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 takes place 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. The game uses an arts and crafts style rather than pre-rendered graphics like Donkey Kong Country. To compensate, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island uses the Super FX2 graphics chip, with emulating 3D space being one of its capabilities.

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.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is the first Yoshi title to have Yoshis as the main playable characters; earlier Yoshi titles, such as Yoshi and Yoshi's Safari, feature Mario as the actual main character whereas Yoshi is the mascot and has a more passive role.

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. However, like Super Mario World, the first appearance of Yoshis, a Yoshi can jump and use his elongated tongue to eat enemies and certain objects. 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.

For every 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 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 also a Super Star power-up that temporarily grants Baby Mario his Powerful Mario form, allowing him 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.

Worlds and levels
There are six worlds, each having eight regular levels for the Yoshis to progress through. Like in Super Mario Bros. and its two sequels for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island's worlds all have the generic title "World," followed by a number corresponding to their order in progression. Like in Donkey Kong Country, each level has a unique name, but still has their own "world-level" identifier like in the first few Super Mario series installments, albeit without "World" in the title. Every fourth and eighth level features a boss fight against an enemy enlarged by Kamek.

Instead of a world map like in some Super Mario titles, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island uses a level select menu. The worlds are represented by a folder-like display, each having their own color, and the world number is displayed from the tab-like part of the folder. Every tab consists of preview icons of the eight levels, each marked by an identifier beneath it. Accessing a level is done by highlighting its icon and then selecting it, causing the icon to spin around as it shrinks until vanishing. Each world has a different environmental setting, and several of its levels are themed as such. For instance, World 1 consists of several grassland levels. The actual first level is Welcome To Yoshi's Island, which serves as a short tutorial that teaches basic controls. Once completed, it cannot be replayed, making it an unrevisitable area.

Each world has a hidden extra level that can be unlocked by getting a 100% score for every other level within the same world. Extra levels are shorter yet harder than the other levels, and completing them is not a requirement for the Yoshis to progress in their journey. Because of their length and difficulty, most extra levels do not consist of any Checkpoint Rings. Extra levels do not feature their own preview icon and are instead represented by a star with a number and identifier.

To match the light arts and crafts aesthetic, the level backdrops are dynamically rendered with a more complex palette. In grassland levels, hills have an emulated colored pencils design, and clouds and hills contain visible shading streaks to communicate with their shadow. In cave levels, environment features such as waterfalls and crystals are animated. The level Goonie Rides! is unique in that it renders a shimmering ocean with a large flock of Goonies and their variants flying in the background.

All level icons that depict a Yoshi depict it as green, even if Green Yoshi is not playable in that level. Most of the levels are sidescrollers, but a few are autoscrolling, the first being Hop! Hop! Donut Lifts.

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, a game from Argonaut that became the result of their rejected Yoshi platformer pitch, uses a very similar naming scheme for the levels. The worlds, each taking place on a different island, are instead named for their environmental setting followed by the word "Island" (e.g. Forest Island).

Playable characters
Yoshis are the main playable character, with each one being a different color. Unlike Super Mario World, every Yoshi has the same abilities, regardless of their color. Baby Mario is an indirect playable character, as he rides on a Yoshi's back throughout his adventure. However, he can controlled independently while his Powerful Mario form is active.

The Yoshi colors are specific to the levels they are played in. Green Yoshi, being the primary Yoshi, is played in more levels than the other Yoshis. In all six worlds, the Yoshis access the levels in a specific order; for instance, Pink Yoshi is always used in the second level of a world. The only exception to the pattern is the final level, King Bowser's Castle, which is accessed by Green Yoshi rather than Blue Yoshi, who is used for the other castle levels. As a result, Blue Yoshi is used in the least number of levels than the other Yoshis.