User Rating: 9.2 | Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi Island + Mario Brothers GBA
Yoshi's Island was originally released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System all the way back in 1995. Since that time, games have changed quite a bit. Yet despite all the ways that things have changed in the time since the original version was released, Yoshi's Island still manages to look like a state-of-the-art game, especially in it's brand-new Game Boy Advance re-release. The game's story revolves around the infant versions of the famous Mario Brothers and the Yoshis who inhabit Yoshi's Island. It seems that the evil Kamek the Magikoopa has managed to determine that the brothers will cause his young master Bowser a lot of trouble when they grow up. To prevent this, he intercepts the stork that is bringing the two babies to their parents and attempts to steal both of them. However, he only manages to successfully steal baby Luigi. Mario falls towards an island in the middle of the sea, but is saved when he manages to land directly on top of Yoshi. The Yoshis have a meeting and decide to reunite Mario with his brother, even if it means taking down Kamek and his minions. They decide to transport Mario with a relay system, and set out to bring him back together with his sibling. The game plays a lot like any other game in the Mario series. You progress from one stage to the next as Yoshi, defeating enemies and collecting different items along the way. Yoshi can perform a maneuver that allows him to gain a little extra distance with his leaps if you push the jump button while he's in mid-air. This may save you more than once, so it's a very good idea to learn how to do properly early on. Jumping plays a very large role in this game, as it does in any game, so it’s important to get the hang of things here early, so that you’re set for whatever you come upon later on. Yoshi has the ability to eat most of his foes with his frog-like tongue, and swallowing an enemy usually turns them into an egg. Eggs can be used as weapons if Yoshi picks them up and throws them. Doing so allows you to not only defeat enemies, but also collect out-of-reach items, open new pathways, and even trip switches. And since you can bounce them off walls without losing any distance on your throw, you'll often have to bounce them into areas that are inaccessible on foot. This leads the game into areas that resemble more of an action-puzzler than just a straight platformer. In addition to using eggs as weapons, Yoshi can also transform into a number of different vehicles throughout the game. He'll be able to spend time as a helicopter, a submarine, an automobile, and a mole tank. These transformations always come with a time limit however, and are intentionally placed in areas that will require them to be used. Controlling them can sometimes be a bit difficult, especially with the helicopter and the mole tank, but usually they work flawlessly and manage to add a lot to the gameplay. Yoshi is generally immune to the effects of enemy attacks. Merely getting struck by a foe will not cause you to instantly lose a life. Instead, Mario will fall off of Yoshi's back and begin bawling until he's retrieved by either Yoshi or the Toadies that Kamek has sent out to recover him. Yoshi has a star meter that begins with ten stars and can go up to thirty stars depending on how many you manage to find in each stage. When Mario falls off Yoshi's back, the star count decreases until it reaches zero, at which point the Toadies will steal Mario and you will lose a life. Also, you will lose a life instantly if Yoshi falls off the screen or touches any spikes or thorns that you may come across in the different stages. Fortunately, this game makes it very easy to earn extra lives, and the limit on them is so high that it's easy to find so many that the "game over" message will never come up. The game is divided up into six different world with eight main stages each. Every fourth stage involves a fortress with a boss character at the end. In each stage, you have the opportunity to earn points by collecting items such as flowers, red coins, and the stars that count down when Yoshi loses Mario. If you collect every flower and red coin, and have the maximum limit of thirty stars when you finish a level, you will be awarded a perfect score of one hundred. Obtaining perfect scores in every level of a world will open up special new areas that cannot be reached otherwise. You don't have to see these places to finish the game, but it's still a nice extra for people who want an added challenge before they finish with everything. The game's graphics are absolutely inspired. They all come off with a style that looks sort of like a coloring book or something that was done entirely with crayons. They really have a beautiful look that is almost unique. Every stage looks almost entirely unique thanks to all the different backgrounds and even foregrounds that decorate each of them. On top of that, all of the characters animate perfectly, and there's no slowdown or overlapping objects whatsoever. To put it bluntly, the graphics in this game are practically flawless. The game's sound is also quite good. The music is very well composed, and the songs all sound very fresh and exciting. The songs do seem to repeat themselves a bit too often, but you really won't mind that at all considering how good they all sound. The game's sound effects also manage to live up to the game's high standards. Even the new voice samples that have been added for this version aren't as annoying as the ones that were added to other Mario Advance titles. It's hard to explain just why Yoshi's voice doesn't sound as aggravating or out of place as the samples that were added to the other GBA re-releases, but perhaps it just has something to do with the fact that what Yoshi has to say doesn't sound as aggravating as the long, drawn-out phrases that characters come out with in the other games. However, they did not choose to leave out Baby Mario's wailing every time he falls off Yoshi. It's still a pain to hear him cry after all this time, and you'll still find yourself wishing that they'd left that part of the game out. The game also comes with the same version of Mario Bros. that was released with every other game in the Mario Advance series. This does mean that multiplayer is compatible with other games in the series, but the game is still more than a bit old at this point. So, overall, Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 is one of the best games that you can possibly pick up on the GBA. It has some of the best graphics that can be seen on any platform, and it gives perfectionists plenty to work with in attaining perfect scores for each stage. This is a definite must-buy on the Game Boy Advance.
