#thank u shroob for finding this

[bastianhallix]

need to post this message from @yffresbeard that shroob dug up. it belongs here.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Super Mario Advance Playthrough

Fighter: Princess Peach Toadstool.

Game: Super Mario Advance, Wii U virtual console (GBA). First Released on March 21st 2001.

Fighter Bio.

Princess Peach Toadstool, known as Princess Peach more commonly now is the crown Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. She is famous and well liked both within her Kingdom and in a lot of locations outside of it. Peach’s role in the Mario series varies with her most common role often being kidnapped by Bowser, but other villains have also captured her before. Based on my estimate, I believe she has been kidnapped roughly 31 times so far in the games including all spin-offs. Sometimes these kidnappings take place before the game starts meaning she only appears in the ending, other times she’ll have a role in the game before it happens and sometimes it will be a short part of the game like for a single chapter in one of the RPGs. Often in that last example it relates to another one of her roles, being a playable character who is either a party member or optional character to play as, with her sometimes becoming playable after being rescued. In the cases where Peach is not kidnapped immediately, she’ll often tell Mario and the others what they need to do when a crisis is taking place, advising them where to head to next or setting them off at the start of the game on their quest. Being captured so often, one skill Peach seems to have picked up over the years is her ability to often stealthily slip around her captors, sometimes simply working out a way to send Mario assistance such as items and advice, and other times managing to spy on her captor’s plans. Often due to the location she’s being held in she is unable to fully escape from her captors however, or in some cases her sense of duty to her also captured people will make her not try to leave without them.

The Mario series doesn’t have a solid timeline, so a lot of this is just my own personal ideas, but unless a game is explicitly taking place in the past with Baby versions of the characters, I tend to just go by the order in which the games are released regarding character’s histories in the franchise, something possibly evidenced by a scene in Super Mario Sunshine where F.L.U.D.D. searches its databank and has data on Mario’s adventures prior to that game as past events. I also personally like to consider the Paper Mario series broadly canon to the Mario series as a whole so I will be including aspects from that here. Peach first met the Mario Bros and Bowser back when they were babies, with her first meeting with them being during the events of Yoshi’s Island DS. In this game Peach was one of the babies who the Yoshis are trying to help get home, with her ability when riding a Yoshi being to use her parasol which allows them to ride on high winds. The next appearance of Baby Princess Peach was during the Shroob invasion where her older self went back in time and was kidnapped by the Shroobs. Baby Bowser planned to kidnap Baby Peach, however he was interrupted first by the Baby Mario Bros and then by the invading Shroobs. Baby Princess Peach actually manages to not be kidnapped throughout the game instead remaining in the future Castle with a young Toadsworth who is her caretaker. Following these two events (excluding spinoffs with Baby Peach where she appears but there’s no story such as Mario Kart) the Mario Bros seemingly left the Mushroom Kingdom possibly for New Donk City. Despite their absence, Bowser didn’t attempt any more kidnapping plots for some time, possibly not until the Mario Bros returned to the Mushroom Kingdom following the events of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros seems to be the first time Bowser successfully kidnapped Princess Peach taking over her Kingdom entirely until the Mario Bros managed to defeat him and save her. In the backstory to this game, Bowser apparently used magic to transform the people of the Mushroom Kingdom into various objects and then kidnapped the Princess to stop her from turning them back. It’s due to this as well as Peach’s abilities in some games that it seems she is capable of certain forms of magic, often of the healing variety. It is only rarely however Peach is shown to use these abilities.

When it comes to her personality, Peach was probably the earliest character in the series to have dialogue, with her having lines in the very first game and most others after, whereas other characters like Bowser would more often only have dialogue in the instruction book at most. In the very first game it was fairly basic with her simply thanking Mario or Luigi for saving her and offering them the chance to take on a new quest, which was a harder version of the game. Super Mario Bros 3 however had her show a bit more personality, with her making a joke to her saviour at the end of the adventure based on the infamous line Toad would tell the player in the original game, “Thank you Mario but our Princess is in another castle.” Before telling them she was just kidding. Peach’s personality varies a little from game to game, but usually the main aspects of it are that she’s kind, generous and when not captured is good at advising the others what needs to be done. Despite being fairly reliable, she can sometimes be somewhat whimsical, especially in spin-off games with her often enjoying frolicking and singing, and she can when pushed show a fairly strong angry side, with her either aggressively convincing a character such as Luigi to go and save his brother or reacting angrily to those who mock her. Finally, despite her longstanding friendship with Mario, she’s willing to tell him off if he’s getting too carried away, almost abandoning him and Bowser at one point when they start squabbling and she just wants to go home.

Friends: Princess Peach is fairly popular throughout the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond and as such a lot of characters know of her even if they haven’t met her before. Peach’s subjects seem to all adore her a lot with them often being depressed when she’s absent. Of her closer relationships, her closest arguably is with Mario, with him often rescuing her and sometimes her returning the favour. Their relationship tends to be teased sometimes as possibly romantic, but there are times Peach will find Mario a bit too overbearing. What is clear is that they trust each other entirely and when possible will often work together. Peach is close with Luigi also although not to the same degree as Mario, however she will still in some games treat Luigi the same way she does Mario in the ending when Luigi is the character being played as, such as giving him a kiss on the cheek. Later games have shown she extends this to anyone who helps her as a sign of gratitude, including Yoshi, Toad and Toadette. The next closest relationship Peach has is with Toadsworth her elderly steward who has taken care of her since she was a baby. Toadsworth often worries for the Princess’s safety and tries to accompany her whenever he can. Toad is Peach’s attendant and often fulfils Toadsworth’s role in his absence sticking by her side when possible. Toad is fiercely loyal to Peach despite his cowardice and will often try to help her out however he can.

Toadette is someone Peach gets along with, however the two don’t interact that often with Toadette often doing other roles to help Mario. Peach has a connection to the Yoshis due to them saving her with the other Star Children when she was a baby, however besides this there is only one instance of her ever riding Yoshi, which is in the ending of Super Mario World where she rides Yoshi on the journey back to his house after Bowser is defeated. Of the rest of the cast Peach seems to get along fairly well with most of them, with possibly her best friend being Princess Daisy who she often partners with in various sports and other games and the two will also act as friendly rivals when in competition with each other.

