Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Download Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and embark on a colorful adventure with Yoshi! Guide Baby Mario through charming levels, solve puzzles, and use Yoshi's unique abilities to defeat enemies. Experience this classic platformer and play now!
a game by Nintendo
Genre: Platformer
Platform: SNESSNES
Editor Rating: 8.1/10, based on 5 reviews, 4 reviews are shown
User Rating: 7.7/10 - 45 votes
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See also: High Score Games, Mario Games, Speedrun Games, Super Mario Games
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
  • Genre: action
  • Players: 1
  • Publisher: Nintendo
  • Developer: Nintendo

Mario, Mario - where fore art thou, Mario? With the Ultra 64 only a few months away, the era of the Super NES is almost over and we've still only seen one 16-bit Mario game. I tell ya, it really makes my blood boil. That's why it's so cool to see Yoshii's Island: Super Mario World 2 make it out before the Super NES fades away. The game may not actually have Mario in it, but you can feel his touch in every aspect of the gameplay.

The graphics are very reminiscent of Super Mario World - resembling it perhaps too closely. SMW was the first game ever for the Super NES, and 16-bit graphics (especially Nintendo's) have come a long way since then. Fortunately, the gameplay is solid throughout. As Yoshi, Mario's dino-buddy from SMW, it's your job to return a lost baby to its home. The quirky, cutesy puzzle-laden action that earned Mario the big bucks is present in every inch of every stage, with new enemies and play mechanics thrown in to spice up the mix.

Still, Yoshi's Island could've been done better. It doesn't really need rendered graphics, just more time put into a project that Nintendo clearly didn't have faith in (they almost didn't bring it to our shores). Hopefully Nintendo is gonna concentrate on these types of games more in the future. They may not appeal to the 'blood 'n' gore' audience that the company has worked so hard to win over, but there's always a place in gamers' hearts for a fun, well-made game. And Nintendo - please don't skimp on the Ultra 64 Mario. We've been patent for way too long.

Download Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

SNES

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP
  • Pentium II (or equivalent) 266MHz (500MHz recommended), RAM: 64MB (128MB recommended), DirectX v8.0a or later must be installed

Game Reviews

  • Nintendo for Super NES

This is like a fix for all of those Mario fans out there who've been waiting patiently for their hero to return. The graphics and sound effects aren't up to Nintendo's usual standards, but the gameplay is good, solid Nintendo fare. Enjoy!

One of the most anticipated (and requested) games for the Super NES is the sequel to Super Mario World. Yoshi's Island was worth the wait and proves that Nintendo is still able to turn out an exceptional game, not just a lukewarm "product." Yoshi is a work of art.

Super Mario Prequel

Yoshi's Island takes place before the other Mario games, returning to the days when the mustachioed hero was a helpless infant. In this adventure, baby Mario's been kidnapped by the evil Kamek, and the Yoshi dinosaurs are trying to return him to his parents. With little Mario clinging to his back, Yoshi sets out to face six worlds loaded with secrets and hidden areas...along with a plethora of bad guys!

The control is almost perfect, which is critical because this game has more techniques than previous Mario titles. Yoshi can use his long tongue to grab enemies, swallow them, and turn them into eggs that he fires at other enemies. Yoshi can also pound things into the ground and hover briefly. Several power-ups allow Yoshi to change from his dinosaur form into a helicopter, a submarine, and burrowing craft.

Sharing the spotlight, Mario can be controlled, too -- but only if he gets the star power-up that affords him invincibility for a brief period. Otherwise, it's just a matter of keeping Mario on Yoshi's back. One hit knocks off Yoshi's pint-sized rider, who then floats around the screen in a bubble, crying his little plumber's eyes out. If not retrieved in short order, he's whisked away by Koopas, and Yoshi loses a life.

ProTip: Remember these ghosts? They advance only when you turn your back to them.

