have unique spins to them (such as the Piranha Plants functioning completely differently).
15 out of 15

**Goombas are actually quite rare appearing only in a few stages, Yoshi's Island uses Shy Guys as its generic enemy.

Plot: THE BABY LUIGI HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY KOOPAS ARE YOU BAD ENOUGH OF A DINOSAUR TO SAVE THE BABY LUIGI?
1 out of 10

Difficulty: The actual game is fairly easy once you've gotten a handle of its rather different mechanics. However, going for all the secrets in the game is a bit harder. Without use the magnifying glass for red coins, getting all the red coins requires a great deal of memorization. However with enough patience 100'ing a level isn't too bad, except Kamek's Revenge, oh god that level is mean.
12 out of 15

Total: 86/100 = 86 %

The Yoshi series is somewhat cursed by this game, by starting off with this the series has had a noticeably hard time making something better. In some cases it looks like they just gave up and instead made something to cash in (The GBA and first DS game). And of course there is Yoshi's Story, which sucks but that's for another day...

Positive: Awesome final boss music.

Negative: HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY...