Yoshi's Island is the sequel to Super Mario World that was released for the Super Nintendo in the fall of 1995. This game is supposed to take place in the early years of Dinosaur Land before the events of any of the other Mario games. By the time this game was released, I was no longer playing video games much anymore. This was around the time I got Primal Rage for the Gameboy that Christmas. I never played Yoshi's Island as a kid, and in a lot of ways, I'm glad I didn't. I don't think I could have handled the length of this game. It is an extremely long one! Super Mario World 2 does have some good points, but I don't think I would've liked this game much because of its bad design and long stages.   

Graphics 10/10: The graphics are one of the finer points of Yoshi's Island. This game looks like something out of a scrapbook or a painting of some kind. The backgrounds look like they have been colored in with a crayon. The sprites and landscapes are very well detailed and drawn out to look amazing. Yoshi's Island doesn't have the 3-D look that Donkey Kong Country had, but it goes more for an  artsy type of look. The levels are pretty much next to perfect. They look very lively looking, and Nintendo put a lot of effort into making this game look very appealing and animated.

Music 7/10: The soundtrack to Yoshi's Island also sounds amazing. All of the songs in this game have a very fast paced type of melody to them. There is one track that sounds very much like 1995. You get a collection of music in Yoshi's Island that has really great quality to it, but all of it starts to blend together after hearing these songs played over and over again for about 10 or 12 hours. Things don't sound any different until you make it to the final boss fight with giant Bowser. The rest of this game becomes so dull and repetitive. The music is some great 16-bit SNES music, but it all runs together after hearing these songs over and over again for so many hours. I can't say that this game is all that appealing musically. In some ways it is, and in some ways it isn't.  

Gameplay 2/10: In Yoshi's Island there is no time limit, but Yoshi has to safely carry Baby Mario to the end of the level while avoiding enemies, bottomless pits, spikes, etc. Yoshi can eat enemies along the way and swallow them which makes eggs. Eggs are made by eating the enemies like in SMW and pressing the Down button to swallow them and make an egg. These eggs are used to throw at enemies, hit floating "?" clouds that contain items, collect coins, etc. Yoshi can also eat different kinds of watermelons: Green, Red, and Blue. Each color watermelon gives Yoshi a special ability that comes in useful depending on the color watermelon he eats.  

There are several different bubbles Yoshi can touch that make him undergo a transformation: The Helicopter, Mole, Submarine, Car, and The Train. Although, Yoshi has to find the Yoshi block and touch it in a certain amount of time, or he'll have to backtrack all the way back to where he hit the bubble and try again. One transformation I like is when Yoshi finds a Star. Baby Mario jumps off his back and is invincible. He can climb up the wall, and float through the air with his Cape. However, this only lasts for a limited amount of time unless Mario touches another Star along the way.

One of the other things I like is Yoshi's flutter jump. This is done by holding down the B button while Yoshi is in mid-air. This technique is very useful in crossing large bottomless pits of lava or spikes. If done properly, this gives Yoshi more control over his jumps, but I find it a harder technique to master than the Cape in SMW. For me, it feels harder to control where you land. The hit system is also a thing I have a hard time getting used to. If Yoshi takes a hit, just one hit, Baby Mario will fall off Yoshi's back and start crying. He'll start to float away in a bubble, and you'll have to go get him before Kamek's Toadies kidnap him.

You usually have plenty of time to do so, but sometimes he'll float off into areas that are almost impossible to reach. So basically, you aren't allowed to take a hit! In some areas this isn't a problem, and you can get Mario back pretty easily. In most areas of the game, you'll fall into lava, bottomless pits, spikes (which kill you instantly in this game), or Mario will just float up into the air where you can't reach him and just start screaming like crazy! This is such an annoying gimmick, and I can never get over this.

Yoshi's Island doesn't have the overworld maps of SMB3 or SMW. This game has more of picture map of all the 6 worlds and their levels. These levels are way longer than before, and every one of them has to be played in order to beat the game! Some of these levels can take up to 30 minutes to finish! There are no secret exits like before, but there are Extra Levels and extra bonus games. Although, unlocking these areas is a long, frustrating task that slows down the game even more than it already is.  

