I finally found the time to make this review about one of the games I spent a lot of time playing: Yoshi's Island for the GBA.

First of all, you might be wondering why I did play the GBA version instead of the SNES one. It's because I have a Gameboy Advance emulator on my phone while I tried a SNES emulator but that didn't work as it was too slow.

Second of all, what are the differences? Most differences are made to fit the GBA limits like graphics or map designs. The two most notable differences for me however were that the Shyguys and Yoshi make a lot of sounds that sound like this in Shyguy his case 'My, mow' or in Yoshi's case 'Hhnnn, yum, pam, bbbrrring haa!'. And probably the biggest difference is that the GBA version has 6 extra levels which are unlocked when the storyline is completed. But aside from that, you won't miss out too much if you play the original version instead of this one.
Now let's start the review!

Story: 7
For a platformer, the story is very interesting, as most other Mario platformers have a horrible story or no story at all.
One day, a stork is flying with a bill through the sky. In its bill are twins. Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. Suddenly, a character, Kamek, comes in and tries to grab both babies. However, he only manages to catch Baby Luigi and Baby Mario falls down into the sea. But wait, he doesn't fall in the sea, he falls on an island! On that island live the Yoshi's, dinosaurs, and they are in an uproar because a baby fell from the sky! They notice the baby, Baby Mario, does know where to go to find his brother, there apparently is a strong bond between the brothers, so the Yoshi's decide to use a relay system to carry Baby Mario so they can look with him for his brother.

While this isn't mentioned in the beginning yet, Kamek tries to steal both babies as he knows that the babies when they would get big would try to foil the evil plans from him and his master, Baby Bowser who is spoken to as 'Prince Bowser' by Kamek.

The concept for this story is very nice, and it's special to see that the brothers have such a strong bond. The Yoshi's immediately decide to help, even though they have to face a lot of danger.


Graphics: 10
Many Mario games often have incredible graphics. This one isn't an exception. Yoshi's Island is a tropical place and that's why the levels and the island design on the title screen give you the feeling like it's a far away land. Some of the backgrounds in the levels look like they were hand drawn and that's what gives some levels a cute feeling too. Yoshi and Baby Mario also have great animations. When Yoshi looks up Baby Mario does too. And when Yoshi ducks Baby Mario pulls his hat over his eyes. The monsters also look great, there are normal or cute looking monsters, but also some angry or frightening ones, and even some weird or sly ones. The Yoshi's have different colours so instead of playing with the green one all the time you get to play with 7 others as well. All in all, the graphics are amazing and there isn't anything I don't like about them.

Sound: 8
There are a lot of sounds for enemies, Yoshi and bosses. That's what makes it givs it a very active feeling. Yoshi has cute sounds from the N64 games and there are sounds for when he eats, throws eggs, flutter jumps, does a ground pound or when he dies and so on. The music in this game is also very good, there a lot of tracks that will stay in your head like earwurms. But don't think there cute and funny tracks only, the castle music and the music from the non-midbosses are more tough and a bit creepy. The only thing I miss here is the balance between the cute and the tough tracks, it's either nice and sweet or it's challenging, tough and spooky. There isn't something between those tracks. There aren't a lot of level tracks for a game with 10 levels and 6 worlds.

Addictiveness: 9
I would really like to play this game once again. It's cute but challenging style, it's unique gameplay and funny minigames and bosses sure make this a great game. There have been a lot of other Yoshi games which follow this style but this one is still the best for me, there are so many little things in the levels that make it interesting. And I don't think there are many games where you have to beat enemies by gulping down their camerades and changing them into eggs so you can throw at them. Not only that, some bosses are defeated with jumps, other with ground pounds and one can even be pushed into a ravine! Most Mario games don't have that, just damage, damage and damage.

Depth: 10
With 60 levels and 12 bosses there sure has been put a lot of thought into the game. There aren't any tiny levels, and if they aren't very long then it's because you have to do something very difficult in order to advance. All the bosses except for two are just largened enemies thanks to Kamek his magic, but there is also a battle where you have to battle inside the belly of a boss and in one battle Kamek makes a ghost appear out of a bloompot! While some bosses can be defeated in almost the same way as when they would be big, others require a different strategy, like flipping them over, hitting a heart, doing ground pounds on stakes so they come out on the other end of the ground.

Thanks for User for mentioning this: The final boss is probably the one with the most depth. Instead of throwing eggs to the left or the right you have to throw big eggs which come on balloons to the back of the screen, because Baby Bowser is walking towards you from there. There weren't many games where the bosses have a lot of depth. Raphael The Raven is one with a lot of depth as well, you walk on a small moon so the background turns with you!

