Yoshi's Island

The SNES was one of Nintendo's best consoles, mainly just for all the incredible games it had. Yoshi's Island is one of those incredible games, and is considered by many as the best platformer of all time. The game is full of unique characters, wacky bosses, and amazing gameplay.



Yoshi can run jump, glide (by spinning his feet around like wings), attack (with his tongue), and lay eggs. Baby Mario rides on Yoshi's back, and you have to take him with you to the goal. If an enemy touches Yoshi, then Baby Mario will be trapped in a bubble, and you have to pop the bubble and rescue Baby Mario before Kamek's servants (Kamek is the main villain in Yoshi's Island) come and take him away. As I said before, Yoshi attacks with his tongue. If you attack an enemy with Yoshi's tongue then Yoshi will store him in his mouth (eww...). Now you have two choices, you can either turn him into an egg (which you can then through and use as a weapon) or spit him out. Eggs can also be used to hit switches, and break walls.

The game has 5 worlds. Each world has 8 levels. Every 3 levels you will find a castle which ha a boss inside it. The castles are more complicated then the normal levels, and have a lot more puzzles involving tossing eggs, ect.



Anyway, onto the good and bad about this game... there is great level design, creative and fun bosses, and it's overall a great platformer. The worst thing that I can think about this game is that some of the castle levels are over-complicated, and can become very frustrating if you are stuck on them for a long time.

The music is great. Each music track fits the theme of the level very well, especially the castle levels music. The sound effects are all fine apart from when Baby Mario is trapped in a bubble, he cries like heck and drives most people insane. But really, the music is great, except for Baby Mario's wailing.

The graphics give the game a crayon feel, and it sort of looks like a children's coloring in book. The castle levels have some neat 3D Effects, that are simple, yet effective and impressive for the SNES. The graphics are nice and colorful, and smooth and clean too.



There is quite a good amount of replay value here as well. Each time you complete a level, you are given a score out of 100, depending on how well you did in the level. If you manage to get a perfect 100 on all of the levels in 1 world, then you will unlock a secret level. Even just trying to get 100 points on level 1 can be a challenge, so you will have a lot to do in this game once you have completed it.

Overall, Yoshi's Island is an impressive platformer, for an impressive console. Platformer fans won't want to miss out on this.

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Overall: 9/10