Many of you will immediately recognize this as the newest in the line of Nintendo's GBA Mario remakes.
Being upset with Nintendo's decision to keep on remaking Mario games for the GBA instead of making new
ones, I rebelled and bought the SNES version of Yoshi's Island off eBay for only $20 in comparison to the GBA game's price of $30. Not many differences exist between the two, except for that awesome, fun, new Mario Bros. game (never seen it before) and six extra cheap levels for the GBA version (big present). That, I figure, is not worth $10 more.
Also, this game received the Super Mario
World hype, though to a much lesser extent. The Super Mario
Advances are always highly touted by
Nintendo, and a whole bunch of Mario fans got into it and started
giving this game high praise. When
I heard this game rivaled Super Mario Bros. 3, however, a red flag was
raised. I heard that same statement
about Super Mario World and Super Mario RPG, and I was disappointed each
time with an above-average, but not excellent, game. At that point, I started
looking at how this game's
screenshots looked like a game worthy
of an EC (Early Childhood) rating by the ESRB, with all the cutesy
flowers, Yoshi, Baby Mario, and even
a Baby Bowser much unlike the Baby Bowser in Super Mario Sunshine. I started
to block this game out of my mind, even buying Star Fox Adventures (I abhorred
Fox McCloud for years) instead of Super Mario Advance 3, but I finally
gave in and bought this off eBay. Now, I thought, I can play this game,
review it myself, and squelch all the awesome ratings most others have
been giving it.
As for the storyline itself, Yoshi takes Baby Mario out on a quest to save Baby Luigi. That's not the whole thing, but that's the story in a nutshell.
This game is reviewed on a scale of zero to four stars. To all you who can't stand the fact that I review older games: too bad!
Graphics: ***
Okay, I'll be honest, the graphics are pretty good, especially for a SNES game. They're two-dimensional, of course, but I love 2D platformers and won't downgrade the graphics because of that. You can see all the characters perfectly well, there's not much fuzziness, and you have to love the way that the game can make you "dizzy". The graphics aren't perfect as you can see a lot of fuzziness on certain characters, which don't quite look right. But, overall, the graphics are good.
Sound: ***1/2
This is the real shocker: I really like
the music to this game. It's as catchy as any other Mario game I've
played besides the "Big Three" of Mario
music (SMB3, Dr. Mario, and MK64). You won't be able to help
humming along after a while. I couldn't
help it. Sure, it's repetitive at times, but I could say that about most
tunes in video games.
Difficulty: 1/2
The watermark of this game: it's way,
way, way too easy. Half the reason I give it half a star is because I don't
have a single 100 on any board (of course, I only played each course once),
and the other half of the reason is that it took me about a half-hour to
an hour to beat Bowser. You can sleep through the first three worlds and
not lose a life. You can figure out how to beat bosses without having to
look at a strategy guide (of course, I did read some strategy for some
bosses, but that's it). I'll put it this way: if I can beat a game within
a little over a week, and it's over four worlds, and I'm not begging anyone
on the Internet for help: it's too easy.
House Advantage: 0%
Characters: ***1/2
Ah, this is so refreshing to see. These
characters in this game are true Mario characters. Many of them
reappear in Paper Mario, which almost
seems like the sequel to this game (I said almost, not that it actually
is, so don't flame me). I love that Tap Tap the Red Nose, those Shy Guy
Ghosts (they're named something else, I know), and I like that Milde the
Marching Feet character. You won't find a bunch of true Mario characters
in an adventure on your GameCube, that's for sure! (Piantas... what a joke...)
Controls: **1/2
Some of you may have remembered my first
impression of the GBA version of this game. First of all, I couldn't figure
out that ?'s had to be shot with eggs, and second, I hated the controls
about as much as Super Mario Sunshine's camera. Somehow, though, on the
SNES, everything's made easier. B is jump, A is shoot eggs, Y is slurp,
and R locks your spinning target thing in place (very, very useful). I
love the controls. Why, then, did this only get 2 1/2 stars? I confuse
them in midair at times. I'll accidentally hit Y instead of A
and not get my shot off, then nail
a Piranha head-first. Or, I'll hit A instead of B and shoot an egg instead
of jumping. It takes some time getting used to because all other times
I play 2D platformers I'm jumping with A and B together. Now I can't hit
A when jumping... that can be confusing. It's a lot better than R being
the shooting button, though, because when I want precision and exact timing,
I don't want to hit a shoulder button.
Levels: ***
These are very intriguing, interesting
levels, with much more length than an average SMW level and even
longer than your average SMB3 level.
Although there aren't quite as many (54 including secrets), they are long
and require some thinking. Sometimes, in order to get a Flower, you'll
have to shoot ?'s later, or you'll have to angle your egg shots. I simply
rushed through the levels and didn't care much for Flowers or Red Coins;
I was more into the Stars, which are the most useful for staying alive.
The levels are very enjoyable, and my only complaint is that there are
not enough of them.
Egg Shooting: ***1/2
I was surprised again here at how easy it really was to shoot eggs. I thought this would be sort of like trying to squirt water in Super Mario Sunshine. Not only was it easier than any nozzle in that game, it was easier than Luigi's vacuum in Luigi's Mansion and overall is a very easy thing to do. You can lock the moving target, and you can also make it point straight up. You can cancel it out with Down, and it's not that hard to shoot what you want to. I love it. My only complaint is that it won't shoot into some really thin places that I wanted it to, instead bouncing off something and not getting the ? I wanted. But, it's not much, just a minor complaint.
Gameplay: ****
Here is where this game takes the cake.
You're not relying on how much power you have, or whether you
have a Mushroom or not. If you get
hit, Baby Mario's in a bubble and you much touch him before time runs
out. That's tons easier than having
a set amount of power. You can get more time by collecting Stars or
going through Middle Rings. Also, of
course, you're shooting eggs at enemies and ? Clouds, and even
Ground Pounding at times. You make
your enemies your items. That is awesome, and so is the overall rating
of the gameplay of this game.
Replayability: ***1/2
I'll be honest here... I'm going to
probably go back and play this game again. Super Mario World doesn't
compel me to do that. Super Mario Bros.
doesn't compel me to do that. Super Mario Sunshine... I'll hold off about
that for now. This game, though, like Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Lost
Levels, makes me want to
play it again, even though it's beaten.
What if I can get 100 on every world? How about playing some of those fun
levels all over again? It's going to be a fun experience all over again.
Okay, so it's the same game, but it will feel brand new. I'll go back to
those four words of warning: Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy... and love them.
Fun Factor!: ****
This game completely blew me away with
its addictive style, with the way it made me even stop playing
college football for a while. It's
really fun. It's a lot more fun than I ever thought it would be. I'm surprised...
shocked, in fact.
OVERALL: ***1/2
Put down your GameCube controllers.
Turn off your copies of Super Mario Sunshine. This is a REAL Mario
game. It wasn't worth the $20 I paid
for it. It's worth more than the $50 you'll pay for most console games.
If you don't have a SNES, get the GBA version. If you do have a SNES, get
the SNES version, because you don't miss much from the GBA version (so
I'm told, and so I believe). Wow. I haven't been pleasantly
surprised with a game this much since
F-Zero X. I was right about one thing: It isn't as good as Super Mario
Bros. 3. As far as Mario one-player
games go, however, it's right behind SMB3 as the second-best Mario
one-player game ever (not counting
Kart, Party, or racing games). This truly is a must-have game for any REAL
Mario fan.
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