As the “Mario Elitist”, It’s time to talk about some weird things in the Marioverse. I’ve said before that Yoshi games (that aren’t Yoshi’s Island) kind of get the short end of the stick when it comes memorable Mario games. They do these weird things and just get kind of forgotten. I believe Yoshi’s safari is one of them even thought is a unique game that doesn’t deserve that. Here’s why:

History:

Yoshi’s Safari (also know as Yoshi’s Road Hunting in Japan. Doesn’t that sound oddly hardcore?) was released in 1993 for the SNES. It’s an on rails shooter where you ride Yoshi as he moves automatically in the levels. You shoot goombas, koopas, and even Koopalings with your Super Scope!

Plot:

One of the more baffling things about this game is that it’s plot was actually kind of ahead of other Mario games. No, not because its complex or anything but simply because it doesn’t involve Princess Peach being kidnapped. It actually takes place in JewelryLand with King Fret and Prince Pine. According to Mario Wiki, it goes like this, “They also steal the twelve gems that keep the land stable and the resulting earthquake splits the kingdom into two halves: the Light Realm and the Dark Realm. The gems are distributed amongst Bowser, the Koopalings and five powerful minions, all of whom lord over the many regions of the captured kingdom. Fortunately, Prince Pine is a friend of Princess Peach, who promptly sends Mario and Yoshi to save JewelryLand; she gives them the Super Scope to aid in their quest.”

Gameplay:

First of all, this is the first and only (so far) Mario FPS. You’re on rails because Yoshi moves automatically and basically you just shoot everything without completely draining your gun. Your ammo is unlimited but you shoot at a really slow pace if you let your meter drain. During boss fights, you usually want to shoot the weak spots that reveal themselves at different times. Occasionally you have an alternate path to take or you need to jump over something. It’s not amazing gameplay but it’s still different than what you’ll find in any other Mario game.

Characters:

Peach is just a helper now and isn’t in danger. That’s new right? Then we have the King and his son who are pretty much forgotten. Lastly Bowser and the Koopalings. It may be hard to remember now, but the Koopalings almost became extinct after this game. Unfortunately it’s easy to see why this game isn’t remembered for it’s cast of characters.

Graphics:

I think they’re pretty good. The enemies have a lot more detail compared to Super Mario World for example. The designs for the robots that the Koopalings are in look kind of dorky but they are all different at least.

Legacy:

In addition to being the first and only Mario FPS, it was the first game outside of Japan to call refer to Princess Peach as Peach instead of Toadstool. Super Mario 64 often gets credit for this. This was also the first game where Peach doesn’t appear at the end, obviously because she’s not actually kidnapped this time. This game could have inspired Kamek with it’s Magikoopa boss and lastly this was the last “old school” Mario game (made by Nintendo so Hotel Mario doesn’t count) with the Koopalings in it until about ten years later.

As for the actual game play, it’s one of the few Super Scope games and unfortunately I think that kind of worked against the game. The Super Scope itself was kind of unreliable and is better remembered as a Smash bros power up. The only reason I’ve even ever played this game is because I had an emulator on my Wii and used my Wii remote as the light gun. I think that really holds back the amount of people who go back to this game. It's a shame since it holds a few milestones in Mario history and considering how people argue how stagnant Mario games are, it would be great if Nintendo went back to dig up gems like this just to give us something different. Personally I think the game is great with plenty of unique little things you don’t see in modern Mario games. I haven’t covered everything so I recommend all Mario fans to check it out. Well, thanks for reading, BooMaster out!

Sources used:

Wikipedia

Nintendo Wiki

Mario Wiki

-The BooMaster