1. Yoshi's Island Animation Download
2. Yoshi's Island Animation Videos

Yoshi's Island on Switch performs just like the original with the effect perfectly intact. But it definitely doesn't update the groundswell at the same animation rate as the SNES.

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Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, released on the SNES close to the end of its lifespan, is the first platformer in the Yoshi's Island sub-series of the Super Mario Bros. franchise, starring Mario's Non-Human Sidekick, Yoshi. It is also the last 2D Mario series game until New Super Mario Bros. came out for Nintendo DS eleven years later.

The game was released in Japan on August 5, 1995, and in North America two months later on October 4. A sequel, Yoshi's Island DS was released on November 13, 2006.

The story is set before the original Super Mario Bros. Kamek^note , who is at the time young Bowser's caretaker, looks into the future and sees the fate of his young master. To prevent this, he blindsides the delivery stork as it's carrying the Mario Bros. to their parents but only snags Luigi, dropping Mario over Yoshi's Island and right on the back of one of the dinosaurs. Seeing the map that was bundled with the baby Mario, the Yoshis decided to work together in a relay style fashion to rescue Luigi, all the while dodging Kamek's troops who are searching for Mario.

Gameplay-wise, it shares much in common with its parent series and it even has many of the common Mario enemies. The game introduced Yoshi's egg-throwing ability as well as the Ground Pound attack (an attack that would be given to Mario himself in the 3D games and the New Super Mario Bros. series). One difference, however, is that Yoshi doesn't have traditional Hit Points; instead, every time Yoshi is hit, Mario flies off Yoshi's back and a timer counts down. The player must retrieve the screaming baby before the countdown reaches zero, otherwise he'll get kidnapped and Yoshi loses a life. The amount of seconds on the countdown can be increased by collecting stars.

In the fall of 2002, the game was given an enhanced port for the Game Boy Advance, known as Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3. The port includes 6 new difficult Bonus Levels called the Secret Levels that are unlocked after beating the game, changes some of Extra Levels, and has a number of other minor adjustments such as lightening the color palette. This version was later one of the ten Game Boy Advance games available to participants in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program, given a limited release to early adopters of the Nintendo 3DS for free on its eShop in December 2011. The game was later made available on the Nintendo Switch as part of the Super Nintendo library for Nintendo Switch Online.

This video-game provides examples of:

