As a gamer, you get accustomed to little patches and blotches of genius scattered around your games, but you rarely see great swathes of that genius slathered in glorious abandon across huge tracts of the game's landscape. Miyamoto is one of the special few in the industry who can design games with such vigour, and Yoshi's Island should be considered amongst his most innovative releases.

"Island"? More like universe

This game is pretty darn big, and tough to boot. There are 6 worlds, each containing 8 levels (that’s 48, fact-fans!). Along with the regular levels, you get two boss stages per world, each of which is about 2 or 3 times larger than a standard level. It's a longer and more challenging game than Super Mario World, although it doesn't have quite the thrill of discovery SMW has, due to their being little in the way of secret routes.Visually, YI is a mural painted to delight a child; like those beautifully-illustrated childrens' classics of your youth, it combines simple lines with bright colours, but also contains lovely incidental detail. As if sketched by some talented artist who's downed his brushes and oils and picked up a set of crayons, the backgrounds are simple, pretty and bursting with vitality.

[inline:1]Yoshi doesn't careen through these screens with Mario's chubby-bummed, bouncy abandon. He's slower and more ponderous, but uses some reptilian skills the plumber can't achieve with his pudgy human body. Although Yoshi jumps, ass-slams and bounces in exactly the same way as the Italian stallion, he can also capture smaller enemies with his amazing extendable tongue. Pushing down on the D-pad makes him swallow these morsels, and squeeze them out his hindquarters as a green-spotted egg. Up to six can be brought into the world at any one time, which follow Yoshi around. Hold down a button and a moving reticule appears - release it and you fire the egg. This is good for taking-out other critters, but is also vital for solving some of the game's many puzzles.

[inline:2]The levels are similar in many ways to those in sister game Super Mario World, but with the emphasis shifted to make room for an interesting problem-solving element. In some stages, for example, you cross chasms on rickety little platforms, just like in SMW. In YI, though, these areas will often be blocked by enemies such as our old friend Bullet Bill, or protected by locks; you have to negotiate the platforms, dodge extremely mobile little varmints, try and produce eggs AND fire them accurately enough to take you past big, lowering obstructions that loom on the horizon. It's also worth noting, at this point, that the Game Boy Advance port isn't a patch on the Super Famicom original: the (necessarily) increased sprite sizes make the screen far more cluttered, as well as diminishing the scale of the backgrounds and the enemies. The original is recommended above all, for maximum enjoyment.

[inline:3]Along with protecting your lizardly hide, you have an orphan that needs mothering: Baby Mario. This little fella rides on your back, but is knocked flying, encased in a bubble, if Yoshi takes damage. You then have a timer appear on-screen: fail to get mini Mazzer back in the saddle during this time, and it's game over. Solving the game's secrets whilst also shepherding your tiny charge through the perilous world makes YI more than just a sequel - where Mario would skip and bound through a level, Yoshi requires thought, consideration and a degree of planning. Yoshi's Island - it's fair to say - is Super Mario World's older, smarter sister.

As the trek through the sunny jungles and snow-capped peaks continues, you realise something important: so much stuff is crammed into this game's design it's untrue. Not only is it the work of a designer operating at the peak of his powers, using a machine he knows intimately, it also has a cohesion, style, substance and charm rarely seen in any medium, let alone games.

Mascots defiled!

In Super Mario Sunshine, Mazzer has to eliminate graffiti tags that look suspiciously like symbols from competitor's consoles (check out the big green 'X' graffiti. Subtle, Miyamoto-san, subtle...) However, Mr. M was gleefully using and abusing his enemys' prized IP waaay before that. Check out the little Ristar clones you use to gain valuable seconds, and the speedy, spiky blue Hedgehogs you have to either avoid or kill in some of the cavern sections. It's shocking he's not up to his cheeky grin in lawsuits, the naughty beggar. Expect Miyamoto's next game to feature Mario using a Dreamcast as a toilet.[inline:4]Take, for example, the use of the Super FX chip, embedded in the cart. This late-arriving piece of hardware trickery was used to decent effect in Star Fox and Stunt Race FX, mainly to manufacture some early, illusory 3D. In YI, though, the chip is used for nearly everything. Huge bosses squidge and change shape, filling the screen, changing size and ability with each egg you land. You push a block up against a wall...but it doesn't allow you to reach a high ledge. No problem: a harder push and it squishes into a thinner, taller shape...and the job is done. You ride the back of a water monster that spreads like a puddle, then elongates like a column...and back again. You chase a giant crow around a small moon whilst the background and the planetoid rotate around in a 360 degree motion...so much planning went into this game. So much wonderment. This extends to the soundscape as well, as YI is as impressive sonically as it is graphically. Carnival-style calliope music tinkles in the background, and the sound effects - expanded and improved from SMW - are never less than atmospherically spot-on, from boing-y little squeaks to cavernous, roiling rumbles.

[inline:5]By making his enemies, backgrounds and platforms deformable, Miyamoto completely opens-up the possibilities. It's obvious he realised the only restriction was his imagination, and his train of thought often must have been along the lines of "Yoshi can swallow enemies...why not make him able to swallow melons? And spit the seeds as weapons? Oh, and if we do that, why not make him able to eat fire, and spit that out as a weapon too? And if he can spit melon seeds and fire, why not put obstacles in his way that are only susceptible to fire, or can only be chipped away using melon seeds?". Design ideas like this proliferate.

The game was kind of lost in the shuffle. It was released in 1995, and the public were moving towards the bright, shiny future of the Playstation and polygons, sometimes ignoring great gameplay in pursuit of the new. Yoshi's adenture is gorgeous and ageless in its looks, though, and has the last laugh. Compare its design with the jagged, glitchy, ugly mess seen in polygonal games of the era and you're permitted a small weep at the ignorance of mankind.

The Talented Mr. Yoshi

Along with all the tricks Yoshi can do with his mouth (..shaky ground..), he can also transform. Not content with having him bounce, float, spit and swallow (...getting shakier...) with the best of them, he can also become a chopper (ok, enough with the innuendo), a submarine and a weird mole/badger/piece of earth-moving machinery hybrid should the need arise. You also get to ride a sled and have a powered-up Baby Mario charge around in his nappy like a deranged lunatic. Pass that bong along, Shigsy; Stop hogging it.The only weaknesses in the game can also be seen as strengths, dependant on your point of view. The game is more complex than SMW - some would say it loses that platforming purity, others would argue it's a lot more involving because of that complexity. It's graphically superior to SMW - some would say it's a feast for the eye, altough others would contend it's too busy and a bit cluttered. It uses loads of Super FX trickery - some would say this is a technical marvel, whereas some would argue it's a bit gimmicky.

[inline:6]Whatever your point of view, Yoshi's Island is a neglected waypoint in gaming that deserves to stand as a landmark and testament to progress - endearing, challenging and suitable for all ages and genders. It has aged graciously and has lost none of its charm, whilst pretenders to its throne have withered and shrunk through the ravages of time and technological progress. You get to see some old faces (like the Boos and the Koopas) return, lusciously redrawn and often with added abilities, tieing it in nicely with past and future Miyamoto games.

Sitting comfortably between the joyous simplicity of Super Mario World and the wonderfully crowd-pleasing, future-perfect Mario 64, Yoshi's Island upholds a very easy truce with its sister title to be jointly crowned best 2D platform game of all time.