Hello and welcome to Under the Super Scope where we take a look at some of the most famous
games of all time and try to find out if they still hold up today.
And this week we’re looking at one of the greatest uses of the Super FX chip.
Sorry Andre, not that one.
The good one!
Unlike a lot of other games that utilised the chip, Yoshi’s Island doesn’t attempt
to push the Super Nintendo to do 3D.
Instead, it uses it to push boundaries of 2D.
We see effects in Yoshi’s Island that we often wouldn’t see again until the next
generation on Sega Saturn.
It’s a phenomenal looking game the marries beautiful artwork with impressive effects
such as sprite scaling and rotation.
These aren’t just gimmicks either, the entire game benefits from these visual enhancements
and it allows for unique gameplay possibilities such as enemies that change size, platforms
you can morph and environments that warp around.
Despite its advanced visuals, Yoshi’s Island still has an artstyle aimed to draw in a younger
demographic so while there are Super Nintendo games with many more frames of animation,
Yoshi’s Island seems to deliberately limit itself to just keyframes.
Keyframes are the strongest poses of an animation and games that aim for a higher level of visual
fidelity will fill in the blanks between each keyframe.
Yoshi’s Island though only has 2 frames in the run cycle.
What this produces is a very fast and energetic effect that you’ll often see replicated
in children’s cartoons.
More frames of animation doesn’t always make for a more pleasing image and in many
instances it can make what’s happening on screen feel slower.
And you may think with the Yoshi games being slow, wouldn’t that be something they wish
to strive for?
And that’s the thing; Yoshi’s Island isn’t exactly a slow game.
You’re always changing direction to explore each nook and cranny but the pacing isn’t
as mellow as many of its successors.
In fact, there’s a ton of differences between the original and the sequels.
Yoshi’s Island of course builds upon the foundation of Super Mario World – this is
Super Mario World 2 afterall even though I’m sure no one calls it that.
However in terms of level design, the two couldn’t be more different.
Super Mario World carries on the standard set in Super Mario Brothers 3 where each level
is home to a unique idea.
In one you may be riding rotating platforms with that premise gradually evolving with
more enemies and less space to move.
In another you may be jumping from platform to platform with a bed of water beneath you
and enemies intercepting.
This has since become an age old design standard of which you can see in many of the greatest
games ever.
Unique idea, develop, iterate, move on.
Yoshi’s Island on the other hand takes a slightly different approach.
Levels often don’t have but one unique idea – they have several.
This level starts with chain chomps jumping from the background and demolishing the foreground,
then maze like area to find collectibles, a helicopter transition and then a final call
back to the start of the level.
The majority of Yoshi’s Island stages have three, four or even five point level design
but mechanically these ideas don’t always blend into each other and there may be a rather
logical reason for this.
It takes a while to finish a Yoshi stage.
Your average Mario World level can last anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes whereas you’re looking
at around 20 for a single stage in Yoshi’s Island.
That’s not only because the levels are longer than that of Mario but you’re constantly
encouraged to play them slower.
Of course every level has 20 red coins and 5 flower petals but that’s not the only
encouragement.
There’s Baby Mario.
Many players don’t like the inclusion of Baby Mario because his cry is incredibly annoying
but I believe that’s the point.
It’s a way for the developer to say: Play carefully or we’ll shout at you.
That’s actually one element I think Yoshi’s Island has that later instalments don’t.
A feeling of dread.
The Yoshi games are meant to be calm and relaxing with their bright visuals and jolly music
but you can only be so relaxing before reaching the point of boredom.
Here’s a crudely drawn difficulty chart.
Idealy we want to always be within this line here.
If we start off hard then the game will likely frustrate the player causing them to just
give up.
If it never increases in difficulty then it will bore the player.
There needs to be an element of challenge to just keep your brain going and that’s
not to say Yoshi games should try to be Dark Souls but it is to say that it’s okay to
try and kill the player every and now and then.