• Advancing Boss of Doom:
  • The final battle against Baby Bowser. Not exactly an Advancing Wall of Doom, but once you hit him four times, he gets pretty pissed off and tries to charge into the foreground. Failing to defeat him in time makes him destroy the terrain, making you fall to your death. That is, unless you can perform the action seen here.
  • Sluggy the Unshaven is this- he cannot damage Yoshi in any way, only slowly advancing and pushing Yoshi back. However, the end of the platform leads to a Bottomless Pit...
  • The fight against Roger the Potted Ghost involves you in a push-of-war battle on a platform with one Bottomless Pit at each end.
• Antepiece: Lots. An example: Naval Piranha's castle features several rooms teaching the player how to ricochet eggs off walls to collect items. This is the only way to damage the boss at the end of the stage.
• Art Course: A few of the latter levels would have the night sky take an appearance similar to The Starry Night.
• Artifact Mook: Though enemies from the dream-themed Super Mario Bros. 2 (with said enemies being explicitly tied to the nature of the dream world of Subcon) already started appearing in subsequent Mario games, the case of Shy Guys and Snifits in this game is notable because it takes place chronologically before all games released up to that point (and since), including Super Mario Bros. 2 itself.
• Artistic License – Biology: When you are inside Prince Froggy, you are supposed to Attack Its Weak Point, which turns out to be its uvula. Only humans have uvulas. And the uvula isn't in the stomach, and it triggers the gag reflex, not a bowel movement.
• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • Lampshaded in the battle with Sluggy the Unshaven: 'Just remember, this slug has no weak points!' Unless you count the big red heart in the center of its body, that is. And guess where you have to aim at to hurt him?
  • Lampshaded with Naval Piranha as well. The name is a dead giveaway.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: All of the bosses are enhanced by Kamek's magic in order to make his monsters grow. Inverted with Prince Froggy, though; instead of him being 50 feet tall, you're 2 inches tall.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: Final battle theme with Mega Baby Bowser. Blistering electric guitars, anyone?
• Autosave: The game saves after every level.
• Background Boss: The final battle against Giant Baby Bowser. Friendly balloons show up to deliver giant eggs to you, and unlike normal gameplay, you throw them into the background to hit Bowser.
• Badly Battered Babysitter:
  • Except it's not the babies delivering the battering...
  • There's also Kamek. When the first thing your charge does is stomp you flat, there's a reason why he panicks when Baby Bowser wakes up.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Upon reaching the boss room in the level 'King Bowser's Castle', you'll at first only find Kamek ordering you to 'HAND OVER THE BABY!!!', then Baby Bowser wakes up and stomps Kamek flat.
• Bandit Mook: The aptly named Bandits don't just make you drop Baby Mario, they run off with him, and you have to chase it to get him back. The game has a few other enemies that do this, namely Ukikis (the monkeys), and frogs. Also, Mousers steal your eggs.
• Batter Up!: Sluggers are capable of using their bats to knock back just about anything that is thrown their way, from eggs, to watermelon seeds, to Chomp Rocks.
• Big Bad: Kamek, who kickstarts everything.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Bigger Boo's Fort, which introduces several ghost enemies including the typical Boos, and itself has a King Mook Boo as its boss.
• Book-Ends: World 6 Secret, 'Endless World of Yoshis' in Advance 3, the last segment of which is... the intro level, 'Welcome To Yoshi's Island'.
• Born Unlucky: The yellow Yoshi must brave through every fourth level which includes the fortress and mini-boss. The blue Yoshi has to storm every castle which includes the world's boss (except the last, which is Bowser's Castle for the green Yoshi).
• Boss Arena Idiocy: Tap-Tap the Red Nose is invincible to all Yoshi's attacks. Good thing he's just chilling on a stack of breakable blocks above lava!
  • The same goes for Roger the Potted Ghost, who likewise cannot be harmed by any of Yoshi's attacks, but is fought in a room with bottomless pits that Yoshi can push him into.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Secret and Extra levels have the game's most difficult challenges, plus many are long and without checkpoints. Each Extra level is unlocked after scoring 100 points in all regular levels of a world, while the Secret ones (exclusive to the Advance port) are available after beating the game for the first time.
• Bubbly Clouds: The last leg of World 5 goes from the mountains to the sky, with cloud platforms galore.
• Bullet Seed: After eating a watermelon, Yoshi can spit watermelon seeds at enemies to kill them.
• Canis Latinicus: In Yoshi's Island there are six main enemy classifications, each of which is given 'scientific nomenclature': Edibilis Boringus^note , Harrassimentia Phlyoverus^note , Projectilia Ritebakatchia^note , Ucantia Defeatus^note , Dudim Phreykunoutonthis^note , and Mostosti Vomitonus^note .
• Checkpoint Starvation: The first four world's extra stages do not feature middle rings at all. Granted, the levels are significantly shorter than many of the regular ones, and one is a maze without a really significant middle point, but still!
• Chekhov's Skill: Bouncing an egg off the wall. What, you thought the Naval Piranha level just happened to train that to hell?
• Chest Monster: Fooly Flowers. They have fangs and an evil smile, and when you get near them, they fall down, and roll along the ground trying to kill you.
• Children in Tow: The Huffin' Puffins are generally followed by a line of smaller ones. You can bump off the parent and use the children as egg substitutes.
• Color-Coded Characters: Each different-colored Yoshi does the same numbered stage in each world (green starts with the first level, pink does the second, etc). The exception is the final world, which always ends with the green Yoshi.
• Conspicuously Light Patch: Each level in the original game had 20 red coins, disguised as and placed among regular gold coins. However, if you look very closely, you'll notice that the disguised red coins have a subtle red tint to them, which makes them easy to distinguish from the gold coins once you know what to look for, especially on emulator. This was fixed in Advance 3 so they all look the same.
• Constellations: Upon defeating Raphael the Raven, he flies off into the sky and becomes a constellation.
• Cosmetic Award: A Perfect Score in an Extra Level adds a Star on the title screen.
• Critical Annoyance: When you get hit, Baby Mario floats around in a bubble crying until you get him back. You will also hear a beeping noise.
• Crosshair Aware: The final boss, and a handful of regular enemies as well.
• Cute, but Cacophonic: Mario is cute as a baby, but you won't like to hear him cry.

