From the first cinematic of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: Narrator: A long, long time ago. This is a story about baby Mario and Yoshi. A stork hurries across the dusky, pre-dawn sky. In his bill, he supports a pair of twins. Suddenly, a shadow appears in a gap between the clouds and races towards the stork with blinding speed. TAKE-OUT 4:30PM TO 8:30pm Nightly RESTAURANT. Mon-Wed 5:30PM TO 9:00PM Thu-Sat 5:30PM TO 9:30PM Sun 5:00PM TO 9:00PM. Mon-Thu 4:30PM TO 10:00PM Fri-Sat 4:30PM TO 11:00PM Sun 4:30PM TO 9:30PM. Mon-Fri 4:30PM TO 6:00PM.

Releases

The two versions compared on this page are the following:

Box art

The Japanese packaging uses a vertical design, which is pretty normal for a Japanese Super NES game. As for the artwork, the Japanese version has more of a laid-back feel, while the U.S. box features Yoshi and Baby Mario rushing towards a Nep-Enut.

The main thing we wanted to point out here are the words 'Yossy Island' on the green banner under the Japanese title logo. 'Yossy' is another way to romanize 'Yoshi' that Nintendo's Japanese team uses sometimes. We'll see 'Yossy' come up again in World Extra 6...

Images from the official Super NES Classic American and Japanese sites.

Title screen

The English title suffers from squished-text syndrome, but it's no problem for Yoshi's trademark 'egg-for-an-O'.

File Menu screen

Probably due to limited space, the U.S. version names the files 'File #' instead of keeping 'Yoshi #' from the Japanese version.

Map screen

Below, we'll take a closer look at the last four map screen panels. For reference, here are the full World 1 map screens:

The 'Special' levels in the Japanese game are called 'Extra' levels in the U.S. version. A star was added to the panels as well.

In the Japanese version, the bonus panel shows the name of the bonus game contained inside, which changes for each world. The U.S. version shows a flower icon and simply changes the number for each world. Even though the flower takes up most of the space, the background color was changed from blue to green.

Though the score panel was redesigned, it has a blue pencil in both versions.

On the control options panel, the button colors in the Japanese version match the colors on the Super Famicom (Japan's Super NES) controller. The buttons were changed to light and dark purple in the U.S.

Super Famicom

Button colors

Despite the updated controller icon on the map screen (see above), the button colors on the control options screen were not changed. The letters on the buttons were bolded, however.

The button graphics in the Throwing Balloons mini-game also use the Super Famicom's color scheme and were not changed in the U.S. version.

World 4-6 icon

The icon for World 4-6 was changed slightly. In the U.S. version, Flopsy Fish's fins come out of the water a little more. Also, a few blue pixels behind his fins were rearranged.

Popping Balloons icon

The Popping Balloons mini-game icon was also changed. Yoshi's arms were moved closer to his sides and the balloon behind him was flattened a little in the U.S. version.

(Note: The mini-game icons appear when you use the mini-game menu code.)

Sound advice

The first two message blocks in World 1-1 have illustrated help for making and throwing eggs. In both drawings, the Japanese version has onomatopoeia next to Yoshi.

In the 'Making eggs' tutorial, pon (meaning 'pop' or 'plop') is inside a word balloon.

Bun (meaning 'buzz' or 'zoom') is next to Yoshi's head in the 'Throwing eggs' tutorial.

Score screens

The U.S. version has bold text on the pause screen and end-of-level totals screen.

Even the sun icons on the totals screen were thickened up.

Lost a life

On the screen that asks if you want to retry the stage (or continue from the Middle Ring), the U.S. version has a slightly different Yoshi icon and a smaller arrow icon.

Zooming in on the Yoshi icons, we can see that the updated icon is a little smaller, but looks more like Yoshi.

Popping Balloons mini-game

The Popping Balloons mini-game pits Yoshi against Bandit in a race to pop the randomly-chosen winning balloon. A few things were changed in the U.S. version.

When a non-winning balloon is popped in the Japanese version, 'Suka' (meaning 'miss') in blue katakana characters comes spinning out of the balloon. In the U.S. version, nothing appears for a miss.

When the winning balloon is popped, the Japanese version shows the kanji character '当' (meaning 'success') surrounded by a flashing circle of gold stars. This was changed to a group of stars that rapidly rearranges itself from a star shape to a circle and back again.

Thunder Lakitu

Thunder Lakitu is based on Raijin, the Japanese god of thunder. Raijin creates thunder by beating on his ring of drums, and is often depicted standing on a cloud.

World Extra 6

Shortly after the first Middle Ring, you'll find five platforms on rails, each one shaped like a letter to spell out 'YOSHI.' These originally spelled 'YOSSY' in the Japanese version ('Yossy' is another way to romanize 'Yoshi').

In this room, four spike clumps were removed from the bottom right, and three were added to the ceiling above the 'H,' leaving the U.S. version with one less spike clump than the Japanese version. However, the spikes above the 'H' make this part a little more difficult, since you have to keep ducking to avoid them while riding on the platform.