Yoshi’s Island gets this.
There’s tons of room to explore and areas to pillage but there’s also plenty of enemies
that can ruin your playthrough in an instant.
There’s pits and spikes that can kill you instantly and the threat of baby Mario floating
away upon collision.
These risks mean that while you’re leisurely looking around and searching for collectibles,
you do so knowing it can all be taken in a moment if you let your guard down.
That’s what keeps you playing slowly.
Interestingly the sequels adopt a different approach to level design.
Woolly World for instance is for more traditional and is designed in the vein of Super Mario
World.
One gimmick, evolved, iterated, concluded.
There’s also far fewer pits resulting in less chance for insta death and if you really
struggle you can equip a badge that lets you bounce out of pits or enable mellow mode to
simply fly around.
These options are great for accessibility but whether they’re effective counterbalances
for challenge is something that’s up for debate.
Woolly World isn’t a tricky game as it is and with the absence of Baby Mario, you lose
that encouragement to play slowly.
What this means is if you do happen to die, what will do you have to slowly collect everything
again?
You’ll likely just storm to the end.
The original Yoshi’s Island reinforces the slower playstyle with its higher challenge
and integral mechanics but that doesn’t stop losing all your collectibles from being
frustrating.
It’s fun the first time to go around looking for everything but until you hit a checkpoint,
all that stuff is just waiting to be lost and while sequels have gotten rid of Baby
Mario, added him again, gotten rid of him again and so on and so forth, not a single
one has changed the collectible system.
You die, you lose them.
While I think Yoshi’s Island is the best of the bunch, this is the element I think
needs changing.
Obviously we still want to maintain that sense of dread and slow gameplay but we also want
to elevate the will to give up.
Now two solutions come to mind for fairly maintaining items.
Souls Yep, now Yoshi’s Dark Souls.
Let’s mix it up a bit to be a bit broader.
Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight, Dark Souls.
What these three games do is give you a second chance to reclaim your items upon death.
You simply march back to your place of death if you can and pick up your dropped baggage.
If you die before getting back there, they’re gone for good.
This means you’re still in danger but you may not need to waste time collecting everything
again and you’re still playing slowly as to not to die once more.
Or 2.
Celeste and Rayman These two games do an interesting thing of
ensuring you’re grounded with an item for a few seconds before giving it to you.
You may have grabbed a strawberry in a gauntlet of platforming challenges in Celeste but it’s
not yours until you touch the ground.
The same with these coins in Rayman Origins and Legends.
This may not work in the sense of Yoshi as when you die it’ll leave the level a little
empty but I like this approach to hiding collectibles in platforming challenges.
It may even be a good method to take for the flower petals if anything.
I think mixing two idea together could result in a better paced experience.
Yoshi needs challenge but the traditional death and lives system from Mario isn’t
necessarily the answer.
From what we saw of Yoshi on Switch there wasn’t a single pit so they’re likely
not doing this and going the Woolly World style of difficulty again.
Then again, it has been over a year since we’ve seen the game.
Regardless of that though, Yoshi’s Island is still an incredibly game just bursting
with ideas.
In fact, all the way up until the final world.
Ever level has a new enemy to introduce.
Every single one.
We don’t even see Goombas until World 4.
That’s how many there are.
So yeah the base of the gameplay is about turning enemies into eggs and finding items
on your way to the goal but it builds upon that foundation in so many wonderful ways.
One level has you pushing a ball a longer which also gives you the burst of catharsis
as you crush a bunch of enemies.
Another has you well – this happens – and then there’s the awesome boss battles that
take the prominent enemy of that level and super size them.
While being geared to slower play Yoshi’s Island’s pacing is a rollercoaster.
One level is this, then it moves onto this, then this and then this.
There’s no room for downtime and with the constantly introduction of new enemies, the
game always manages to feel new.
This is where the sequels Yoshi’s Island DS and Yoshi’s New Island fell flat.
