have.” In a 2018 interview with Kotaku, Nogami

mentioned the game’s hand-drawn look was

actually achieved quite literally – images were

drawn by hand, scanned and recreated as pixel art

O

f course, the ironic thing is that

despite that rejection of Donkey Kong

Country’s look, Yoshi’s Island was a

game that did things that few other

SNES games could. It’s something that isn’t lost

on the developers. “Yoshi’s Island has this very

warm and friendly feel to it, but a lot of technical

effort went into making the game,” they note. “It’s

actually one of the later SNES games, so [it] makes

use of all the developmental know-how we’d built

up to that point, as well as what was considered

the latest in technology with the Super FX 2 chip.”

The use of the enhancement chip is a curious

one, and we were interested to know where the

decision to use it came about. “In principle, we

look at what the software and hardware can do

and look at what sorts of visuals or gameplay we

can create with that technology. It was mentioned

one day that the Super FX 2 technology was

available, and a suggestion was made about using

it,” explain the developers. “We were very excited

and decided to make use of it for two reasons: the

first was that as software developers we wanted

to use all new technology we could, and the other

point was that this technology offered further

gameplay and visual possibilities (eg, object

(sprite) rotation and a large increase in the number

of screen colours possible).”

What was so interesting about the use of the

Super FX 2 chip? That would be the

way it was deployed – the original

chip, designed by the UK team

at Argonaut, had been used to

power the polygonal graphics

of Starwing. All of the

subsequent Super FX games,

like Stunt Race FX and

Vortex, had been 3D games

too. Few gamers would have

guessed that the first outing of

the updated version would be

in a 2D game, but it proved key

to some of the most impressive

visual effects in Yoshi’s Island.

Some of those were actually polygonal

special effects, such as falling walls and rolling

platforms. But the Super FX 2 was primarily

used here for manipulating 2D sprites, a

technique that Nintendo called ‘Morphmation’

in advertising. As well as adding extra layers

of parallax scrolling, the chip allowed the

console to handle multiple rotating sprites on the

screen, perform some psychedelic background

warping and even squash and stretch sprites.

These were most frequently used in the game’s

boss battles, which routinely featured some

absolutely colossal sprites.

Koji Kondo was behind the game’s

sound and music, and delivered

another set of memorable themes.

Although still present, there was

less focus on the bongos and

other additional percussion

that had marked Yoshi’s

presence in Super Mario

World, and there were some

pretty bold musical choices

• most notably the music
  box tune that played during
  the game’s intro sequence. Of
  course, the most memorable
  sound in the game was that of the
  crying Baby Mario, which triggered
  whenever he was separated from his dinosaur
  guardian – we’d avoid getting hit just to make
  sure that we didn’t hear it. The Japan-only
  official soundtrack CD is now a prized item
  in its own right, with used copies selling
  for extraordinary prices.

Yoshi’s Island has six bonus games and four mini battles – here’s the complete guide to them

DINOSAUR DISTRACTIONS

DRAWING LOTS

QThis game’s the simplest of the

lot – you pick one of the six cards, and

receive whatever’s on it. If you reveal

Kamek, you get nothing.

FLIP CARDS

QFlipping cards on this board reveals

items. If you reveal Kamek, you’ll lose

the lot, but flipping seven good ones

wins you ten lives.

MATCH CARDS

QThis is a simple game of pairs in

which you can win items. You’ll need

a good memor y, since you’re only

allowed to make one mistake.

ROULETTE

QThis one’s dangerous – you can

wager lives in order to add extra lives,

or even multiply your life total. You can

triple it, but you might lose ever ything!

SCRATCH & MATCH

QIt’s a scratchcard! The more Baby

Marios you reveal, the more lives you

get – one for one, two for two and five

for three.

look at what the software and hardware can do

and look at what sorts of visuals orgameplay we

can create with that technology. It was mentioned

one day that the Super FX 2 technology was

available, and a suggestion was made about using

it,” explain the developers. “We were very excited

anddecided to make use of it fortwo reasons: the

first was that as software developers we wanted

visual effects inYooshi s Islanddd.

Some of those were actually polygonal

special effects, ssuch as falling walls and rolling

platforms. But tthe Super FX 2 was primarily

used here for mmanipulating 2D sprites, a

technique thaat Nintendo called ‘Morphmation’

in advertisingg. As well as adding extra layers

of parallax sscrolling, the chip allowed the

sound in thegame was that of the

crying Baby Mario, which triggered

whenever he was separated from his dinosaur

guardian – we’d avoid getting hit just to make

sure that we didn’t hear it. The Japan-only

official soundtrack CD is now a prized item

in its own right, with used copies selling

for extraordinary prices.

We competed in the team

to see what were the most

amusing or fun things we

could draw

Takashi Tezuka

»[SNES] This snowball gets bigger as you

roll it, and can wipe out enemies in its path.

28 | RETRO GAMER