Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (titled Super Mario: Yossy Island スーパーマリオ　ヨッシーアイランド Sūpā Mario: Yosshī Airando in Japan, and sometimes referred to simply as Yoshi's Island) is the prequel to Super Mario World, developed by Nintendo EAD. It stars Yoshi and his Yoshi clan who, while carrying Baby Mario, travel across Yoshi's Island to rescue Baby Luigi from Baby Bowser and his Magikoopa minion/caretaker, Kamek.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island has spawned a new series of platform games from the Yoshi series, although it is the fourth entry overall. The game has received a remake and later, a sequel, Yoshi's Island DS. Several later games borrow elements from this game, including Yoshi's Flutter Jump, egg throw, the inclusion of several more baby characters, and the game's setting. Few enemies, however, appear outside the Yoshi series.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was never released on Virtual Console on any system, although its remake was released on Virtual Console for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

Plot
From the first cinematic of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: A long, long time ago. . . This is a story about Baby Mario and Yoshi. A stork hurries across the dusky, pre-dawn sky. In his bill, he supports a pair of twins. Suddenly, a shadow appears in a gap between the clouds and races towards the stork with blinding speed. "SCRREEEECH!!!" "THE BABIES ARE MINE!"  WOW!!! Snatching only one baby, the creature vanishes into the darkness from whence it came. The second baby falls undetected towards the open sea. . . OH NO. . . Meanwhile, here is Yoshi's Island, home to all Yoshis. It's a lovely day, and Yoshi is taking a walk. HUH?!? Suddenly, a baby drops in onto his back. The baby seems to be fine. This is very fortunate! Wha-? Something else fell with the baby. . . Let's take a peek. . . It looks like a map. Maybe the stork was using it? But Yoshi can't figure it out. Yoshi decides to talk to his friends. AAAKK!!! Kamek, the evil Magikoopa, and kidnapper of the baby, quickly dispatches his toadies, when he discovers that he missed the other baby! Yoshi heads leisurely back to the other Yoshis, unaware of the danger at hand. Kamek's forces are actively searching the island. Will these two children ever reach their parents safely? From the second cinematic of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: This paradise is Yoshi's Island, where all the Yoshis live. They are all in an uproar over the baby that fell from the sky. Wait! The baby seems to know where he wants to go. . . The bond between the twins informs each of them where the other one is. The Yoshis decide to carry the baby to his destination via a relay system. Now begins a new adventures for the Yoshis and baby Mario.

Gameplay
Like previous entries in the Mario series, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is a two-dimensional, side-scrolling platform game. In addition to the typical run and jump controls, the Yoshis can also ingest enemies and manipulate objects using their tongue. After ingesting an enemy, the Yoshi can either eject or swallow them. Swallowing them allows the Yoshi to lay a Yoshi Egg, which he can carry up to six of; eating another enemy results in the egg at the front of the line to be discarded. While Yoshi has some eggs, the player can aim and throw them to damage enemies, ricochet them off solid surfaces, and skim them across water. Power-ups also exist in the form of Morph Bubbles, which allow Yoshi to transform into various forms, and the Super Star, which lets Baby Mario turn into Superstar Mario.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island introduces the concept of time-based health, a mechanic that is reused in future Yoshi's Island games. When the Yoshi comes into contact with an enemy, Baby Mario becomes separated from Yoshi, encased in a bubble and floating around in the air. While Baby Mario is in this state, a Countdown Timer appears, counting down in seconds until it reaches zero, in which time Yoshi must recover Baby Mario or Kamek's Toadies take Baby Mario, and the player loses a life. The timer starts at ten seconds at the beginning of each level, and can be increased to a maximum of thirty by collecting stars, using 10-Point Stars and 20-Point Stars, and entering Middle Rings. If the timer falls below ten, it increases back up to ten slowly after recovering Baby Mario. Entering a Middle Ring also marks the point where the Yoshi can continue from if it loses a life.

The objective of each level is to reach the goal roulette. There are ten spots on the roulette, and five of the spots can be made winning spots by collecting the five flowers in each level. Landing on one of the flower spots allows the player to play a Bonus Challenge.

Scattered throughout each level are three types of collectibles: thirty Stars, twenty Red Coins, and five Flowers. At the end of each level, the player's score is tallied with a maximum of 100 points, with flowers worth ten points each and Red Coins and Stars one point each. Attaining a perfect one hundred points in all eight levels in a world unlocks a Bonus Challenge and an extra level on the level selection map.

