Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: October 1995
Amazingly enough, as the mid-90s approached, Nintendo seemed to be distancing itself from its flagship character. Though Super Mario World was followed by several Mario-themed spinoffs like Super Mario Kart and Mario Paint, a direct sequel to World was not immediately forthcoming. As a kid I wondered if Nintendo wasn't abandoning Mario. When Nintendo of America introduced its edgier "Play It Loud" advertising campaign in 1994, Mario seemed to all but disappear from the company's portfolio, with glitzier franchises like Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct suddenly monopolizing the headlines.
In this climate, Yoshi's Island was not the subject of a grand unveiling, nor was it hyped by any of the video game magazines of the period. My first notice of it was a tiny picture of the Baby Mario sprite riding Yoshi in a collage of upcoming SNES games in the January 1995 Nintendo Power. I don't believe any actual mention of the game was made in that issue, so it left me wondering intently as to whether a new Mario might not be on the horizon.
Little notice was attracted when Yoshi's Island was finally revealed. People didn't know what to think. A Mario game where you don't control Mario, but rather Yoshi carrying a baby version of Mario? "Simplistic," hand-drawn graphics in the midst of the CGI craze started by Donkey Kong Country? Quickly the game was shoved to the back pages in favor of what were perceived as more graphically-advanced 16 and 32 bit games.
For these reasons I was reluctant to purchase Yoshi's Island upon its release. It didn't seem like a "real" Mario game, and the graphics weren't all that impressive in magazine stills. I bought it a few months after its debut almost as an afterthought, but boy was I glad when I finally did.
Yoshi's Island indeed isn't truly a follow-up to Super Mario World(the Japanese version doesn't even include SMW in the title), but forges its own path. It establishes its own set of basic mechanics, centered around the making of eggs which Yoshi can use to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Yoshi never dies(unless he falls off a cliff), but when he is hit he loses Baby Mario and precious seconds off the timer. It goes without saying that the controls, which first introduced Yoshi's now-famous butt-stomp and flutter-jump, are tight and smooth and the level design is as clever as can be. The hand-drawn worlds appear as if they have literally been scribbled with crayons, and are sprawling, colorful, and bursting with life and charm-- much of which is made possible by the powerful Super FX2 chip built into the cartridge, which allows for advanced sprite handling capabilities termed by Nintendo in advertisements as "Morphmation."
Though the game generally received good reviews, a few outlets viciously criticized it for what were termed as "simplistic" or "childish" graphics. Game Players magazine in particular wrote an infamous critique which rated it in the 60s out of a scale of 100 primarily for its graphical style. Many game reviewers were put off by the lack of computer-modeled sprites or 3D polygons, particularly given the game's use of the Super FX2 chip. Those reviewers have been proven fools over time, and many of them are now among the very people who include it in their various "Best Games of All Time" lists. Yoshi's Island indeed is one of those rare games that has actually accumulated more respect and adulation in the years following its release than it received in its own era.
Similar to what Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 did with Wario, Yoshi's Island also spawned a new series of platformer games based exclusively around the Yoshi character. This series has spanned several systems, including the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS. Nintendo would even do a makeover of its Japanese puzzle game Panel de Pon with Yoshi's Island assets and publish it for Super Nintendo in North America as Tetris Attack in 1996. Just like with all of its franchises, Nintendo has without a doubt gotten its money's worth with Yoshi, Baby Mario and company.
Altogether Yoshi's Island oozes with that trademark Nintendo ingenuity and charm. It is one of the most purely fun and original platformers ever created and puts its flashier contemporaries, such as Donkey Kong Country and Sonic the Hedgehog, to shame. It is in fact rumored that Shigeru Miyamoto specifically settled upon the "childish" art style because his bosses were ordering him to use that same inhuman, cookie-cutter CGI look which Rare used for Donkey Kong Country. Miyamoto then ruffled more than a few feathers when he stated publicly that DKC proved gamers will settle for mediocre gameplay as long as the graphics are nice. He has been proven correct over time, as Yoshi's Island, though not as popular upon its release, has withstood the test of time far better than Donkey Kong Country, and is recognized today as residing in a higher echelon of quality than most every 2D platformer that has come either before or after. It is truly one of the greatest Super Nintendo games ever made.
