Good morning, internet! Take a little time to start your day off right (or nurse your hangover) with some awesome game videos. This week: speedruns from the SNES gem, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
This happens to be one of my favorite platformers, even if it's less well-known than the actual Mario platformers. The whimsical art design, surreal power-ups, and clever level designs make it very memorable. It's fairly easy, and you could probably clear it in three or four settings if you're not too busy (or if you don't end up obsessed with getting 100 points in every level, like I did). This may sound "too short" to some of you, but the sight of Yoshi transmogrifying into tiny train and scrolling around all Mode 7 on tiny train tracks in the background is completely worth the price of admission by itself, and compels many replays.
These videos from the Speed Demo Archive, though, show guys clearing Yoshi Island in roughly two hours! Wow! It's some amazing viewing. Some of the vids have embedded Flash versions, so you may not even need to download them. Nifty, huh? Watching them all was such a fun couple of hours that I donated $5 to the SDA via PayPal. If you dig them as much as I did, you might want to be consider doing the same.
If you haven't played Yoshi's Island yet and want to give it a try, then I suggest digging up an actual SNES or the GBA re-release (called Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island) and giving it a whirl. Failing that, Yoshi's Island DS is similar enough to give you an idea of what made the gameplay in Yoshi's Island so neat, although it's not really as good. Please avoid Yoshi's Story on the Virtual Console at all costs-- it's a terrible game, as if someone tried to assemble a copy of Yoshi's Island from pure sadness and failure.
Now, let's end this post on a high note-- some sample vids from the SDA archive! This is pure platforming excellence, and sometimes you just need to soak in that.
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