Introduction: This is a story that took place long, long time ago... One day, a stork is on his way to deliver a pair of brothers. It?s getting dark, so he hurries across the dusky sky. Suddenly, a shadow appears and races towards the stork. Trumbled by this sudden appearance, the stork drops one of the boys, whilst the other is snatched by the shadow. The shadow, Kamek the Magikoopa, then vanishes into the darkness.

When Kamek reaches his castle, he discovers he has only kidnapped one of the two brothers. He then orders his koopa?s to get the other baby: baby Mario...

So Mario was the one falling from the skies. Luckily for him (and the player), baby Mario landed safely on the back of a Yoshi. Yoshi then gathers all other Yoshi?s (there?s obviously an island full of them) and together they decide to find Mario?s brother, Luigi.

This is where the game really starts. You?ll be playing as Yoshi, carrying Mario on your back, fighting your way through 6 different worlds in order to rescue Luigi.
Each of these worlds is split into 8 normal levels (of which 2 are boss-castles), but by gaining 100% on each level (by picking up stars, flowers and coins) you?ll also unlock 2 other levels.
So that?s it? No, not yet. Scattered throughout the levels, there are hidden minibattles. There are four different battles. Defeat your opponent in ?Throwing Balloons? (pressing the right buttons in order), ?Popping Balloons? (who can find the special item hidden in one of the balloons), ?Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest? (reduce your enemies hp?s) or ?Gathering Coins? (pretty obvious).
After each level, there?s also a chance of playing a bonus challenge. Flip Cards, Scratch & Match and the Slot Machines are three ways of receiving special items or 1-UP?s.

But you don?t care about this, you want to know about Yoshi?s moves, the graphics, maybe even the sound. I?m coming to that...
Yoshi himself is invincible. He can?t die (except by the classic ?falling-off-the-edge?). Sounds easy huh? It?s not! Yoshi might be invincible, but Mario isn?t. Whenever Yoshi takes damage, Mario floats of his back, which makes him a sitting (or: flying) duck for Kamek?s Koopa?s. Don?t worry, you?ll be given some time to get Mario back.
So Yoshi needs some ways to defend himself. He has some moves. He can jump and bounce on certain enemies, just like Mario will do when he?s become mature. But that?s not it! Yoshi can do more. Yoshi can eat enemies, turn them into eggs and aim these eggs on distant items, enemies and objects. Yoshi can also perform a powerfull stomp, which will certainly flatten most enemies. He can hover, another trick which will be used by the mature Luigi. And finally, he can morph...

Morph? Yes, never heard of ?Yoshi the Train? or ?Yoshi the Mechanical Mole?? Yoshi can also morph into a sportscar, helicopter and submarine. Unfortunately, you can?t always morph. Morphing was implemented by the developers to solve puzzles, or reach bonusses. It?s a nice way to add some variety in this game.
However, Yoshi?s not the only one capable of morphing. Baby Mario has his own trick: Superstar Mario. When Mario wears his yellow cape, he becomes invincible for a while and is capable of dashing, floating and climbing walls.

Graphics: Yoshi?s Island is about a baby, so the scenery should look kiddy. The graphic artists have succeeded! The results is a very cartoony look, of which nothing is square. As you can see on the images, flowers with happy faces and such stuff. And when I look at the backgrounds, I think they must have used dozens of crayons to create such backgrounds.

Sound: Just like in the SNES version (yes, this game was released in 1995 already), very happy tunes. But Yoshi didn?t say much in the SNES version. N64?s "Yoshi?s Story" finally gave vocals to the dinosaur, and yes, the GBA continues on this aspect. Every one of Yoshi?s moves is compared with a small (yet cute) voice coming from his mouth. These vocals are perfectly implemented in the kiddy look of this game. Even though the GBA?s speakers aren?t top-of-the-bill, it sounds great!

Final Comments: So everything is perfect on Yoshi?s Island? No, not exactly. There are some minor problems in the game (but seriously, which game hasn?t?). First of all, when Yoshi touches Fuzzy Wuzzy, he get?s high. Nothing wrong with that. In the SNES version, the screen went totally crazy when this happened: strange colors, platforms moved, gamespeed changed from slow to fast and vice versa, etc. It really gave you the feeling something went wrong, and shouldn?t happen again. In the GBA version however, the colors stay normal, gamespeed turns to slow, music gets annoyingly out of tune and the platforms become tiled (like mosaic).
A second problem, is the screen size. In the SNES version (which you played on a tv-set), the screen was bigger. The GBA simply has a smaller screen. You don?t have to be a genius to see this might be a problem when searching for that last coin, or when jumping to another platform.
Another minor problem, is the lack of multiplaying options. Yet again, Nintendo supplies us with Mario Bros. It was fun one time, but it sure isn?t when you get this game for the third time (SMA, SMA2 and SMA3). They could also have chosen to use the minibattles for multiplay...

Should I buy this game?

Yes!

Why?

SMA3 is currently the best 2D-platform game available on GBA.

But I already own the SNES version.

Be glad, now you can compare. You?ll now find graphic improvements, sound improvements and a sleep mode.

Sleep mode?

Yes, when you don?t play for a minute or so, the GBA turns into a battery-conserving mode. Your GBA stays on, but doesn?t display anything on screen. Later, you can resume playing from exactly where you paused.

Aren?t you gonna give a grade?

No, I don?t. But if I did, it would surely get a 9 out of 10.

Reviewed by: Dennis