Yoshi’s Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is a platformer developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo, released in 1995. A prequel of sorts to Super Mario World, it casts the player as Yoshi, or rather a relay of many Yoshis, carrying Baby Mario across a lush tropical island to reunite him with his kidnapped brother while fending off the forces of Baby Bowser and the magician Kamek. Its most distinctive quality is its art: rather than the pre-rendered realism then in fashion, it embraces a hand-drawn, crayon-and-pastel storybook style, full of soft outlines and bright, warm color. Mechanically it introduced ideas that would define the Yoshi series, including egg-throwing, fluttering jumps, and a health system in which a crying Baby Mario must be recovered quickly after a hit. The game used the enhanced Super FX2 chip to produce scaling, rotation, and stretching effects beyond the base hardware. Widely regarded as one of the finest platformers of its generation, it stands in deliberate visual contrast to Donkey Kong Country, and its sun-warmed island setting and glowing hand-painted look make it arguably the most summer-looking cartridge on the entire system. It later received ports, remakes, and handheld sequels, but the 1995 original remains the definitive and most admired version.