Enemies/Rivals: The relationship between Bowser and Peach seems to have developed over the years. Initially Bowser seemed to aim to capture Peach simply because she was the princess of the Kingdom he was invading and then because she could undo the magic he used to transform her citizens. Eventually however, Bowser seemed to develop an affinity for Peach, one which she does not reciprocate at all. Due to this, Bowser’s aim is always to kidnap Peach and try to convince her to marry him rather than just destroy her as with his other enemies. Bowser also at one point told his son Bowser Jr that Peach was his Mother, which led to her being shocked when Bowser Jr claimed this. Despite Junior revealing later on he knew Peach wasn’t his real Mother, he still referred to her as Mama and seems to like the idea of it, kidnapping Peach sometimes so she can be with Bowser. Although Peach does not get along with Bowser or his troops, she will work with them when needed, and in cases where Bowser helps against another enemy she is willing to do things such as send him a cake as thanks. Beyond this, Peach has had a few other enemies, often them being villains who kidnap her as part of their plan such as Sir Grodus or Cackletta. Peach has fought against a couple of villains herself including Count Bleck’s minions, Smithy’s Gang and Wart, leader of the 8 bits who invaded Subcon.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Being from the Mario series, Princess Peach has had a fair few crossovers, although not as many as the Mario Bros themselves. Super Mario RPG had Peach playable as part of the party, and therefore she was also present when Samus made a cameo in the game. Link’s cameo in the game appears before Princess Peach joins the party, however they are still technically in the same game so I feel it’s still worth mentioning. Princess Peach similarly to Mario appears in the crowd for both the Megaton Punch minigame and Kirby’s Battle in the Boxing arena with King Dedede in Kirby Super Star and the remake Super Star Ultra. Princess Peach is a racer in Mario Kart 8, where there was a Mii costume for Captain Falcon, along with the Blue Falcon as a kart and two F-Zero tracks. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, there is also Link in both his Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild incarnations as well as both default Inklings, two human Animal Crossing Villagers and Isabelle who are playable. Princess Peach is a character in the Game & Watch Gallery games and as such has crossed over with Mr. Game & Watch. In the NES version of Tetris, Pit appeared playing a harp alongside characters such as Princess Peach, Samus, Link and Donkey Kong.  Princess Peach is a character in the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series therefore crossing over with Sonic. Pac-Man has crossed over with Princess Peach in the arcade Mario Kart GP series. Whilst Princess Peach has never directly crossed over with any of the Hero characters from Dragon Quest, many of the Fortune Street games have featured crossovers with the Dragon Quest and Mario series, with many other Dragon Quest characters interacting with her. Finally, and perhaps most notably is a game where Princess Peach has a direct cameo and Mario doesn’t. (There is however a character based on him) In all versions of Link’s Awakening a character named Catherine sends a photo of ‘herself’ to Mr. Write (a character who is a clear reference to Dr. Wright from the SNES SimCity game who is also an assist trophy in Super Smash Bros) with him showing Link the photo which is a picture of Princess Peach. In reality, Catherine is a goat living in Animal Village. Whilst normally I tend to not include pictures or outfits in other games as cameos (Peach’s dress and parasol appear in many other series such as Animal Crossing for example) I felt in this case it was justified as the photo is part of the actual sidequest regarding the character’s identity rather than just being a background cameo.

Why this game?

Princess Peach has been playable in a few games so I had quite a few to choose from, Super Mario 3D World was one contender with Peach playing somewhat similarly to how she does in Super Smash Bros, however she lacked something specific in this game that I went for with my final choice. The other two notable options, Super Paper Mario and Super Princess Peach which was her starring role both had her play in a somewhat more unique way to how she did in Super Smash Bros, with Perry the Parasol being a big part of her moveset in SPP, whilst in SPM Peach only had her Parasol lacking her floating jump. Super Mario Bros 2 was the first time Princess Peach was playable, and most of her moveset in Super Smash Bros originates from the game, with not only her being able to float for a short time when she jumps, but perhaps the most unique aspect from the game being her ability to pull out turnips to throw as weapons, something she only does in SMB2. It was for these reasons I decided to go with Super Mario Bros 2 in this case, especially as those other games will still be covered later down the line on my list. When it comes to the version of the game I chose, I went for the Super Mario Advance incarnation rather than the original NES or Allstars version, however I will detail that more in the next section overall.

My past with this game.

So this game is one of the select few specifically from my childhood. I had Super Mario Allstars on the SNES with this game on it, but also I had the NES version as well. With the NES version the main thing I remember is just having the box with the picture of Mario on the front. Similarly to other games then I never completed this one, however it was probably the Mario game I got the least far playing. I believe I would only ever get to 1-3 before usually not making it past the Phantos to face Mouser. For some time I mostly remembered the game but didn’t really revisit it, it wasn’t exactly in the same class as Super Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario World even if I did have some fond memories of it for being so different. Probably the most confusing thing with the game for me back then was related to the cartoon show. In the cartoon show, Bowser is depicted looking different to the games, with him being mostly green with a crown on his head as opposed to his look in the vast majority of other appearances with orange scales on his body and only his head green as well as lacking a crown. Wart, the antagonist of Super Mario Bros 2 however, was all green with a crown on his head. Due to this, I believed that the King Koopa on the cartoon show was actually Wart (which might not be that outlandish as the first version of the cartoon show was based on Super Mario Bros 2, so it was likely King Koopa was just an amalgamation of Bowser and Wart, although this is DIC so the possibility of them just screwing it up is always the most likely scenario) Another perhaps somewhat unique source of this was my Grandma when I’d visit her as a kid, who would have various games I could play with my Cousins, and one she had was a card game called Super Mario Bros Blockbusting Card Game. Of course, being a big fan of Mario then I would love getting this out, especially as the big cards had artwork of the various enemies, powerups and the Mario Bros. What was interesting was this also had artwork of Wart as well as Bowser, which therefore for me back then looked even more similar, so I just assumed Wart was the King Koopa from the cartoons and Bowser was from the games. What helped with this was there were a fair few of the bosses from Super Mario Bros 2 who were cards in the set.

It was only with magazines I believe that I gradually learnt that Wart was the antagonist of Super Mario Bros 2, and at first I believed this meant he was the villain from the cartoon show till I finally realised the cartoon show wasn’t really relevant to the games at all and King Koopa was meant to be Bowser. I also at this time learnt probably the other most notable aspect of this game, that it wasn’t the original Super Mario Bros 2. Despite having Super Mario Allstars, back then I didn’t exactly look at the Lost Levels as anything else other than a weird version of Super Mario Bros I couldn’t get anywhere on, and it was only later I learnt that that was the game in Japan that was SMB2 and the SMB2 I knew had been another game altogether, Doki Doki Panic. What’s interesting is I believe apparently Miyamoto was more involved in Doki Doki Panic than SMB2 (Lost Levels) overall, so it’s not as if the game becoming a Mario one was completely out of nowhere. It’s also very interesting that so many factors of this game, things like Peach’s movement, Luigi’s distinct character design, Toad being playable and perhaps the biggest one being various enemies such as Bob-ombs and Shy Guys became a huge part of the Super Mario Bros series, with Bob-ombs appearing in the following game SMB3 (Which meant in Japan these enemies somehow went from being in Doki Doki Panic to Super Mario Bros 3.) The reason for this apparently was that they believed the original SMB2 (Lost Levels) was too difficult really to sell outside of Japan, something that tends to be mocked now, but personally I think it makes for a more interesting and unique sequel so I’m kind of glad it happened. It’s also interesting to me that due to this, outside of Japan Super Mario Bros fits a slight pattern I noticed with a couple of franchises on NES, where the second game in the series would be quite different to the first, then the third would end up being more like the first game again but expanded. The Legend of Zelda had Zelda II Adventure of Link which had sidescrolling as a major gameplay element before A Link to the Past brought the series back to how it was in the original game, Castlevania 2 Simon’s Quest was a lot different to the first game, but Castlevania 3 Dracula’s Curse brought it back to the gameplay of the first game, and with SMB2 it was radically different to SMB, but then SMB3 brought it back to the style of the first game.

Another big part of my history with the game, as with a fair few franchises, goes back to my experiences on the early internet, specifically Newgrounds flash animations again. Back then, there was a flash animation at the time called Rise of the Mushroom Kingdom which I really enjoyed. It was bloody and involved Mario dying and Luigi setting out for revenge, fairly tame compared to a lot of stuff on Newgrounds then and with some really nice usage of sprites. It was the second flash movie in this series however that involved Mario setting off to face the real villain behind the events of the first movie (which turned out to have been a dream) Wart that really made me appreciate SMB2 more. At the time I was really getting into messing around with sprites and Games Factory, trying to make my own games, so this flash movie made me look a lot more into SMB2 and all the unique enemies in it, with the various bosses such as Mouser, Tryclyde and of course Birdo and Wart being characters I wanted to see more of. This all led me to finally properly play SMB2 and beat it some time after I had beaten SMB3.

