Mama Robotnik
Member
Yoshi's Island is one of the most glorious games ever. Its design is masterful: intelligent, diverse, innovative and charming. The soundtrack is moody, energetic, elegant and forboding. The controls and mechanics of interaction are perfect. It is one of the few games I can think of and say: This game has no flaws.
(Feel free to disagree with that if you like, I'm sure some will).
This thread is to consider the game from one particular perspective: the Bosses: The parade of gigantics who challenge you to apply every game mechanic in order to defeat them.
A substantial advancement over the previous games, the Mario series till this point had typically built boss-battles around increasingly-busy repetition:
]
Yoshi's Island elected a more ambitious approach. The concept of gigantic variants of villainy has been in the series since Super Mario Bros. 3's infamous Giant Land. It is the implementation where the difference lies: In the 8-bit era the oversized enemies could be defeated much in the same ways; In Yoshi's Island, the increased size eliminates the old vulnerabilities leaving the player to explore and discover new ones. The familiar sprite meant nothing; the bosses mean business.
On a technical level, Yoshi's Island pushed 16-bit gaming to new places. Through the advances in chips and programming, the enemies grew, shrunk, warped, twisted and displaced themselves throughout the fortresses. The technology was manipulated to create unpredictable, fluid encounters purposefully disimilar from others in the game.
Through the plot device of Kamek, Bowser's guardian and Sorcerer, we have our bosses delivered and our progress confirmed. Kamek's little monologues before each battle should be noticed, he starts the game with confident boasting threats. As we enter the middle worlds, these become more compromising and careful. In Yoshi's assault on the Koopa Kingdom the sprite is manic and desperate, and in the penultimate moment of the game we see a villain on the precipice of a complete nervous breakdown.
The typical boss entrance: a regular villain wanders into the screen, and with a drop of magic dust they are transformed. The first: Burt the Bashful.
World 1 - Burt the Bashful
The first boss is witty, fun and a technological leap ahead of any enemy the Mario series has delivered before. The scale of the sprite is huge, expanding and detailing the design of the comparatively-small original enemy unit.
Burt's bouncy body leaps around the arena as an egg-plant desposits ammo. As he bounces off the walls and sometimes follows Yoshi, the player must target their eggs and avoid being crushed. The game demonstrates its playful humour: each time Burt is hit, his trousers fall lower and lower. Upon the final hit, Burt's trousers vanish completely and his non-existent modesty goes on show. Turning bold red with embarassment, Burt deflates and fissles around the arena like a popped balloon.
The game leaves it to the player to develop their own strategies. As an early boss, concessions are made regarding difficulty, and gaps are provided in the floor to duck in for safety. Should the player feel confident at this early stage, they can try rebounding eggs from the walls to hit the enemy, or take a slower, more direct approach.
The game begins to show its impressive physics, Burt is propelled back and bounces off walls when hit, requiring the player to keep a careful distance.
World 1 - Salvo the Slime
Salvo is a blob of sentient ooze, and bounces around the arena at a slower pace than the defeated Burt. There are a number of new things about this encounter: physical contact with the boss does no damage to Yoshi (a rarity in the Mario series) instead the enemy tries to use the game's physics to force Yoshi into a small lava pit; the boss can be defeated in two ways (another rarity); and Yoshi must be alert of the environmental dangers (the aforementioned lava).
With each hit, Salvo shrinks as more of his mass is converted into small clones. Eventually, his mass collapses and seperates, leaving a suspended pair of eyes that vanish with a satisfying pop. Advanced players can dispatch Salvo by knocking enough of his mass away so that he can fit into the lava-pit and luring him over.
World 2 - Bigger Boo
The first encounter based on an established-series enemy, Bigger Boo enlarges and expands with each hit, limiting Yoshi's safe-zone. The encounter takes place at the end of a ghost fortress, one that has reminded players that Boo's fade when looked at. Thus the player must attack the enemy with eggs while facing away. The game is forcing the player to master rebounding projectiles, while carefully avoiding the bat-enemies that fly through the room. The choice of regular enemies being a threat during a boss battle (and providing material for eggs) is another rare approach for the Mario series.
When Boo grows to an uncontrollable size, there is a brief expression of confusion on his face and he explodes.
