oshi's Island marked that Nintendo once again tried their hand at creating a separate series and storyline to capitalize on the ever popular Mario Bros games; and once again, they hit it out of the park.
Nintendo's Lovable dinosaur
Like the other games that originated from the Mario Bros franchise, the game centers around one of the role playing characters - Yoshi. The entire storyline is set by Baby Mario falling out of the sky and landing on Yoshi’s back. As funny and realistic as that may sound, the explanation is light hearted and provides great background for the rest of the games duration. Your objective is to move throughout the levels around the island with Baby Mario. Depending on the stage, you can play as one of the various colored Yoshi's. Speaking of colors, the entire game boasts an incredibly vibrant color pallet for a game that screams 1995.
Although relatively simple in looks and storyline, the game can actually prove to be very challenging; even at a more experienced age. Throughout all of the levels, you must defeat all of the enemies while not losing Baby Mario. If an enemy hits you, Baby Mario is taken off your back in a floating bubble. Eggs are shot from Yoshi to break the hovering bubble. If you are not able to break the bubble before the timer runs out, you lose and must restart. To defeat all of your enemies, Yoshi is able to jump and crush them as well as eat them and turn them into egg projectiles; which he can have stockpiled trailing behind him. The eggs can be aimed with the cross hair and shot at basic level enemies and become very important in boss fights. There are bosses at the end of every level which require different strategies to defeat them, and some prove to be quite difficult.
In addition to the basic levels and storyline, you can replay the levels you have previously beaten to find all of the special items. In doing so, you will unlock the bonus levels. This of course is not a quick endeavor, which lucky for you, isn't a big deal because you can pause and save your game progress. In addition to playing as the various Yoshi's, there are parts in some of the stages that you can actually play as Baby Mario as well. Although his gameplay is not lengthy, it's nothing that we didn't already expect being that it's not a Mario title.
Like the other Super Mario Bros games, the game sounds are consistent and pleasant to listen to. No need to turn the audio off and listen to your own music while playing. Yoshi's Island was fun as a child and remains fun as an adult. From game aesthetics to gameplay, it still holds up some 25 years later. Yoshi's Island is highly recommendable for anyone thats looking for a side scrolling title and wants to take a trip down memory lane.
Check out our full length video review below!
