Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

"Allow Yoshi's Island to bless your Game Boy Advance!!!!"

With companies like Capcom, Nintendo and SquareSoft, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) housed some of the greatest video games to ever grace our TV screens. The SNES covered every genre with excellence and has set the standards at what games today should meet. Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy III (VI Jap.) are arguably the three greatest RPG's in video gaming. Few RPG's since their release have met that gamer standard of how an RPG should play, sound and control. The same standard has been set regarding ''action'' games. Mega Man X1-3, Super Metroid and Super Mario World have all worked overtime in many Super Nintendo's. However, one game may have set that bar a little higher than the rest. That game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is the feature of this review. Nintendo worked their magic in filling every nook and cranny of YI with amazing gameplay, stunning graphics and quality sound. Read on in this review to bask in the greatness of arguably the greatest action game ever.

---GAMEPLAY---
A green, living, breathing dinosaur tank

The Yoshi Clan has decided to re-unite Baby Mario with his brother Baby Luigi! Strap on your boots, saddle up and be prepared to use everything you got to reach the missing sibling! Yoshi's main weapon is gobbling enemies and working them thru his digestive process to finally end up as eggs. These eggs are then thrown right back at the evil minions that Kamek controls. To aim the egg, pressing the B button will bring up an aiming cursor which moves up and down in an arc in front of Yoshi. Tapping B once again will fire the egg where the cursor is aimed. Egg tossing is a vital skill to Yoshi and is very simple and easy to learn. Yoshi can also hop, stomp, flutter and slurp his way past the hordes of baddies that stand in his way to Kamek's lair. However, be careful when taking on Shy Guys, Koopa Troopas and Pirahna Plants! One hit will knock Baby Mario from Yoshi's saddle and encase him in a bubble until Yoshi can scramble back to recover the lost infant. Your ''Star Timer'' will run down once Mario is free from Yoshi's care. When the timer reaches zero, Kamek's toadies will swoop down and carry Mario back to Kamek's lair. Thus, your mission is a failure. To prevent this, collect ''Stars'' that increase the timer, allowing more time to recover Baby Mario.

At the finish of every level, a chalkboard will tally up your ''score'' for that level. Perfect ''100'' scores across levels and worlds will uncover most of the secrets in Yoshi's Island. Collecting items or maintaining certain areas of importance will give you a higher and better score. Flowers are most commonly the hardest to find or retrieve. Every flower found will supply 10 points to Yoshi's end of level score. All levels contain 5 flowers for you to locate and collect. Red coins are most likely the hardest to uncover and collect. The 20 Red Coins in every level are disguised as ordinary coins. A special item that Yoshi holds can uncover which coins are normal and which are special red coins. The final criteria to meet in gaining ''100'' scores is holding 30 stars when you jump thru the hoop at the end of an area. For every 1 star that Yoshi possesses, 1 point will be added to the score.

Yoshi will need to traverse a total of 6 worlds filled with a total of 60 huge levels of suprises, danger and mystery. Mid-level bosses are housed in the 4th level of each world while the muscles of each world hang out in the 8th area. All bosses are presented as regular, normal enemies that come to gigantic, Yoshi-stompin' size with a little help of Kamek's magic. Secret levels and ''Bonus Challenges'' can be uncovered by performing feats that no normal Yoshi could perform before. Finishing the game or gaining ''100'' scores in each and every level will yield your prizes. Overall, this game is a joy to play and can be enjoyed time after time without losing a bit of interest.

---GRAPHICS---
A visual masterpiece

The scenery is fantastic. The background can be compared very much to that of a storybook. Most backgrounds are patchy and show off a wide variety of colors and textures. Backgrounds may look slightly like that of a storybook, however that doesn't make the game ''kiddie'' or attractive only towards yougsters. The backgrounds are still amazing to witness and stop to look at. Examples of some the amazing views include watching the clouds and mountains below you as you make your way to a castle in the sky or observing enemies as they wait to pounce on you, coming from background to foreground. Sceneries shift from a jungle setting with loose vines and shrubbery obstructing your view of Yoshi's path to a snowy mountain with blizzards and mass amounts of snow shrouding the route.

Enemies, platforms and the rest of Yoshi's Island are brightly colored. This helps tremendously in certain areas where Yoshi will have to navigate different moving platforms at high speeds with a moment to react. Different colors of platforms offer different speeds at which that platform moves. Green is slow, yellow offers a medium pace and red will go at full speed along the track. Shy Guys are the funniest enemies to encounter in Yoshi's Island. They come in different forms to take on Yoshi and his occupant. Whether the Shy Guys are coming at Yoshi on stilts, in ghost costumes or dancing in grass skirts they offer a bit of a laugh for the outrageous ways in which the lil' guys are altered and drawn.

---SOUND---
Crying won't get you anywhere.

The music in Yoshi's Island has a wide variety of beats and tunes to listen to. Flower-fields and grassy fields will offer a calm, soothing beat. Caves will host a mysterious, gloomy theme that will make a Yoshi feel as if he is lost with no way out! Dungeons and castles will have a interesting tune that sounds alot like a deranged nursery rhyme. This gamer is very glad that the SNES to GBA transition kept all of the beats and themes that made the original a joy to listen to. Sound effects are exactly like the original. In fact, the GBA adds some sounds to YI. Most notable and common among the new sound effects in SMA3:YI are the squawks of the Shy Guys as they escape from a pipe to confront Yoshi. The only minor annoyance you may encounter is the screaming of Baby Mario as he is knocked from Yoshi's saddle. In my case, the screaming of Baby Mario was never an annoyance. If you are concerned about the sound effects or the sound as a whole, Yoshi's Island will meet your expectations and then add some new ones.

---REPLAYABILITY---
Secrets galore!

Most of the replayability in SMA3:YI lies in uncovering secret levels and challenges to complete. Gaining ''100'' scores in each level will test your skills and knowledge of Yoshi and the world surrounding him. With every level mastered, a different ending exclusive to the Game Boy Advance version of Yoshi's Island is yours to enjoy. Veterans of the SNES version of Yoshi's Island will still want to pick up YI and remaster the game for the 6 extra, GBA-only secret levels to unearth. Taking a step aside from the world of Yoshi's Island, the original Mario Bros. arcade game is there for your enjoyment. Linking up and battling with your friends will only require one Game-Pak and the proper amount of link cords. Multiplayer cooperation thru the entire Mario Bros. arcade game will require all parties involved to have Super Mario Advance, Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World or another Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island Game-Pak. Yoshi's Island doesn't have a two-player feature. Rather, YI has some interesting one player mini-games ranging from a watermelon seed spitting contest to a slot machine to gain extra lives. A place in the game will supply you with some information on how to access these games from the World Map for a chance to play them whenever you want.

---FINAL OVERVIEW---
Gameplay: 10 / 10
Graphics: 10 / 10
Sound: 10 / 10
Replayability: 7 / 10

---OVERALL---
A summarization in two words: MUST. OWN.

Irregardless of being a new player to Yoshi's universe or being a veteran of the classic action game, Yoshi's Island is a masterpiece that all GBA owners should own. Once you get started in Yoshi's Island, the game is very hard to put down. Knocking down every level with ''100'' scores gives tons of challenge for a gamer to come back to Yoshi's old haunts. The new ending and 6 extra levels exclusive to the Game Boy Advance will hook veterans back in for another romp in the wilderness. Before appearing on the GBA, Yoshi's Island was one of the greatest action games in video gaming history and with the new, exclusive features and levels added to the GBA, Yoshi's world just got a hell of a lot better.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/03, Updated 01/28/03