The Wonder Years 10.18.07: Week 26 - Yoshi's Island
Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 10.18.2007
The debut starring role of everyone's favorite dinosaur / lizard hybrid.
Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up on the Wii's Virtual Console at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:
SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: YOSHI'S ISLAND
(Nintendo, Super NES, 1995)
So it's 1995 and you're Nintendo. Your current console, the Super NES, stands atop the sales charts and is likely to go down in history as one of the finest gaming machines yet created. Your flagship character, Mario, has starred in the console's most iconic title, Super Mario World, generally acclaimed as the best platforming game ever made, and indeed one of the finest games ever made. However, changes are afoot in the console world, with erstwhile friend and now major rival Sony having launched the PlayStation console, the first 32-bit gaming machine. You know, too, that you are working on a new console, and a new Mario game, which is destined to be one of the most revolutionary and brilliant slices of gaming the human race has ever seen. So, wouldn't it be sensible to focus development on this next-generation thing and take the world by storm? Would it heck as like - you have another Mario title up your sleeve, a sequel to the aforementioned SMW, which just so happens to be bloody marvelous. Why not release it and give the 16-bit console a glorious swansong?
Oh, go on then.
Alright, I may have taken a bit of creative license with Nintendo's thought process on this one, but it's fairly accurate - Yoshi's Island was almost unexpectedly brilliant, given that most of the world was focusing on the new PlayStation and Nintendo's upcoming Ultra 64 machine (and, ok, the Sega Saturn too). It's a sequel to the original Mario World in name only, and story-wise it's in fact a prequel, concerning the age-old Mario vs Bowser battle when the two were just lil' nippers. Yoshi, who is apparently ageless, appears just as he did in Mario World, only now he's center stage, carrying Baby Mario atop his saddle on a quest to stop Baby Bowser and his crony Kamek from kidnapping Baby Luigi. The graphical stylings, though, were the real difference maker, as Yoshi's Island looks completely different from any other Super NES title, the graphics all hand-drawn in felt tip by the appearance of it, with some fascinating visual trickery abounding. Rumor has it that Nintendo's bigwigs wanted the game to stray down the graphical route of Rare's pre-rendered Donkey Kong Country, but Shigeru Miyamoto was adamant that this wouldn't be the case. And let's face it, arguing with Shigsy about a Mario game is like arguing with God about whether Jesus should really have been converting water into wine when he could have been preventing people from becoming alcoholics.
The first truly linear Mario game in a while, Yoshi's Island sees progression through six variously themed worlds, taking in fortresses and castles among the usual levels along the way. Each level is much greater in scope than traditional Mario levels, too, being more comparable to worlds from Sonic games in their size and layout. The player takes control of Yoshi, who carries Baby Mario on his back. Rather than the usual one-hit death suffered in Nintendo platformers, contact with an enemy here results in Baby Mario floating off Yoshi's back in a bubble, with Yoshi having to make contact before an on-screen countdown timer runs out and Baby is spirited away by Kamek's underlings. There's also somewhat of a shooting mechanic, too, as Yoshi swallows enemies and turns them into eggs, which he can throw to dispatch baddies or ricochet off walls to solve puzzles. Already quite a revolution compared to a typical Mario game, there's also the introduction of a scoring system, with each level being graded on a scale from 1-100 based on how many red coins, flowers and stars Yoshi collects during each run-through. Naturally enough, higher scores unlock more secrets.
For all its new aspects and differences though, Yoshi's Island still feels undeniably like a Mario game at heart, with all the well-polished sheen and top quality gameplay that entails. The memorable moments in the game are countless - Yoshi transforming into various vehicles to be piloted around levels, taking to the piste in a downhill ski race, rolling snowballs into weapons and obstacles, flying to the moon to battle a giant raven, throwing eggs at a fat man until his pants fall down, frantically escaping a screen-munching Chain Chomp - the highlights are endless. Well, not literally, but there's certainly a high number. It's all carried off with Nintendo's customary pizzazz, and shows what platform gaming should be all about.
The one and only flaw - yes, the only flaw - with Yoshi's Island is that it is criminally easy (annoyingly enough, a crime of which the N64 sequel Yoshi's Story was even more guilty). Oh sure, getting a perfect score of 100 in each and every level will take the average gamer a good while, but for an experienced platformer the only bit that's really tricky is piloting Yoshi when he transforms into a helicopter and starts buzzing around collecting coins. Actually making it to the end of the game's 54 levels (a number in itself rather a step down from SMW and its ancestor, the near-three-figure Super Mario Bros. 3) is disappointingly simple - even the bosses, who are all sublimely well designed, rarely pose a threat. It has to be said, the lack of challenge is probably all that prevents Yoshi's Island from dethroning its predecessor as the greatest 2D platformer of all time.
