Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3

Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island
Developer(s)	Nintendo EAD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Shigeru Miyamoto
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance
Release	September 20 2002 September 24 2002 November 11 2002
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, released in Japan as Super Mario Advance 3 (スーパーマリオアドバンス3), is a platform video game that was developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console. It was first released in Japan, and then later released in Europe, North America, and Australia. It is a remake of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. It is the third release in the Super Mario Advance series, and contains several enhancements, including a multiplayer mode based on the original arcade game Mario Bros.

Gameplay and premise

Main article: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

The gameplay is the same as in the original version of Yoshi's Island for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Players take control of Yoshi, adventuring with baby Mario through five worlds of Yoshi's Island to defeat Kamek and Bowser, who have kidnapped a baby Luigi. Players are able to make use of several basic techniques such as running, jumping, and swimming. The objective of each stage is to reach a ring of flowers. It includes transformation power ups such as a train, mole, car and helicopter, which allow Yoshi to traverse otherwise inaccessible parts of the levels. Players access the levels by exploring various maps. There are several kinds of levels, including castle levels and sky levels. The game featured no changes to its basic formula besides that voice samples from Yoshi's Story were used and the player lacks the ability to pan left and right with the L and R buttons due to the Game Boy Advance having two less buttons than the SNES. There were two major additions, however: six new levels called "Secret levels" could be unlocked after beating the game, and the Mario Bros. mini-game that appeared on all the Super Mario Advance series. If a player completes the game and gets 100 points on all 60 levels in the game, a secret ending will occur.

Outside of the main mode of play, players may also play a remake of the Mario Bros. game, which was included in both Super Mario Advance games previous to it. It supports anywhere from one to four players.

Reception

Like its two predecessors, Super Mario Advance 3 had generally positive reviews. It sold 1.6 million copies in the US and was re-released in 2006 as a Player's Choice title.

Its GameRankings score is 89.52% and it has a Metacritic score of 91%.

Re-release

On July 28, 2011, Nintendo announced that the game — as well as nine other Game Boy Advance games and 10 NES games — would be available to Nintendo 3DS owners via Virtual Console as part of an Ambassador program starting on August 16, 2011. The only way to get the games was by accessing the Nintendo eShop before the date of a price-cut. Nintendo has stated it has no plans to release this game, or any other Game Boy Advance game, to the general public in paid form.