• Defeat by Modesty: Burt the Bashful is defeated by repeatedly hitting him so his pants fall. After they fall completely, he deflates and explodes out of embarrassment.
• Degraded Boss: Big Slime/Salvo the Slime, a boss from the first game's first world, reappears in a few endgame fortress levels guarding keys as an altered mini-boss of sorts. Ironically, it's actually much harder this time, as future appearances don't have it drop Lemon Drops to refill your eggs, forcing you to be wise with using them.
• Developers' Foresight: If you skip the Naval Piranha boss battle by defeating her before it even begins, Kamek will swoop in and scream, 'OH, MY!!!' This is a sign that the developers anticipated this being possible.
• Disc-One Nuke: Getting 100% Completion on any given level is quite the feat, considering that, other than five flowers and twenty red coins - both well hidden - the player must also have his or her stars reaching the Cap of thirty by the end of the level; that said, managing to do so in every level in the first world awards the player with the Flip Cardsbonus minigame by making it accessible at will. This means that - especially when dissing the whole 'avoid Kamek and you get 10 lives' thing - you can use the minigame purely as a source for items, including a whole pack of egg-ammo, the possibility to tell red and yellow coins apart, an 'add 20 stars' item... you get the picture.
• Down the Drain: 'Naval Piranha's Castle' and 'The Impossible? Maze'.
• Early Installment Weirdness: This is the only game where Baby Bowser speaks in Baby Talk. In all his subsequent appearances, he is able to speak clearly, probably as a sign of him maturing.
• Elite Mook: The Zeus Guys. The near invicible bandit sub-species that throw energy balls at you and will punch and kick you if you get too close. They're usually in duos.
• Evolving Title Screen: The title screen places flags on finished worlds, switches to the final world once reached and adds instruments to the music.
• Evolving Music: For each world you unlock, the map theme gets additional instruments.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: People occasionally get confused and assume that Baby Bowser and Bowser Jr. are the same. But Baby Bowser is Bowser as a Baby.
• Fake Difficulty: The GBA port introduces bits of this due to the noticable screen crunch making it easy to run or jump into enemies just offscreen.
• Fat Bastard: The fat Shy Guys that are immune to being stomped due to their bulk. Yoshi can eat them to create huge eggs that act very similar to a POW block.
• Flipping Helpless: This is how you defeat Hookbill the Koopa in Yoshi's Island; Flip him over, then Ground Pound their underside to cause damage.
• Foul Flower: Zigzagged. On one hand, there are some helpful smiley flowers, such as the five flowers in each level that Yoshi can collect for bonus points. On the other hand, there are some enemies based on flowers, such as Fooly Flowers, which pretend to be collectible flowers, then drop to the ground and start rolling at Yoshi when he gets close.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Baby Bowser has no actual involvement in the plot and is a complete non-entity until the final battle, but everything Kamek does in this game traces back to Bowser having no successful future thanks to the Mario Bros.
• Ground Pound: Trope Namer, and the first time it was ever usable by the player in a Mario game.
• Ground Wave:
  • The ground wobbling and rippling is one of the side-effects while Yoshi is dizzy.
  • During the first phase of the Final Boss, both Yoshi and Baby Bowser's Ground Pounds cause damaging shockwaves that literally ripple across the floor.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: The fortress and castle levels are often long and challenging, but the boss fights in them are usually cakewalks to beat—unless you're going for a 100% run anyway.
• The Heavy: Kamek is the most recurring antagonistic presence in the game, showing up at every fort and castle to empower Bowser's minions.
• Helpful Mook:
  • Green Gloves, an enemy type that can catch your eggs and throw them back at you, can potentially be the Accidentally Assisting type. The game exploits this for some of its puzzles. For example, in World 2-2 (where they're first introduced), you can trick one into hitting an out-of-reach ? cloud for you, which contains a 1-Up.
  • Muddy Buddy, if hopped on, coats Yoshi's feet in mud, making him immune to Spikes of Doom.
• Human Snowball: If you hit a rock on a skiing level, you will trip and turn into a snowball.
• 100% Completion:
  • Each level allows Yoshi to collect 30 stars^note , 20 red coins, and 5 flowers (each of which provides a specific number of points adding up to 100). In a single world, collecting a full 100 points from seven different levels unlocks a replayable Bonus Challenge that allows you to farm items or lives, and collecting 100 points in all eight levels of a world will unlock an Extra Level for the world, which also allows you to collect 100 points.
  • In the Super Mario Advance 3 version, defeating Baby Bowser also unlocks a Secret Level for each world with another 100 points to collect (for a total of an even thousand points in each).
• I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: 'Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy'.
• Implacable Man: Tap-Tap the Golden, encountered in the cave behind Door 3 in Baby Bowser's Castle. He will steadily chase you across the cave and cannot be damaged or defeated by any means; even if he falls into one of the Bottomless Pits he will somehow manage to jump back out. Your only option is to knock him backwards with eggs and flee.
• Insistent Terminology: In the original SNES version of the game, Mario and Luigi are repeatedly referred to as twins. In the GBA version, however, they were instead called brothers.
• Interchangeable Antimatter Keys : In castle levels, it is apparent.
• Interface Screw: Four words: 'Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy.'
  • The same thing happens whenever Yoshi will attempt to throw a giant egg.
  • There is also the 'Grim Leecher', which thankfully is encountered only in a bonus level in Yoshi's Island.
• Jungle Japes: Much of World 3 is themed on the jungle.
• Line Boil: Some of the text has this.