Thankfully, the game's reputation has ensured that it remains easily playable to this day. The cartridge itself isn't too hard to come by, although it will usually set you back a pretty penny. Yoshi's Island has also been remade in several different flavors, in the form of Super Mario Advance 3 on the GameBoy Advance (featuring six new levels) and Yoshi's Island DS, which features several new playable characters from the Mario-verse. The former of these is probably the better, although neither quite matches the brilliance of the Super NES original. Hey, it's just how these things work. It's probably a fair bet to say that this is a cert for inclusion on the Virtual Console, and I'd imagine it would sell quite well too. Legitimately one of the finest 16-bit games you can get, yet still sufficiently contemporary to benefit from a new lease of life, you really have to own this game. It's that simple.
Yoshi's Island trivia
Probably the last great game on the old SNES, Yoshi was lavished with review scores in excess of 95 at the time, and it was justified.
The game utilizes the Super FX 2 chip for its graphical heft, an advancement of the technology that powered Stunt Race FX, which we discussed several weeks ago.
Selling over four million copies, the game was the biggest seller of the final years of the system's lifespan.
Yoshi's Island is number 8 in my official all-time Top 100 games.
Reactions and interactions
Hooray, more feedback! Sadly, this is what we writers actually feed off, so by not writing in you're actually starving the 411 crew of nourishment. For now though, let's have a tasty snack on Todd's email:
From:Todd Vote Subject: Killer Instinct
"Loved the trip down memory lane with Killer Instinct. It reeked of awesomeness. I have a question I was wondering if you could help with. With Rare being owned by Microsoft, are we more likely to see Killer Instinct show up on the Xbox live arcade, or on Nintendos virtual console?"
KI did indeed reek of awesomeness. As for the question, I think it depends on whether Nintendo or Rare is the majority rights-holder in the game, as the game was pretty much co-developed. While the Donkey Kong Country series has already seen the light of day on the VC, that's because Nintendo is the main rights-holder for the franchise. Titles that are more of a first-party thing for Rare, like the Banjo series, have tended to be aimed towards XBLA. As for KI though, I'd say that the companies are probably much more on an even keel, given that Nintendo developed the hardware for the original arcade version, even though the creative impetus was Rare's. Personally, I think the game would be a good fit for the XBLA audience and wouldn't be surprised if it saw the light of day within the next 12 months. Having said that, the titles released on the Virtual Console are, ultimately, up to Nintendo, so if the company wants it to be done it can and will. So there's my vague and ambiguous answer!
Stopping by as well this week is Chris, also discussing last week's column which means it's the joint most popular "Wonder Years" of all time:
From: Chris Jacobs Subject: [none]
"i dont remember the breast part, she usually uppercuts me and then I fall and am impailed by her staff. I used to love this game, but cannot remember the names of the people for the life of me. I was usually the robot and would turn the head into a machine gun and shoot them up, or uppercut off the rooftop to watch them bounce off the pink caddilac, or into a sandy dune, lol. and I did own the gameboy version, it wasnt bad on road trips, lol."
Yeah I think the breasts move was some sort of hidden special... I guess you can see why. And I had completely forgotten about the arena-specific finishers where you could knock your opponent off the roof. Thanks for reminding me!
If only I could eat this well every week. Make it so, readers!
The Videosphere
Oh yes, the beginning of "The Wonder Years" ' second quarter-century of columns sees the debut of a new feature, which is always cause for excitement, even if it is a simple adaptation of an old feature. Let's take a look at this week's video highlight, which showcases Kaizo Super Mario World, a mod of the Nintendo classic that has apparently been designed by Satan himself. There is absolutely no way I could clear this insane first level, and there's more after it:
General indulgences
Every week in this section I'll endeavour to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.
This week, I have been mostly enjoying:
Super Smash Bros Melee on the ol' GameCube, which although vastly overrated is still a fun party brawler. Although why in God's name can all the players tilt the menu screens around while someone is trying to set up a game? Worst. Feature. Ever.
Half-Life Episode 2, a very short but inspired addition to the franchise, featuring some jaw-dropping set pieces and a couple of very neat puzzles.
Clive Barker's Jericho, the demo for which has just hit the PS3 and seems to be, if a bit dark in the graphics department, quite innovative and a promising FPS. Let's hope Barker hits top form with the script.
and, to counter the heavy gaming this week, walking the dog, which is great until she gets back home and immediately pisses on the floor. Damn bitch.
And finally…
As always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome, I respond to everything so just drop me a line. You can also check out my science fiction column "The Flux Capacitor" over at 411 Movies. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - the goriest game of the 16-bit era? Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.