World 2 - Roger the Potted Ghost
This boss conveys the game's disdain of formula and patterns. As we expect another oversized enemy, Kamek chooses to animate a background object instead. Thus commences the first (and so far only) battle with a ghostly-possesed potted-plant in the history of gaming.
The arena is a suspended platform with pits at each side. Roger is impassible and cannot be jumped over, and uses his bulk to try and propel Yoshi into the pit. Like Salvo, physical contact is harmless, the enemy again using the physics engine to project you into danger.
It is a battle of avoidance, as you dodge Roger's ghostly fireballs and body, to keep pushing the plant-vase into the opposing pit. Two brave shyguys attempt to push the boss towards you and force your demise, meaning that this is the first battle in which time is a factor. Another dramatic game-changer: the eggs (vital in every boss battle so far) only cause a brief expression of confusion on Roger's face as he continues his assault unharmed.
Eventually, Roger and his attendant shy-guys are pushed into the opposing pit and the world is completed. The battle tells us that the bosses are wild-cards, that anything could happen.
World 3 - Prince Froggy
One of the most genius moments in gaming history, this battle plays with our expectations and introduces an entirely-untested scenario. As Yoshi enters the arena, the titular frog Prince is waiting. Kamek flys in and sprinkles his size-manipulating dust, but this time things are different. The frog remains the same. Yoshi, now looking at the player with wide, startled eyes, shrinks. The frog blinks, then unceremoniously unleashes his long tongue and eats Yoshi in a second. It is a joke on Yoshi, the frog does to him what the dinosaur has done to others countless times, and swallows his enemy.
After a short pause, the screen shows us a new arena - a round, fleshy room with tonsils dangling above. Utterly shocking and hilarious, the player is given precious little time to absorb this lunacy. The frog is swallowing enemies and it is up to Yoshi to eat them as they enter this digestive-arena (making comically oversized eggs from these poor creatures eaten twice). The eggs are targeted towards the tonsils above to cause the body pain. Impressively, the room deforms and shifts as Yoshi touches its sides, and shrinks and contracts with each hit.
The boss is again hugely different from its kin: the regular enemies and environmental factors are the primary hazard, and for Yoshi to survive he must avoid the increasing dripping stomach-acid and fire eggs into the tonsils above.
After a number of hits, the stomach lining shifts colours dramatically and Yoshi passes out through the rear as the body rejects him. He appears outside and regrows to normal, as the upturned Prince-Froggy seizes and spasms at the madness within.
World 3 - Naval Piranha
Another reconception of a familiar foe, Kamek unleashes his powers on a Piranha Plant. The resultant creature is quick, tough foe and a challenge above what has come before.
The battle takes place on a platform suspended above a shallow pool. The giant plant will cause damage on contact, and attacks by ramming its bulk from wall to wall. Yoshi must avoid these charges and the spores fired from its spiky stems. This battle expects developed skills: eggs are no longer freely provided, and the player must avoid the plant-spawn until it forms into an enemy, which can then be ingested for eggs. The one target-point of the boss is beneath the platform, an area that must be hit by projecting an egg away from the boss, skimming it over the water and into the only indicator of vulnerability (a hilariously-placed bandage).
This boss builds on the skills established in the game, forces use of a rare-mechanic (skimming) and requires quick and precise control of Yoshi to avoid the dangers. The boss has two methods of defeat, the second of which is one of the game's most hidden and witty secrets: As Yoshi is walking into the boss arena, by firing an egg in the direction of the small pre-transformed enemy, a pop will be heard and it will be killed. Kamek flies in and instead of his usual speech, exclaims "OH MY!!!!" and flies off. This secondary method of completing World 3 is brilliantly simple, and therefore rarely considered.
World 4 - Marching Milde
Marching Milde's Forte is one of the most challenging fortresses of the game, a enduring quest to find four keys in a lava-filled dungeon. The boss is gentle in comparison, but must be handled carefully: Milde is simple if managed slowly, but dangerous if the player is excitable.
Midle is a giant pink creature who marches from left-to-right regardless of Yoshi's position or presence. Eggs and jumps bounce off it with no damage. A ground-pound attack causes the unexpected: Milde splits into two equal halves. More ground-pounds cause these halves to split and split, until the arena is filled with small manageable Mildes. The key is to attack slowly and not have too many of them running around. Should too many Milde's be spawned, they become tricky to eliminate while avoiding their fellows.