There are many enemies, mini games and to open up 6 levels you have to get the maximum score possible in the storyline levels (or a very high score at least if you count the secret levels which I mentioned in the beginning of the game). Those 6 levels are incredibly hard to beat, but they show different ways of thinking, like constantly hitting switches, or riding on a dog named Poochy to cross lava the whole time. Some of those things have been used in other Mario games as well, not Yoshi games only.

Difficulty: 10
While I have mentioned various times that the overall look of the game can be very cute, there are some ridiculously hard levels which literally made me lose 20 levels before I could come even close to the end. The game starts very simple and the storyline levels get slightly more difficult but especially the extra levels are difficult and take a lot of time to master. But since those are optional to do, I think Nintendo did a good job by making these so difficult for people looking for a challenge.


Overall: 9.3
Yoshi's Island was and still is one of Nintendo its best Mario games and one of the best SNES games in general. The remake I played for the GBA felt just as great and didn't have weird changes, only good changes. You can either spend a lot of time with this or just play it for a while until you get the hang of it.?

This is the end of my review, I hope you liked it very much and I my next review will probably be from Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, but there are some other Mario GBA games which I want to review as well as I am playing them a lot for some weeks now.

Some people I'm going to summon who might be interested or liked my last reviews:
Zlinqx : Here it is buddy!
Gamin'Gal: Like I said, here it is!
maguc : ?
Singelli :
gamerforliveforever2:
TheReaper7290 :
You four read my last review, if you don't want to be summoned next time, please tell me
greenluigi :
MattyIce :
Razor-987 :
ghostfishy :
You four were positive about my review from Wario Land 4, which is also a Mario GBA game. Like I said above, tell me if you don't want to be summoned anymore.
IgorBird122 :
MoblinGardens :
bombchu link :
tornadocam :
You four wrote a review about this game as well. I won't be summoning you for other reviews but I thought you might be interested to see my review.

greenluigi : You did so? I did as well! I played the SNES version here on Vizzed some years ago. I'll be sure to summon you the next times as well, and I'll lend you my shrink ray for DeathMelon! :O

Great review! I love this game! I played it on the SNES, but the GBA one was pretty good too. Are the 6 bonus levels harder than the normal bonus levels? I love how the game is easy if you play casually, but if you want to go for 100%, you'll be spending quite a long time in each level.

Also, props on the mentioning how to beat Raphael the Raven, he was my favorite boss. lol And, I agree with the Graphics part completely, although I would have put special mention for the Baby Bowser fight, back in the day, that was unheard of. And the music, while not much variety, it was pretty good. Did you know with each world you beat there is another instrument added to the map screen music?

Anyway, good job dude!

Gamin'Gal : You were fail summoned. (And can I has summons juul?)

Nice review buddy! It is very detail - oriented and very easy to read. I used to think games that involved just Yoshi and none of the other Mario characters (not the "bigger" ones anyway) were mainly games for little kids, but I have recently taken a liking to said games. I have never played this or any other of the Yoshi games before, but I suppose I'll give this one a shot. My wife really likes Yoshi, and she's always telling me "You have to try this game. Yoshi is soooooo cute!" I guess I'm not gonna have a choice XD

As for summoning me, I don't really mind. I enjoy reading good reviews and you've come through with plenty of them. Keep up the good work juul!

A user of this : Thanks! I haven't played all the extra bonus levels, but I find the normal bonus levels to be harder. These extra ones more represent a bit what each world is about if you look at the difficulty and the style of that world.

I like Raphael the Raven too, he's my favourite boss as well! I also found Hookbill the Koopa a great boss. I forgot that about the Baby Bowser part, I'll add that too. And yes, I know that! Now you mentioned it, I didn't know it at first because the music changes slightly when world 1 is finished but the changes are getting big once world 3 is finished.

Thanks for the summon, I also told Gamin on her profile luckily. And yes, I'll add you to the summon list, it's nice to see a staff reviewer liking my review

MattyIce : Thanks! Don't think these games are for little kids, Yoshi and Donkey Kong games are pretty good as well. If you don't have a choice you'd better do it!

In that case I'll keep you on the summon list  

Hmm, I remember this game a lot, I spent a lot of hours on it.


Your rating of the story..... I would give it a 3 honestly. (five never ever means "average" when rating story)
0 = no story,
1 = Super Mario bros
2 = Sonic the hedgehog 1
3 = Yoshi Story
4 = Super Smash bros Brawl
5 = Skyward Sword

It's about a baby that fell on a Yoshi's back and wants to get reunited with his mommy and brother.

It's nothing special because it's just a cover story to make the game have some "logical" sense to why you're running through the levels with a baby on your back.

That's really it.


Also the rating of the difficulty.... it seems 10 isn't really right. Just beating the game isn't to hard, though I will admit 100%ing it can be a beast. (I still was about 12 levels away, then my GBA broke.... )

The only game that will ever, ever get a 10 on difficulty in my eyes is Super Mario Frustration.?



also *coughcough*, it's really, really hard to read the text in the layout you choose.

