I'm getting to the home stretch of playing everything in SNES Online's launch library, and today, I take the time to talk about yet another game. I would have written this sooner, but I went out of my way to get 100%, and that took quite a bit of time. BACKGROUND:
Most of my familiarity with Yoshi comes from playing Super Mario World (a game I'll be talking about here in the future) and Yoshi's Island DS, but having seen gameplay of the recent ones, I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from a Yoshi game. I was quite excited to play the game where it all began. SUMMARY: A stork tasked to deliver Baby Mario and Luigi to their parents was attacked by Kamek/Magikoopa, resulting in the latter getting kidnapped, and the former falling into an island populated by Yoshis (Yoshies?). After figuring out the situation, the dinosaurs have resolved to work together to reunite Baby Mario with his brother and help bring them both back to their parents. It's a straightforward tale, but it's no "rescue the princess", and that's good enough for me. After the game regales you with its story (presented with impressive-looking cutscenes), you are dropped off into the world map, where you go across six worlds (with eight levels each) in a relay race, passing off Baby Mario to the next differently-colored Yoshi once a level is beaten. I enjoyed the concept of the relay race a lot, and it was a great way to showcase Yoshi in different colors. Each individual level is your good, old-fashioned 2D platformer goodness, with wacky mechanics and strange enemies galore. Yoshi's Island focuses less on precise platforming and combat and more on solving puzzles and acquiring collectibles, making the game decidedly less stressful than other games within the genre. Though there are certainly levels that lean more towards the challenging aspects of platformers (e.g. autoscrollers, boss encounters, etc.), most of your time will be spent exploring levels at your own pace. Yoshi still retains his classic "eat" move from Mario World (where he uses his tongue to devour enemies or certain objects), but it has been expanded to interact with certain stage elements, and to change Yoshi's properties when you eat certain objects (e.g. eating a watermelon makes Yoshi fire seeds as an attack). Most importantly, eating most things grants him the ability to perform what has now become one of Yoshi's many signature abilities: laying eggs. These eggs are perhaps the most important tool in Yoshi's arsenal, allowing him to dispatch enemies, activate/interact with stage elements, collect hard-to-reach collectibles, and more. There are two control schemes in the game that accommodate different egg firing methods (one is the default, where the reticle moves automatically, and the other is a rapid fire mode that shoots the egg immediately). The eggs ricochet off of terrain and other surfaces like walls, and many puzzles take full advantage of this. In addition to the egg throw, this game also debuted a couple other now-signature Yoshi abilities, such as the flutter jump (which allows Yoshi to stay aloft in the air for an extra second and get a little boost) and the ground pound (self-explanatory). The former is a very useful tool that allows for a wider margin of error when platforming, while the latter is an admittedly situational move that only sees use in certain puzzles. There are also special power-ups in some levels that transform Yoshi into various vehicles (including, but not limited to: a helicopter, a submarine, a train, and some sort of mole-looking subterranean drill thing), and one that's the equivalent of the star where you get to run around as an invincible Baby Mario. Though a bit hard to control, these sections are quite fun. In every fourth and eighth level in a world, you have to beat a boss to proceed. These bosses are often souped up versions of regular enemies, which I found amusing. Although each boss is graphically impressive and they're generally fun to defeat (thanks to some fairly unique gimmicks), none of them pose a serious challenge, so it was kind of a bummer to see a lot of them die in less than 30 seconds. While there are many hazards that kill Yoshi instantaneously, most enemies/hazards will result in Baby Mario getting trapped in a bubble and floating away. Once that happens, a timer appears, and you have a limited amount of time to catch Baby Mario until the timer hits zero and you die. When this happens, Baby Mario also makes what is perhaps the most annoying sound in the observable universe, which really incentivizes avoiding damage. You can extend the timer by collecting tiny stars found throughout the level, and get 1-ups by collecting 100 coins, so most setbacks won't be too punishing. At the end of every level, you get a chance to take part in a bonus challenge. These bonus challenges are minigames where, if you succeed, you're rewarded with more 1-ups or special power-ups you can use from your pause menu. Though you can get by without using these power-ups, some of them are quite handy in a pinch or are quite valuable in 100% runs. There are also bonus minigames found in locked huts in certain levels, and while finding the key is often out of the way, the potential rewards may be worth the trouble. Each level has three completion criteria: finish the level with "full health" (i.e. collect enough stars such that your Baby Mario timer is at 30 seconds), collect all 20 hidden red coins, and collect the five flowers. The latter two criteria can be quite tricky to satisfy, because while you'll encounter many red coins and flowers just going through the levels normally, some of these collectibles require some serious sleuthing to collect. There are many instances where they'll either be in a well-hidden spot, become unobtainable one way or another (e.g. in an autoscroller, or in a branching path that you can't backtrack to), or require a bit of skill to obtain (this usually falls into the realm of "well-positioned egg throw"). Getting 100% in all eight levels of a given world nets you a "Perfect", and unlocks an extra level plus the ability to play one of the bonus challenge minigames whenever you want. Completing absolutely everything doesn't really get you anything, however. This game's art style is absolutely fantastic. Its striking lines and overall crayon + chalk aesthetic help it stand out as one of the best-looking SNES games ever. Plus, it has a bunch of impressive (for the time) visual effects such as level elements that move in the z-axis, dynamic foreground/background elements, and more. Plus, the music is great to boot. In any conversation about old games that aged well visually, Yoshi's Island belongs at the very top of the list. VERDICT: To me, Yoshi's Island is close to perfect. The phenomenal presentation, the charming (albeit basic) story, and low-stress but still fairly engaging gameplay all come together into an excellent package. Sure, Baby Mario's screaming is annoying as shit, and the bosses are pretty much pushovers, but those are minor gripes compared to the absolute fun I had playing this game. Even the seemingly arduous task of completing the game 100% didn't feel like much of a chore, and despite not having a tangible reward at the end, I still had a blast going for that full 100%. I highly recommend this title to mostly anyone, but I think Yoshi's Island will be especially appealing to more casual players, people who are just getting into games, or anyone who's looking for a relatively stress-free experience. Some levels will get challenging, but majority of the game is lenient enough that most people can beat this at their own pace. - end -
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July 2024
Derryck
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