A charming boss, this rewards a different approach to its peers: slow, considered attacks rather than quick reactions. It is a reminder of how diverse this game is: throwing different things at the player, and luring different responses back.
World 4 - Hookbill the Koopa
Hookbill the Koopa is the most complex boss so far. A series of procedures are required to expose his weak point, and the battle is a test of resource-collection and precision jumping and targeting. Hookbill responds differently to attacks at different times, and has a variety of attack patterns. It is left for the player to explore when and how this behemoth can be vanquished.
When the boss charges at Yoshi, the dinosaur can bounce on the turtle's shell as he pauses to get his breath back. These bounces cause a regurgitation of eggs. Later as Hookbill stands to attack, Yoshi can target its face with the reclaimed eggs to cause it to fall on his back. The one weak point is exposed, Yoshi can ground-pound the underbelly for damage.
Hookbill rewards the player for using Yoshi's various attacks to see what happens. It is a puzzle-boss of exploring responses. The lack of a time-factor and the repetitive nature of the battle give freedom to find a solution.
World 5 - Sluggy the Unshaven
Sluggy is a battle against physics. The challenger is an oversized, transparent slug-creature enlarged to gross-proportions: it spans from floor to ceiling and moves left at a slow pace, forcing Yoshi to do likewise. At the far-left is a pit, giving the dinosaur limited time to defeat his foe.
Each egg-hit to Sluggy causes a very-impressive minor-deformation of its membrane. Only repeated targeted hits in the same location cause indents into the creature. Yoshi's target: Sluggy's small hairy heart, buried deep in its body. The method: deform the malleable membrane enough to expose this vulnerability.
This battle uses the physics engine to make the enemy deform in and out, and even Yoshi's touch causes changes in body shape. When enough hits are made to the heart, it pops out of existence, and Sluggy pathetically looses consistency and slides off the screen.
World 5 - Raphael the Raven
This battle has been given recent-exposure in the gaming media, as its mechanics are seen as a predecessor to Super Mario Galaxy's spherical worlds.
Kamek's black magic is this time applied to a bulky Raven, who recieves only a marginal increase in size but a substantial increase in strength. Using this new power, the Raven makes a lunge at Yoshi, projecting him to the Mushroom Kingdom's tiny moon. The planetoid can be circled in a single second as the entire galaxy rotates around. Visually this is one of the most impressive moments of the gaming generation, the product of unrestrained imagination and the technical genius to make it happen.
Yoshi is eggless and jumping attacks do no damage as the boss chases the dinousaur around the world. This is a battle that rewards experimentation and timing: the player must find an environmental factor that will damage the enemy, and attack carefully as the enemy increases in speed.
By being on the opposing side of the planet as the boss, Yoshi can ground-pound chunks of the rock downwards and out of the other side, impaling them into the Raven. With each hit the boss grows angry, changing colour and speed and unleashing strong electrical attacks. With enough attacks, Raphael the Ravel will be flung into the cosmos, making a new and distant constellation.
This boss is a shining moment, an example of a game driven by wild imagination and designed to throw as much new and different things at its player.
World 6 - TapTap the Rednose
Both an original boss and a homage, TapTap requires a new approach within the context of this game, but reminds players of both Super Metroid's Crocomire and Super Mario Bros. 3's Bowser.
Kamek has enlarged a spiky enemy creature in an arena of multicoloured blocks over lava. The creature even in its default small state is a challenge, it cannot be killed by eggs or jumping, and must be projected into an enviromental danger to dispatch. The game knows the player has earned this knowledge by playing, and leaves them to apply it.
Yoshi must avoid this quick, large enemy and destroy enough blocks to expose the lava. TapTap will jump over any gaps you make and continue pursuit the dinosaur. At the right moment, Yoshi must unleash a constant barrage of eggs at the enemy and make it lose balance, tripping into the lava.
This is a tremendously fun boss, and again one that rewards experimenting with the environment. A rarely-noticed detail: every time TapTap is hit with an egg he makes a hollow-tin sound, a reminder that no damage is being done.