For my final history with the game, it relates mostly to Super Mario Advance, the remake of Super Mario Bros 2 that launched the Game Boy Advance. It was traditional at that point to launch a new Nintendo console with a Mario game, a pattern that would be broken only a few months later with the release of the Gamecube (which instead had Luigi’s Mansion, and the Wii wouldn’t have a Mario series game at all at launch.) This game was the first in the Super Mario Advance series and it’s arguably the version that was changed the most from the original game, with a few changes to the levels such as new giant Shy Guys and a fair bit more voice acting with all the bosses getting lines they’d say when you met them. This is pure speculation I’ve had since then, but I feel like they possibly picked Super Mario Bros 2 as they felt it was the game that they could risk changing most, and also that they changed it the most of the series so as to show off what the GBA was capable of with the voices and sprites. I remember when the GBA was the current console, Super Mario Advance was the game I’d tend to see most often being shown off in stores, even sometime after other games had come out. Despite this, it was probably the last game in the Advance series I got, but I’d say out of the Mario Advance series it’s the game I’d most recommend instead of or alongside the original or Allstars version as it’s the more unique experience. It’s due to this that I chose Super Mario Advance as the version for my playthrough rather than the others.

My Smash Playthrough.

I have actually played through this game fairly recently from start to finish, for a character much further down my list so the game is somewhat fresh in my memory compared to other games I’ve written about so far here. For this playthrough as it was the game I chose for Princess Peach I played through the whole game solely as her. In comparison I’d say she’s one of the characters who I prefer playing as due mostly to her extremely useful floating ability, with her downside (being her power which means she’s unable to pull vegetables or pick up enemies as quickly and a slower running speed) not really feeling too much of a hassle in exchange. I want to focus on Peach mostly, but Mario as always is the all-rounder having no real weaknesses nor gimmicks that make him excel in any area, Luigi has the best jump but is a little slower and less powerful than Mario (this is also the game where he first had his scuttle jump) and finally Toad (the character I played through the game as recently) is the fastest and most powerful but has the lowest jump, often requiring you to charge up a super jump (done by crouching down until the character starts glowing) to reach higher platforms. The plot of the game is that Mario had a dream one night where he went up a staircase and found a mysterious door. Opening the door he saw a vast world before him and heard a voice telling him this land was Subcon and that the evil Wart is causing suffering there. The voice tells Mario that only he can save the land and to remember Wart hates vegetables before Mario wakes up. The next day, Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach go for a picnic, Mario tells them of the dream he had and they all say they had the same dream. During their picnic they see a cave and look inside it, finding a staircase leading up to the same door from the dream. When they open it, they are once again standing before Subcon, with them this time entering which is where the game starts.

Probably the most immediate point for most Mario players to notice when first playing this game is how it is very different when it comes to a lot of the standard Mario mechanics, granted when the game came out this was following only the original Super Mario Bros, so it wasn’t quite as unusual. Some aspects remain the same, such as the characters turning small when they have only one hit left, however unlike in other Mario games their health is restored by finding hearts, with any amount of hearts over one bringing them back to regular size. Mushrooms are in the game still, but this time finding one and picking it up gives the character an extra heart (as well as fully healing them) which means they’re a lot less common than in other Mario games. This game also lacks any sort of power-ups such as the Fire Flower, with the only alternate form being brief invincibility when touching a Star. I quite enjoy the main mechanic used to fight in this game, being picking up objects or enemies and throwing them at other enemies to defeat them, it provides a fun and fairly unique style of gameplay to the other games in the series and creates fairly basic puzzles in some cases where you’re required to build a small tower of mushroom blocks as an example to be able to reach a high platform. Possibly one of the most infamous aspects of this game are the keys that are sometimes required in stages to get through a locked door. You are required to carry the keys similarly to other objects to the door, however when holding the key, the evil Phanto Masks will relentlessly pursue you, and only stop either when you use the key on the door or drop the key. Despite their reputation and giving me some trouble as a kid, nowadays I barely find them a problem as just throwing the key ahead of you usually gets them off your back long enough to travel a fair distance before they pursue you again.

When it comes to difficulties I faced playing the game, it’s a fairly easy game, with only two sections I remember really causing me many problems both recently and back during this playthrough. The first is a stage where you’re travelling across the tops of whales in the ocean. The top of them is a fairly big platform, although the middle of the platform will sometimes have water spout out of their blowhole. Touching this water from the side will hurt you which can be somewhat annoying, however jumping on top of the water that’s spurting out provides a platform. Perhaps the most irritating part to me is when you’re required to use the whales tails as platforms, mostly as they are very small and it can be very easy to slip off of them, leading to an instant death. The second and probably most irritating situation in the game for me are parts featuring you digging through sand. In these parts of the level there are layers of sand that you can dig by pulling them similarly to how you pull vegetables out of the ground. The problem with these parts are the Shy Guys who constantly walk from left to right, and will fall down the layers of Sand you’ve removed. Due to how little room you have to manoeuvre when you get lower in the sand, picking the Shy Guys up and throwing them doesn’t really work, often with them catching on a layer above and instantly walking back into you taking off health. The way I describe this sounds like it’s a design issue but it’s more just hard to describe and really makes sense when playing, it’s not unfair or anything, it’s just these sections are the ones I tend to die most at and find the most tedious, possibly simply due to impatience when it comes down to it.

The stages aren’t really ground-breaking, but when compared to the stages in the original Super Mario Bros I feel they have a fair bit more variety. The themes for them are grassland, vertical waterfall stages, desert stages, underground caves and snow stages, with some of them simply being at night. I still find the stages do some interesting things however with them not seeming just like variations of each other but often having a few unique features to them that makes them stand out, for example the very first stage is a fairly basic grassland, but the end of it has you going into a cave to reach the top of some hills, then climbing into the clouds before facing the boss. The levels are longer than those in the original Super Mario Bros, however there are less of them, with each world only having 3 stages, and the last world, World 7 only having two. The game is somewhat challenging, it was probably the one I got the least far in of the Super Mario Bros games as a kid, but despite a couple of issues I find it fairly simple to play through now, especially with Peach.

The Bosses are probably the more interesting of the first three Super Mario Bros games with there being quite a few variations, although some are repeated a few times. This game was the debut of Birdo who appears in a few variations. The most basic battle with Pink Birdo has her shoot eggs from her mouth at you, which you have to grab from the air and throw back at her. Red Birdo shoots eggs also, but varies it with some fireballs, so you have to be careful which projectile you jump onto and which you just avoid. Green Birdo is the final variation shooting only fireballs, requiring you to grab other objects from around the room to throw instead of eggs to beat her. There is a fourth sort of variation exclusive to Super Mario Advance, being the Robo Birdo. This boss fires eggs also like Birdo, however the eggs are giant and it also has a charging attack which requires you to grab one of the chains hanging from the ceiling to avoid. Birdos are usually the bosses of the regular stages in Super Mario Bros 2, with the third stage of each world having a unique boss to fight, Robo Birdo being one of these unique bosses who replaces a repeated boss in the original versions of the game. There are a couple of unique appearances of Birdo in the game however which I find neat personally, one of which is a Pink Birdo who appears at the very start of stage 4-3. This Birdo will always respawn when defeated when you leave the area through a door and return again. The reason why is that the eggs she fires are actually meant to be used to ride across a large chasm to reach the rest of the level, which is probably one of my favourite little gimmicks in the game.