• Make My Monster Grow: All of the bosses and minibosses are just normal enemies that are enlarged by Kamek's magic. Inverted one time when Kamek shrinks Yoshi and he gets eaten by the boss.
• Mini-Dungeon: Halfway through each world, Yoshi ventures into a Fortress like grown Mario (and his friends whenever present) would do in a 2D platform adventure. The difference is that each Fortress houses a different Mini-Boss.
• Mushroom Samba: Touching a Fuzzy causes Yoshi to stumble around as if drunk for a little while, screwing up his movements and causing the level geography to warp. As it happens, the 'scientific name' of the Fuzzies is Dudim Phreykunoutonthis.
• Musical Nod: The end credits play a slowed-down remix of the Super Mario Bros. Course Clear fanfare.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The American TV commercial. It made this game look like a Grossout Game.
• Never Say 'Die': Kamek's euphemisms before the boss battles.
  Kamek:(before facing Roger the Potted Ghost) So give him here before you accidentally get hurt!
  Kamek:(before facing Marching Milde) Yoshi! Oh dear... Well, Marching Milde will pound you to bits!!
  Kamek:(before facing Hookbill the Koopa) Little Koopa come through for me now! Go forth and rock Yoshi's world!
  Kamek:(before facing Raphael the Raven) I banish you to forever twinkle in the heavens, BE GONE!!
• No-Damage Run: In-universe, the player is required to do this in the boss fights in order to get the perfect score for the level. Keeping the timer up to 30 in the levels is hard enough, but even one slip up during the boss fights will rob you of at least 1 point off the baby timer, forcing you to replay the level again to get the full 100. You can't use inventory items in boss fights, which means no star point recovery items either. You can, however, get around this by bouncing an egg off the wall twice before it hits the boss, making them drop two point recovery stars. Given how big the bosses are, it's generally not very difficult. (but the stars usually drop right on top of the boss, making them extremely difficult to grab without taking even more damage) The GBA version also adds a death count that shows up in the secret ending for 100% Completion which then gets added to your file. Getting No. 1 requires you to not lose a single life throughout the course of the entire game (or at least none that get autosaved).
• Obstacle Ski Course: Two of the snow levels have skiing sections where you need to dodge rocks and jump over bottomless pits.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Yoshi's expression while he's shrunken by Kamek before Prince Froggy eats him. Oddly enough, he has the same look on his face after he goes through Froggy's other end after the battle, but that's probably because of how he came out.
  • Kamek later gets one in the same world if Yoshi performs a One-Hit Kill on Naval Piranha by firing an egg at her before even starting the battle.
• Precision F-Strike: If Naval Piranha is defeated before his boss fight, Kamek yells, 'OH, MY!!!' Where this trope counts is in the Japanese version: Kamek yells, 'チクショ〜！' ('chikusho~!'), which generally translates to, 'Damn it!'
• Retcon: Prior Mario games stated that Luigi was Mario's younger brother; this game established instead that they are twins. Additionally, this is the first time that Mario and Luigi are portrayed as natives of the Mushroom Kingdom; earlier materials depicted them as foreigners.
• Ring-Out Boss:
  • Roger the Potted Ghost can only be defeated by pushing his pot into a pit, and he is aided by a pair of Shy Guys who are busy pushing his pot in the opposite direction.
  • Sluggy the Unshaven tries to push you into theBottomless Pit.
  • Tap-Tap the Red-Nose is defeated only by destroying the blocks underneath him, and then knocking him into the lava below.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: For a game designed after a baby's coloring book, Yoshi's Island is a much tougher game than Super Mario World. There's no way to warp or skip levels, the stages are longer and more maze-like, stage hazards are more dangerous and the enemies are more aggressive. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to get extra lives.
• Shout-Out: An example not from the game itself, but its advertising: the TV commercials for this game were a send up of the Mr. Creosote sketch from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
• Skippable Boss: You can skip the fight against Naval Piranha by killing him before Kamek shows up. This can be done by positioning yourself on the far left end of the boss room ledge (so the cutscene doesn't trigger) and throwing an egg at the Piranha Plant.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Much of World 5 takes place in the mountains. Naturally, several levels contain snow and ice, and there's even an Obstacle Ski Course.
• Squashed Flat: There are 3D doors that fall down, and if Yoshi gets caught underneath one of them, he will peel off the door in a paper-like state (which was considered very impressive animation for SNES standards). This is also how Kamek ends up when you face Baby Bowser.
• Stock Sound Effects: Baby Mario's crying in the SNES version is a stock sound clip of a baby crying. The GBA port replaces Baby Mario's cries with a new one recorded by Charles Martinet, but Baby Luigi's cries on the world map still use the old sound effect.
• Take That!: Harry Hedgehog is a blue hedgehog who runs very fast and tries to ram into you. This is a jab at Sonic the Hedgehog. In later games after the end of Sega and Nintendo's bitter rivalry, you may notice that Harry is now purple.
• Take That, Audience!: The Extra 1 level is named 'Poochy Ain't Stupid!' This is the game telling you that if you die at this level, it's not the dog that's stupid, it's YOU.