World 6 - Bowser
The first battle with Bowser defies player expectation. So far the game has avoided any clues as to what the Koopa King looked like in this era (if he even existed), and the reveal is hilarious and apt. Entering a room with Kamek waiting, shaking with dread and pleading "PLEASE HAND OVER THE BABY!!!", we are expecting a battle with the wizard.
Instead Bowser awakes, and is depected as a selfish toddler (complete with pink nursery on which he has scrawled crayon on the walls). Awoken inadvertently by Kamek (now in mid-nervous breakdown) Bowser jumps up and unceremoniously squashes the wizard.
Baby Bowser wants a ride on Yoshi and the battle begins. Very different from all previous fights, the battle with Bowser is a fast-paced contest with an enemy with the same moves and mechanics as Yoshi. Bowser bounds across the room, jumping and ground-pounding at great speed. The player is required to watch and learn in this chaos, as every time Bowser misses you and pounds the floor, the ground below shifts. Yoshi must make carefully-timed ground-pounds, causing the floor to shift when Bowser is standing nearby to damage him.
The build up to a non-existent battle with Kamek, and the hilarious anti-climax delivered is another tremendously comic moment in the game.
Finale - BOWSER
The final boss requires Yoshi to implement all of the skills built on through the game to survive. The target: one of the biggest bosses in the 16-bit era. Kamek uses all of his power to make Bowser bigger than the castle itself, and in the distant horizon the giant is seen. Bowser runs towards the castle, growing ever bigger, and should he get too close the battle is over.
Yoshi must avoid the collosal rocks hurtling from the sky and the pits they tear into the castle below. Collecting giant eggs that float on little balloons, Yoshi must launch these into the horizon at the moving enemy to keep him away from the castle. Speed, jumping skill, a good pace and precision aiming are needed to defeat this monster and win the game.
For a game as ambitious, imaginative and inspired as Yoshi's Island, a battle with an enemy as big as a mountain seems like a perfect bookend.
I consider Yoshi's Island to be the greatest 2D game every crafted, and equal to the great Super Mario Galaxy in terms of quality. I assert that it has the greatest bosses ever designed. Their diversity (of style, appearance, of solution), their imagination and the techincal brilliance that went into their production, is above any and all games I have played.
So this is my assertion. My questions to GAF:
1) Does GAF agree or disagree?
2) Are there any games with comparable quality and/or style of bosses?
3) Which is the greatest boss in Yoshi's Island?
(Feel free to disagree with that if you like, I'm sure some will).
This thread is to consider the game from one particular perspective: the Bosses: The parade of gigantics who challenge you to apply every game mechanic in order to defeat them.
A substantial advancement over the previous games, the Mario series till this point had typically built boss-battles around increasingly-busy repetition:
Yoshi's Island elected a more ambitious approach. The concept of gigantic variants of villainy has been in the series since Super Mario Bros. 3's infamous Giant Land. It is the implementation where the difference lies: In the 8-bit era the oversized enemies could be defeated much in the same ways; In Yoshi's Island, the increased size eliminates the old vulnerabilities leaving the player to explore and discover new ones. The familiar sprite meant nothing; the bosses mean business.
On a technical level, Yoshi's Island pushed 16-bit gaming to new places. Through the advances in chips and programming, the enemies grew, shrunk, warped, twisted and displaced themselves throughout the fortresses. The technology was manipulated to create unpredictable, fluid encounters purposefully disimilar from others in the game.
Through the plot device of Kamek, Bowser's guardian and Sorcerer, we have our bosses delivered and our progress confirmed. Kamek's little monologues before each battle should be noticed, he starts the game with confident boasting threats. As we enter the middle worlds, these become more compromising and careful. In Yoshi's assault on the Koopa Kingdom the sprite is manic and desperate, and in the penultimate moment of the game we see a villain on the precipice of a complete nervous breakdown.
The typical boss entrance: a regular villain wanders into the screen, and with a drop of magic dust they are transformed. The first: Burt the Bashful.
World 1 - Burt the Bashful
The first boss is witty, fun and a technological leap ahead of any enemy the Mario series has delivered before. The scale of the sprite is huge, expanding and detailing the design of the comparatively-small original enemy unit.
