Critique: Yoshi's Island

Yoshi's Island

Nintendo

Critique: One thing I need to preface before I go into my review of Yoshi's Island is that I am not the biggest fan of pure platformers. I've played a multitude of other Mario titles in the past, not one to completion. Part of the fun in doing a "Year of Critique" though is stepping outside your comfort zone, and that I managed to do. For its time, Yoshi's Island is likely an impressive game but I don't think it totally holds up when looked at through a modern lens. I know this game is beloved, so let me do my best to explain.

         First, let me say that I have absolutely no nostalgic ties to this game. I never played it as a kid, and only watched other kids my age play it a few times total. It's a game I always wanted to play, but I never had an SNES so I obviously never got a chance to get around to it. For this reason I can't accurately judge the game as if it were in a timeless bubble and I don't know if it's fair to. You don't judge a book for how good it was when it came out, and even if Video Games don't have nearly as deep a cannon as literature it's not like I'm reviewing a game from the 1970s. This game and many games that came out around the same time are absolutely competent and should be judged standalone as they are, compared to modern games. Is it fair to say that many of the flaws of this game are due to its time and that the understanding and fixing of said flaws helped get us to where we are today? Yes absolutely! Does that mean the games flaws should be ignored? No, if we pretended like old games had no flaws then new games would start falling into the same traps that old games did (and nobody wants that).

         Alright, that was a lot of negative energy so... let's start with some of the things I really liked about this game. It probably comes as no surprise to many that I loved the pixel art in this game. This is one of the best looking games I have ever played. I know many of my friends do not agree, but there's something about the crayon drawn style that just steals my heart like no other. This mix of art style and interesting gameplay in some levels comes together to create some really great moments that I don't think can be understated. On gameplay though, I have to say that in comparison to many other Mario games, including Super Mario World (the game's predecessor) the game feels very floaty. Jumps with Yoshi aren't super precise, the float mechanic can be inconsistent, and the fact that holding A in the air normally makes me flutterkick but not after jumping on an enemy is infuriating on some levels where jumping on an enemy into instant flutterkick is the only way to make some jumps. Losing lives in this way doesn't feel like a mistake from me, it feels like a mistake from the game, which is annoying. If there's one thing I expect of a platformer, let alone a Mario game, it should be tight controls, and this game does not control the best.

         Another big issue I had with the game was its difficulty. The game starts off way too easy. I know it's a game for kids, but with how fun and challenging some of the later levels get, you would expect it to ramp up a bit faster. The first two worlds are laughably easy, followed by easy, followed by decently challenging. You could argue that it was to give the player time to adjust to the controls, but I don't think that the player needed a third of the game to do so. As well while we are on the topic I felt as though aside from the last two, the games worlds lacked a bit of an identity. This wouldn't be inherently bad ( if the levels all felt like they stood out from one another, but unfortunately the first fifteen or so levels all seemed quite the same to me. I think this is partially why the game feels so easy too. Normally in other Mario games having an entire world be a certain theme allows the game to introduce you to ideas in some levels, and develop on them in later ones. In this game though, it hardly feels like any ideas in the first two worlds have any development at all, which is a real shame. The fun progression of skill that is present in other Mario games just wasn't there for most of the game. Even when you get to the later levels, I definitely felt like there was a severe lack of developing on ideas presented in earlier ones. This concept of gameplay evolution isn't non-existent, just lacking. As well, I know it's a nit-pick, but I absolutely could not get over how ugly these steel blocks look. I know this is a really common thing in older games, but I'd like to take a moment to appreciate how much better modern games handle platforms in platforming games. Gone are the days of these ugly steel blocks, now we have platforms that blend into the terrain and for that I am thankful. They are super unnecessary, and for a game like Yoshi's island get in the way of the comfy aesthetic it is going for.

"Steel Platforms" as described above

         Now I think it's important to mention when talking about the difficulty of this game and its levels to bring up that this game does have an easily trackable 100% meter. At the end of each level you earn a certain number of points equal to the number of red coins, star pieces, and flowers you collect. It works well in the setting of this game too, since many of the levels are quite big and have large areas out of the beaten path to explore. I would have liked this idea if it had been executed a bit better, but as it stands it feels like the 100%ability of this game was added as a lazy solution to get players to explore a world that doesn't give you any other incentives to explore it. Don't get me wrong, during the later levels I found it quite easy to 100% many of the levels since the bonus sections weren't too much off the beaten path, and gave nice rewards like a 1UP or a bunch of coins. In the earlier levels though, the extra bits are way too out of the way, and finding them really doesn't feel rewarding outside of 100%ing the game. This "exploration" is even worse since checkpoints are not placed after optional sections, so if you happen to die you have to replay the long tedious parts all over again. I want to say this is an oversight, but I really just think it's because the developers didn't think this aspect of the game all the way through. It's a shame too, because if this idea was done a bit better I really think I would have enjoyed the game a lot more. As it stands though, there's just not enough of an incentive or reward for going out off the beaten path aside from 100%ing the game (which is why 100% feels more like a lazy solution, than an intended feature). I think this may have been why I disliked all of the cave levels so much. They are almost all exploration (something I just said the game doesn't do very well) and not much else. It doesn't help that they are pretty ugly too.     

         I know reading all of the above may make you think that I really disliked Yoshi's Island, but in all honesty it's not a bad game by any means. I adored worlds five and six of this game, and thought there were some standout levels among the first four other worlds (Lakitu's Dream World, Prince Froggy's Fort, Jammin' through the trees). Overall though, I think this game serves as a really good reminder of how far we have come with 2D Mario games as a whole. Many may criticize the "Super Mario Bros Wii" line of games, and for good reason, but there is a whole lot they get right when comparing them to their ancestors. I still really enjoyed playing this game though as it is a wonderful token of Nintendo history. For all of its flaws, this is the first game starring Yoshi as the protagonist, and introduces some of the most iconic themes and characters of the entire Mario franchise. Also the game's gorgeous.

Recommendation: First and foremost, let me start with who I don't recommend this game to. I do not recommend this game to anyone who isn't a big fan of "older games". This game's age definitely shows and definitely will frustrate you at times. I as well do not recommend this game to most people looking for a challenge. This game is mostly very easy, and will probably bore you before you get to any of the more fun or challenging bits.

Who I do recommend this game to, is anyone who wants to experience a really important part of Mario, Nintendo, and honestly Platforming history. This game shows off a lot of growing pains of the early 1990s era of video games I can't deny that, but I think a lot can be learned from the mistakes this game makes. If you're looking for a charming platformer where you can play as Mario's cute dinosaur companion and don't care too much about a lack of difficulty, you will probably enjoy this one. For most though, I would say if you aren't patient with this game you won't last long enough to get the most out of it. It's definitely a cool game that you can learn a lot from (game designers in particular) but in many ways it falls short of its potential.

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And that's my critique on Yoshi's Island! I decided to stop splitting "Review" and "Critique" since I felt as though it was breaking the natural flow, and honestly if you want a quick recommendation you can look at the star rating alone or go down to the recommendation section at the end. That concludes my third month of reviews, join me soon for my picks for May.

Until then!

Malachi