Video Game Review #584: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Super Nintendo

Nostalgia Factor:

I have the absolute vaguest memory of renting this game back in the mid 90s. I didn't even own a Super Nintendo back then, but I do remember borrowing one from someone in grade school for a whole weekend. Who it was and why they lent it to me, I have no idea. But it happened. To celebrate the occasion, I went out and rented Super Mario World 2. As a Genesis owner, I knew I would never get to play this game if I didn't seize the opportunity.

I remember almost nothing about my time with the game. It was a while back. I must have been in 7th or 8th grade. So you can understand why I don't remember much. I remember powering through this in one weekend. I remember liking the game, if that counts for anything. But that's about it.

It's been a good 30 years between playthroughs. I figured it was as good a time as any to come back and play it again for my blog. Let's check it out.

Story:

Although this is billed as Super Mario World 2, it is actually a prequel to the original Mario World. Heck, you can count it as a prequel to pretty much every Mario title. It takes place when Mario and Luigi were babies. So you can say that, chronologically, this is probably the very first Mario game. 

The game begins when Mario and Luigi are accidentally dropped from a stork onto Yoshi's Island. An evil Magikoopa captures Luigi and takes him to Bowser (who is also a baby at this time). The Yoshis rescue Mario. The basic plot of the game consists of the Yoshis protecting Mario and advancing him forward in the game from stage to stage, until Bowser is defeated at the end and Luigi is rescued. The storks then take the brothers to the doorstep of their awaiting parents.

Although you battle Bowser at the end, the Magikoopa is the real "big bad" of the game. He is constantly chasing you all game long. At the end of each stage, he taunts you and uses his magic powers to power up the boss characters who try to kill you.

Gameplay:

I remember thinking that Baby Mario was such a weird concept when this first came out. I didn't own a Super Nintendo myself, but I was picturing Mario World 2 as a bigger and better version of the original game. The series had taken a big leap from Mario 3 on the NES to Super Mario World, so I was excited to see the leap that it was going to take next. Unfortunately, I ended up viewing this game and its odd choice to go with Baby Mario more like the series was moving backwards instead of forwards.

Like I said, I rented this game at some point back around the time it first came out. The game left such a small impression on me, that I could literally remember nothing about it when I fired it up here in present day. I mean, I remember the whole Baby Mario thing - but that was it. I didn't have high hopes coming into the game that it was going to be any good.

Right off the bat, I was intrigued by Yoshi's controls. You can eat enemies, as expected, but in this game you can turn most things you eat into eggs. You can then launch those eggs at your enemies using a targeting reticule on the screen. That's pretty cool. Yoshi handles pretty much as you would expect him to handle. In addition to standard running, jumping, and eating controls, he also has a ground pound. Perhaps his most important feature is the ability to kick your legs in mid-air and float for a short period of time. You can string these moves together to navigate tough obstacles. Mastering this move is key to doing well in this game.

Unlike Mario 3 and Mario World, this is a fairly linear game. You move from stage 1-1 to 1-2 to 1-3, etc. There's no overhead map to navigate or hidden secrets to find in between stages. The game gives you the option to go back and replay old stages, but don't mistake this for the option of having choice as to where you go next. This game is nearly as linear as the original Super Mario Bros on the NES.

There are six worlds in total, each one filled with about 8 to 10 stages. You can play the game one of two ways: play to beat the game (which is what I did) or play to get 100% of all the secrets in each stage. The game tracks your percentage for each stage as you play. Each stage contains a certain number of red coins and flower icons to pick up. You also must finish with 30 stars, which are earned when you walk through a checkpoint or picked up while playing through the stage naturally. Collect 100% of everything in each stage, and you can unlock secret stages to play through. But I never did that. In fact, I never reached 100% in any single level during my playthrough of the game. In fact, I think my highest score was an 88. This game is HARD, and the levels are big. It must take an enormous amount of dedication to 100% this game. A level of dedication that I simply don't have.

This game doesn't have a traditional health meter as we know it. You get a timer instead. When Baby Mario is resting safely on Yoshi's back, the timer is not running. If you get hit by an enemy, Baby Mario gets knocked off your back. You have ten seconds to get him back, or he is captured and you lose a life. If you get him back, you'll notice you have lost seconds off of your timer. Eventually it will go back up to ten. I mentioned in the last paragraph that you have to collect 30 stars in each stage (in addition to all the red coins and flower icons). Here's the catch: the 30 stars act as your "health". In other words, collecting a star adds seconds to your timer. 30 is the maximum number you can attain. So, to 100% a stage, you have to make it to the end of the level not only with all the items collected, but having never taken a hit for most of the level. F that. As soon as I saw how hard this was going to be, I decided to simply stop trying for a high percentage. I just aimed to beat the game, and that's it.

