Yoshi's Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
North American cover art
Developer(s)Nintendo EAD
Nintendo R&D2 (GBA)
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)
Producer(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Designer(s)Yasuhisa Yamamura
Programmer(s)Toshio Iwawaki
Artist(s)
Composer(s)Koji Kondo
Series
Platform(s)Super NES, Game Boy Advance
ReleaseSuper NES
  • JP: August 5, 1995
  • NA: October 4, 1995
  • EU: October 5, 1995
  • AU: December 1995[1]
Game Boy Advance
  • JP: September 20, 2002
  • NA: September 23, 2002
  • AU: October 4, 2002
  • EU: October 11, 2002
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island[a] is a 1995 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The player controls Yoshi, a friendly dinosaur, on a quest to reunite baby Mario with his brother Luigi, who has been kidnapped by Kamek. Yoshi runs and jumps to reach the end of the level while solving puzzles and collecting items with Mario's help.

Following his introduction in the previous Super Mario game, Super Mario World (1990), Nintendo decided to develop a game starring Yoshi, with the aim of making it more accessible. Yoshi's Island introduced his signature flutter jump and egg-spawning abilities. The marker-drawn art style was created by scanning hand-drawn pictures and approximating them pixel-by-pixel. Some special effects were powered by a new Super FX2 microchip.

After four years of development, Yoshi's Island was released in Japan in August 1995 and worldwide two months later. It was ported to the Game Boy Advance as Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island in 2002; this version was rereleased for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U's Virtual Console in the early 2010s. The original version was also released for the Super NES Classic Edition and Nintendo Switch Online in the late 2010s.

Yoshi's Island sold more than four million copies. Reviewers acclaimed it as a masterpiece and one of the greatest video games of all time, praising the art, sound, level design and gameplay. It brought newfound renown to the Yoshi character and Miyamoto's artistic and directorial career. The distinct art style and Yoshi's signature characteristics established the Yoshi series of spin-offs and sequels. Yoshi's Island was the last Super Mario platformer before the series' transition to 3D gameplay, with no further 2D entries for over a decade.

  1. ^ "Super NES review". Nintendo Magazine System. No. 33. Australia. December 1995. p. 26.


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