Yoshi's Island Review by Goomba Smackdown!!

~ ~NOTE:~ ~

This game was released for the SNES originally, and was also was remade for the GBA. This review is for the GBA version of Yoshi's Island, but it is not too major as there are only minor differences between the two games.
~ ~Story~ ~

Yoshi's Island is the story of our heroic plumber's early days. It all starts when a Stork takes Baby Mario and Luigi to their parents, only to be attacked by Kamek and have one of the babies stolen. Baby Mario, unnoticed by Kamek and the stork, plummeted down to Yoshi's Island. The Yoshi's were surprised by the baby (wouldn't you be surprised if a baby fell on you?). Also with the baby was a map, on where the Stork was going. The Yoshi's decided to help bring the baby, and his brother Luigi, to his parents. Meanwhile, Kamek is outraged he missed the other baby. He sends his army of Toadies to find Baby Mario.
~ ~Gameplay~ ~

As this game is a platformer, it has Worlds (6), which have levels (8 per world), Mid-Bosses at the middle level of each world, and Bosses at the last level of every World. Most of these levels have stereotypical themes to them, such as Ice, Lava, and On Balloons (wait...that probably isn't too stereotypical). You do not have health, neither does Baby Mario. But whenever you get hurt, Mario goes in a bubble (no one knows how though) and cries, while a timer goes down. If the timer gets to zero, the Toadies get Baby Mario, and then you lose a life. In the levels, similar to Gold Coins in NSMB are flowers, which there are five of. Among flowers, 20 red coins can be found, to higher your score. The digit your timer is at also adds up at the end of the level. It is very difficult to get a perfect 100 on each level!! At the end of each level, there is the final ring, which you must jump through to hand Baby Mario to the next Yoshi, but most importantly to start the roulette! The final ring consists of 5 dots and 5 flowers (flowers you didn't get appear as dots). If the roulette stops on a flower, you get to play a Bonus Game!

YI is am extremely cheery game, heck, it has levels with names such as "Hop Hop, Donut Lifts." Sometimes you will be eating watermelons, setting penguins on fire, and getting eaten by frogs. In this game, Cheeriness = Addictive, which is true because you just always have to go on, and finish the game as quickly as possible. Another plus for YI is replay value. I think I have beaten this game...13 times now.
~ ~Graphics~ ~

The graphics of this game were quite astounding for the time, and even today the graphics still look great! As I said earlier, this game is very cheery, and the graphics are a major reason why. In the foreground of the first level, there are butterflies sitting on the leaves! Every enemy is quite detailed, and of course, charming. To the Tap-Tap to the Milde, all of the enemies are just so cute!! ......erm....
~ ~Sound~ ~

The sound effects in Yoshi's Island have been greatly improved since the original. Yoshi now has his infamous squeals and little groans he learned in Yoshi's Story. The music has also improved quality, being even more catchy than the original's! The only con I have to the sound is Baby Mario's wail, which is guaranteed to drive you nuts whenever you bump into an enemy.
~ ~Difficulty~ ~

Yoshi's Island can be as hard as you want it to be. You can strive to get every flower, red coin, and star, or you can just try to survive the level. Some levels seem like "How do you even die in this level?" while some will make you want to chuck your GameBoy out the window. Also some people will say Yoshi's Island is a kid's game, just judging by the cheerful music and graphics. Bah! I enjoy this game as much as when I first played it.

The only thing I have noticed is that it is incredibly easy to get lives. Extremely easy. I don't know when my last Game Over was . . . . . .
~ ~Summary~ ~

Gameplay: 9/10 Great controls, plus a mass of levels, although they go by quite quickly.

Graphics: 10/10 Bravo to the developers!

Sound: 8/10 Baby Mario is the reason why it's 2 less than it should be.

Difficulty: 10/10 Just right! Albeit a little easy, but it is not horrible.

Overall: 9/10 All in all, Yoshi's Island is a marvelous game, and is fun still even after you have beaten it more than 10 times. I highly recommend picking up the GBA version, wherever you can (because finding a SNES copy would be kind of hard in this point in time). It is totally different from its NDS sequel, far more fun, that is.

Review by Goomba Smackdown!!