Nintendo
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island is just about my most favorite video game of all time. ❤️
I first discovered this game in a store demo. I just watched the intro. It was beautiful. Now, I’ve written about this before, so I won’t get too into the feels. This game just has so much depth and beauty and art. It was so unique at the time. The Yoshi games have kept some bit of creative artsiness to them since, but it wasn’t until Super Mario Bros. Wonder that I felt that Nintendo truly revisited some of the concepts that made Yoshi’s Island so special.
A unique element for this game is the use of the SuperFX 2 chip. Rather than 3D work (which it did do a bit of), it was primarily used to handle larger sprites and image effects beyond what the base SNES hardware was capable of (all that image warping for instance). That’s the technical side…
The foreground elements included little critters that would reac to Yoshi’s presence—litter birds would fly off, frogs would hop away. You couldn't interact with them directly, but they were intriguing elements to the scene. Also, all the unique enemies that you could touch were fascinating—some only showing up in single stages. This was a bit of an evolution of what we saw with Super Mario Bros. 3. Even the environments were exciting. Snow felt like snow. Water felt wet. Mmm. The beauty! 🤌🏾
Oh, and we mustn’t forget about the music. Some of the best Nintendo music. To this day, Baby Mario’s “Powerful Infant” theme is my ringtone (though silenced these days) and when I need to focus on a task or feeling overwhelmed, variations on speed of the theme is my go to music. It has such rich depth with various different instruments creating unique rhythms—it just does the right stuff to my neurodivergent brain (try this standard and half speed combo).
I took so much from this game. I think that’s why it’s my favorite.