Mouser is the first main boss in the game, a Mouse with sunglasses who likes to throw bombs everywhere, naturally the way to beat him is to throw his bombs back at him. I remember finding this boss a little annoying mostly as he’s on a platform above you, and only gets effected by the bomb if it goes off where he’s standing. Due to his erratic movements this can be down to luck somewhat as to whether he’ll stand in the right spot when the bomb explodes, although it’s hardly a difficult battle overall. What’s probably most interesting to me about Mouser is that he is probably the boss who varies the most between versions of the game. In the original form of the game, Doki Doki Panic he appeared as a boss three times, with a green eared version in stage 3-3 and a white furred version in 5-3. Super Mario Bros 2 replaced the version in 5-3 with another boss, and then Super Mario Advance replaced the green eared version with Robo Birdo, but actually had a second boss battle with the regular Mouser replace a second boss battle with another character. Tryclyde is the next boss faced all versions of the game, being a three headed snake that shoots fireballs and has to have mushroom blocks thrown at it. Interestingly Tryclyde appears again as a boss in SMB2 but in Super Mario Advance it’s replaced in it’s second battle by Mouser. Another odd factor with Tryclyde is in Super Mario Bros 2 it is red, but in the remake for Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Advance it is instead green with red patterns on it’s back. It’s particularly odd in this case as some enemies, Cobrats who are single headed snakes that appear in the game remain red in all versions. Tryclyde is more of a challenging boss than Mouser and caused me perhaps a death or two but wasn’t that tough overall. The next boss is probably the one I had the most trouble with, Fryguy a living flame. Due to being a flame, touching Fry Guy at all causes damage, so you have to throw mushroom blocks at him. What makes this battle more difficult is that Fryguy moves around a fair bit, and hitting him with the mushroom blocks due to this without being hit yourself can be a lot more tricky. On top of this, when you beat the first phase of the boss fight, Fryguy then splits into four smaller versions that can be just as tricky to hit and all need to be extinguished in order to beat him. Fryguy is probably second only to Wart when it comes to how often I’d die to him, and I think in this playthrough actually killed me more than Wart did. Clawgrip the crab is the final of the standard bosses in the game, throwing boulders at you which have to be picked up and thrown back at him. I remember this battle being a little tricky as landing on the boulders properly could be tough, and approaching from the side at all would cause you damage, but overall he was less tough than Fryguy to me. Clawgrip replaced the white Mouser and was the only boss who wasn’t in Doki Doki Panic (besides Robo Birdo.) Every boss is voiced in this version of the game and I find them fun little voicelines overall that make them more memorable, with lines like Mouser going “Here, have some bombs!” or Birdo’s “This is as far as you go!”

The final two levels are the most difficult overall, not being as irritating to me as the digging through sand or whale sections earlier in the game, but more difficult stages overall than the others, with the first having you travelling across clouds with a lot of enemies and pits to overcome and the second being a big palace which is probably the biggest maze in the game. They are both however, probably my favourite levels in the game overall. I tend to have an affinity for cloud based sky stages and I find the palace a fitting final location. Wart is the final boss of the game and is fought in a room with the Dream Machine which he has been using possibly to create the various monsters that make up his army of bad dreams. The Dream Machine seems to perhaps possess some sort of sentience however, as in the final battle it starts shooting out vegetables which can be grabbed and thrown into Wart’s mouth to defeat him. Wart fights by shooting out bubbles and it is only when he opens his mouth to do so he can be hurt by throwing a vegetable in there, which was why at the start of the game Mario was told about Wart hating them as a hint. I remember having some trouble years ago with timing the vegetables so as to not get hit by the bubbles, but this time it went fairly smoothly and I beat Wart I think first time. With Wart defeated you go through to the next room and free the native inhabitants of Subcon from a jar, who celebrate Mario, Luigi, Toad and Peach defeating Wart and saving them before seeming to throw the defeated Wart out of the Palace. With this, the scene then switches to Mario in bed, revealing the whole game was a dream as cast credits for all of the enemies in the game go by, which in the original version of the game had a couple of mistakes such as Ostro, a minor enemy and Birdo’s names being swapped, which is corrected in this version. It’s a nice ending and for those who overanalyse these games like me, somewhat interesting as a few of the enemies who first appeared in this game such as Shy Guys and Snifits actually also appeared in Yoshi’s Island when Mario was a baby, so as this is part of a dream those memories might be related to them appearing in Wart’s army of bad dreams, although I know it’s probably nothing that deep overall. So overall, I enjoyed playing through this game, it’s not overly long or difficult and as a portable game back when it came out and the first example of what the GBA could do, it was very good overall I’d say.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Peach in Smash.

I’ve pretty much gone over the main aspects of Princess Peach in this game when it comes to Super Smash Bros, this game was the origin of Peach’s floating jump ability and her pulling turnips out of the ground to throw at enemies. In Super Smash Bros, very rarely Peach can pull other items out of the ground instead of a turnip, one of which being a Bob-omb, which is possible also in Super Mario Bros 2 where some of the tufts of grass when pulled will turn out to be a Bob-omb which has to be thrown away immediately or else it will explode on you. Other than this however, most of Peach’s other moves come from other games I will cover later, such as her frying pan being from Super Mario RPG, Tennis Racket and Golf Club from their respective sports series and Parasol from various other games. There’s nothing really to customise so that’s pretty much it for Peach’s appearance in this game.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Super Mario Wiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Yoshi’s Island Playthrough

Fighter: Yoshi

Game: Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, Wii U virtual console (GBA). First Released on September 20th 2002.

Fighter Bio.

Yoshi is a Green Yoshi (In an old Nintendo character guide given the full name T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas) who lives on Yoshi’s Island, with his species being named after the island they were discovered on. Yoshis as a species reside in other locations but Yoshi’s Island is where they originate from. Being named Yoshi results in a similar situation to Toad, in that there can be argued to be a specific character named Yoshi, but it can be debated when the Yoshi who shows up in a game is the same character or just another Green Yoshi. Nintendo and the Mario series tend to not put much emphasis on it so I will assume in this post that for the majority of appearances where a Green Yoshi is shown as the main Yoshi it’s the same character unless that’s explicitly not the case. Yoshi is possibly older than the majority of the Mario cast as his first chronological appearance had him finding Baby Mario, who was being carried by a Stork with Baby Luigi to his parents before Kamek the Magikoopa, realising the danger the babies posed to the Koopas intercepted him in an attempt to kidnap the brothers, only managing to take Baby Luigi. Yoshi took Baby Mario to the other Yoshis and they agreed to rescue Baby Luigi and help the pair get home. The Yoshi’s would work together passing Baby Mario over to each other after each stage, and as such, the Green Yoshi’s main role was to take on the first stage of each world. In the final world however, Green Yoshi also took on the final stage, but instead of fighting Kamek, he found himself facing the Prince of the Koopa Kingdom, Baby Bowser. After a climatic fight Yoshi was victorious and managed to save Baby Luigi and the Stork, who took the Bros to their parents.

Following this, Yoshi fought Baby Bowser a number of other times, sometimes helping Baby Mario and in one case even worked with Baby Bowser temporarily to take on a time travelling Adult Bowser. During this game (Yoshi’s Island DS), he also met with Baby Peach, Baby DK and Baby Wario, each with different abilities when they could use when they rode Yoshi. In this game, the adult Bowser is seeking to capture the 7 Star Children, who are Mario, Luigi, Peach, Donkey Kong, Wario, Bowser and at the end of the game it’s revealed the seventh is a Green Baby Yoshi who only hatches in the credits. This arguably could mean that the Baby Yoshi born at the end of this game, Yoshi’s Island DS is in fact ‘The Yoshi’, but for the sake of this article I’ll leave it at that for now. Due to the presence of Baby Bowser in most of the Yoshi series of games, it’s fair to assume that the majority of them take place long before Mario’s own games, however, sometimes the Yoshis in these games are more explicitly different from the ones found on Yoshi’s Island. One example is in Yoshi’s Woolly World where this group of Yoshis live on Craft Island, and in Yoshi’s Story the playable Yoshis are said to have been born at the start of the game. In Yoshi’s Story, Baby Bowser becomes jealous of how happy the Yoshis living on Yoshi’s Island are and steals their Super Happy Tree, the ultimate source of happiness and then turns the island into a pop-up picture book. Six Baby Yoshis only hatch following this and as such are the only Yoshis left who haven’t been turned into part of the book, with them setting out to stop Baby Bowser and save the Super Happy Tree. Something interesting is that it’s possible the Green Yoshi in this game who’s born is in fact the seventh Star Child, although given how vague Nintendo are with the Yoshi series, similarly to the Mario series, it’s mostly up to interpretation, so my own personal headcanon is that Yoshi’s Story is the final game in the Yoshi series timeline (excluding Yoshi Topsy-Turvy which has adult Bowser as the antagonist), and the Yoshi who hatches in this game goes on to be the main Yoshi for the Mario series onwards. Or of course there could be no main Yoshi and it’s just the name given to whatever Yoshi’s in a game, but that’d be pretty boring to me so I’ll stick with my own headcanon.

