by Trish
Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3
December 25, 2009 in Game Boy by Trish
Amazon.co.uk Review
Oh no! It looks like your grandad was right–things really were better in the old days. Well, they were if you liked 2-D platform games, anyway, and Yoshi’s Island is indisputably one of the best ever made. In a laudable attempt not to rehash its immediate forebear Yoshi’s Island goes back in time to recount the touching story of the various yoshis’ attempts to unite Baby Mario with his parents. For the first time ever in a Mario game you don’t actually control the Italian plumber-to-be but instead his dinosaur pal, who has the curious ability to eat his enemies and then immediately turn them into eggs which he can then fling at more enemies and/or politicians. Since Yoshi isn’t particularly fast and can float… More >>
Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3
By now the name ‘Mario can only echo to the world mushrooms, evil turtles and ‘flower power’. Oh yeah and of course, the greatest video game character of all time. Yoshi’s Island is an excellent game, and the spirit of challenge and fun runs throughout from the start to the all-mighty finish! Oh, and considering the main character IS NOT MARIO but his trustworthy friend and pseudo-babysitter Yoshi; gamers can expect an experience that’s just a little bit different.
The story has been given a little bit more thought than the previous Mario games: that is the ‘rescue the princess/ defeat King Koopa’ template. With Yoshi’s Island we are introduced to a delightful fable – the evil Koopa wizard Kamek kidnaps one of two babies carried by a stork on a long-haul delivery, Luigi is the baby who is kidnapped while baby Mario plummets down to Yoshi’s island. The Yoshis decide to work together and follow baby Mario’s instincts to baby Luigi. In the process Kamek and his minions have to be defeated who are searching the Island for baby Mario. Now, its Yoshi’s turn to dance in the spotlight, the game does take many daring turns away from other Mario games as a result.
Yoshi’s Island seems a tongue-in-cheek approach in comparison to other Mario games. The enemies seem so OTT, that craziness can only be pulled off in the always-offbeat Mario universe! The levels are larger and trickier but without being frustratingly difficult. The equally OTT bosses are fun to destroy and the challenge is to work out their ‘Achilles heel’ with out being bumped off yourself. There is a surprising twist when actually come to defeating the final boss… you’ll just have to complete to find out what I’m talking about!As ever, simply completing levels is not enough, the Mario games take you on a journey rather than just through an entertaining game. You have to make use of all that you’ve been given resourcefully and overcome challenges that never always have the same solution. This game is more puzzle- orientated than any Mario game previously (perhaps closer to SMB 3 in approach than SMW) seen.
So the adventure begins, and what an adventure this is! The game brings an invigorating change to the previous Super Mario World, where Yoshi was the proverbial ‘workhorse’ for the Mario brothers. Here you have Yoshis of all colours with the green Yoshi being the main dinosaur. These guys have all new moves to use against Kamek’s enemies. The most notable being Yoshi swallowing his enemies and …err… excreting them as eggs. These eggs can be used to hurl at other enemies, unreachable items and to defeat bosses. Other moves include mega-stomping the ground, temporarily flying and morphing into vehicles. Wait second, vehicles? Yes, vehicles… Yoshi can transform into a helicopter, submarine, train or a car at certain sections of levels. The morph only lasts for a shot time within which you have to collect coins, power-ups and avoid baddies. Its diversions such as these that have always added depth to Mario games, which can appear very facile to the spectator, but fun to the player. There are many bonus games to access and a myriad of secrets to find. In fact to get the most out of these you’ll inadvertently end up playing the game more than once.
The presentation is also superb as always, with great graphics and plenty of catchy tunes. The style of Yoshi’s Island is fully realised and consistent throughout, more so than any preceding Mario game. With the variety in graphics, amazingly nothing appears out of place. The presentation may seem infantile, but wait a minute the game is centered on lost baby twins (duh!). The graphics did grow on me even more than today’s eye-blistering, 3D affairs. I loved the crayon, chalk and pencil landscapes: fooling you into thinking a child had drawn and coloured all these levels. Its not the fact that the graphics are great but the style of the game really immerses you into the varied environments of Yoshi’s Island. The audio is also clear and functional, while the music lulls you into playing the game as if you were playing with a toy. Maintaining this
‘universality’ of graphics and audio is another successful feature of all Mario games: it truly excels in Yoshi’s Island.
This review, in all honesty, does not sum up how great a game Yoshi’s Island really is… there is literally so much to encounter that you’ll not be bored of this game for a considerable length of time. The game is imaginative, colourful and highly entertaining. Another great thing about this game is that it will appeal to young kids, older kids and perhaps even those who wish they were still kids. Certain parts of the game perhaps require a little bit more skill than what children can be capable of and the sexless nature of the game means girls will love it just as much as guys. Yoshi’s Island’s appeal does spread wide, and its a game that once played, goes to show just how masterful Nintendo are when it comes to creating high quality games. Made in 1996, Yoshi’s Island was eagerly awaited and breathed life into the SNES at a time when its appeal was in decline. Don’t just take my word for it, or that of the other brilliant reviews it has received. Now that the SNES no longer lives, at least it can boast to giving us one of the greatest platform games ever made.
Rating: 5 / 5
Cute dinosaurs and cute babies? this never happened in durassic park.
A simply brilliant game you have to own, i had the original snes game and its still superb.
Go buy dont sit there.
Rating: 5 / 5
This needs to be in everyones collection and if you only buy one GBA game for your DS (incase you didn’t know you can play this on your DS) you need to get this one. Although I liked Yoshi’s island DS, this was by far the most superior game. You wouldn’t think it would be as you can’t use different babies, only Mario. But this element of the game made the DS version uneccesarily hard, having to back track loads. I found it impossible to fully complete and I am a very seasoned gameplayer. Just because this game is easier, doesn’t make it worse, its still a struggle but its not so frustrating you want to smash it up (some people may find this a virtue in games, but I don’t). The world the characters inhabit is beautiful and a real joy to behold. Everything is just sooooo cute! Just get it!
Rating: 5 / 5
Basically the exact same game as the SNES classic with nicer graphics, but fortunately, that makes for an absolutely fantastic game. After all these years, it retains the addictiveness and flawless gameplay of the classic, never becoming too frustrating.
Brilliant
Rating: 4 / 5
When I first got this game I was really excited. The graphics were great, the music was cool. But when I got on to the first boss battle I couldn’t get past it!
I played the game every day trying to go on to the next level. I started getting really annoyed, because I always ended up getting eaten!
I got very stressed because every time you fell into a pit of lava or you lost baby mario, you started from the beginning of the level!
As for the other game, ‘Super mario brothers,’ it is soooooooo boring. There isn’t any instructions, so you dont know what to do, and everytime you hit a bowser, it comes back alive again!
Don’t buy this game! It is mostly a waiste of money.
Rating: 3 / 5