Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (GBA)

Oh no! It looks like your grandad was right--things really were better in the old days. Well, they were if you liked 2-D platform games, anyway, and Yoshi's Island is indisputably one of the best ever made.

In a laudable attempt not to rehash its immediate forebear Yoshi's Island goes back in time to recount the touching story of the various yoshis' attempts to unite Baby Mario with his parents. For the first time ever in a Mario game you don't actually control the Italian plumber-to-be but instead his dinosaur pal, who has the curious ability to eat his enemies and then immediately turn them into eggs which he can then fling at more enemies and/or politicians.

Since Yoshi isn't particularly fast and can float in mid-air for a few seconds after making a jump, the whole dynamics of the normal Mario gameplay have changed, but the same incredible attention to detail and endless imagination that mark all of Nintendo's best efforts are still here in full effect. In fact they're joined this time, after the rather plain looking prequel, by some wonderful pastel-shaded graphics that were jaw-dropping when the game was originally released in 1995 and still manage to impress now.

As with the other Super Mario Advance titles this game also contains a four-player version of the original Mario Bros. arcade game, making it even more of a bargain than it already was. --David Jenkins

"Will introduce a new generation of players to platform creativity... shows how important history really is."

"Stunning level design, fiendish puzzles and secrets, all topped off with some beautiful pastel-shaded visuals."

Baby-sitting a whiny newborn is about as fun as a head cold on the first day of summer vacation. But when Baby Mario falls from the sky, the Yoshis seize the opportunity to do a lot more than change diapers.The big-hearted Yoshis vow to reunite Baby Mario with his twin brother on the far side of the island. It won't be easy, but the Yoshis are determined to take on a meddling Magikoopa and his entire cast of underhanded underlings.Brilliant game-designer Shigeru Miyamoto has crammed the island's jungles, caves and snowcapped peaks with one brain-bending surprise after another. Hidden rooms, secret passages, charming mini-games, demented bosses and all-new pals await your discovery.Sure, Yoshi looks cute, but he packs some pretty amazing firepower. He can jump, hover, stomp, pound the ground and slurp up enemies. Best of all, he can throw eggs. Heck, Mario even gets to presto-change into superfast Superstar Mario, while Yoshi morphs into a toy submarine that shoots itty-bitty torpedoes.In SupeYoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, the unlikely duo of Yoshi and Baby Mario must together brave a world of infinite surprise and challenge. Richly varied gameplay, brilliant graphics and precision control perfectly meld in an adventure you won't be able to put down.