Many SPOILERS are contained throughout these posts. You have been warned!

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Yoshi's Island high playthrough log part 1

I've seen a bunch of speedruns of this game and playthroughs of the various Yoshi's Island hacks, but it's been so long since I actually played the original Yoshi's Island myself.

Got really high today and started replaying the GBA version of this.

I kinda like the look of the GBA version more honestly... this style of thick lines and bright colors seems to suit the small screen format better... and the sound quality is fine despite it being on inferior hardware. Some of it is actually improved, like the laggy cave entrance/exit noise doesn't sound as bad on this version for sure...

so far, I'm getting 100% on every level on the first try without any problem.
damn, I broke my perfect streak at 1-6... saw a weird 1up balloon thing after the end goal, and then a shyguy popped out of it and made me lose some stars.

I'm having such an easier time finding everything now compared to the last time I played this... after playing Wooly World and all the other Mario games, I have a much better understanding of how Nintendo designs their levels now, so I intuitively know where to go to look for hidden stuff.

there, I went and redid the level for 100 cuz that was a silly mistake... streak saved I guess

1-7 almost made me lose my streak but then I noticed a really subtle hint pointing to some off screen soft dirt that reveals a spring ball to a bonus area.

unlocked Bonus 1 for getting 700 points in world 1... then got perfect on 1-8 first try and unlocked Extra 1... saving those for later

2-1 is already considerably harder than anything from world 1 was.. it introduces koopas, falling block platforms that crush you and cut off access to collectables, sunflower enemies, and the first baby mario star area and the first poochy area. almost needed to use an item card there.
also I've been getting bonus challenge minigames every single level so far lol... I don't care about lives at all (already at 50), but they are fun to play while stoned

world 1 kind of introduced a few new things each level too I just realized... like munchers, chomp rocks, bandits, tap-taps... like right now these gameplay elements don't seem like much, but back then this was just as interesting as all the cool level design gimmicks in Woolly World.

2-2 introduces egg launcher clouds, baseball bandits, green plants that shoot at you and you can only stun them by ground pounding, and the mouse enemies that come out of holes in the wall and try to steal your eggs... the last part of this was a cave maze with a ton of those mouse enemies roaming around... at least they don't infinitely respawn like in WW...
streak still unbroken...

2-3 is really hard to get perfect on... there's that switch hidden in soft dirt that shows a hidden pipe leading to a bonus room with the water blarghs and like 10 red coins...
this level introduces Gusty, the infinitely spawning condom enemy.. and some really annoying fast duck head enemies.
oh and there's an optional mole tunnel you can go in to get the key for an optional bonus game (these only give you items.. seems like I can only carry 4 items in the GBA version)
and the last flower requires doing a huge baby mario star run... you have to ignore the star run at first and go through here with yoshi to get some collectables including the hidden blargh room I just mentioned... and you have to kill all the enemies in the first part to get them out of the way and then let the star follow you for a bit so you can have enough time to make it across the mario blocks
... at least that's what I thought you had to do, but there's not enough time even when you let the star go as far as it can.. I think there's supposed to be more stars you can pick up along the path but I can't find them... I blame the GBA version's lower screen space. also looks like that last flower can just be shot at instead of doing the star run anyway... would've been able to find it myself with the SNES's screen size... or, I just realized now you can easily find/get that flower after taking the big spring ball up.
...yeah I don't get what the mario blocks here are about at all.. seems like they aren't required for 100 points.

2-4 was really fun... it seems like the castle levels are always the most unique in terms of level design and gameplay...
oh wait shit... I missed a flower! I have no idea where it could've been... streak broken.
390 points for world 2 so far.

I really like the difficulty curve in this game... it's harder than Woolly World (when trying to fully 100% each level in one try)... although YI is better about giving you more ways to fill up on stars.
The bosses are about the same difficulty as WW so far. weird, I remember the big boo boss and these levels in general giving me a lot more trouble during my first couple playthroughs, dying a lot and needing a walkthrough for 100%.. I've gotten way better at platformers since then. now I'm never dying at all unless it's on purpose, and I'm super-clearing stages on the first try.

played for about 3 hours during this very high nostalgia playthrough session

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