HOOKED ONTO YOSHI'S ISLAND: SUPER MARIO

You only have to spend a couple of minutes playing'Yoshi's island to realise that it's not only one of Nintendo's greatest games, it's also one of the best games ever!

It is so good infact that even if you shoe-horned into a Gamecube disc you would still be hard pressesd to find a better game on either of Ninty's machines - the only thing that could come close to it's originality is 'Super Mario Sunshine' (which i have a review on also). If you never caught this great title on the SNES then you have no excuse to get out your credit card and buy it on this site right now! Guiding Yoshi and his passenger - a bawling Baby Mario - through the games 6 worlds (each divided into 8 parts including 2 boss levels) is abslouted stupendous!

Each level is very differnt with many secret levels along the way, although some are just down one of the classic green pipes most are harder to find. Once you find one of these secret areas you will be rewarded furthur - levels sprawl up and down as well as left and right, and just as you think you've got it sussed you're surprised with another secret or trick you hadn't seen before, like Yoshi dumping Mario and morphing into a helicopter to explore the level for dangers.

The ideas seem simple, true, but the way in which these ideas are presented are phenomenol, and in particular, the triumph that is the sublime level design and colours, lifts 'Yoshi's island' way, way up above it's competitors. This has stacks of replay value and will keep you coming back time and time again. A must buy for 2002. Great!

YOSHI'S ISLAND: SUPER MARIO Review Part I

We all remember the very-first time we saw Yoshi, back in Super Mario World... How great it was to jump on his back, as Mario, eating everything in sight, and spitting it back out again. But almost every-time he appears, it's always Mario who's in control.

Yoshi needs some independence, to show us all what he can really do.... And that is exactly what he got, back in 1995, in a sequel to the acclaimed Super Mario World. But instead of assisting the Italian plumber in what he does best, we travel back-in-time to to see Baby Mario under-threat from Kamek the Magikoopa.

And it's Yoshi's job to take him - and the imprisoned Luigi - safely back-home. With those 'classic' abillities to eat, swallow, and use each enemy's powers for his own good, you will find this to be a very-different take on a very 'Super Mario' adventure, with Yoshi. With some beautifully decorated, kiddy-like pastel-coloured backgrounds and scenery, some typical foes of Mario's 'past' (like the Shy-Guys and Koopas), and the usual platforming platforming-malarky; you could quite easily mistake this for another Super Mario World. Which it is, really, to tell you the truth! Only, this time, you play as Yoshi, protecting Baby Mario.

Throughout each-one of the 5 different worlds you may well find yourself reminded of some classic Mario levels of the past - like when you come face-to-face with a Big Boo, for example. And with 8 levels in each - plus some Mario Bros. 3-style Bonus Levels for extra-lives - you'll also begin to see how this game develops into a size on a par with only a true Mario game.