Controls
There are two controller configurations: Patient and Hasty. By default, Patient is selected. The control setup can be swapped at any time on the world map by scrolling over to the button with the Super Nintendo controller next to the "Score" option and selecting it; additionally, at some points, there are Message Blocks that allow the player to swap control configurations. The only difference between the "Hasty" and "Patient" settings is that with "Patient" the player must press to target and press it again to throw an egg, while with "Hasty" the player must hold  to target and release it to toss an egg.

World 0
World 0 consists solely of a short and basic tutorial level, named Welcome To Yoshi's Island, only playable after starting a new file.

World 1
World 1 takes place in a grassy plain, and gives a taste of the different types of stages in the game.
 * 1) Make Eggs, Throw Eggs
 * 2) Watch Out Below!
 * 3) The Cave Of Chomp Rock
 * 4) Burt The Bashful's Fort
 * 5) Hop! Hop! Donut Lifts
 * 6) Shy-Guys On Stilts
 * 7) Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy
 * 8) Salvo The Slime's Castle
 * Extra: Poochy Ain't Stupid

World 2
World 2 is a forested mountainous region in the uplands. It boasts more complex levels and more enemies.
 * 1) Visit Koopa And Para-Koopa
 * 2) The Baseball Boys
 * 3) What's Gusty Taste Like?
 * 4) Bigger Boo's Fort
 * 5) Watch Out For Lakitu
 * 6) The Cave Of The Mystery Maze
 * 7) Lakitu's Wall
 * 8) The Potted Ghost's Castle
 * Extra: Hit That Switch!!

World 3
World 3 is located in a steamy jungle, and contains a lot of water sections.
 * 1) Welcome To Monkey World!
 * 2) Jungle Rhythm...
 * 3) Nep-Enut's Domain
 * 4) Prince Froggy's Fort
 * 5) Jammin' Through The Trees
 * 6) The Cave Of Harry Hedgehog
 * 7) Monkeys' Favorite Lake
 * 8) Naval Piranha's Castle
 * Extra: More Monkey Madness

World 4
World 4 takes place in a sunset landscape.
 * 1) GO! GO! MARIO!!
 * 2) The Cave Of The Lakitus
 * 3) Don't Look Back!
 * 4) Marching Milde's Fort
 * 5) Chomp Rock Zone
 * 6) Lake Shore Paradise
 * 7) Ride Like The Wind
 * 8) Hookbill The Koopa's Castle
 * Extra: The Impossible? Maze

World 5
World 5 takes place on an icy mountain. The first three stages take place on the mountain, while the other five stages are in the sky.
 * 1) BLIZZARD!!!
 * 2) Ride The Ski Lifts
 * 3) Danger - Icy Conditions Ahead
 * 4) Sluggy The Unshaven's Fort
 * 5) Goonie Rides!
 * 6) Welcome To Cloud World
 * 7) Shifting Platforms Ahead
 * 8) Raphael The Raven's Castle
 * Extra: Kamek's Revenge

World 6
The last world is located in Bowser's Kingdom. It has lots of barren landscape and caverns, as well as lava, spikes, and many obstacles.
 * 1) Scary Skeleton Goonies!
 * 2) The Cave Of The Bandits
 * 3) Beware The Spinning Logs
 * 4) Tap-Tap The Red Nose's Fort
 * 5) The Very Loooooong Cave
 * 6) The Deep, Underground Maze
 * 7) KEEP MOVING!!!!
 * 8) King Bowser's Castle
 * Extra: Ultimate Castle Challenge

Allies
Allies marked with * are exclusive to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and the Game Boy Advance remake.
 * Huffin' Puffin
 * Melon Bug*
 * Muddy Buddy*
 * Poochy

Enemies
Enemies marked with * are exclusive to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and the Game Boy Advance remake. Italic enemies are invincible, and Bold enemies are almost invincible (can be defeated under certain conditions).

Bosses
Each world features a midway fort and an end-world castle (the fourth and eighth levels of each world, respectively), both with their own boss. Every boss is just an enlarged version of a basic enemy that Kamek super-sizes with his magic. The only exception is Prince Froggy, who remains at his normal size while Yoshi and Mario are shrunk; he then eats them and the battle is located in his stomach.

Morph Bubble
Entering a Morph Bubble causes Yoshi to be transformed into one of several different types of vehicles, each with their own unique capabilities. While in this state, Yoshi is allowed to move around as the vehicle without Baby Mario for a limited time before being pulled back to the Morph Bubble and being turned back to normal. If the player is able to hit a Yoshi Block while transformed, the transformation is automatically reversed at that location. Not shown below is Ski Yoshi, which is attained upon entering a house in certain snow levels; if the player hits an obstacle fails a jump as Ski Yoshi, they are turned into Snowball Yoshi.

