Long-awaited by Mario fans everywhere, the sequel to Super Mario World must at least be rented by anyone who claims to be a follower of Mario or Yoshi.

Many would dispute the title; "Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island", simply because the game has virtually nothing to do with the original Super Mario World save for the fact that Mario and Yoshi are both in it. Describe it in a word? Cute.Think the cutest game that ever was or ever will be made.

Think even the bad guys are so adorable you don't even want to kill them. Think BABY BOWSER! Awwwww. Anyway, the plot is a bit weak: A stork (Oohhh, PLEASE!) is delivering twin babies Mario and Luigi (who are not twins, by the way) to their parents in the Mushroom World (actually, their parents are from Brooklyn and so are the bros...), when it is attacked by Kamek (Magikoopa), who grabs Luigi and flies off "the darkness from whence it came", leaving the stork in shock and Mario plummeting at speeds upwards of 100 MPH towards the open sea.

Let's choose this opportunity moment to cut away to Yoshi (who would not even be alive when Mario was a baby, because Yoshi is a baby himself!!!), who is taking a walk because it's a nice day. Well, put yourself in Yoshi's boots. You're walking through the forest, enjoying the fresh air, when what do you know...a baby lands on your back, pokes his head out, and stares at you.

Then, you get beaned on the head by a strange map. But you can't figure it out. What do you do? Well, Yoshi headed back to his friends. Meanwhile, Kamek has discovered that he missed the other kid and immediately dispatches his impossibly stupid assistant dudes, known as 'Toadies' for some strange reason. Anyway, after conferring with the ten thousand different colored Yoshi's, Mario seems "to know where he wants to go." This is because "the bond between the twins informs each of them where the other one is." GAG ME!!! Oops, am I sounding overly critical here? Don't get me wrong. This is SUCH a good game!! I love this game! I just think the plot is... well, a little....hokey, if you will. Anyway, I am so off the subject. Let's see, where was I? Oh yes. Describe it in a word.

Well, if I were to describe it in ANOTHER word, it'd be 'easy'. Why? Well, I had it for 4 days and had already ruthlessly defeated poor baby Bowser, who only wanted to ride on the "green donkey", and got the ending an' all that.

You know, rescued the stork an' Luigi and all that junk. However, there are still....ehem...secret areas...that can be reached by getting 100% in each of the levels....unfortunately, they don't change the ending at all if you access them, beat them, and get 100% on them.

Yoshi's Island brought back a number of enemies that we hadn't seen in a while, such as Shyguys (SMB2) and Spike (remember SMB3??). Plus, many things you may have thought were invented for SM64 were actually signature moves and stuff in Yoshi's Island, such as Pound the Ground. The way Pirahna plants grow when you get near them and the sound they make when they die were also Yoshi's Island trademarks. Collecting red coins, giant chomps....all Yoshi's Island.

The worlds were a ton of fun! World 1 was, as usual, a grassland type place, but World 2 was mostly mountainous and pine forested, and World 3 was a jungle. I believe that's probably the most memorable world; after spending a few hours there, you will rue the day you ever set eyes on one of those cute monkeys. Also, the slicky slimy river mud got annoying. My favorite part of the game is in World 5, which is a climb up a mountain. Of course, you gotta have snow and penguins. The favorite part in question is theskiing!!! :) It's so FUN!!

The bosses were also groovy. Cute boss names like Bashful Burt, Marching Milde, Salvo the Slime....*teehee*...All the bosses were regular enemies that were enlarged considerably by Kamek, who did his thing after yelling at Yoshi for a bit. (That goes for all the enemies except the frog, who was probably the single most disgusting boss.)

Yoshi's...er...unique way of making weapons consisted of eating an enemy and...um...pooping out an egg. Sorry, I just can't think of a more graceful way to say it.

Well, anyway, the music on this game was top-notch. The beginning theme was childish and lullaby-like, but still lovely. The soothing, yet triumphant and hauntingly beautiful ending theme was breathtaking! The graphics, which were hand-drawn, were also cute and pretty.

I think I've gone on for long enough about Yoshi's Island. ;) But anyway, it's a great game! I would suggest going out and renting it or buying it RIGHT NOW! So what are you doing, sitting here still? Go rent it!

Graphics: 10 (out of 10)
Sound: 10 (out of 10)
Controls: 10 (out of 10)
Challenge: 4 (out of 10)
Replay: 10 (out of 10)