Welcome back to “A Look Back With Oscar” a column where it takes a look at both video games and movies from the 70’s up to the late 2000’s to make sure if it still holds up or let it be forgotten.
With the first one taking a look at an NES game, what better way than to take a look at the 1995 game “Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island” or simply titled “Yoshi’s Island” for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Taking a look back at the game’s creation after “Super Mario World” Yoshi became a popular character staring in several spinoff games like “Yoshi’s Cookie” and “Yoshi”, effectively making him a fast staple in the Mario series.
When Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, tasked Shigefumi Hino, a character designer, for SMW, he gave Miyamotto the idea to make Yoshi the starring role in his very own 2D platformer.
The idea stuck and Nintendo began development with Hino and Takashi Tezuka taking the director role for the project. With the chip, they used The Super FX2, a more powerful version of the previous one that powered “Star Fox”.
The backstory of the game is pretty well-told as it sets up a backstory for Mario and his brother Luigi.
One night a stork carrying the two brothers was attacked by a magikoopa, they managed to grab Luigi but failed to capture Mario causing him to fall to an island inhabited by a race of small dinosaurs called Yoshi.
Now the herd of dinosaurs must go and rescue Mario’s brother from Baby Bowser and take them back to their parents.
The gameplay is played like this: the player controls Yoshi through a multitude of levels with 6 worlds to travel in. Yoshi can eat enemies and swallow them to make eggs, the player then can throw them at enemies, items, and clouds with question marks on them.
Baby Mario is with Yoshi and if he ever gets hit then Mario will be placed in a bubble until he gets saved. When in the bubble, a timer comes up.
If it hits zero then the player loses Mario, costing a life.
The gameplay is well done as movement is super precise and aiming the eggs isn’t difficult to do.
The graphics look amazing, like it came out of a children’s book which is what they were inspired by and helps it stand out from the other Super Nintendo Games.
Levels don’t feel as difficult so it’s easy for beginners to just run through the level. However, the challenge the game gives the player is to 100% the level.
Simply put there are twenty red coins, five flowers and 30 mini stars for the player to collect.
Get them all before you reach the end of the level and its completed.
The main challenge and difficulty is getting 100%, but even if the player can’t get every level completed it’s okay since it gets the player bragging rights.
Even getting 100% or not “Yoshi’s Island” is still an incredible experience and one of the best games in the Super Nintendo with anyone being able to pick up and enjoy with no harm.
It is available in the SNES Classic and on Nintendo Switch Exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online Members.
This game gets five out of five stars, a masterpiece that would never be forgotten.