This nicely segues into Yoshi’s other major role outside of his own series, which is as a supporting cast member of the Mario series, which is where he originated. Chronologically, the first Mario game to have Yoshi in it is Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. In this game, Mario and Luigi travel back in time and meet their Baby selves (although, Baby Mario and Luigi seem more like toddlers at this point being able to walk and more importantly jump.) and have to team up to take on alien invaders known as the Shroobs. One of the locations they travel to is Yoshi’s Island, where a Green Yoshi is trying to organise the Yoshi’s to escape a giant monstrous Shroob-Yoshi hybrid known as Yoob. Despite his efforts however, the Green Yoshi as well as the other Yoshis are eaten by Yoob. The Marios find themselves also eaten by Yoob eventually and have to rescue the Yoshis from inside Yoob’s body. Once they save the Yoshis, the Yoshis help them to fight their way out, with the Green Yoshi leading. It’s believed this Green Yoshi is the same as the one from Yoshi’s Island, and as such the Baby Mario Bros return the favour to the Yoshi’s in this game by saving them. Following this, it’s fair to jump to the ‘current’ time period in the Mario series, and Yoshi’s first actual appearance, Super Mario World. In this game, Yoshi and his friends have been trapped in eggs by Bowser. Mario frees Yoshi from a ? block and Yoshi allows Mario to ride on his back. If Yoshi and Mario are hit by an enemy, Yoshi will throw Mario off his back and run away in distress, however if Mario can mount Yoshi again he will calm down and allow Mario to keep riding him. His next appearance was in Super Mario 64 but only in a short appearance on the roof of Peach’s Castle when Mario has found all the stars in the game, where Yoshi gives Mario 100 extra lives and an improved Triple Jump, as well as a message from the game’s developers. In the remake, Super Mario 64 DS however, Yoshi takes on a much larger role, being the first playable character and rescuing Mario, and being playable as one of the four in the game. Yoshis appear in Super Mario Sunshine, however, these Yoshis seem to be a variation on the species as they have abilities unique to them such as changing colour depending on the fruit they eat, shooting juice from their mouths and disappearing when falling into water. There is also no Green Yoshi playable in this game, despite being featured in the game’s artwork, however when Yoshi runs out of juice they will briefly turn green before disappearing. Yoshi’s next major appearance was in Super Mario Galaxy 2, where he is rideable again in certain stages and is one of Mario’s most valuable allies on his adventure, helping out in some key stages. In Super Mario Odyssey, Yoshi appears once again on the roof of Peach’s Castle, however unlike other games, he cannot be ridden by Mario this time, but instead using Cappy’s Capture mechanic in the game, Mario can take control of Yoshi. Yoshi also appears in the final secret stage of the game and a couple of other small challenge areas where he uses his abilities to help Mario.

Yoshi also helped Mario in New Super Mario Bros Wii, once again being ridable, and when more than one person was taking part there would be multiple Yoshis of different colours, however in single player Green Yoshi would always be the first Yoshi available. In New Super Mario Bros U however, every Yoshi would be Green only. Yoshi also appears in Super Mario Maker and Mario Maker 2 but only in the Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros U themes, playing mostly the same as in those games. One of Yoshi’s other big roles in the Mario series which elevated him beyond being simply a powerup essentially for Mario is in the Mario spinoff games. Yoshi has taken part in almost every Mario sports and Mario Kart game. Despite tending to have more Power than Mario when he’s ridable, Yoshi tends to be more of a speed character in the majority of these appearances. In the Mario RPG series Yoshi tends to have minor roles if he appears at all. Yoshi himself probably had his largest role in Super Mario RPG where he appeared on Yo’Ster Island (which may or may not be Yoshi’s Island) and Mario could ride him to take part in a race against his rival Boshi. Yoshi could also be summoned in battle with the Yoshi’s Cookie item, which would call Yoshi to attempt to eat a selected enemy, which if successful would yield a reward item. In the Paper Mario series various Yoshis have appeared, with them being residents of Lavalava Island in the first game, a Baby Yoshi who the player names becoming a partner in The Thousand Year Door as well as an unnamed Green Yoshi making a cameo on the Excess Express Train. As these appearances are of either Yoshis living in a different location or a specific Yoshi character I don’t believe any of them are ‘the Yoshi’. Paper Mario Colour Splash has Yoshis appear for the very first time as enemies in the entire series, however they only attack Mario as they’ve been caged up and are very hungry, and once Mario blocks their attacks they will flee. What is likely Yoshi himself appears earlier in the game in Dark Bloo Inn turned invisible and stolen by a Shy Guy. Once Mario saves him and makes him visible again he can attempt to ride him, however Yoshi is too distressed to allow it and flees. He appears later in the game to thank Mario for freeing the other Yoshis from their cages and warn him of how hungry they are. Various Yoshis appear in the Mario & Luigi series, however none of them seem to be specifically the Yoshi from other games often being simply citizens or visitors to the various lands the Mario Bros travel to.

Yoshi’s species are dinosaurs and have sometimes been referred to as a dragon. They have a long tongue that will stick to enemies which they can then pull in to instantly eat in most cases. Sometimes when eating their enemies they’ll turn them into an egg that follows them and that they can then use to throw as a weapon, however there are other cases where they don’t have this ability or will only lay an egg once they’ve eaten a certain amount of berries, with the egg containing a powerup. Although Yoshis can eat many different things, they tend to prefer fruit most of all. Yoshis tend to be very fast and good jumpers, being able when in the air to perform a flutter jump that gives them a slight boost and slows their descent. They come in many colours, the rarest of which seem to be the Black and White Yoshis. They tend to live mostly on Yoshi’s Island, but there have been other locations they’ve been found, in some cases with regional variations such as on Isle Delfino. The ‘saddle’ found on Yoshi’s back is actually a shell, however they often seem to be very willing to allow friends to ride on their backs, with it being their most common method of carrying other characters such as babies. Yoshis tend to often get forced back into an egg even in adulthood, with them having to be broken out of an egg in order to be freed and help out Mario or Luigi. Their natural life cycle starts with them hatching from an egg as a Baby Yoshi, who when immediately hatched tends to be fairly immobile and at most can only walk very slowly forward. They have more beak-like mouths and don’t have a saddle at this stage of their life. If they are assisted by being carried, they can eat enemies and objects they come in contact with, and when eating 5 of them or a single powerup will grow into an adult Yoshi. It seems that the next stage for Yoshi’s development is as a Kid, a stage where they’ve developed a shell and can move around better. Examples of this are the Yoshi Kids in Paper Mario and the Yoshis in Yoshi’s Story. There are some cases of faster development also however such as the Yoshi Kid who travels with Mario in The Thousand Year Door. Yoshis seem to sometimes be able to communicate with others, or in other cases they use their own language using their name. It seems in these cases that the Mario Bros are able to understand the Yoshi’s language whilst other characters don’t seem able to. The Yoshi Kid in The Thousand Year Door seems to have heard things taking place whilst he was still in his egg, which might be why he’s able to understand and be understood by all other characters. This might suggest that Yoshis can take in and learn the languages they are exposed to whilst in an egg. Most of this honestly is probably giving it far too much thought and whilst Yoshis do tend to show certain characteristics across the series, they tend to change to fit the game mechanics for the game they’re in, as with most Mario characters. Finally, there are a couple of species that seem to possibly be related to Yoshis in the series, one of which is the enemy in Super Mario RPG Bahamutt which shares a few similarities with Yoshi, but also if eaten by a Yoshi by using the Yoshi’s Cookie item, it will produce a Yoshi Candy. Dorrie in Super Mario 64 shares some similarities to Yoshi and its name in Japanese is fairly similar being Dosshi. Finally, Plessie seems to share a lot of attributes with Yoshi, however it is a water based creature and a lot larger being able to have four characters ride on its back.

