Right! 20 years ago in August of 1995, Nintendo released Super Mario World 2 in Nippon. It didn’t hit the rest of the world until October ’95, but so what?
This is officially the 20th anniversary of this shining ode to genius—a game which still looks brilliant today, and is still marvellous to play.
Yoshi’s Island—Celebrating a Classic
The game’s more commonly known as Yoshi’s Island, of course, and the SNES was at the end of its life by the time it was released.
It’s, consequently, one of the final masterpieces on what remains the best games console of all time.
Regardless, everything about it was so longingly crafted (from the crayon styled graphics, the perfectly balanced gameplay, to the glorious music) that it stands as a reminder to the world of what video games can do.
After Super Mario World (which introduced Yoshi as a sidekick), creative genius Shigeru Miyamoto (the man behind Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, and many other classics) spearheaded a sequel which would see Yoshi at the forefront of events.
Nintendo weren’t too pleased at first. Shigsy, as he’s known, felt the company’s marketing department wanted “better hardware and more beautiful graphics instead of art”.
Luckily for us, Nintendo now still stick to their commitment to quality over graphical prowess, which is why their games remain of such high quality.
Sycophancy doesn’t work, so check the global review if you don’t agree.
The commitment paid off 20 years back with a charming and imaginative 2D platformer of some 48 levels. It’s an extraordinary game regardless of the time—the depth of the game is staggering, with the graphics complementing the experience.
Our big issue with the PS4 and Xbone is it’s all about the graphics. Ignore the jam for the genius.
Whilst the game looks beautiful the music (far more important to how a game plays) generates the atmosphere.
Koji Kondo, famous for his work on many Mario games, delivered another outstanding video game soundtrack which has us gushing like mindless sycophants. Look: *gush* *gush*.
Modern Yoshi Games
Yoshi’s Island was the green dinosaur’s first game. He’s (we’re presuming Yoshi’s a bloke) since appeared in the brain-meltingly cute Yoshi’s Story (1997).
More recently, the nauseating cuteness overload reached a peak with the excellent Yoshi’s Woolly World (2015). Just give it a whirl and remember what games are for: fun.
Professional Moron 
For me the “20 year ago” games were Doom 1 and Civilization 1. I have to say that the awesomeness of seeing Doom 1 for the very first time – on a 386/40 – has never been equalled because this was the VERY FIRST time such a thing was ever available to consumers. They still define the FPS and RTS genres for me…
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Ooh yeah, I love a bit of Doom any day. Still such a fantastic game after all these years. Love a bit of strategy too, Dungeon Keeper was my favourite. There’s a blog post idea!
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