User:Czar/drafts/SMW2

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

In a style new to the series,[9] the game has a coloring book aesthetic with "scribbled crayon" backgrounds, and Yoshi vocalizes with its every action.^[7] Expanding on his "trademark tongue" ability to swallow enemies,^[6] Yoshi, as the focus of the game, was given a new move set: the ability to "flutter jump", throw eggs, and transform. The flutter jump gives Yoshi a secondary boost when the player holds the jump button.^[5] It became his new "trademark move", similar to that of Luigi in Super Mario Bros. 2. Yoshi can also pound the ground from mid-air to bury objects or break through soft earth. The dinosaur's long tongue grab enemies at a distance.^[8] Swallowed enemies can either be spat as projectiles immediately or stored for later use as an egg.^[5] The player individually aims and fires the eggs at obstacles via a new targeting system. The eggs also bounce off of surfaces in the environment. Up to six eggs can be stored this way, and will trail behind the character.^[4] Yoshi can also eat certain items for power-up abilities. For instance, watermelons let Yoshi shoot seeds from his mouth like a machine gun, and fire enemies turn his mouth into a flamethrower. Other power-ups transform Yoshi into vehicles including cars, drills, helicopters, and submarines. A star power-up makes Baby Mario invulnerable and extra fast.^[8]

While Yoshi is "virtually invincible", if hit by an enemy, Baby Mario will float off his back in a bubble while a timer counts down to zero. When the timer expires, Koopas arrive to take Baby Mario

While

Yoshi's Island was developed by

Both contemporaneous and retrospective reviewers offered lavish praise for the game's aesthetics,[26]^[24][2] level design, and gameplay,^{[5][26][24][8][20]} which became legacies of the game.^[13][4][23] Some called it "charm".^[13][22][2] Delgrego of Nintendo Life would stop mid-game just to watch what enemies would do.^[2] Martin Watts of the same publication called it "an absolute pleasure on the eyes and unlike any other SNES game".^[6] Others praised the control scheme, technical effects,^[5] and sound design.^[13][2][27] Nintendo Life's Delgrego felt "goosebumps and tingles" during the ending theme, and marked the soundtrack's range from the lighthearted intro to the "epic grandeur of the final boss battle".^[2]

Edge praised the game's balance of challenge and accessibility. The magazine thought that the new power-ups of Yoshi's Island gave its gameplay and level design great range, and that the powers were significant additions to the series on par with the suits of Super Mario Bros. 3 or Yoshi's own debut in Super Mario World.^[8] Diehard GameFan's Taylor wrote that there was enough gameplay innovation to make him cry and listed his favorites as the Baby Mario cape invincibility power-up, the machine gun-style seed spitting, and the snowball hill level.^[20] Nintendo Life's Watts called the egg stockpiling mechanic as "clever" for the way it encourages experimentation with the environment as well as tempered wastefulness.^[6] Edge thought of Yoshi's Island as a "fusion of technology and creativity, each enhancing the other".^[8] The magazine considered the game's special effects expertly integrated into the gameplay, and described the developer's handicraft has having an "attention to detail that few games can match".^[8]

Reviewing the Game Boy Advance release in 2002, Craig Harris of IGN wrote that Yoshi's Island was both the console's best platformer as well as "the best damn platformer ever developed".

Multiple retrospective critics declared Yoshi's Island a "masterpiece".[28]^[2] IGN recalled it as "one of the most loved SNES adventures of all time".^[29] Yoshi's Island brought newfound renown to both Yoshi as a character and Shigeru Miyamoto's artistic and directorial career.^[4] IGN's Lucas M. Thomas wrote that game marked where Yoshi "came into his own" and developed many of his definitive characteristics: the "signature" flutter jump, and ability to throw eggs and transform shape.^[4] IGN's Harris noted that the designers gave Yoshi a "cute" voice to accompany its move set and remains a hallmark feature of the character.^[7] Baby Mario, who debuted in the game, went on to have his own career in a number of sports-related titles.^[27] Series producer Takashi Tezuka said he consciously continued "the handicraft feel" of the original throughout the series, which later included yarn and similar variations.^[30] Official Nintendo Magazine called the art style "a bold step ... that paid off handsomely".^[26] Delgrego of Nintendo Life wrote that the game marked a new era of art in video games that prioritized creativity over graphics technology.^[2]

Delgrego continued that the game's countdown-based

IGN's Jared Petty wrote that Yoshi's Island bested "the test of time far better than many of its contemporaries".[13] Levi Buchanan of IGN thought Nintendo took a risk with Yoshi's Island by making Mario passive and giving Yoshi new abilities.^[23] Christian Donlan of 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die wrote that the game was a testament to the Mario team's "staggering confidence" in its development ability. He said the game was "perhaps the most imaginative platformer" of its time.^[9] Yoshi's Island ranked 22nd on Official Nintendo Magazine's 2009 top 100 Nintendo games as a "bone fide classic",^[26] and 15th on IGN's 2014 top 125 Nintendo games of all time.^[13]

Sequels and spin-offs

Yoshi's Island led to a strong year for Yoshi as a character.