Friends: This will cover the specific character Yoshi rather than every single Yoshi in the series. Yoshis tend to all get along well together and care a lot for each other, as in most games they will either work together to achieve a goal such as getting Baby Mario home, or one Yoshi will work to save all the other Yoshis. Yoshis will live in locations with other species, however it’s more common for them to live with each other, in some cases even being able to call on each other to stampede an enemy with their large numbers. Yoshi himself is more of a friend to Mario and Luigi than a pet, often being pleased to see them and willingly allowing them to ride him on various adventures. Depending on what you believe, this Yoshi may have also saved Mario and Luigi back when they were babies so isn’t just friends with them as they helped him out in Super Mario World. Yoshi also appears to extend his friendship to other characters in the main Mario cast, allowing Peach to ride on him during the ending to Super Mario World and also allowing Blue Toad, Yellow Toad and Toadette to ride on him in other games. Also notable is that Yoshi may have helped Peach, Wario and Donkey Kong when they were babies similarly to Mario. Of the extended Mario cast, Yoshi tends to get on with most of them, although one particular character he is sometimes shown as getting along with more than others is Birdo. Due to there being more than one Birdo similarly to Yoshi it’s most likely that the specific Green Yoshi and Pink Birdo are the ones who are close, working together in some sports games and Mario Kart Double Dash as a team. Finally and most notably a character who is related more to Yoshi than others is Poochy the dog. This dog helps Yoshi out in various games, often allowing Yoshi to ride him as he can walk across dangerous terrain such as spikes and lava unharmed. He is not as easy to ride as Yoshi himself is however and therefore Yoshi has to be careful not to fall off of Poochy, especially when he’ll run through a narrow gap which Yoshi will crash into the top of, with that said, Poochy tries hard and has appeared consistently in the Yoshi game series.

Enemies/Rivals: Yoshi’s species has had many run ins with Bowser, with him as both a child and an adult being their most commonly faced threat, however, Bowser’s seeming second in command and advisor, Kamek the Magikoopa is arguably Yoshi’s arch enemy. Although Yoshi often fights Bowser at the end of his adventures, Kamek is the character who most consistently appears throughout the Yoshi series, often using his magic to power up the bosses Yoshi has to face and attempting to stop Yoshi on his journey. Baby Bowser tends to antagonise the Yoshis more through his plans for selfish childish fun rather than a genuine hatred of them, this includes their first meeting where he wanted Yoshi to serve as his personal ‘gween donkey’ and later games where he’s either looking to make an island his own fun vacation land, or in one case turning all the Yoshis of Craft Island into part of his new yarn castle. Sometimes Baby Bowser antagonises the Yoshis in more petty ways, such as trying to steal all their Yoshi Cookies or fighting them because he thinks they want to steal his treasure. Baby Bowser did temporarily work with Yoshi against his future self, but then turned on him in a temper tantrum towards the end. One of the most drastic actions Baby Bowser took was when he was jealous of how happy the Yoshis were with their Super Happy Tree and stole it as well as turning their island into a picture book, this was likely in revenge for all the times they had previously defeated him. This want for revenge seems to have carried on into Bowser’s adulthood as he’s attempted numerous times to conquer the Yoshis, often forcing them into egg forms. Yoshi has defeated Bowser’s adult form before, however often it is only with assistance he’s able to, either teaming up with other Yoshis or having assistance from characters such as Mario or a spirit called Hongo one time. His record against Bowser therefore is better than quite a few of the Mario series main characters, but still not at the same level as Mario and Luigi.  

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Yoshi has crossed over with all of the main Mario cast, and this includes Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong in various sports and Kart games, however he also has appeared in Diddy’s Kong Quest along with Mario and Link in Cranky Kong’s Video Game Heroes. In this, Yoshi is ranked second with 29 DK coins second only to Mario, however in the GBA remake he’s instead in third place. Yoshi appeared in the Game & Watch Gallery games therefore crossing over with Mr Game & Watch. Yoshi is in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series and has crossed over with the various Sonic characters in it, however interestingly he has also had a crossover within one of Sonic’s own games, as DLC in Sonic Lost World there was a bonus stage taking place on Yoshi’s Island where Sonic has to collect Yoshi Eggs and make his way to the end. Each Yoshi Egg Sonic rescues hatches into a Yoshi giving him an extra life for each. Yoshi has not made many other crossover appearances, however a Yoshi Egg has been an item that can be used as furniture in a few Animal Crossing games.

Why this game?

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island is the definitive Yoshi game, with it being the game that defined Yoshi’s characteristics which have stayed with him to this day. Whilst Yoshi underwent a design change in Yoshi’s Story and a lot of the aspects in Super Smash Bros were influenced by that game, the basis of his moves, his ability to eat enemies and turn them into eggs he can throw, his ground pound and flutter jump all originated from this game. Apart from that though, this was the game that really made Yoshi into more than just a Mario side character, with him having a starring role, and whilst it still had the Super Mario World title and Mario was still in the game, he definitely was in a more passive role compared to Yoshi. There are also later games which have Yoshi playable without having another character riding on his back, however I already have those on my list and I felt this was still the definitive Yoshi game out of all of them, which is why I chose to go with it.

My past with this game.

So I want to make this clear, Yoshi is one of my favourite videogame characters. He’s not in that position because he’s got an amazing character, he’s not in that position because I love seeing him as a protagonist, but he’s there because to me he’s the definitive ‘powerup mount’ character. A powerup mount character is basically a character or creature in a game you can ride on giving you new abilities. There have been all sorts over the years, far too many to list, but some key examples when talking in relation to Smash would be Rambi the Rhino from the Donkey Kong series, Epona from the Legend of Zelda series, Rick from the Kirby series, Horses in Metal Gear Solid, Rush in the Mega Man series, Chocobos in the Final Fantasy Series, Horses in a lot of fantasy games such as Fire Emblem and Dragon Quest, as well as Great Sabre-cats in Dragon Quest. Of these, very few have managed to be their own characters alongside the rest of the cast in their series, and fewer still have managed to get their own spin-off games. One of Yoshi’s big advantages is he’s not a huge creature as many of those examples are, granted his original design was somewhat lankier, but even back then with that design he still didn’t look out of place for example in Super Mario Kart. Another aspect I like about Yoshi, is that as he doesn’t appear very often in the main Mario series, it always feels like a great bonus when he does appear, where most of the time you’re playing as Mario, this is a chance to have some different movement, but at the same time he rarely feels clunky and you can still manage the platforming sections you would be able to as Mario normally with him. I think also personally, it just looks really cool to me when I see Mario and Yoshi together, I feel like the design works really well at making it look like Mario should reasonably be able to ride on Yoshi, but also at the same time Yoshi doesn’t look like a huge creature like a horse that can maybe travel fast across long distances but isn’t as manoeuvrable jumping across platforms.