Burt's bouncy body leaps around the arena as an egg-plant desposits ammo. As he bounces off the walls and sometimes follows Yoshi, the player must target their eggs and avoid being crushed. The game demonstrates its playful humour: each time Burt is hit, his trousers fall lower and lower. Upon the final hit, Burt's trousers vanish completely and his non-existent modesty goes on show. Turning bold red with embarassment, Burt deflates and fissles around the arena like a popped balloon.
The game leaves it to the player to develop their own strategies. As an early boss, concessions are made regarding difficulty, and gaps are provided in the floor to duck in for safety. Should the player feel confident at this early stage, they can try rebounding eggs from the walls to hit the enemy, or take a slower, more direct approach.
The game begins to show its impressive physics, Burt is propelled back and bounces off walls when hit, requiring the player to keep a careful distance.
World 1 - Salvo the Slime
Salvo is a blob of sentient ooze, and bounces around the arena at a slower pace than the defeated Burt. There are a number of new things about this encounter: physical contact with the boss does no damage to Yoshi (a rarity in the Mario series) instead the enemy tries to use the game's physics to force Yoshi into a small lava pit; the boss can be defeated in two ways (another rarity); and Yoshi must be alert of the environmental dangers (the aforementioned lava).
With each hit, Salvo shrinks as more of his mass is converted into small clones. Eventually, his mass collapses and seperates, leaving a suspended pair of eyes that vanish with a satisfying pop. Advanced players can dispatch Salvo by knocking enough of his mass away so that he can fit into the lava-pit and luring him over.
World 2 - Bigger Boo
The first encounter based on an established-series enemy, Bigger Boo enlarges and expands with each hit, limiting Yoshi's safe-zone. The encounter takes place at the end of a ghost fortress, one that has reminded players that Boo's fade when looked at. Thus the player must attack the enemy with eggs while facing away. The game is forcing the player to master rebounding projectiles, while carefully avoiding the bat-enemies that fly through the room. The choice of regular enemies being a threat during a boss battle (and providing material for eggs) is another rare approach for the Mario series.
When Boo grows to an uncontrollable size, there is a brief expression of confusion on his face and he explodes.
World 2 - Roger the Potted Ghost
This boss conveys the game's disdain of formula and patterns. As we expect another oversized enemy, Kamek chooses to animate a background object instead. Thus commences the first (and so far only) battle with a ghostly-possesed potted-plant in the history of gaming.
The arena is a suspended platform with pits at each side. Roger is impassible and cannot be jumped over, and uses his bulk to try and propel Yoshi into the pit. Like Salvo, physical contact is harmless, the enemy again using the physics engine to project you into danger.
It is a battle of avoidance, as you dodge Roger's ghostly fireballs and body, to keep pushing the plant-vase into the opposing pit. Two brave shyguys attempt to push the boss towards you and force your demise, meaning that this is the first battle in which time is a factor. Another dramatic game-changer: the eggs (vital in every boss battle so far) only cause a brief expression of confusion on Roger's face as he continues his assault unharmed.
Eventually, Roger and his attendant shy-guys are pushed into the opposing pit and the world is completed. The battle tells us that the bosses are wild-cards, that anything could happen.
World 3 - Prince Froggy
One of the most genius moments in gaming history, this battle plays with our expectations and introduces an entirely-untested scenario. As Yoshi enters the arena, the titular frog Prince is waiting. Kamek flys in and sprinkles his size-manipulating dust, but this time things are different. The frog remains the same. Yoshi, now looking at the player with wide, startled eyes, shrinks. The frog blinks, then unceremoniously unleashes his long tongue and eats Yoshi in a second. It is a joke on Yoshi, the frog does to him what the dinosaur has done to others countless times, and swallows his enemy.
After a short pause, the screen shows us a new arena - a round, fleshy room with tonsils dangling above. Utterly shocking and hilarious, the player is given precious little time to absorb this lunacy. The frog is swallowing enemies and it is up to Yoshi to eat them as they enter this digestive-arena (making comically oversized eggs from these poor creatures eaten twice). The eggs are targeted towards the tonsils above to cause the body pain. Impressively, the room deforms and shifts as Yoshi touches its sides, and shrinks and contracts with each hit.
The boss is again hugely different from its kin: the regular enemies and environmental factors are the primary hazard, and for Yoshi to survive he must avoid the increasing dripping stomach-acid and fire eggs into the tonsils above.
