Beutiful, simply beutiful...Everything about it sparks with glory...
User Rating: 10 | Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi Island + Mario Brothers GBA
This game was the sequel to the most popular Super Mario World in the 1990's for the SNES, and is a platformer as is its predecessor, and not only that, it explains how Mario came to be. When the kind stork was carrying two baby orphans, Mario and Luigi, to their parents, flying across Yoshi's island, home to all Yoshis, it was assaulted by Kamek, the Koopa/Witch who worked for a little dragon named Bowser. She managed to snatch one baby, but the other, fell straight down onto Yoshis Island, and fell on one Yoshi's back, along with a map that the stork was using of Yoshi's island. It was decided that several yoshis of different colors were to see where the map led, maybe to find Luigi, Mario's brother, and stop Bowser's plan. So came super Mario world 2: Yoshi's island for the SNES. The game sold well, and got the right to be remade for the GBA, with several advancements. Now that you know the game's history and the plot, we should probably move on to the gameplay of Yoshi's island. You play as yoshi, with baby Mario riding on your back. Baby Mario hardly serves any purpose at all; in fact, it would probably make more sense on Yoshi's part to leave baby Mario behind with the Yoshi's that stayed behind. Now then, Yoshi's moves consist of: A: Jumping. Useful for defeating certain enemies you may land on and jumping over hills and obstacles. Also, if you press A in the air, yoshi will elevate slightly higher. B: Makes yoshi stick his long, stick-like tongue out. His tongue can put certain enemies in his mouth, and you can press B again to spit them out. D-pad controls: D-Pad Up: Makes yoshi look up, and makes the screen camera move slightly up to see what's above you. Also, when yoshi is looking up, if you stick his tongue out, it will go up instead of right/left. D-Pad down: makes yoshi duck, making the camera move slightly down, and occasionally avoiding enemies. If you have an enemy in your mouth, you can swallow it with this button. Also, while in the air, by pressing down, Yoshi will do a flip and point his butt at the ground, then very quickly slamming the ground; this attack is more powerful then jumping. D-Pad Left/Right: Using left will make you run to the left, and right will make you move to the right. Applying a gentle push will make Yoshi walk, and pushing on them harder will make him almost immediately run. To make him immediately run, you must hold down B. R: Most enemies will turn into eggs and follow yoshi wherever he goes when yoshi swallows an enemy. By pressing R, yoshi will pick up the egg, and a red X will be going up and down. You can choose the way you want yoshi to throw the egg; the first way is just by pressing R and than pressing it again to throw the egg; the second way is to hold down R, and once it is released, yoshi will throw the egg in the direction of the red X. As you can see, this targeting system takes good timing, but it's actually quite easy to get used to. Now there are many enemies in Yoshi's island, of many shapes and sizes, that, if touched, will make Yoshi flinch back, and cause baby Mario to go off of Yoshi's back. Mario will be enveloped by a small bubble, and a meter of 10 seconds will appear. If yoshi does not touch the bubble in 10 seconds, Kamek's minions will fly down and take baby Mario away. Across levels, there will be glittering rings that yoshi can continue from if this happens or if he falls down a pit. Many enemies in this game include shy guys, which are basically red boxes with, white, circular masks with black, circular holes for the eyes and mouth. Others include small, blue, bats with orange wings that swoop down on yoshi, or bandits that try to grab Mario and steal him away. Now that you know a little bit about the gameplay, it's time to move onto the graphics, which I was truly impressed by. The background is almost full 3D, and the land that yoshi can walk on is beautiful and full of colors; some of these look like giant, 3D, clouds that were painted all sorts of pretty colors and placed flowers upon, others look like hundreds and hundreds of black and blue shiny gems, these floors and platforms are in underground caves. There are many floors beside that, I just named a few. Also, stones in castles look very nice and realistic. Yoshi and enemies have bright, colors, and many more things will also look very beautiful. All in all for the graphics, Yoshi's island is defiantly on of the best-looking GBA and SNES games around. The music in the game is...simply amazing. It 100% captures the feel and setting for each level in such a good way, that it seems indescribable. Some levels will have the calm tune, where many will have his jazzy one which I will never forget. The cave and castle music are just so awesome unforgettable. This game has some of the best music you'll ever find for its era. Many small clouds with wings will also be floating around levels, and if hit by an egg, may give you stars, which increase your seconds until Mario is taken away (the glittery rings I mentioned before will also do this), circular coins, and if 100 are obtained, an extra life will be gotten until game over, game over really doesn't do anything except reset those glittery rings, because whenever you defeat a level anew or replayed, the game saves automatically. These clouds may also contain other surprises like making a staircase in a level. There are also several minigames to be played in which prizes will be obtained throughout levels, a good example is giving you the maximum eggs that can follow you. You can access these items by pressing select. Now, one thing I forgot to mention was the world map. A map will appear whenever you start your file (there are 3 in all and can be erased or copied) that shows yoshi, awesome graphics and landscapes, and 6 numbers for six worlds. You may use the D-Pad to select a word and press A to go into it, in which two castles which inhabit bosses at the end, and several other levels will appear. Unfortunately, unlike super Mario world, there will be boxes and a pointer to enter levels, instead of a map that you can walk all over. When on the box select screen, you can easily switch to other boxes from the other world without going back to the map screen. One of the best things about this game is the replay value. Every single level in the game is repayable, and I find myself constantly playing these levels, over again, just for the fun and thrill of it. All in all, this game deserves my 10 for such a game that...that...Well it's just such a masterpiece... A must buy for any Nintendo fan. Not to mention it comes with the arcade Mario Bros., upgraded to sprites from the original super Mario advance, or super Mario bros. 2. So it's a masterpiece, a must-buy.