Superstar Mario
Collecting a Super Star causes Baby Mario to be transformed into Superstar Mario. While in this state, Baby Mario can run around without needing to ride Yoshi, completely invincible. Superstar Mario is also capable of running on walls and ceilings, and glide with his cape.

Special Items
By winning Bonus Challenges and Mini Battles, the player's prizes can be one of several items. These items can be used at any time during a level (except during boss battles) by going to the pause menu and selecting one of them with. Up to 22 of these items can be carried at a time.

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was later ported to the handheld Game Boy Advance as part of the Super Mario Advance series, a series of updated remakes of classic Mario games. Known as Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, it was the third in the series, and boasted new levels and slightly altered graphics and dialogue from the original, as well as various other minor changes.

Soundtrack
A soundtrack CD was released in Japan on November 25, 1995, titled Super Mario: Yoshi Island Original Sound Version. Composed by Koji Kondo, the disc contains 26 tracks from the game.

Culver City event
An event was held in front of a Toys "R" Us in Culver City, California on October 5, 1995 at 3:00 PM to promote the North American release of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. At the event, there was a trailer and a large model Yoshi Egg surrounded by hay. The trailer held a banner with the words "Play It Loud" and stock art of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. The Yoshi Egg held a banner with the word "Nintendo". The event centered around "hatching" the Yoshi Egg. After the hosts interacted with the idle audience, children were lined up and given small, green hammers which they used to break open a designated area at the bottom of the egg. The Yoshi Egg, when breached, yielded stringed paper and a large model of the Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island cartridge. Group photos were then taken of children with the cartridge.

The organizers of the event also pledged to donate five hundred dollars to local schools on the condition that the principals of these schools sit on top of the Yoshi Egg for fifteen minutes. A person in a one-piece Mario and Yoshi costume also was seated on top of the Yoshi Egg. Participants could go on and off the egg by means of a forklift.

A raffle was then held with one winner receiving a Super Nintendo Entertainment System which includes a copy of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Other winners may have won t-shirts. Discount coupons were also distributed.

Material
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was the cover feature of Volume 77 of Nintendo Power. Nintendo Power also distributed eight promotional cards of some of the game's bosses part of their collectible Super Power Club series of cards which began in October 1992 with Volume 44 of Nintendo Power. The front of each card has an in-game image of the character and the reverse had a brief description of the character. The cards include:


 * Raphael the Raven
 * Roger the Potted Ghost (titled "The Potted Ghost")
 * Bigger Boo
 * Burt the Bashful (erroneously titled "Bashful Burt")
 * Hookbill the Koopa
 * Sluggy the Unshaven
 * Tap-Tap the Red Nose (titled "Tap Tap the Red Nose")
 * Naval Piranha

Videos
Nintendo of America distributed Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: A Magical Tour of Yoshi's Island, a six minute-long promotional VHS. The video featured Ken Lobb and the same person who narrated the Donkey Kong Country: Exposed promotional VHS. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was also featured in the The Invasion of Nintendo VHS. The video also featured Ken Lobb.

Another promotional video, titled 'The Invasion of Nintendo', was included with a copy of Nintendo Power. The video featured Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island along with some other video games. Ken Lobb made another appearance.

There exists another untitled promotional video that was likely shown on monitors in video game stores. It is about fifty seconds long and consists of clips of the game along with some narration. Most notably, however, the clips are from a beta version of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island that has some differences from the released game.

Adaptations
Volume 14 of Super Mario-Kun mostly focuses on the events of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, with the arc concluding in volume 15. The Super Mario-Kun version of the story features Mario and Luigi traveling back in time to stop adult Bowser and Kamek alongside Yoshi and Baby Mario.

A standalone manga, titled "Super Mario: Yoshi Island", was also released. The series, spanning three volumes, was written by Kazuki Motoyama, who had previously written a manga based on the game Yoshi, and published by Kodansha Limited.

Yoshi's Island was also adapted as part of the 4-Koma Gag Battle series, also titled "Super Mario: Yoshi Island".

Development
An early version of the game was demoed to Nintendo's marketing department, who rejected it due to the visuals "lacking punch" in comparison to Donkey Kong Country's pre-rendered 3D graphics. In response, Shigeru Miyamoto developed a more stylized and "cartoony" art direction for the game, which was accepted.

In an interview with game journalist Steven Kent, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that he wanted to make a game starring Yoshi as far back as Super Mario World's development. Miyamoto disliked previous Yoshi games (specifically mentioning Yoshi's Cookie, Yoshi's Egg and Yoshi's Safari, the latter being mistranslated as "Yoshi's World Hunters" in the interview) and wanted to make one more authentic to the Yoshi character.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was one of three completed games to use the Super FX 2 graphics chip, which allowed for larger sprites and more advanced effects such as sprite scaling and rotation (advertised as "Morphmation" technology), basic polygonal rendering, and advanced parallax scrolling.