• Terms of Endangerment: Kamek often refers to Yoshi by cutesy pet-names in his banter prior to boss fights.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Nintendo Power's 'A Journey Through Yoshi's Island' promo video featured a clip of the Final Boss battle at the very end. It also mentions Baby Luigi during its summarization of the game's story, while the game itself never refers to him by name (in fact, he wasn't actually shown on camera until the very end).
• Unending End Card: The ending is a nice one, but if you want to keep playing after beating the final boss, you'll have to reset. No button will take you away from the picture of Baby Mario and Baby Luigi.
• Unique Enemy: Several.
  • The game's only Gargantua Blargg is found in 1-4.
  • Blindfold Boo only appears once in a secret area of 2-4. The GBA remake rectified this, as they also appeared in Secret 6.
  • The Lunge Fish, an enemy that can eat Yoshi alive, only appears in 3-7.
  • Also in 3-7 is Barney Bubble, which only appears just before the Lunge Fish section. No longer the case in the GBA remake, which added them to Secret 6.
  • There are three unique Lakitu enemies which each only appear in a single level. Aqua Lakitu only appears in 3-8, Fishin' Lakitu only appears in 4-8, and Thunder Lakitu only appears in 5-1.
  • The red Bullet Bill launchers, though Dummied Out in the original version, appear only once in the GBA remake, in Secret 6.
• Warm-Up Boss: Burt the Bashful and Salvo the Slime for World 1. Both are incredibly easy boss fights, particularly the latter since he can't even directly harm you.
• Womb Level: The boss battle for World 3's miniboss, Prince Froggy, takes place in said frog's stomach since he eats a shrunken-down Yellow Yoshi right before the battle. The only way to damage him is to aim eggs from the Shy Guys he eats at his uvula. Yoshi gets out through the back passage... and gives the camera a look of absolute shock as the boss dies.

