Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is a 2D platforming title released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Despite its name, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is neither a sequel to Super Mario World nor an installment of the Super Mario series, but rather the first installment of the Yoshi's Island series, which is a part of the Yoshi franchise. The game is set in Yoshi's Island, and stars a group of Yoshis (most prominently Green Yoshi) and Baby Mario, who go on a journey to rescue Baby Luigi from Kamek. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is noted for having a crayon art style.

In 2002, a remake of the game, titled Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, was released for the Game Boy Advance. In 2006, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island received its first sequel, Yoshi's Island DS. The Nintendo 64 title Yoshi's Story was often considered to be a sequel to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, but it falls under the similar Yoshi platforming series instead of the Yoshi's Island series.

Story
A Stork is delivering Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to their parents. Meanwhile, Kamek looks into the future and sees that the two brothers will grow up to destroy the Koopa family, so he goes out to capture them both. Kamek charges at the stork and steals the bag with Baby Luigi, although Baby Mario is accidentally dropped below. Meanwhile on Yoshi's Island, Green Yoshi is taking a walk until Baby Mario lands right onto Green's Yoshi's back. A map of Yoshi's Island, presumably used by the stork, conveniently drops down from the sky. Green Yoshi meets with the other Yoshis to decide what to do with Baby Mario, and they agree to go on an adventure to deliver him home. When Kamek finds that he only came back with Baby Luigi, he becomes furious, and commands the Toadies to search for Baby Mario.

Gameplay
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island introduces several unique mechanics not found in the Super Mario series. Like Super Mario World, the first appearance of Yoshis, a Yoshi can jump and use his elongated tongue to eat opponents. Every Yoshi has the same abilities, regardless of their color. Yoshis were given a lot more abilities, and their existing abilities were expanded upon. When jumping, a Yoshi can perform a Flutter Jump to gain extra height from his jump. Whenever a Yoshi uses their tongue on an enemy, he does not immediately swallow the enemy, but it is stored inside of his mouth. The Yoshi can either convert the enemy into a egg or spit it back out. A Yoshi can carry up to six eggs behind him at a time. With them, a Yoshi can perform the Egg Throw ability, in which they throw an egg at an enemy or other target. Yoshis were also given the ability to Ground Pound.

In each level, the player controls a different Yoshi. The order in which the Yoshis are played are consistent for each world (e.g. Green Yoshi is always played as in the first level of a world). Baby Mario sits on the back of a Yoshi for the entirety of the level up to the end goal, where the Yoshi transfers Baby Mario on to the back of the next Yoshi. If a Yoshi takes damage from an enemy or an obstacle, Baby Mario falls off his back and becomes trapped in a bubble. The Yoshi has ten seconds to rescue Baby Mario by popping the bubble. In doing so, the timer slowly counts back to ten. By himself, a Yoshi does not take damage or lose a life unless he either falls down a hole, gets burnt by lava, or touches spikes. If Yoshi does not rescue Baby Mario on time, a group of Toadies appear to kidnap Baby Mario, and the Yoshis lose an extra life and have to restart the level from either the beginning or from the most recently activated checkpoint.

The levels are accessed from a map screen instead of a world map. There are six worlds, and each of them have eight levels, the fourth and eighth of which are always a boss level. After the Yoshis complete the sixth world, an extra level is unlocked in each world, raising the total number of levels from 54 to 60.

The game introduces its own transformations that turn a Yoshi into a type of vehicle, such as a submarine or a train, for a short period of time. There is a Starman power-up that temporarily grants Baby Mario the ability to run on the ground while invincible.

There are three items that contribute to a level's completion score: Stars, Red Coins, and Flowers. By default, a Yoshi starts out with 10 Stars in a level, although they can carry up to 30 Stars by acquiring them through various means. Each Star represents a second on the countdown timer, so if Yoshi takes damage, the timer counts down from the number of Stars that he has. Even when the Yoshi rescues Baby Mario, the countdown timer does not exceed 10, so there are at least 20 Stars (if the countdown timer begins from 30 and ends at 10) do not recover automatically. Every level consists of twenty Red Coins and five Flowers. Each Star and Red Coin adds one percent to the level completion score, but each Flower adds ten percent.