Gameplay is consistent from beginning to end. If I had to offer a complaint, it would be in the game's overly long stages. Mario as a series works best when it is moving from point to point quickly and efficiently. This game drags its feet in certain locations. A stage that would take 2 or 3 minutes in a normal Mario game takes about 10 here. That's with me factoring in the game's difficulty, and the fact that you're probably going to die multiple times in each stage. I'd even go so far as to say that the entire game drags. I started playing through this game almost two months ago, and I finally finished it now. You'd think a game with six worlds (filled with 8ish stages each) could be beaten fairly quickly. But not this one. It just keeps dragging and dragging and dragging. It definitely overstays its welcome, big time.

I suppose that makes it sound like I didn't have a good time with the game, but I did like it. It just took way too damn long. Nearly two months to beat a platformer? It started to feel like this game was going to go on forever. Eventually, I just put down my head and forced myself to power through the remaining two or three worlds I had left. Surprisingly, this is when I began to have a better time with the game. It seems like this is a game that is more engaging when you are sitting down and dedicating a lot of time to it. It's not a game you can just pick up, play a stage or two, and then set down for a few days.

Graphics:

This may be the single best looking 16-bit game I've ever seen. I was consistently amazed from beginning to end at just how good this game looked. The special effects steal the show. The magic effects, the faux 3D island, the weather, the background lighting. It's all just really, really gorgeous. The whole game has a storybook, cartoon feel to it. And I'm all for it.

This looks like a "retro" game made in the 2020s. You know how indie game makers always try to make games that look 16-bit, but then they often end up making them look better than anything that came out in the 16-bit era? It's like that. This game looks way, WAY ahead of its time. The screenshots don't really do the game justice. You need to play this for yourself.

Sound:

The sound is my biggest gripe with the game. Let's address the obvious: Baby Mario. The constant shrieking and yelling when you get hit and he falls off your back gets old fast. Real fast. Multiple times as I was playing this, my wife or child would be like "what the heck are you playing? It's so loud!" But I had the game at a normal volume. Also annoyingly loud: the egg targeting reticule. When you pull it up on your screen, it goes "ding ding ding" really fast. And really loud. Between Baby Mario shrieking and the annoying sound of your egg launcher, it felt like I was in the middle of a really loud and really annoying carnival, or something.

The game's music doesn't help. It's the same 3 or 4 musical tracks over and over again. Nothing catchy, nothing toe tapping. It's not the music is necessarily bad. It's just really forgettable. Other Mario games are filled with iconic music, but this one is not. 

Overall:

I'm very conflicted here. I started this game back in late June. I finished it on August 11th. It took me a month and a half to beat a 16-bit 2D platformer. It's not that the game is even really that long. I was just dragging my feet the entire way. I'd play a day, pass some levels, and then I wouldn't pick up the game for another week or so because I'd get wrapped up in other, better games that I would rather be playing.

The game overstays its welcome, big time. The levels are too long. There's too many stages. There's not enough checkpoints in the stages for when you die (and you'll be dying quite a bit). There's some annoying puzzles that are hard to figure out - like one stage in particular where you have to backtrack aaaalllllll the way back to the beginning of the stage to get a key that you didn't know you needed, or that was even there. Very annoying.

At the same time, I liked the concept of the game and I liked the controls. I liked that they did something new with the game instead of giving us something we've already seen and done before. I absolutely loved the storytelling sequences, and the colorful graphics and characters. So it is not like I completely had a bad time here. 

What it all boils down to is the impression the game left on me. Did I have fun? Occasionally. Would I recommend it to others? Sure. Am I interested in making 100% progress through the game and unlocking everything the game has to offer? I'd rather choke on a tennis ball stuffed with nails. Would I play through this again someday? Most definitely not.

So it looks like my overall impression is a negative one. I'm going to go easy on the game though, because it does have a lot going for it. Still, people aren't going to like this, because this game has a pretty big following. But to me - it is probably the weakest Mario game I've ever played.* I've never encountered a Mario game where I'm like "eh, I probably won't play that again." But here we are.

THE GRADE:

C

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*I've gone back and double checked my review scores. This game gets the same grade as Super Mario: The Lost Levels, meaning it is tied for the worst Mario platformer I've played. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA) and Super Paper Mario (Wii) are the lowest ranked Mario games overall at C-, but neither one is a platformer