Yoshi's Island DS, later released in Japan as Yoshi Island DS (ヨッシー アイランド DS, Yosshī Airando Dī Esu), is a platformingvideo game developed by Artoon for the Nintendo DS. Published by Nintendo, it was released in North America and Australasia in November 2006, in Europe in December 2006, and in Japan in March 2007.^[1] It is the sequel to the 1995 SNES game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Announced at Nintendo's E3 press conference in May 2006,^[2] the game was well received by critics, scoring an average of 81% on Metacritic's aggregate.^[3] The game was originally to be titled Yoshi's Island 2, though its name was changed one month before its North American release. On April 1, 2015, the game was made available for the Wii U via the Virtual Console service shortly after a Nintendo Direct presentation.^[4]

The game's story focuses on the Yoshi clan as they attempt to rescue newborn children who have been kidnapped by Kamek.^[5]Yoshi's Island DS uses the same updated graphical style as Yoshi Touch & Go but retains the same core gameplay as its Super Nintendo Entertainment System predecessor;^[2] but whereas the SNES game featured only Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, DS introduces Baby Peach, Baby Donkey Kong, and Baby Wario, while allowing the player to control Baby Bowser. Each baby bestows a different ability upon Yoshi.^[5] The objective of the game is to use these abilities to progress through various themed worlds. An interquel, Yoshi's New Island, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in March 2014.

Gameplay[edit]

Yoshi's Island DS's gameplay is the same as the previous game, with some additions. Just like in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island the player guides various colored Yoshis through side scrolling stages.^[6] Yoshi can jump and hover (flutter jump) for a short time, eat enemies and turn them into eggs (which can be used for things like hitting switches and defeating distant enemies) and pound the ground (to smash crates, for example).^[5] Some stages offer Yoshi the ability to morph into vehicles for a short time.^[6] Like the original Yoshi's Island, the DS game differs from many platforming series in that Yoshi does not have a life bar; when Yoshi is hit, the baby he is carrying falls off his back and Yoshi must retrieve him or her before a timer expires (unless Yoshi falls on something that torments him instantly, such as a lava pit or a spike field).^[5]

What makes Yoshi's Island DS different is the addition of five babies for Yoshi to carry, each bestowing a different ability — Baby Mario allows Yoshi to dash and makes special 'M' blocks appear, and can grab Super Stars to become Super Baby Mario, and grants ricocheting eggs; Baby Peach allows Yoshi to float and fly on wind currents and grants a more forgiving timing to use Yoshi's flutter jumping abilities effectively; Baby Donkey Kong can grab and swing on vines and ropes, grants a special dash attack, allows Yoshi's eggs to explode as per Yoshi's Story (but they do so on impact) and allows Yoshi to push objects faster; Baby Wario uses his magnet to attract metal objects and allows Yoshi's eggs to bounce; and Baby Bowser spits fireballs, but the Yoshi carrying him cannot make eggs, though the eggs Yoshi already carries can bounce. The last three babies slow down Yoshi's movement and make the timing for his flutter jumping less forgiving.^[5][7] The need to switch babies at key points adds a puzzle element to the game.^[7]