Other then that, I agree with your review for the most part, well done.


And unrelated: I found this the other day....

I have mixed feelings about this game. I hated it as a kid but I don't mind it now. Baby Mario put me off it when I was 5. Played it again a few months ago and I enjoyed it. I like the back story. I wouldn't call it ground breaking but it is nice to see it.

Another great review I have never played this game and never will as I am not a big fan of Mario the only Mario games I enjoyed playing was Mario 64 and Sunshine and thanks for the summon.

bombchu link : Thanks, that's some great advice and tips you gave there!

So your 3/5 would be the same as a 6/10? Is that right? I can see what you mean, but I found it to be an interesting story.

Yeah, the main storyline would be a 8 I think. But thinking of the extra levels like you mentioned definitely makes it a 10. I spent so many hours beating some of these.

I know my layout isn't the best ever with its text, I think I'm going to get a new one soon once I've passed the 3000 posts and when I have enough time.

Also, how did you find that awesome video? Justice served! I wonder how babies taste...

DylanMcKaig : Cool, did you play it here on Vizzed? I have to say that Baby Mario his cries can be very annoying

TheReaper7290 : Thanks, this game isn't like those two games so I wouldn't recommend this game in that case to you.

tornadocam : Thanks! I know you really like this game as well right?

juuldude : No, it's still on a 10 base rating system. (I should have been more clear, sorry)

0/10 = no story,
1/10 = Super Mario bros
2/10 = Sonic the hedgehog 1
3/10 = Yoshi Story
4/10 = Super Smash bros Brawl
5/10 = Skyward Sword (okay, maybe a six)


You get 1 point for every interesting element about the story, until about 6 or 7, then the story has to flow more, have development of the characters, and be (optionally) realistic to a degree.


Like Sonic 1 for example, hero from nowhere goes to save the world from a villian. The only interesting thing about the plot is the mysterious chaos emeralds, and that Eggman Robotnik traps Animals inside the robots to power them.

Ocarina of time though, has more stuff in it. Such as like various locations, time travel (shudders), A pretty much standard villain, but some interesting back story to the hero himself, as well as the development of multiple characters in both times.

the story isn't outstanding per-say, but it's definitely good.


Majora's Mask is the single best example of a Story embedded into a video game (bear in mind I haven't played a Final fantasy)

There's no way I can sum it all up right here, but the entire moral of the story, dealing with life, death, and love, runs pretty dang deep if you scratch under the surface a little.

The Happy mask salesman, the five areas of termina(l) and even the whole theory that Link is dead in Majoras mask.

ah, I'm going to derail fast...


Aaaanyway..... yeah, that's what I meant. Most games in the RGR will never score above a 5/10 for story.


Also I got the video from "beyond cheating" that guy makes some great videos, like the twilight zone (TLoZ) and Super Explosive Mario 64

bombchu link : Oh, that's what you meant. I can somehow see your point there. I haven't played a lot of games in the RGR but there were some with great and funny stories out there. I have to say though, the theory of the hero to die in a game? Sounds interesting.

Sounds interesting, I think I'm going to check out more of his videos. Thanks!

juuldude : This is a fantastic review! I have so many great memories of this game!

gamerforlifeforever2 : Thanks! What kinds of memories, the music? Or levels, or bosses?

juuldude : all of the above but the bosses would probably be the most memorable part. They were so unique my favorites were the final boss and that one where you're inside Prince Froggy.

gamerforliveforever2: Agreed, Kamek his magic is simply amazing. They did an awesome job with the two bosses you mentioned.

Is this a hack? It seems more advanced than usual based on the review that you just wrote. I know that there is a similar game like this from the Nintendo DS version. It is interesting to hear that for once that the final boss has more depth especially from my experience when it doesn't really happen as much.
PS the babies' cries can be rather annoying especially you're struggling in the game.

Good review straight to the point once again man.

I'm looking forward to seeing your review on Mario and Luigi: Superstar Sega. -dances to the battle music-

ghostfishy : It's not a hack, it's a normal game made by Nintendo for Gameboy Advance owners. They remade Super Mario World as well (but that one is worse than the normal version) and Mario Bros 1, 2 and 3 (I found 2 to be very good).
Yeah babies always have annoying cries. I wonder how I ever managed to beat Mario & Luigi Partners in Time. Baby Peach definitely had one of the most annoying cries ever.

Thanks, I like to make my reviews like that

That's one of my favourite games and I'm currently playing it a lot so I really want to make a review from that game -Dances along and forgets to dodge enemy attacks- Mama mia...

Oh I see. I thought it was a hack because I never heard of this game ever being a Gameboy Advance game and I've only heard of the Nintendo DS version.

Now we know why Princess Peach is always getting kidnapped due to her cries. She's the worst one out of all anyway. She can kidnapped for good for all I care.