NAME: Yoshi's Island
SYSTEM: Super NES
MAKER: Nintendo
PRODUCER: Shigeru Miyamoto
GENRE: Platform

GRAPHICS: 10. They may not be rendered, but the morphmation makes this a beautiful game
MUSIC: 9. "Hip" and upbeat. Usually heavy on the bass, which I like
FUN: 9. A worthy successor to the mediocre SMW1.
REPLAY: 8. The hidden levels are only for the best players to get
DIFFICULTY: 7. A perfect balance
ENDING: 9. VERY heavy on the Mode-7 effects and a little rendering
STORYLINE: 7. Surprising for a Mario platformer
ORIGINALITY: 7. Resembles previous Mario games but only vaguely
REALISM: 3. Well, it IS about cuddly little frog-dragon-dinosaur things
CONTROL: 10. No problems here
MATURITY: 2. Babies being delivered by storks... hmm...

Yoshi's Island is an awesome game. Play it and you'll see. It's a shame, though, that there 
hasn't been a worthy sequel. Oh well. From a graphics standpoint, it's okay as far as 
SNES games go (no rendering?!). But concerning the overall enjoyment factor, this is as 
good as it gets. Just getting through the game and finding no secrets takes forever, but 
the bonus games are nearly impossible! This might discourage some players (like me), but 
provides a great challenge and replay value for the daring gamer. A must-buy, and it's even 
better now that it's a pack-in. If you don't have a SNES yet, get the new kind which comes 
with this masterpiece.

OVERALL: ********* 90%

Reviewed on 11/20/1998