4.5/5 ★ – kabobby's review of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

91/100 Completed 2024 Yoshi’s Island pushes the Super Nintendo to new lengths. Featuring 3D objects, planetary gravitation, unique visual effects, and a gorgeous art style, Yoshi’s Island still stands out today. Yoshi’s Island is a prequel, taking place before all Mario games. But the story is just as simple as before. Here you must save Luigi and defeat Baby Bowser. Yoshi’s Island differentiates itself from the Mario games with its unique egg-tossing mechanic. Like Yoshi in super Mario World, you can eat most enemies. But now you can convert them into an egg you can throw. This comes into play to defeat enemies at a range, and has some puzzle solving qualities to it. There are lots of unique landscapes and enemies, so the game never feels too samey. Except in the music department. By the end of World one you have heard most of the music the game has to offer. Which is a shame because the tracks that are here all sound phenomenal. This game does feature power ups, similar to Mario. However, these don’t last very long, and honestly aren’t super interesting. The only other issues with the game are first: Baby Mario. Of course we gotta talk about him. The crying sound is annoying. And trying to get him back is annoying. After retrieving him, you do heal back up to at least 10HP. But even though the life system in later games is less unique, it’s also less frustrating. And I’m not really a fan of the scoring system. Other games (like NSMB) only have a few things in each level you need to collect. Here you need 20 red coins, 5 flowers, and must also reach the goal while collecting and not losing 30HP. It can feel like a slog to get everything, so it’s not really worth going for 100%. But overall, it’s a phenomenal experience. While I think it’s much slower than I would like it to be (like a 7/10 on the enjoyment scale) I can’t deny that it is a great game. The bosses are super fun too.