You can't play the Extra Levels until you score 100 points on all the regular levels of that world. In order to do that you have to collect 30 Stars, 20 Red Coins, and 5 Flowers in each level. If you get hit by an enemy or other object, you also lose Stars. Luckily, Stars can be found in the "?" clouds of the levels, and they also can be stored as items after winning them in the bonus games within the levels and at the end of the levels. The Flowers and (especially) the Red Coins are a pain to try and collect! This is another downside to Yoshi's Island. If you are able to open up one of the Extra Levels of the 6 worlds, they are some of the most difficult levels of the whole game.

I have a lot of trouble just being able to unlock these extra stages. It is so hard to get a score of 100 on every level. If you miss something, you have to go back and restart the level! I hate the levels in Yoshi's Island! They suck!! They're way longer than what they should be. I don't mind the extra collectables because I can just skip them if I want to. I'm talking about how it can take 45 minutes to finish some of these levels!! I'm not kidding! Yoshi also seems to die so easily in this game because of the horrible hit system. If you die, you have to go back and re-play another 10 or 15 minutes to get back to where you were before!

This is just bad level design because of how long these levels are. Yoshi isn't allowed to get hit. If he does, sometimes you'll never get baby Mario back, and Mario will cry louder and louder as he floats off to where you can't get him back without falling into: lava, spikes, or bottomless pits. This game just pisses me off to where I can't do it! This is so frustrating it isn't even funny. It's not hard, it's just frustrating because there is nothing you can do about it but die, go back and start again. That is why Yoshi's Island takes so long.

You're just going back and forth re-playing these levels over and over for what seems like an eternity!! The enemy placement isn't a problem. It's just the length of these stages and how you get sent back to waste another 10, 15, and sometimes even 20 minutes of your life to get back to where you were and either beat the level or get a score of 100 on that stage. I hate the transformations Yoshi undergoes too. Sometimes, if he doesn't hit the Yoshi block in time, he'll die, but most of the time he just has to do more damn backtracking! WHY?!  I can't say much more for the level design and gameplay of Yoshi's Island.

The mechanics of the game basically suck, and there isn't much variety to the 6 worlds either. The backgrounds all run together. World 3 is pretty cool with its swamp theme, and the same for worlds 5 and 6. The rest of them are just grasslands with trees and all. Everything else looks the same which is another let down to this game. The thing I hate the most is really how long the game is. WHO HAS TIME FOR THIS?! Due to the length of these levels, you get an extremely long, boring, and frustrating game I don't enjoy at all!   

Story 10/10: The storyline of Yoshi's Island is like nothing I've ever heard of in any other Mario game. Apparently, this game is supposed to take place before any of the other Mario games. Mario and Luigi are babies being carried to their parents in the Mushroom Kingdom by a Stork. Kamek snatches Luigi, but Mario falls onto Yoshi's back on Yoshi's Island. A map of the game fell along with Baby Mario, so Yoshi takes the map back to all the other Yoshi's, and they all set out on a journey to try and rescue Baby Luigi from Kamek and Baby Bowser.

Compared to the other stories of: SMB3 and SMW, Yoshi's Island is somewhat of an improvement. It introduces a new villain named, "Kamek". This game also is pretty creative in the way it is a prequel to SMW. Everybody is a baby! Even Bowser! The ending of this game is really cool, and that was about the only part of Yoshi's Island that I found myself enjoying. Bowser is such a brat in this game! I don't want to spoil anything. Just play the game, and you'll see what I mean. If you can stand to play through all the bad stages! 

Depth 10/10: Yoshi's Island has plenty of content for those players who like long video games. There are a total of 6 worlds, but they are very long worlds. Each one is kind of unique, but I didn't think they were all that much different. They all seem to have similar themes: Worlds 1, 2, and 4 are all grassy plain worlds, world 3 is a swampy area, world 5 takes place on a mountain, and world 6 is Bowser's domain on Yoshi's Island. This entire game takes place on Yoshi's Island which was a big island before the events of Super Mario World. The Extra Levels offer more challenge for hard-core gamers, so this game has more than enough content to it!

Difficulty 6/10: Despite the problems I have had with Yoshi's Island I was still able to beat it after some time and some real patience. It was quite a struggle, but I didn't really Game Over or anything. I mainly just got mad and Rage Quit because of all the frustration I was having trying to get through some of the levels. Baby Mario would constantly fall off Yoshi's back, and I'd have to go after him which really got old! However, if you keep playing the game, you'll beat it. With all of the continues, extra lives, and checkpoints, you can still keep on going with the game, but it is a very long, frustrating process. The difficulty comes from just how long this game is, but none of the enemies or obstacles are all that hard or anything. They're just annoying because of the way you get knocked into them so easily!