I got super suprised a couple of weeks ago when Jeff started hating on Yoshi's Island on the Bombcast. I think I never ever heard someone bitch about this game, not since more "mature" class mates during the middle 90s rather played Donkey Kong Country 2 (which is a good game too) because Yoshi's island looked "kiddie. I am genuinly suprised but how divisive the discussion been on this site during the weeks.

I just wanted to share my relatively short thoughts on this game.

In retrospect I never heard anyone really moan about this game and the majority I know and have known loves it. I love it too. It is without doubt my favorite Mario game, it's my favorite SNES game and it may be one of my all time favorite games. I just love how creative the game is and keeps being throughout the adventure. The basic mechanics are fun and have a lot of depth (ever tried to compete courses with your aiming active almost all the time?) and a skilled player can really soar throught he levels and feel good afterwards. I don't get the overreaction to Mario's crying. Yes, it sounds a lot but come on? Are you really going to bash the whole game based on a soundbite? Navi's "Hey, listen!" was annoying too but that didn't make me hate Ocarina of Time either. And most importanly the mechanic of catching Mario is a fun one, it's different and therefore felt and still feels like a breath of fresh air. At least to me.

I really like a lot of music in the game too. Athletics theme is a super awesome and happy tune. The boss music and level select tunes are also classics. I don't think I need to go into the look. Some of it look like wonderful crayon but some parts show of some truly impressive backgrounds and layouts. And it all looks cohesive..well..mabey not the FX2-plattform parts BUT they are fun either way BUT they do look out of place.

One of the main reason I love this game is the bosses. As some ones already said, we don't understand how people can complain about these in the light of other Mario game bosses. Some of the earlier ones are quite straight forward and only ask you to throw eggs at them but there was something cool with how the grew after every hit. I for example really like how gigantic that Boo get's. It's was really impressive back then. But then you have the frog prince, The Pirahna plant, The giant Koopa, the Mallow that can split into 12-16 pieces, the mushy ghost, the Breakout like floor boss in world 6 and to not forget Raphael the Raven headspinning fight. They were full of imagination and spectacle.

I also think that Bowser have never EVER looked as cool as he did in his final form i Yoshi's Island. I will never forget those glowing yellow empy and evil eyes. Awesome music track, an interesting way of fighting and graphicly impressive.

I could go on and on. This only makes me want to sit down witht he game again and really analyse it all. Every game has it low points, this one has those too, but Yoshi's Island is by no means a garbage game, it's not even bad. It's a good game, a really good game in my opinion but your's may differ and that's okey but to call is bullshit or plain out bad just sounds like negative hyperbole and that someone has a overreaction. It's well crafted plattformer with solid mechanics and an pleasing aesthetics.

I love Yoshi's Island. I think it's superfun game and it's a game I played many times through the years. I think it deserves it's Mario title by it's pure quality and I'm happy Nintendo made it instead of yet another Mario World 1 like game. It was daring and it really showed how creative Nintendo could be.