The Nintendo DS's two screens act as one tall screen;^[6] however, in practice, this essentially just gives the player a better view of the surroundings and, save for one boss battle, (Hector the Reflector, where the bottom screen acts as a mirror through which to see Hector during the battle) only provides the benefit of being able to see more (above) and, when the player is on the top screen, below.^[5] The game does not make use of the bottom screen's touch sensitivity for basic gameplay, though it is an option for selecting levels and in some mini-games.^[5] Each of DS's five worlds has two bosses, each with a weakness that must be identified and exploited. Most of the time, these are simply giant-sized versions of normal enemies, though some are more inventive.^[7]

Flowers and coins, as well as stars, are scattered around the game's stages. These are totaled at the end of each stage and a score is given depending how many of each were collected^[5] (a maximum of 30 stars, 20 red coins and 5 flowers). Sufficiently high scores are required to unlock one of the two sets of secret levels^[5] (the other set being unlocked upon completing the game, similar to the GBA remake of the original game). Special character coins are also introduced. Missing from the game are the power-ups of sorts — like the ability to spit seeds by eating watermelons — which were present in the original.^[7] The fire breathing ability is retained though: Yoshi can use it when he snags a torch or fireball with his tongue. This allows him to shoot streams of fire up to three times. Keys found in the stages unlock mini-games and doors that would be closed otherwise.^[5][6]

Plot[edit]

As in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Baby Mario and the Yoshi clan must rescue Baby Luigi, who was snatched by Bowser's minion, Kamek, who also wants to kidnap every baby around the world. However, this time the Yoshis have the combined assistance of both Baby Peach and Baby Donkey Kong, as well as the stork, who escaped Kamek's botched capture. They later join with Baby Wario and Baby Bowser, who offer their specialized abilities so that the group may proceed.^[5] However, Baby Wario's lust for treasure leads him to abandon the group, while Baby Bowser is captured by Kamek (who is actually the future Kamek that appears throughout the forts and castles), and later kicked out by the Adult Bowser, who came from the future, because of his baby counterpart insulting him. Baby Bowser then joins the group until he notices Kamek is after him, leaving Yoshi and the other babies to continue their journey.

Much later in the game, Kamek's sinister plan for kidnapping the babies around the world is revealed. He and Bowser traveled back in time in search of the 'star children' - seven babies whose hearts possess unimaginable power necessary for him to conquer the universe. Despite kidnapping all of the babies, they could not find a single star child. Yoshi's group later arrives at Bowser's castle and find Baby Wario and Baby Bowser, arguing over the treasure from Bowser's castle. They later join the group and as they arrive at the final room, Baby Bowser betrays them, claiming that Yoshi and the other babies wanted Bowser's treasure in his castle. Yoshi easily defeats him and Kamek arrives, along with Bowser, angered at what Yoshi did to his infant self.

Despite this, the babies and Yoshis prevail in both defeating Bowser, and forcing Kamek and Bowser to retreat to their present time. Yoshi and the babies then retrieve Baby Luigi and the other babies. Bowser's castle then self-destructs, but Yoshi and the other babies (with the help of the other storks carrying all of the babies) escape unharmed. The storks continue to bring all the babies back to their respective homes.

In a post-credits scene, six of the star children are revealed to be Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, Baby Donkey Kong, Baby Wario and Baby Bowser. Immediately thereafter, the seventh and final star child is revealed to be a newly hatched Baby Yoshi, who is also strongly implied to be the very same Yoshi that the grown up Mario Bros. would go on to rescue and ally with in Super Mario World and subsequent Mario games.

Development[edit]

Yoshi's Island DS was announced at E3 2006 under the name Yoshi's Island 2,^[2] originally featuring only baby versions of Mario, Peach, Donkey Kong and Wario.^[2] The developer, Artoon, has made one other Yoshi game — Yoshi's Universal Gravitation — for the Game Boy Advance. Universal Gravitation veered away from the 'Nintendo' design; but for DS, Artoon stuck close to the original concept.^[7]

Yoshi's Island Animation Download

The game retains the classic pastel/crayon visuals from its predecessor.^[6] Small changes are noticeable: water animation has been improved, the black outlines around objects are not as thick, and the backgrounds are less cluttered.^[5] However, the visuals are still tightly centered on those of its predecessor.^[7]

