Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island
Baby Mario cry prevention therapyGenre: action - platform
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 1995
System: SNES
Gameplay Score: 5
Gameplay Notes:
SMW is the greatest Mario game of all time and this here is the greatest Yoshi game of all time. Collectathon done right - this game basically invented gamification and achievements. You can cruise thru a level, obviously, but a real gamer goes back and gets 100% on all levels. But even if you don't want to the game scales to your skillet by letting you skip the challenge if you so choose. It's brilliant game design that has been copied in countless games since but has never been bettered.
Level Design Score: 5
Level Design Notes:
So much variety.
Theme Score: 5
Theme Notes:
Making Mario a useless baby was a shock at first, but having Yoshi steal the show was n incredible decision.
Art Style Score: 5
Art Style Notes:
Much has been said about SMW2's art style. Not only is it unique, especially for the time, but the hand drawn sprites have aged far better than the prerendered artwork that was so popular at the time. Timeless art
Audio Score: 5
Audio Notes:
One of the best soundtracks of the 16 bit era
Overall Score: 100
Review ID: 576
The game does deserve a perfect score. It was the game that made me buy a Super Nintendo, along with Super Mario RPG.
ReplyDeleteAlso notable: this game’s final boss sequence is the most memorable final boss sequence of the 16-bit era, possibly in all of video gaming in general. By the time you reach baby bowser in the last level, you have a skirmish with him where he (like a baby) throws a tantrum as he wants to jump on your back. When he is successful he will actually sit on Yoshi in place of Mario if I recall correctly. Land a few hits on him and Kamek will drop magic pixie dust to increase his size like the other bosses.
Except baby bowser doesn’t just grow, he grows to a size rivaling that of a Kaiju. You go from fighting him in his castle nursery (complete with cute drawings on the walls drawn by crayons) to fighting him in the crumbling ruins of his castle that he destroyed by increasing orders of magnitude in size. An ominous guitar riff plays, and then his Kaiju form slowly rises up in the background while the sun cowers, the only source of light is his glowing eyes filled with rage. Yoshis sprite isn’t even pointing left and right - it is now drawn to face the background (the only time in the game when you see this yoshi sprite). He roars and boulders rise in the sky, and the fight begins. Instead of shooting eggs left and right, you are shooting giant eggs into the background at his head to stun him(he is also the only enemy you fight that is located in the background in the entire game). This boss had presence and atmosphere, and his petulant desire to crush Yoshi was very convincing.
The art direction of this scene, with the battle taking place after sunset and contrasting alarmingly with the rest of the game’s bright and cheery aesthetic, is genuinely terrifying. This is probably the closest approximation of “shadow of the colossus” that you can get in a 16 bit game, or specifically the experience of fighting an enemy much larger than you. It also uses the scaling abilities of the Super FX chip in a way that complements the art style and atmosphere.
Yeah. This is one game that just deserves a perfect score. I’m a sonic fanboy but even his Genesis offerings just can’t top this game. Sonic 2 and 3 did have memorable last bosses but baby bowser eclipses those battles easily.
Later Yoshi’s island games never really recaptured the magic of the original. The last boss of Yoshi’s Island DS (adult bowser) just didn’t have the pant-soiling factor that baby bowser did.