After a number of hits, the stomach lining shifts colours dramatically and Yoshi passes out through the rear as the body rejects him. He appears outside and regrows to normal, as the upturned Prince-Froggy seizes and spasms at the madness within.
World 3 - Naval Piranha
Another reconception of a familiar foe, Kamek unleashes his powers on a Piranha Plant. The resultant creature is quick, tough foe and a challenge above what has come before.
The battle takes place on a platform suspended above a shallow pool. The giant plant will cause damage on contact, and attacks by ramming its bulk from wall to wall. Yoshi must avoid these charges and the spores fired from its spiky stems. This battle expects developed skills: eggs are no longer freely provided, and the player must avoid the plant-spawn until it forms into an enemy, which can then be ingested for eggs. The one target-point of the boss is beneath the platform, an area that must be hit by projecting an egg away from the boss, skimming it over the water and into the only indicator of vulnerability (a hilariously-placed bandage).
This boss builds on the skills established in the game, forces use of a rare-mechanic (skimming) and requires quick and precise control of Yoshi to avoid the dangers. The boss has two methods of defeat, the second of which is one of the game's most hidden and witty secrets: As Yoshi is walking into the boss arena, by firing an egg in the direction of the small pre-transformed enemy, a pop will be heard and it will be killed. Kamek flies in and instead of his usual speech, exclaims "OH MY!!!!" and flies off. This secondary method of completing World 3 is brilliantly simple, and therefore rarely considered.
World 4 - Marching Milde
Marching Milde's Forte is one of the most challenging fortresses of the game, a enduring quest to find four keys in a lava-filled dungeon. The boss is gentle in comparison, but must be handled carefully: Milde is simple if managed slowly, but dangerous if the player is excitable.
Midle is a giant pink creature who marches from left-to-right regardless of Yoshi's position or presence. Eggs and jumps bounce off it with no damage. A ground-pound attack causes the unexpected: Milde splits into two equal halves. More ground-pounds cause these halves to split and split, until the arena is filled with small manageable Mildes. The key is to attack slowly and not have too many of them running around. Should too many Milde's be spawned, they become tricky to eliminate while avoiding their fellows.
A charming boss, this rewards a different approach to its peers: slow, considered attacks rather than quick reactions. It is a reminder of how diverse this game is: throwing different things at the player, and luring different responses back.
World 4 - Hookbill the Koopa
Hookbill the Koopa is the most complex boss so far. A series of procedures are required to expose his weak point, and the battle is a test of resource-collection and precision jumping and targeting. Hookbill responds differently to attacks at different times, and has a variety of attack patterns. It is left for the player to explore when and how this behemoth can be vanquished.
When the boss charges at Yoshi, the dinosaur can bounce on the turtle's shell as he pauses to get his breath back. These bounces cause a regurgitation of eggs. Later as Hookbill stands to attack, Yoshi can target its face with the reclaimed eggs to cause it to fall on his back. The one weak point is exposed, Yoshi can ground-pound the underbelly for damage.
Hookbill rewards the player for using Yoshi's various attacks to see what happens. It is a puzzle-boss of exploring responses. The lack of a time-factor and the repetitive nature of the battle give freedom to find a solution.
World 5 - Sluggy the Unshaven
Sluggy is a battle against physics. The challenger is an oversized, transparent slug-creature enlarged to gross-proportions: it spans from floor to ceiling and moves left at a slow pace, forcing Yoshi to do likewise. At the far-left is a pit, giving the dinosaur limited time to defeat his foe.
Each egg-hit to Sluggy causes a very-impressive minor-deformation of its membrane. Only repeated targeted hits in the same location cause indents into the creature. Yoshi's target: Sluggy's small hairy heart, buried deep in its body. The method: deform the malleable membrane enough to expose this vulnerability.
This battle uses the physics engine to make the enemy deform in and out, and even Yoshi's touch causes changes in body shape. When enough hits are made to the heart, it pops out of existence, and Sluggy pathetically looses consistency and slides off the screen.
World 5 - Raphael the Raven
This battle has been given recent-exposure in the gaming media, as its mechanics are seen as a predecessor to Super Mario Galaxy's spherical worlds.