Anyway, besides me going on about why I like Yoshi, my history with this game specifically is a little fuzzy to me. I don’t remember not having the game and it coming out, however I do remember having Super Mario World first, and knowing Yoshi best from that game, being a character Mario rides before playing Yoshi’s Island where he’s the star. I have some very fond memories of Yoshi’s Island however when I did get it, with me loving the music, the variety of different coloured Yoshis, the enemies and especially the artwork in the instruction manual. I remember I would often draw copies of the pictures of Yoshi in those and even today I find Yoshi probably one of the most fun characters to randomly draw from time to time. Another aspect of the game I remember really liking was Yoshi’s ability to transform in certain stages, with him being able to transform into a Helicopter that could fly around freely, a Mole Tank that can tunnel through dirt sections, a Submarine which can move around underwater and fire torpedos (which is the only form of underwater levels in the game as Yoshi can only float on the surface otherwise) a Train which is somewhat odd as it can travel along chalk tracks in the background of a stage, and finally the ‘Vehicle’ which is a car that Yoshi can move around as, and he can extend the body up above the wheels on sort of stilts in order to drive over enemies without being hit. When Yoshi gets hit in these forms he will get temporarily stunned but won’t lose Baby Mario or any stars, however there is a time limit on the transformations, and being stunned means you might not be able to reach where you need to, which requires you to start the transformation sequence again. It’s also possible especially in the helicopter sections to get hit by an enemy and whilst stunned fall into the pit at the bottom of the screen, which can be irritating. Still, I remember finding these vehicle sections fairly fun, with the Helicopter probably being my favourite as I like flying.

I managed to beat this game numerous times before it came to my Smash Bros playthrough, but I cannot remember very clearly the first time I did so, I feel like it was one of the games I managed to beat at a fairly young age, although I definitely haven’t had the patience to 100% the game even now as I know it can be a pretty frustrating experience to do so with little reward really. I don’t have any specific memories of this game that really stand out to me beyond simply enjoying it a lot, although, there is one boss fight that I have a memory of, however I want to save that perhaps for when I talk about that boss in my playthrough. Also, there was a remake of this game called Super Mario Advance 3 for the GBA, however I feel like this is the game that was altered the least of the Super Mario Advance series. There were a few graphical changes and sound changes, as well as some bonus levels added, but overall I feel like the game still mostly played the same. Personally, I prefer the original SNES version, however when I played through this game on the Wii U Virtual Console, the GBA remake was the only version that was available, with the original SNES version only now being rereleased on the SNES Classic Edition mini consoles, and the Nintendo Switch Online SNES. If I was to recommend a version, it would be the SNES original as the sound and graphical quality are simply superior.  

My Smash Playthrough.

Every time I play through Yoshi’s Island again from the start, I always look forward to the opening scene, I think mostly because it has some of my favourite music in the game that I rarely see mentioned, which is the music that plays when the Yoshis are deciding what to do with Baby Mario. The short scene only pops up at the very start of a new file so I always consider it a bonus personally to see it again, just as I did this time. Following this starts the tutorial stage, which is also only playable once with a unique theme then onto the first actual stage which introduces the egg mechanic, which was new in this game but became a staple for Yoshi in most appearances since, even appearing in Super Mario 64 DS. I’ve always liked the way Yoshi moves in this game, with it feeling like he’s got some fast fluid movement and allows you to react pretty quickly to the situations you find yourself in, with it still feeling just as good this time. There can admittedly be times however where you find yourself knocked by an enemy towards a pit, and it can be very frustrating trying to save yourself with the flutter jump but it being futile and you just prolonging your defeat. The times you are able to save yourself with the flutter jump however feel very satisfying.There are 8 Yoshis of different colours you play as in this game, with Green Yoshi taking on the first stage, followed by Pink, Light Blue, Yellow, Purple, Brown, Red and finally Blue Yoshi. Yellow Yoshi will take on the first boss of each world and Blue Yoshi will take on the final one. The game works fairly differently to a lot of other games when it comes to how you lose lives, Yoshi is actually very durable, only being killed by falling into pits, touching lava or spikes. Instead, when Yoshi runs into other obstacles such as enemies, he will get knocked back slightly and Baby Mario will fall off his back, floating in a bubble in the air. A countdown then starts and if Yoshi cannot get Baby Mario back before it reaches 0, Kamek’s minions (called Toadies) will swoop down and take him away, losing Yoshi a life and making him have to restart from the last checkpoint. This mechanic also involves probably one of the most infamous and parodied aspects of the game, Baby Mario’s constant crying when stuck in the bubble. Personally, I’ve never really found it that annoying, although I will admit it definitely adds a little to how anxious you can feel when he’s stuck in the bubble, and it motivates you to rush and get him back.

Beyond the parodied aspect though, this also brings up another of the most frustrating aspects of the game, which is how you 100% complete each stage. The countdown for Baby Mario automatically goes up to 10 when you have Baby Mario, however it counts down to 0 when you lose him in the bubble. There are little stars you can find in stages that can make the timer go up to 30, however when you lose Baby Mario and the counter starts going down, it will only refill itself to 10, so if it goes down to for example 15 the timer will stay at that when you retrieve Baby Mario, unless you find more stars to fill it again. The Checkpoint Rings in each stage also add 10 to your timer and will turn any enemies on screen when you touch it into stars. In order to get 100% on a stage, you are required to find 20 red coins, 5 Flowers and finish the stage with the counter on 30. Stars aren’t easy to come by and so it can very often be the case where you’re reaching the end of a stage with everything collected and get hit by an enemy, bringing the timer down to 28 for example, and with no way to get stars at that point you end up having to replay the whole stage in order to get 100% (and hope the same thing doesn’t happen this time.) As I am not always beating the games I’m playing 100% I decided to just enjoy playing through the main game for this playthrough, I will perhaps go back at a later time to try and get 100% however. It’s also interesting to note that this game was the origin of red coins, something which has appeared in many 3D and 2D Mario games since. In this game, the red coins often look similar to regular gold coins, only with a slight tint to them, so if you’re going for 100% it’s best to just collect every single coin you see as it can be easy to not notice a red coin amongst them.

When it comes to stages I had difficulty with in my playthrough, probably the most consistently annoying ones were the auto-scrolling stages. Honestly, this tends to be a fairly common opinion for most games that these sorts of stages are fairly disliked, and with this game in particular I’ve found you can often end up with some frustrating situations where you’ve just missed a jump, the stage is slowly scrolling after you and your flutter jump just won’t let you reach back to the platform, resulting in a irritating slow death as the edge of the screen slowly comes to crush you. Beyond this however, a lot of stages I remember finding difficult when I used to play the game years earlier I didn’t have much of a problem with this time, for example I remember finding Naval Piranha’s Castle a fairly tough level, but this time it was fairly easy for me. I think a big factor in this is actually another game, Yoshi’s Island DS. That game had stages that could be a lot longer and a fair bit harder to get through than this one, so I think after beating that, it’s made me realise just how easy a lot of the stages in this one are. One stage which I like quite a bit however, is also a stage that I’ll admit I always have trouble with, which is 5-3 “Danger- Icy Conditions Ahead”. This stage has a section where Yoshi has to ski across various snowy slopes. It’s fast and if you hit a rock as you go, it will result in Yoshi rolling for a bit, which can very easily lead you to fall into pits. I find it fun but also it can be somewhat difficult with all the instant death pits you can fall into if you misjudge your jumps. One aspect of this I’ve always found odd is how Yoshi looks however, there’s something about the shading when he’s skiing that always looked weird to me for some reason, but I can’t really say what it is. I do like that Baby Mario has a little beanie when they’re skiing though which is cute. Regarding the snow and more importantly ice stages, ice physics in this game can be fairly annoying but not the worst I’ve seen, still they’ve definitely resulted in me falling in a couple of pits during my playthrough. Finally, a lot of the stages in the final world, world 6 can be somewhat irritating, although the challenge makes sense being the final world and I definitely wouldn’t say I disliked them, I just didn’t find many of them that memorable compared to other stages in the game, with the very first stage 6-1 probably being my favourite of them. The final point I have to say that I like about the stages in this game, is that a lot of them have something unique about them, with there being a specific enemy who appears a lot in the stage, or a feature that only appears once or twice in the whole game it always feels like the stages have something new and interesting in them. One of my favourites is 1-7 “Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy” which introduces the surprisingly fun and funny Fuzzys which are fluffy sort of cotton balls that float around and if Yoshi touches them he becomes dizzy (shocking I know) which makes the level become very psychedelic, and Yoshi stumbles somewhat as you move him. It can be frustrating but it wears off eventually and I’ve never found it overly difficult, especially as Fuzzys only appear in a couple of levels. That said, their later appearances are definitely where they’re more challenging with a fair few pits you can fall into.