New Look, Same Feel

Using the FX2 chip, this entry has a new look with lots of graphical variety. Some areas are set in the jungle, some underground, and a few look like they were drawn with crayon. Although the graphics of our dinosaur hero are simple, the game is loaded with dynamite visuals like gigantic lava monsters, spitting fish, and huge bosses that take up almost the entire screen -- just to name a few. There are also cleverly animated elements, such as enemies walking on stilts and dressed up like savage headhunters.

Touch the magic ring -- it's a check point.

The game has tunes similar to Super Mario World. Cutesy, kiddie music guides Yoshi, but it never goes overboard or gets overbearing. The sound effects are also similar to the other Marios, with the most arresting being Mario's haunting infant cries for help when he is forcibly dismounted from his dinosaur friend.

It's a Big, Big World

Yoshi's Island is big: Six worlds with eight areas in each are waiting to be plumbed. One of the best elements of the Mario games has always been the abundance of hidden items and concealed rooms. Yoshi follows suit. Each stage has a certain number of coins and other items to collect -- most of which are tucked away in hidden rooms. If you find all the hidden items in a world, you can enter one extra bonus area. At the end of each area, a counter reveals how many items you found (and missed). The bonus games range from testing reflexes to challenging your memory skills.

Fanatic Mario followers will probably make it a moral imperative to finish the game in one sitting. But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll find all the hidden items along the way. While the game is challenging, anyone who played the earlier entries will master Yoshi in no time.

  • Short on eggs? Just wait by a pipe and swallow as many enemies as you need.
  • Fire eggs in open spaces, and you may find a hidden question-mark cloud.
  • Use Yoshi's super stomp to break through loose floors, destroy enemies, and pound things into the ground.

Yoshi, the Islander

Yoshi doesn't rely on flashy graphics or jazzy effects to cover up an empty game. This is one of the last of a dying breed: a 16-bit game that shows real heart and creativity. Now if they would only do a 16-bit sequel to Zelda before the SNES is put to rest.

Super Mario 2: Yoshi’s Island is a popular game released in Japan. The game is a platform video game developed for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) by Nintendo. This game, though it is called Super Mario 2, it’s actually a prequel to the rest of the games within the Mario Bros timeline. The main character of the game is Mario.

The game was released in August 1995 in Japan and in October 1995 in North America. Two days later the game was released in Europe as well. Soon after the original release a port for Game Boy Advance was released. The game is currently in development for Wii’s Virtual Console.

The player controls Yoshi, whose target is to end each level with Baby Mario safe on his back. Unlike the other games, in this one the player does not take full control of Mario, but of other creatures. Mario is in this game an innocent infant. Players are allowed to play previous levels again, in order to hit better high scores. Yoshi and Baby Mario are both endangered all over the game and it is the player’s responsibility to finish the stage with Mario safe.

If Yoshi is hit by an enemy, Baby Mario will be sprung from his back and will float in a bubble while a timer counts down. Yoshi has to reunite with Mario as soon as possible and will have to do it before the timer reaches zero.

Yoshi has some abilities which will be featured in other games, such as the power of defeating enemies just by jumping on them. In this game keys are required to open doors too, like in other releases. Yoshi’s main attack mode is using his tongue to pull his enemies into his mouth. The eggs he creates by swallowing them can later be used as projectile weapons.

The player will be able to collect power-ups in the game. These power-ups are occasionally found in different places or levels. Yoshi can transform at some point in time into different vehicles (cars or helicopters), but this is only temporary. The player receives points at the end of each level. On the scale of 1-100, with 100 being the best, the player gets a rating based on how many enemies he defeated and so on.

The game for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was very popular and was rated with a total average of 9.1 out of 10 by no less than 2.547 users on GameSpot. Six critics rated the game with a total average of 9.5, which does not happen very often. Press members featuring reviews on IGN rated the game with a total average of 9.2. The game won Electronic Gaming Monthly’s Best Action Game of 1995 and scored good ratings all over the internet. The official Nintendo magazine featured the game on the list with 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time.

Snapshots and Media

SNES/Super Nintendo/Super Famicom Screenshots

See Also

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Mario and Yoshi
You take control of Mario or Luigi and try not let the falling from the top of the screen blocks with monsters inside, pile up high and reach the top.