Japanese version

U.S. version

Notes:

• Yoshi travels from right to left through this room.
• We removed the moon-and-stars pattern from the background for the sake of simplicity.
• The maps show the approximate starting positions of the moving platforms based on the level data from the ROM. (See notes about the 'Y' and 'O' below.)
• Japanese version: On the second 'Y,' the platform drops onto to the slanted rail from mid-air, then goes to the left. Our map shows where it first lands on the rail.
• U.S. version: On the 'H,' the platform starts on the upper-right, then travels to the bottom-left. After that, it will only travel along the bottom half of the 'H.'
• Both versions: The platform on the 'O' actually appears to start out a few pixels above the rail.

More Message Block changes

The Message Blocks in the U.S. version feature new and redesigned icons mixed in with the text.

World 1-6

Entering the first door in World 1-6 takes you to a cloudy area with three different types of eggs and a Message Block. The English text has an added star icon after the word 'Stars.' Also, it's worth noting that the Japanese text tells you that the Flashing Egg creates a Red Coin; the English text keeps it a secret, even though the instruction manual reveals what it does.

Another message in 1-6 talks about the red Switches. The small switch icon was changed slightly, and the down-arrow icon from the third line in the Japanese text was removed in the U.S. version.

World 2-2

This message is talking about a nearby Arrow Cloud, which is represented by an icon in the English text.

World 5-1

The Winged Cloud icon was changed slightly in the U.S. version.

Controller buttons

The message with the 'Top Secret' code in World 5-4 has icons for Select, X, Y, B, and A.

The U.S. version has a different D-Pad icon, as we can see in World 1-2's first Message Block. An icon for the Down button also appears here.

Here's another one from World 1-2. Even though a 'Select' button icon appears in World 5-4's message, 'Start' is still just text here. This message also includes icons for Left and Right.

A message near the end of World 2-2 includes an Up button icon. This one also has an added star icon like the message in World 1-6.

L and R button icons appear in this message from World 2-8.

Enemies

The following chart compares the Japanese and U.S. player's guides.

* = This enemy was not listed in the Enemy Index section of the U.S. player's guide.

The following enemies were not listed in the enemy section of the Japanese player's guide: Bouncing Bullet Bill, Bowling Goonie, Bubble Dayzee, Coin Bandit, Hopping Tap-Tap, Kamek's Toadies, Mock Up, Needlenose, Potted Spiked Fun Guy, Seedy Sally, Short Fuse, and Whirly Fly Guy.

Notes:

• Most of the bosses in the Japanese game have 'Big' added to the normal enemy name.
• 'Borodō,' Bandit's name, is a play on the word dorobō, which means 'thief.'
• Since 'Sanbo' is usually called 'Pokey' in English, the following enemies are technically Pokies: Blow Hard, Cactus Jack, and Spiked Fun Guy.
• Donburi (Burt) is also the name of a Japanese rice bowl dish.
• Wanwan (Chomp) is equivalent to 'bow-wow.'
• Yari, the Japanese word for 'spear,' is seen in the names of Yariho (Spear Guy) and Yariyari Dancer (Dancing Spear Guy).
• For the Flightless Goonies, the Japanese game uses 'Ahōmushi,' a portmanteau of albatross (ahōdori) and bug (mushi).
• Harry Hedgehog might have been named after the 'Hari' in 'Super Harimannen' (hari = 'needle'). In Super Mario Bros. 2, the 'Harimannen' enemy was 'Porcupo' in English.
• Dosun, part of Incoming Chomp's Japanese name, is onomatopoeia for a 'whomp' or 'thump' sound. On a related note, 'Dossun' is Thwomp's Japanese name.
• 'Pukupuku,' known as Flopsy Fish and Piscatory Pete in the U.S. version, is usually changed to 'Cheep Cheep' for English text.
• The chū in Little Mouser and Little Skull Mouser's Japanese names represents a squeak sound.
• Based on his Japanese name, Mace Penguin is actually a Spike, who was first seen in Super Mario Bros. 3.
• If stomping on Mildes reminds you of popping bubble wrap, there's a good reason: The Japanese name for Milde is 'Puchipuchi,' which means bubble wrap.
• Gerogero (Prince Froggy) is equivalent to 'ribbit ribbit.'
• Raven's Japanese name 'Kyū-chan' comes from kyūkanchō (hill myna), a species of myna bird. The Ravens' walking on spheres is a visual pun on kyū, which also means 'sphere' in Japanese.
• 'Kemekuji' (Sluggy) comes from the Japanese word for slug: Namekuji.
• Tap-Tap's Japanese name, 'Kachikachi,' also describes a ticking or knocking sound.

Friends

Items

The following names are from the game manuals except for Arrow Lift and Chomp Rock, which were sourced from in-game text.

Notes:

• 'Special Items' are used from the Pause screen.

Metamorphoses

The following names are from the game manuals.

Level names

Notes:

• Chikuwa is a tube-shaped fish paste cake. The 'Chikuwa floor' pieces are known as 'Donut Lifts' in English.

Chikuwa (photo from Japanese Oishii Food)