Yoshi's Island Review

Yoshi’s Island

Console: Super Nintendo/ Gameboy Advance
Genre: Platformer
Multiplayer: 1 Player
Wi-Fi: No

Here is the beginning story of the Mario Bros. Baby Mario and Luigi were getting delivered by a stalk but the stalk was then attacked, the thief stole Luigi while Mario was sent plummeting which happens to land on Yoshi, also Yoshi discovers a map, this is how the story opens up for saving Luigi. I know it is a simple storyline but this is the first stage of their lives. This was my first game on the Super Nintendo, and I got hooked on it. Yoshi’s Island is a nice challenge filled with amazing graphics for the Super Nintendo and outstanding music. This is one of those games that truly stand out as a gem among games.

The game starts out relatively easy, just exploring most of what you can do such as getting to grips with your hover jump, getting used to auto moving stages and taking on bosses. The game works differently to most games, Yoshi doesn’t die unless he steps on spikes, falls in lava or falls in a hole. Enemy attacks cannot kill you, but baby Mario falls off your back and floats in a bubble, you have a time limit between 10-30 seconds, if you do not retrieve him before the timer runs to zero, enemies will carry off Mario and you lose a life. Each stage has a scoring system too. You must raise your seconds to thirty, collect twenty red coins and collect five flowers which will earn you 100% on that level. One coin and one second is one point each but one flower is ten points.

There are several ways to beat your enemies, you can either jump on them, ground pound them, eat them, spit them out at other enemies or even convert them into eggs. This way you can throw eggs at enemies or hit flying question mark clouds. These always earn you some kind of reward. I also love that each level on a world uses a different colour Yoshi. Every boss have creative and different ways to beat, you just got to think how you will win. Earning 100% on Yoshi’s Island is a huge award on its own.

My favourite level has to be called Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy, the first half of the stage involves you spitting out a ball like enemy to get most of the flowers, coins and defeating enemies impervious to your attacks. The second part of the stage requires you to avoid hairy clouds, but avoiding them takes the fun out of it, keep collecting the clouds, go through the rest of the level like Yoshi is dizzy (drunk in my opinion). Apart from this level, every level is fun too, there are some water stages too. As you progress through the game, you will encounter bubbles with helicopters, submarines and cars, touching this will turn Yoshi into that object for a certain time limit. Each method is just as fun as the other.

Overall this game is a true classic, never forget the old Super Nintendo games as this game always comes to my head first whenever I hear Super Nintendo, also rereleased on the Gameboy Advance so pick up your copy as soon as you can!

Overall Score: 92%

The Legend of Zelda Minish Cap Review

The Legend of Zelda Minish Cap

Console: Gameboy Advance

Genre: Adventure

Multiplayer: 1 Player
Wi-Fi: No

Yes as you can tell, I am a huge fan of Legend of Zelda games, one of my favourite series of games ever, and Minish Cap is no let down either. You start off sleeping, someone has decided to pay a visit, which happens to be Zelda. You get out of bed and go downstairs, Zelda is talking to your grandfather about wanting to go to the Picori festival with you, which was perfect timing. Your grandfather wants you to deliver a sword he crafted to the royal family which will then be handed down to the winner of the fighting competition. When you reach the town, Zelda will not stay still, she has to go and see almost everything so you must follow her. Zelda then wins the raffle and this is when you acquire your first shield. You then proceed to the castle but a Business Scrub blocks your way, use your new shield to bounce back the seeds he fires at you.

The winner of the fighting competition earns the right to touch the sacred blade that has been embedded into a chest, keeping evil sealed, this blade is called the Picori Sword. When you finally reach the castle, the winner of the fighting competition is finally announced, which is the villainous Sorcerer known as Vaati. He attacks the royal family and their guards, then attacks the sword itself, breaking it in half and releasing the seal. Finally Vaati turns Zelda to stone and disappears. You wake up, recovering in bed within the castle, as you leave the room, the king asks you to go search for the princess, which is where your adventure begins.

Minish Cap, well… the main skill you have during this game is shrinking and returning back to normal size with certain objects such as tree stumps and vases. So as the name suggests, it really is the Minish Cap. You end up fighting all sorts of enemies when you are shrunk too. Flies are the same size as you, you end up fighting worms, lady bugs, ants and even Chu Chus are giant compared to you. Also you use this skill to climb inside an enemy like a robot or certain bosses. You either shut them down or attack from the inside. Also an early item you acquire which is known as the gust jar. This weapon works by inhaling anything in front of you. If a jar or a weak enemy gets in the way, they get stuck at the end of the jar, which if you let go, you fire the enemy across the room. You can also vacuum enemies masks, get rid of the dirt on the floor to find switches. A very useful item.

The bosses within this game are not as challenging as previous handheld Zelda games but that doesn’t mean fighting them isn’t fun. There are loads of fun bosses which do require a bit of thinking to defeat. By the way you will be collecting elements to fix the Picori sword, which leads to visiting loads of different locations such as swamps, mountains, forests and even the sky. Each area filled with their own challenge plus a dungeon. Each dungeon has been thought out very well and will require quite a bit of searching first time around. Loads of puzzles, loads of fights and loads of rupees.

The music is just outstanding, just like any other Zelda game, you will be loving every second, the graphics kind of fit a Sprite version of Wind Waker, which some people love, some people hate. It all depends on the player. I preferably love the Wind Waker graphics so I love Minish Cap graphics too. Very well done for the Gameboy Advance.

Overall this game is definitely worth getting. Back on release Minish Cap was bundled with a gold Triforce edition of the Gameboy Advance SP Which I currently own and have to admit, was the best design for a Gameboy Advance SP Ever. If you can pick this game up then do it!

Overall Score: 93%