Imagine how different it could have looked. I seem to remember Miyamoto was pursuing 3D prerendered graphics until he saw Donkey Kong Country?
The story I’ve read is that he was told to make the next Mario look like DKC and he said “no” and had Yoshi’s Island made to look as unrealistic and stylized as possible in response.
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I want to belive this is true. Miyamoto is one of the few left in this industry who have the power to make whatever they want. There’s an interview I saw somewhere where Miyamoto said he purposely doesn’t follow trends, he just does what he wants to do and so far I’d say thats worked out “okay” for him and Nintendo.
Tezuka: Some within the company were wondering if we could do visuals like the ones in Donkey Kong Country, but…
Hino: But development of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island had already progressed past the point where we could adopt that style of graphics.
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Thanks! I wasn’t are of those interviews.
Also, the discussion about the graphics is longer than your two quotes.
In other words, it was too late to turn back.
Hino: Right. So we decided to take up the challenge with visuals that were the exact opposite of the style in Donkey Kong Country.
And that meant visuals that looked hand-drawn.
Hino: Yeah. And instead of doing it halfway, we wanted to fight back by thoroughly pursuing a hand-drawn style.
I didn’t want to push my luck and post a huge ream of quotes!
Thought that part important in terms of the conversation and showing it not being a case of the team being told what they should do and saying no. Shmuplations has another related snippet, really seems like they thought the days of hand drawn sprites was done for so were inspired to really go to town.
So many versions of the story…
I found where I read about it: “The Ultimate History of Video Games”, page 518
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Nice, hadn’t seen that before. It all takes an entirely different context knowing that the initial proposal was rejected and Miyamoto really did say no, sorry @Peltz!
Ah yes, this is what I read before. Who knows how true it is though? Interesting stuff.
This is a really nice article about it
https://www.gamesradar.com/yoshis-island-20-years-classic/
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Just struck me how odd it is that the intro looks like it is using pre-rendered graphics considering the apparent opposition to the technique.
Yes indeed. Maybe a middle finger to the dissenters?
Interesting QOL hack for YI: Romhacking.net - Hacks - Yoshi's Island - No Crying, Improved SFX and Red Coins
Yoshi’s Island - No Crying, Improved SFX and Red Coins
The goal of this patch is to retain the original gameplay of Yoshi’s Island but vastly improve the experience by removing annoyances. This patch replaces the bad “ear-piercing” sound effects and restores red coins. Mario will no longer cry and has matching graphics to represent this and more.
Changes:
- Mario will no longer cry and has graphics have been replaced while inside a bubble.
- Alarm sound (SFXx58) now replaced with lesser alarm (SFXx57) as it is less irritating.
- Red Coins are now properly red.
- All mouse sound effects (SFXx75) replaced with chirp sound (SFXx5A) which is very similar sounding but less ear-piercing.
- Ice no longer screeches.
- Winding sound effects of heavy objects on a chain no longer screech (SFXx5A) and replaced with correct winding sound (SFXx1B)
- Winding “frying pan dong” sound (SFXx2F) removed.
Huh. So far I don’t mind Baby Mario at all. I guess I don’t lose him a whole lot at this point.
The Red coins are red. They’re clearly a reddish orange to me. I think it’s neat that the coins are hard to spot. It encourages you to collect every coin!
Well I’m working my way through world 3 and I’m really enjoying it! I’m guessing the 2 empty boxes at the end of each world are bonus levels? I havnt unlocked any so far.
I’ve had a few perfect levels but most are in the 80s, one of them is even a 60 
I thought this was really sweet.
Yep, love that message.
I started playing yesterday and it looks like my battery may have died! I’ll know tonight when I play again. It seemed to hold the saves as long as the Super Nt was on after switching to Turrican and back so maybe I wiped all the saves in the past but I don’t recall doing that at all.
I love this game. I got so close to finishing it when it came out but never made it all the way for unknown reasons. I will get to the end this time.
If you plug a snes cart in backwards it whipes the saves. Ever done that?
I… don’t think so! I suppose it’s possible I did that at some point? Hunh… learn something new every day.
old batteries may hold enough charge to keep the save for a few hours, but wipe it after that. You think you’re safe when loading your game the day after, but then you’re not