Reception[edit]

Yoshi's Island Animation Videos

Yoshi's Island DS received positive reviews, being given high scores by some of the most prominent video game critics. These include gaming websites IGN and GameSpot, who gave it 8/10 and 9.1/10 respectively.^[5][7] GameSpot's review commented that the developers have 'produced a sequel that seems fresh and new while remaining every bit as awesome as the original.'^[5] Multimedia website IGN called it 'a solid recreation of the Yoshi's Island elements in a two-screen-high format,'^[7] and GamePro in their review said that 'it's fun and light-hearted play.'^[6] Reviewers were particularly pleased with how the core gameplay elements are the same as in the previous game. GamePro hails it as having 'the classical 2D side-scrolling action and colorful pastel artwork that brought Nintendo to prominence,'^[6] while IGN — although impressed with the game in general — wonders whether or not the developers 'stuck too close to the established design in this new game,' because having played the previous game 'ruins a lot of the surprises.'^[7] Other critics regard this as the best portable Yoshi's game, with the exception of the Super Mario Advance remake of the original Yoshi's Island because, in their context, '(Yoshi) Topsy-Turvy was not there and (Yoshi) Touch & Go was incomplete.'

One problem critics identified is the blind spot created by the gap between the Nintendo DS's two screens. IGN accepts that this blind spot is necessary for aiming eggs properly but still describe it as 'bothersome.'^[7]GameSpy's reviewer calls it 'a pain' and expresses frustration at being hit by an enemy hiding in this gap.^[10] On the whole, reviewers were pleased with the way the extra babies have been implemented,^[5] but IGN felt that Baby Wario was 'a last minute addition that wasn't tested properly.'^[7] They call his magnet 'wonky,' and says it 'misses items that are right next to him.'^[7]

Yoshi's Island DS was given GameSpot's 'Editor's Choice' rating,^[5] and reached the final round for 'Best Nintendo DS game.'^[13] The game sold more than 300,000 copies in its first week of release in Japan.^[14] As of March 31, 2008, Yoshi's Island DS has sold 2.91 million copies worldwide.^[15]

References[edit]

1. ^'Yoshi's Island DS'. GameSpot. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-14.
2. ^ ^abcdHarris, Craig (2006-05-09). 'Return to Yoshi's Island'. IGN. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
3. ^ ^ab'Yoshi's Island DS Reviews'. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
4. ^'Nintendo - Yoshi's Island DS'. 2015-04-01. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
5. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopq}Provo, Frank (2006-11-14). 'Yoshi's Island DS Review'. GameSpot. Archived from the original on September 7, 2013. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
6. ^ ^abcdefgh'Review: Yoshi's Island DS'. GamePro. 2006-11-14. Archived from the original on 2007-02-24. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
7. ^ ^{abcdefghijklm}Harris, Craig (2006-11-13). 'Yoshi's Island DS Review'. IGN. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
8. ^'Yoshi's Island DS'. GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
9. ^McNamara, Andy (December 1, 2006). 'Baby's Got Back'. Game Informer. GameStop Corporation. Archived from the original on November 21, 2008.
10. ^ ^abTheoBald, Phil (2006-11-14). 'Yoshi's Island DS Review'. GameSpy. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
11. ^East, Tom (January 9, 2008). 'More of the Same, but We're Not Complaining'. Official Nintendo Magazine. Future Publishing. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved September 2, 2013.
12. ^'Yoshi's Island DS review'. Nintendo World Report. Retrieved November 26, 2006.
13. ^'Best Nintendo DS game'. GameSpot. 2006. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-10.
14. ^'Charts: Latest Japanese Software & Hardware Sales'. N-Europe. 2007-03-19. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
15. ^'Financial Results Briefing for the Fiscal Year Ended March 2008: Supplementary Information'(PDF). Nintendo. 2008-04-25. p. 6. Retrieved 2008-08-03.

External links[edit]

• Official website(in Japanese)
• Yoshi's Island DS at IGN