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General information Platform: Game Boy AdvanceDeveloped by Nintendo R&D2 Published by Nintendo Players: 1-4 |
Third time is a charm they say, and Nintendo did it, taking the power of the Gameboy advance to the edge they released one of the better, if not the best, platformers right into the Gameboy advance. Yoshi’s Island, the game that was bundled with the Snes 2 and probably one of the few that gave the perfect use to the SFX-2 Chip saw its release as Super Mario Advance 3.
Taking on Yoshi who helps Baby Mario get to his lost brother Baby Luigi, you travel through Dinosaur Island and meet with Snifits, Shyguys, Shyaways and Kamek to defeat Baby Bowser. Of course, you can connect up to 4 players to play Super Mario Bros, a staple now of the Advance series. The game includes all the levels and 6 “advance exclusive” new levels.
Official Plot / Story
The story for Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island is as you would expect largely unchanged from the original setting for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on the SNES. Check out the scripts from the original SMW2 cinematics below:-
Kamek on his broomstickFrom the first opening cinematic
Narrator: A long, long time ago... This is a story about baby Mario and Yoshi. A stork hurries across the dusky, pre-dawn sky. In his bill, he supports a pair of twins. Suddenly, a shadow appears in a gap between the clouds and races towards the stork with blinding speed.
Kamek: "SCRREEEECH!!!"
Kamek: "THE BABIES ARE MINE!"
Narrator: WOW!!! Snatching only one baby, the creature vanishes into the darkness from whence it came. The second baby falls undetected towards the open sea... OH NOO...
Meanwhile, here is Yoshi's Island, home to all Yoshies. It's a lovely day, and Yoshi is taking a walk. HUH?!? Suddenly, a baby drops in onto his back. The baby seems to be fine. This is very fortunate! Wha-? Something else fell with the baby... Let's take a peek... It looks like a map. Maybe the stork was using it? But Yoshi can't figure it out. Yoshi decides to talk to his friends.
Kamek: AAAAAAAAAAKK!!!
Narrator: Kamek, the evil Magikoopa, and kidnapper of the baby, quickly dispatches his toadies, when he discovers that he missed the other baby!
Yoshi heads leisurely back to the other Yoshies, unaware of the danger at hand. Kamek's forces are actively searching the island. Will these two children ever reach their parents safely?
From the second cinematic
Narrator: This paradise is Yoshi's Island, where all the Yoshies live. They are all in an uproar over the baby that fell from the sky. Wait! The baby seems to know where he wants to go... The bond between the twins informs each of them where the other one is. The Yoshies decide to carry the baby to his destination via a relay system. Now begins a new adventure for the Yoshies and baby Mario.
Perhaps you'd prefer to watch the opening / intro video for Super Mario Advance 3 instead? That explains the story pretty well.
Changes from the Original SNES Version
- The mini battle code now is LLBAR while holding select, sadly there is no 2-player mode.
- The countdown timer ticks every second now, instead of twice per second.
- This version will allow the player to carry 27 items at the same time, instead of 26
- The pause menu has been split on two, start allows you to set the Gameboy to sleep if a break has to be taken, the other menu displays your items.
- Due to a lack of a backlight, the colors of the palette have been lightened.
- The Pink and Red yoshis now have more consistency, they appear the same in the map and in the world they are beating.
- The Yoshis have different colors, according to their own color like in Yoshi’s Story.
- The Fuzzy effect is way less intense.
- Red coins are SUPER HARD to notice on this version.
- There is a Glitch that causes some sparkling objects on underground levels to have their palletes switched around.
- Sealed doors are different.
- The Magic Effect of Kamek is different.
- The overworld map had a full redesign, now it follows a straight line, spots have been added to the map for each world two hidden levels and a world select screen has been added. Baby Luigi is shown on the spot of the 6th world if 6-8 has not been finished.
- After defeating the final boss, the file on the file select screen, the world “CLEAR” will appear, alongside an image of Baby Bowser.
- The soundtrack suffered a downgrade due to the capabilities of the Gameboy Advance.
- Every Boss has the same musical opening now.
- Many sounds were replaced by sound clips, Yoshis’ and Shy Guys’ voices particularly.
- The sound effects of Yoshi were replaced by Yoshis’ voice clips.
- The Baby who cried on the Snes was a stock effect, now there is a cry, voiced by Charles Martinet. The original cry was deroged to Luigi.
- The credits are shorter, crediting the original YI staff only on the Special Thanks, not even Shigeru Miyamoto is credited.
Gameplay
Don’t think the lack of the X and Y button will make this game harder, the L and R button cover for most of the functions of those buttons.Yoshi has his flutter jump, achieved by keeping A pressed. B leashes out Yoshi’s long tongue to eat on enemies and he turns them into eggs by pressing down or spits them out with B, you can control de direction where you spit them. Pressing R brings out the crosshair, which you can lock with L to shoot an egg on that direction. Start pauses the game and select brings up the item selection menu, which also shows the current score of the level.
Worlds & Maps
There are 6 worlds, which follow the same theme as the last version of Yoshis’ Island, these worlds are: |
World 1: Taking place in a grass field, this world has all the kind of stages that will be presented on the rest of the game, caverns, sky stages, The Boss of the world is Salvo, The slime. |
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World 2: A mountainous region with the introduction of enemies such as the Baseball Boys and Ghosts, the Boss of the world is The Potted Ghost who waits on their castle. |
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World 3: Is right on the middle of a jungle with many water sections, the boss is Naval Piranha. |
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World 4: A sunset landscape has a lot of beautiful scenery that will keep Yoshi and Baby Mario Distracted, Hookbill the Koopa is the boss. |
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World 5: Total contrast from the last world, an Icy mountain with several enemies and snowball mayhem, Raphael the Raven is the boss.World 5: Total contrast from the last world, an Icy mountain with several enemies and snowball mayhem, Raphael the Raven is the boss. |
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World 6: Finally on Bowsers’ Kingdom, lava, spikes, barrens and finally Bowser, the King himself as the final boss of the game. |
Reception
The game was well received, selling 1.6 million copies overall, re-released as a Player’s Choice title in 2006. IGN gave it an 8.6 and a Great rating, while GamePro gave it a 91, both sites praised its similarity to the SNES title but complained alike on the lack of intuitive controls.Users of Super Luigi Bros scored the following:-
- StingX gave the it an 8 out of 10
- NHatters was very impressed with the game and weighed in with a score of 10/10
- JWishnov wasn't far behind with his score of 9/10
- Funguz scored the remake 10/10.
Videos
Some videos featuring Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island including TV Commercials and game trailers.The trailer from E3 2002
A TV Commercial for Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island
The official trailer for the Wii U Virtual Console port
Trivia & Facts
- In the German version of the game the level “Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy” is called “Lustiges Sporen Drama” which makes reference to LSD, the psychedelic drug.
- Hidden on the game data there are different transformations of Yoshi, they include a Mushroom, a Plane and a tree!
- Thanks to a rebellious action by Shigeru Miyamoto the game ended looking as it does now, the Nintendo Committee wanted a realistic looking game with pre-rendered graphics like DKC, so he ended up asking the artists to make the game look as if it was drawn with crayons.
Poochy
