Oct 15, 2016  Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 is a lovely addition to the GameBoy Advance classics. The game itself is colorful, cute, and imaginative. While controlling Yoshi, the cute species of dinosaur living upon Yoshi's Island, you struggle to deliver an infant Mario to his brother at Bowser's castle using a relay system of Yoshi. Yoshi's Island received 'instant' and 'universal acclaim', according to an IGN retrospective and video game review aggregator Metacritic, respectively. At the time of its 1995 release, Matt Taylor of Diehard GameFan thought Yoshi's Island could be 'possibly the best platform game of all time'. But as a swan song for an era in which 2D gaming was still the primary concern of the world’s most prominent game developers, you couldn’t ask for much better than Yoshi's Island.

1. Yoshi's Island Play Free
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4. Play Yoshi's Island Online Game
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Two of my co-workers, PC editor Jeff Grubb and head of social media Anthony Agnello, are going to take part in a panel at PAX East in Boston next month to debate which games count as “core” to the Mario series. This debate has been raging on for some time now, and Jeff and I have discussed it ourselves on the GamesBeat Decides podcast.

I will not be at PAX East this year, so you won’t hear me scream my opinions during the panel. Honestly, I think that most of the selections should be obvious. I can’t get mad if you say Super Mario Sunshine isn’t a core Mario game, because the idea is preposterous. Other titles, like Mario vs. Donkey Kong, are so far removed from the traditional series tropes and mechanics that there’s no real danger of anyone considering them.

But then there’s Yoshi’s Island. Or, as some would love to remind us, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. Its status is one of the most hotly contested. And while I won’t be at PAX East, I want my colleagues to know that I firmly stand in the “no, it’s not core” camp.

Let me be clear. Yoshi’s Island is a fantastic game. It’s one of the greatest 2D sidescrollers ever. But being a core Mario game isn’t about quality. I have three simple rules for what makes a core Mario game.

1. Mario is in the name.
2. Mario is in the principal character, meaning the one the player controls most often.
3. Mechanically, it plays similarly to the traditional 2D (as started in Super Mario Bros.) or 3D (as started in Super Mario 64) molds.

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This is how I come to my list of core Mario games, which Jeff and I agreed on. It also disqualifies some contested titles, like the original Donkey Kong, which does not have Mario in its name. Nor does it play like other 2D Mario games. Yoshi’s Island also betrays two of mycriteria. Mario is not the principal character. You only control him for brief periods of time. Overall, it accounts for probably less than 1 percent of the entire game. Yoshi’s Island also has its own 2D physics, controls, and overall gameplay feel when compared to other core 2D Mario games. It was so distinct that it started its own series of Yoshi’s games, which include Yoshi’s Story, Yoshi’s New Island, and Yoshi’s Woolly World.

• Oct 15, 2015 Yoshi’s Cookie won’t ever top a “best puzzle games” list, but digging up this SNES cart is a tasty little treat. Yoshi’s Story. If this was a ranking of the cutest Yoshi games, this one would do a little better, but the first follow up to Yoshi’s Island isn’t much beyond a pretty face.
• Sep 24, 2002  This is game of my childhood. And I still think it's masterpiece and in my opinion best 2D platformer ever. The best thing about Yoshi's island is difficulty. Even though it's game for children secret and extra stages are really challenging (creators got little bit overboard with Endless world of Yoshis).

Above: Is this core too?

Yoshi's Island Online

This is actually the same trajectory that the Wario series followed. The first Wario Land’s full title is Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3. It created its own 2D mechanics that stood apart from traditional Mario games, and it spawned its own franchise that immediately dropped the Super Mario Land branding. Few argue for Wario Land to be a core Mario game. If it contained a power-up that turned Wario into Mario for 30 seconds, would it suddenly then qualify for the Yoshi’s Islanders?

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But even then, Yoshi’s Island status is in a way more precarious than Wario Land’s. Nintendo only branded the game as Super Mario World 2 outside of Japan. It was a marketing maneuver to more closely tie the title into the Super Nintendo’s successful launch game. So, in a way, Yoshi’s Island doesn’t even fit my first criteria.

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Yoshi’s Island is a spin-off, the same as Wario Land, Super Princess Peach, or Captain Toad: Treasure Trackers. It is not a core Mario game. It is a Yoshi game. Calling it a core Mario title opens up the same problem as calling Pluto a planet; it opens up eligibility of too many others for the same qualification. If Yoshi’s Island is core, then why not Yoshi’s New Island?

So, esteemed panelists at PAX East, please take these proofs into consideration as you engage in your debates. Yoshi’s Island is a treasured classic. We love it. But that doesn’t mean we need to shove into some category it doesn’t belong in.

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But have luck figuring out if Super Mario Maker counts. I’m still trying to figure that one out.

I would have preferred to not get stuck on the corner there near the spinning spike thing, but it doesn't matter since I'm waiting for it later anyways.The train parts are always really boring. It won't round a corner quickly unless you line up the turn just right. I get stuck on a wall for a half second just before leaving the room, which almost bugged me enough to restart. The second to last from in this room likes to not appear sometimes, which means a restart cuz I need his body. 6-1 yoshi island. The submarine is a weird vehicle.

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The RetroBeat is a weekly column that looks at gaming’s past, diving into classics, new retro titles, or looking at how old favorites — and their design techniques — inspire today’s market and experiences. If you have any retro-themed projects or scoops you’d like to send my way, please contact me.