Finally comes the bosses which are a big highlight to me personally in the game. Each boss is a regular enemy which is made giant by Kamek which I’ve always found a cool concept. In some cases the enemies have only appeared within the castle where they serve as the boss such as Salvo the Slime and Sluggy the Unshaven, in other cases they can be regular enemies that have appeared a lot in the Mario series, such as Hookbill the Koopa, Naval Piranha and Bigger Boo. My personal favourite bosses are Burt the Bashful because he’s just an iconic boss for the series and Prince Froggy, which is probably one of the most unique boss battles as he eats you and the battle involves hitting his uvula with eggs whilst avoiding enemies he eats (Which you can eat to make eggs) and stomach acid. Other highlights to me are Naval Piranha (who I used to find tough) and Hookbill the Koopa which I just find a really cool battle with you having to topple him over with eggs then ground pound on the undershell. Finally my favourite boss as well as one which is probably considered the most iconic from this game is Raphael the Raven. Ravens are odd bird enemies that basically walk around tiny planetoids, hurting Yoshi if he collides with them. Yoshi can beat them with an egg or by stomping on them. Raphael the Raven takes this battle to an unexpected place. When Kamek makes Raphael larger, he will rush into Yoshi, sending him flying into the sky, landing on the moon (Which compared to other appearances in the Mario series is very small.) Raphael will then leap from the planet below up to the Moon and begin running around it similarly to his smaller brethren. There are four posts on the moon and when one is ground pounded on, the post at the opposite side of the moon will pop out. Yoshi has to make it pop out when Raphael is standing over it in order to damage him. This battle really stands out just because of how unique it is, there’s the mechanic of Yoshi and Rapheal being able to circle around the moon with the background rotating as you do so, the unique setting of the boss battle taking place there rather than in a castle like all the other bosses and as a result the really nice background of the planet with it’s clouds below as well as space and the stars with constellations as well. One key aspect of these boss battles I have to mention is the music, which really adds to these fights. I really love the second boss theme which plays for the final boss of each world, and the music for the first boss of each world is nice too. I think personally my love of these themes is increased by just how dull the boss music in Yoshi’s Island DS tended to sound in comparison, it’s made me appreciate how much the music in this game overall improves the experience.

The final stage is King Bowser’s Castle, which when you’re playing the game for the first time might be a surprise as until this point Bowser has not been mentioned by name. Due to the name as well as the picture of an omnious Bowser silhouette it actually did a good job at the time of building suspense as to what Bowser would be like. Before I get onto the final boss battle, I would like to say that this stage is fairly interesting, similarly to Super Mario World, there are multiple ways through this stage depending on which door you choose to go through, something I haven’t actually seen done in many Mario games since now I think of it. You’re able to collect everything you need to beat the stage 100% in whichever door you choose, and some are definitely easier than others, so really it’s best to just try whichever you feel like and see where it leads you. In the lead up to the final boss, there’s a section I’ve always liked due to the atmosphere, where you’re going down a dark corridor slowly, and Kamek is teleporting around transforming various blocks into enemies. It’s an auto-scrolling section but given it’s not too difficult about the worst thing about it is it’s a bit slow, but it does a really good job of building up to the final boss I feel. You enter the giant red boss door, and there’s Kamek. After spending the whole game antagonising you, he’s ready to take you on for the final boss battle, only as if the level title didn’t tip you off, you’re being watched by some red eyes in the background, which are revealed to belong to, Baby Bowser. Angry at Kamek for waking him up, he stomps on him and then starts demanding Yoshi let him have a ride like Baby Mario. This leads into the boss fight where Baby Bowser leaps around the room trying to land on Yoshi’s back and pounding the ground when he misses. It’s a fairly fun battle and not really difficult (although, not getting hit at all in order to keep your counter at 30 is likely a challenge) and once he’s beaten, Kamek brings on the best fight in the game, making Baby Bowser huge just as he has done with all the other bosses before now. This final Boss battle has always been amazing to me, with the giant Bowser in the distance beginning to run towards you, throwing large eggs off into the distance with the right trajectory to hit him in the face sending him stumbling back, as well as the incredible music. It does introduce entirely new mechanics regarding how you throw the eggs into the background at the very end of the game, but I think they’re easy enough to pick up on that it’s not a problem. The final thing I’d like to note is just how intimidating Baby Bowser is here, being a Godzilla-like being in the distance and throughout the whole battle attempting to run towards the remains of the castle you’re stood on (which was damaged badly when he grew in size) and when he actually reaches you it’s an instant loss as he just destroys all the ground leaving you nowhere to stand and to fall down the pit. It’s definitely one of the most iconic Bowser boss fights and probably one of the most iconic Nintendo ones also.

With Baby Bowser’s defeat, you find the captured Stork as well as reuniting with Baby Luigi. Following this comes the final scene of the game, with the stork flying across the clouds as the ending music plays. This scene is one I love and always have, with some really nice pixel art and music, however it also is related to a memory I mentioned earlier regarding a boss. It’s an odd memory, but when I was a kid, I remember once going with my Dad to the house of one of his clients and meeting with the client’s children, who were playing this game at the time taking on Baby Bowser. It was their first time beating the boss and honestly I barely remember much of their reaction, but it being late at night, me being in an unfamiliar place and seeing them beat the final boss along with the really beautiful ending scene of the stork flying across the night sky always stuck with me just as a general atmosphere feeling. Following this, the stork arrives at the Mario Bros new home and we get the only shot there’s ever been of Mario and Luigi’s parents, although only their lower body and their hands holding the two babies in the air, still it’s a really nice moment and probably one of the most iconic in the series. Then, in 2014, just under 20 years later following this ending, Yoshi’s New Island revealed this ending was in fact fake and the stork had delivered the babies to the wrong house. Normally, I tend to not care that much when there’s retcons, and as long as it’s not overly forced in the narrative I figure with ‘Mario Canon’ (if there is such a thing) there’s usually wiggle room, like with Paper Mario’s games supposedly all taking place in a book rather than the main Mario universe. In this case however, this was just a really lazy and pointless retcon, especially as Yoshi’s Island DS managed to recycle the plot of this game without overwriting it by just having the Mario Bros be kidnapped along with various other babies. I think that Yoshi’s New Island really wasn’t that good really doesn’t help my feelings on this. Anyway, I realise this is the section about my playthrough of this game, but still honestly this ‘addition’ when playing the game nowadays could perhaps sour the moment for some… unless like me you just choose to forget Yoshi’s New Island happened in which case you can just enjoy the moment for what it was originally intended to be. As for me, this time beating the game was just as nice as every other time I’ve done so, another nice revisit to a game that holds a special place with me.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Yoshi in Smash.

So, again this isn’t really a situation where there’s equipment or a setup for Yoshi that is close to Smash Bros. As I’ve stated before, a lot of Yoshi’s moveset originated in this game, with him being able to eat enemies to turn them into eggs, throw eggs as weapons, flutter jump and ground pound, pretty much all these moves have become Yoshi’s standard moveset in most of his own series. Yoshi’s other moves in Smash have either come from or appear in other games. The Egg Roll has only really shown up in a couple of sports games such as Mario Power Tennis and Mario Strikers Charged. The Super Dragon Final Smash I will detail more in another post further down the line, but basically in my opinion originates from Super Mario World, and finally the Yoshi Stampede is interesting as whilst it is based on the opening cutscene of Super Smash Bros Melee, there was a similar move in Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door where Kid Yoshi could call in a stampede of adult Green Yoshis to charge at all enemies on the screen. Anyway beyond that, the majority of Yoshi’s movement, moveset and general playstyle in Smash has most of it’s roots in this game.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Super Mario Wiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down.