Beta elements
According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the marketing department at Nintendo wanted him to use pre-rendered 3D sprites like in Donkey Kong Country for the game, rather than stylized 2D sprites. Additionally, found in the game's data are several sprites that go unused, such as several Super Mario All-Stars sprites and three unused Yoshi forms. There are also three unused Mini Battles that can be seen in the game's code.

NOTE: Yoshi must have the 10 Stars or 20 Stars item to activate this glitch.

In World 5-5: Goonie Rides!, the player should go to the area with the Helicopter Morph Bubble. The player should hit a Goonie and wait until the counter reaches zero. While the Toadies are taking Baby Mario away, the player should quickly hit him with Yoshi's tongue and touch the Helicopter Morph Bubble. Once Purple Yoshi has already transformed, the Toadies will try to take Baby Mario again. When they pop Baby Mario's bubble, the player must open their inventory and select the 10 Stars or 20 stars item. When the Toadies are gone, the player must wait until Yoshi transforms back to normal. The player is able to eat Mario if Yoshi licks him. Even though Baby Mario still missing, the game won't freeze, but the level is rendered impossible to complete.

This glitch must be done in Bowser's Castle, in the Door 1. The Player must go to an area where a ! Switch near a long lava pit can be found. The player would normally have to hit the switch in order to get across the lava, activating the Dotted Line Blocks. If the player jumps in the lava, in the direction of the switch, Yoshi will perform a last jump, since he burned himself. If done right, Yoshi will hit the switch, and come back to life. The music stops, and the player controls Yoshi normally, even though he was supposed to lose a life. If the player attempts this glitch while Yoshi only has 1 life left, he will have 0 lives, as shown in the pause screen. However, if the player repeats this process, Yoshi will instantly get 999 lives.

Staff
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was directed by Takashi Tezuka, Toshihiko Nakago, Shigefumi Hino, and Hideki Konno. Koji Kondo was the sound composer. Shigeru Miyamoto was the producer, and Hiroshi Yamauchi was the executive producer.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros.: This game's "end of level" fanfare is remixed at the end of the credits.
 * Super Mario Bros. 2: Part of this game's "character select" theme is part of Yoshi's Island's "Athletic" theme. Shy Guys and Snifits also return in this game.
 * Super Mario Bros. 3: Yoshi's sprite is based on the All-Stars version of the game.
 * Super Mario World: Baby Mario rides Yoshi, similarly to how Mario could ride him in Super Mario World. Additionally, the American and European versions of the game are sold as a sequel to Super Mario World' (although the game is actually a prequel by definition).

References in later games

 * Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars: The Magikoopa fought in Bowser's Keep has a Psychopath thought that strongly implies it is Kamek; while he is clearly familiar with Bowser in the English translation, the Japanese version of the line indicates that he recognizes Mario as the baby.
 * Super Mario 64: A part of the "Powerful Infant" theme is reused for the "Superstar Mario" theme in this game.
 * Paper Mario: Raphael the Raven returns, and Lava Piranha has a similar appearance to Naval Piranha. Additionally, one of Parakarry's attacks is similar to the Targeting system.
 * Mario Party 2: For the minigame Tile Driver, the Koopa Troopa pattern uses artwork taken directly from this game's artwork of the Koopa Troopa.
 * Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: The events of this are mentioned by Kamek.
 * Yoshi Story: This game was originally titled Yoshi's Island 64.
 * Mario Party Advance: Naval Piranha returns, alongside Goonies and other species.
 * Yoshi Touch & Go: This game is a retelling of Yoshi's Island's events.
 * Yoshi's Island DS: Yoshi's Island's events are mentioned at the start of the game, and the whole game is a sequel to Yoshi's Island story-wise.
 * Itadaki Street DS: This game features the map of Yoshi's Island.
 * Yoshi's New Island: A direct sequel to this game. Many of the enemies from the original game return, the final boss Baby Bowser's large form also returns, and Tap-Tap the Golden returns as an enemy now.

Trivia

 * The game was placed 18th in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997.
 * While the English version is called "Super Mario World 2", the original Japanese title is "Super Mario: Yoshi's Island". This was to draw a connection to Nintendo's earlier SNES success, Super Mario World. However, this also generated a lot of confusion as to whether to call it a sequel or not, even if it is clearly a prequel to the entire series. Similarly, Super Mario World was also known as Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan.
 * The game placed 185th in the 200th Issue of Game Informer's "Top 200 Games of All Times", the lowest ranked Mario series game.
 * This is the first Mario game with French and German localizations.
 * This is the first game where Yoshi can Flutter Jump, which he could not do in the original game.