They were essentially recreations of the original game and even went as far as to redo the same
level gimmicks but doing them worse.
Yoshi’s Island even has the core gimmick of New Island, being giant eggs, only it keeps
the idea around for one level instead of dragging it throughout the entire game.
Not necessarily a jab at New Island there but rather that many of Yoshi’s Island’s
core ideas could indeed form a game of their own.
Yoshi’s Island was an extremely influential game and actually shaped future Mario titles
more drastically than you may expect.
Elements like the butt stomp and red coins would be found once more in Super Mario 64
and the again New Super Mario Bros and then in that very game we have hidden walls, Kamek’s
drops of magic and the bubble.
Heck, even one boss fight seems to have set the premise of Super Mario Galaxy!
It’s an ambitious, inventive and constantly evolving collection of ideas and while not
all are winners like these annoying slow auto scrolling caves, the higher moments heavily
outweigh the lesser.
I mean the bosses are flat out some of the best in Mario history.
It can get surprisingly dark at times too, I mean obviously Yoshi flat out eats everyone
but there’s even an enemy that eats you and then you destroy them from the inside.
Heck, Yoshi does this again by beating on the heart of an enemy multiple times.
Poor guys.
The egg throwing mechanic is utterly ingenious though.
Every enemy essentially doubles as ammunition and the way eggs ricochet off walls ensures
that even lesser skilled players have a chance of landing hits.
This mechanic even gets reinforced like with boss who can only appear when you’re facing
away from them or with tricky item placements that demand you to play a little game of Tennis.
It’s such a refined game mechanically and truly expands upon the basis of Super Mario
World while giving you a slower playground to digest the many more elements at play.
Despite its upbeat aesthetic, Yoshi’s Island portrays a range of emotions as all in all,
this is a journey of overcoming a Bowser invaded island.
Even if he’s just a baby this time.
The music perfectly captures the sense of wonder, happiness
and sorrow.
To look at Yoshi’s Island and just say “that’s a happy kids game” would frankly be closed
minded.
Later games like Yoshi’s Story double down on the younger demographic with accompanying
low level challenge but that isn’t Yoshi’s Island at all.
In fact with it releasing less than a year before Super Mario 64, Yoshi’s Island feels
like Nintendo were putting in their last hurrah with 2D on a console.
All the stops were pulled and the result was something that showcases how 2D and 3D can
exist side by side.
Of course 2D would make a come back and Yoshi even remained 2D on the N64 but in time of
transition, this could have been it.
And if it were, 2D would have gone out with a bang.
Every mechanic, every idea, every hidden crevice feels like a triumphant farewell to the second
dimension.
Even as much for the developers to thank the players for finding the games secrets.
Even with the inclusion of Super Mario Brothers 2 characters like Shy Guys, Yoshi’s Island
was like a culmination of everything that came before with the ideas to elevate them
to new heights.
Many consider Yoshi’s Island to be better than Super Mario World, and while I don’t
know if I would go that far, it’s hard to deny just how mesmerising and influential
it was.
Sure the death system could do with a modern refinement but it has something that none
of its sequels have come close to matching, a feeling of challenge and adventure.
Yoshi games are meant to be calming but there needs to be a balance to keep you engaged
and Yoshi nailed that on his first try.
It’s no doubt one of the best games to hit the Super Nintendo and reinforced that progression
of every Mario game being conceptually different to the last.
Something that we could maybe see a bit more of in the modern era.
Yoshi’s Island still absolutely holds up.
Going for a 100% completion can be a tad frustrating but every single level is masterfully designed
to the point where this wholesome little dinosaur rivals the plumber perched on his back.
Just remember this is the end and nothing comes after it.
So what do you think of Yoshi’s Island?
Is it still the best Yoshi game?
Let us know in the comments below and of course be sure to subscribe to GameXplain for more
on Yoshi’s Island and everything else gaming too.
Until next time, bye!