Kamek's black magic is this time applied to a bulky Raven, who recieves only a marginal increase in size but a substantial increase in strength. Using this new power, the Raven makes a lunge at Yoshi, projecting him to the Mushroom Kingdom's tiny moon. The planetoid can be circled in a single second as the entire galaxy rotates around. Visually this is one of the most impressive moments of the gaming generation, the product of unrestrained imagination and the technical genius to make it happen.
Yoshi is eggless and jumping attacks do no damage as the boss chases the dinousaur around the world. This is a battle that rewards experimentation and timing: the player must find an environmental factor that will damage the enemy, and attack carefully as the enemy increases in speed.
By being on the opposing side of the planet as the boss, Yoshi can ground-pound chunks of the rock downwards and out of the other side, impaling them into the Raven. With each hit the boss grows angry, changing colour and speed and unleashing strong electrical attacks. With enough attacks, Raphael the Ravel will be flung into the cosmos, making a new and distant constellation.
This boss is a shining moment, an example of a game driven by wild imagination and designed to throw as much new and different things at its player.
World 6 - TapTap the Rednose
Both an original boss and a homage, TapTap requires a new approach within the context of this game, but reminds players of both Super Metroid's Crocomire and Super Mario Bros. 3's Bowser.
Kamek has enlarged a spiky enemy creature in an arena of multicoloured blocks over lava. The creature even in its default small state is a challenge, it cannot be killed by eggs or jumping, and must be projected into an enviromental danger to dispatch. The game knows the player has earned this knowledge by playing, and leaves them to apply it.
Yoshi must avoid this quick, large enemy and destroy enough blocks to expose the lava. TapTap will jump over any gaps you make and continue pursuit the dinosaur. At the right moment, Yoshi must unleash a constant barrage of eggs at the enemy and make it lose balance, tripping into the lava.
This is a tremendously fun boss, and again one that rewards experimenting with the environment. A rarely-noticed detail: every time TapTap is hit with an egg he makes a hollow-tin sound, a reminder that no damage is being done.
World 6 - Bowser
The first battle with Bowser defies player expectation. So far the game has avoided any clues as to what the Koopa King looked like in this era (if he even existed), and the reveal is hilarious and apt. Entering a room with Kamek waiting, shaking with dread and pleading "PLEASE HAND OVER THE BABY!!!", we are expecting a battle with the wizard.
Instead Bowser awakes, and is depected as a selfish toddler (complete with pink nursery on which he has scrawled crayon on the walls). Awoken inadvertently by Kamek (now in mid-nervous breakdown) Bowser jumps up and unceremoniously squashes the wizard.
Baby Bowser wants a ride on Yoshi and the battle begins. Very different from all previous fights, the battle with Bowser is a fast-paced contest with an enemy with the same moves and mechanics as Yoshi. Bowser bounds across the room, jumping and ground-pounding at great speed. The player is required to watch and learn in this chaos, as every time Bowser misses you and pounds the floor, the ground below shifts. Yoshi must make carefully-timed ground-pounds, causing the floor to shift when Bowser is standing nearby to damage him.
The build up to a non-existent battle with Kamek, and the hilarious anti-climax delivered is another tremendously comic moment in the game.
Finale - BOWSER
The final boss requires Yoshi to implement all of the skills built on through the game to survive. The target: one of the biggest bosses in the 16-bit era. Kamek uses all of his power to make Bowser bigger than the castle itself, and in the distant horizon the giant is seen. Bowser runs towards the castle, growing ever bigger, and should he get too close the battle is over.
Yoshi must avoid the collosal rocks hurtling from the sky and the pits they tear into the castle below. Collecting giant eggs that float on little balloons, Yoshi must launch these into the horizon at the moving enemy to keep him away from the castle. Speed, jumping skill, a good pace and precision aiming are needed to defeat this monster and win the game.
For a game as ambitious, imaginative and inspired as Yoshi's Island, a battle with an enemy as big as a mountain seems like a perfect bookend.
I consider Yoshi's Island to be the greatest 2D game every crafted, and equal to the great Super Mario Galaxy in terms of quality. I assert that it has the greatest bosses ever designed. Their diversity (of style, appearance, of solution), their imagination and the techincal brilliance that went into their production, is above any and all games I have played.
So this is my assertion. My questions to GAF:
1) Does GAF agree or disagree?
2) Are there any games with comparable quality and/or style of bosses?
3) Which is the greatest boss in Yoshi's Island?
