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Yoshi’s Island for GBA for sale

I’m selling SOLD my copy of Yoshi’s Island for the Game Boy Advance through Amazon.com. It’s a really fun game and it’s in mint condition. I just took it out of the box to play it, beat it, and now I’m selling it. If you liked any of the other Mario games, you will enjoy this one, even though it is slightly different.

The story starts with Mario and Luigi being carried by a stork to their parents, until they are attacked by a bunch of Bowser’s men. Luigi is kidnapped, but Mario falls into, you guessed it, Yoshi’s Island. The Yoshi’s decide to help keep Mario safe and take him to rescue his brother Luigi.

In the game you control Yoshi instead of Mario directly. Mario rides on Yoshi’s back, and when you are hit by an enemy, Mario is knocked off of Yoshi’s back and starts floating around the screen in a bubble. A timer then starts counting down, and if you don’t get Mario back before the timer runs down, you lose a life. This makes the game a little easy, because you never really die unless you fall down a pit, or you aren’t able to reach Mario in time before the timer runs out. Normally the counter lasts for 10 seconds, but if you collect stars throughout the level, you can have up to 30 seconds to reclaim Mario.

Not only do you have the normal jump-on-enemie’s-heads move of most Mario games, Yoshi can also swallow enemies and turn them into eggs, which trail behind Yoshi as he moves throughout the levels. By pressing the R button on the GBA, a crosshair appears onscreen to help you guide the egg. When you release the button, Yoshi fires the egg like a gun towards the crosshair. You can kill most enemies this way, as well as getting coins and keys that would otherwise be inaccessible by banking the egg off of walls.

Boss battles are quite fun, and each one is unique with a different way to beat it. Most bosses are simply extra-large versions of the normal level enemies, as they have been enlarged by a flying magician Koopa.

As is always the case in Mario games, the levels are very inventive and there are many clever ways to use your abilities to progress in the levels. Most levels have at least one unique obstacle or puzzle to solve, plus a ton of hidden areas and entrances to secret levels.

The graphics are very good, with bright crisp colors and never any slow down or choppy frame rates. The bitmaps almost look like they were drawn with chalk or charcoal, and most objects have a thick black outline to give the game the feel of an animated coloring book. There are a lot of tile sets for the different levels, insuring that you will never get tired of seeing the same level graphics over and over again.

The sound is great, with the typical catchy Nintendo theme songs. The music changes to a more dramatic up-tempo track during boss battles, to heighten the excitement. The sound effects are varied, and you will never really get tired of hearing the same “jump sound” over and over again.

In addition to the normal gameplay in the levels, there are plenty of mini-games to mixup the game a little and give you a break from the traditional run and jump levels. There are memory games, match games, a game where you throw a water balloon back and forth and try to keep it from popping on you, etc. The reward for these games is usually an extra life or a power-up of some kind. The power-ups can be used in the normal game levels and usually give you extra stars (which also increases your timer when you lose Mario) or a variety of other power-ups. You will have no problem completing the game without ever even knowing about the power-ups however.

There are a variety of items to collect during each level, including 5 flowers, 20 red coins, and 30 stars. You are then given a score at the end of each level, depending on how many items you have collected. After you have beaten Bowser at the end of the game, you can go back and try to get a score of 100 for every level in the game. I didn’t take the time to do this myself, so I’m not sure what the reward for doing this is, if there is any at all.

One excellent feature Yoshi’s Island has that many GBA games do not, is the ability to press Start, and the L and R buttons at the same time to put the game to sleep. It pauses you in the level, and turns the screen off on the GBA, so you can resume gameplay later without leaving the game on and wasting batteries. To resume gamplay you just press those three buttons again to wake it up.

Overall this is a great game, and would be perfect for anyone who likes Mario games or is just looking for a good addition to their GBA collection.