Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

To do: Early screenshot in manual. This interview should be a good place to start when making a Development Timeline for this page.

Development Timeline#

1992

• February 1st - According to the source code, the game starts development.

1995

• June 29th - The game finishes development.
• August 5th - The game releases in Japan.
• October 4th - The game releases in North America.
• October 6th - The game releases in Europe.

Nintendo Power#

To do: Scrooge200 has found more in this issue. The scans were from an Internet Archive item - can't remember which, but it should be linked in the TCRF Discord somewhere.

Prerelease	Final

Nintendo Power Issue 75 (August 1995) has two screenshots on Page 34 of what appears to be an early version of 2-2: The Baseball Boys. The first one doesn't directly correspond to a part of the level, but it most resembles the start of 5-1 from the prototypes. In the second screenshot, the Shy Guy-spawning pipe present in the final level is missing.

US Trailer#

To do: Add screenshots for World 4-4.

Features a build with multiple differences from the final game, but appears to be way further developed than the December 1994 builds to the point of looking very close to the final game, presumably dated around Spring of 1995.

Yoshi doesn't swap colors in this build. This was likely a prerelease debug build where all of the levels are unlocked, with Yoshi not swapping colors until he reaches the Goal (probably how some of the prototypes have the same quirk).

World 4-1#

Prerelease	Final

The early version of this level contains green grass, the tropical mountain background seen in World 2-5, and a blue sky. The final version uses red grass, the red sky-mountain background, and a sunset sky.

World 4-4#

Prerelease	Final

The exterior of Marching Milde's Fort features a cloudless blue sky in the daytime instead of a pink sky at sunset. The distant cliff background is the same, but makes use of a palette not used in the final game. The castle music plays instead of the athletic music. The layout of the dirt and item placement are not an exact match for any screen in the final game, but the tileset has already transitioned from the grassland to the castle at this part of the level since the dirt is gray. The sound the Chomp Shark makes when eating dirt is different from final as well.

World 4-8#

Prerelease	Final

The early version of this level uses the same tileset, but with a different palette. It also doesn't have the triangular-pattern flooring.

Prerelease	Final

Hookbill the Koopa's room has a different palette and some enemies. The enemies were likely cut due to hardware limitations and/or to make it easier.

World 5-1#

Prerelease	Final

The early version of this level has the sky-mountain background with a different palette for the grass and some objects missing. The final uses the pine tree and hills background with the palette changed for the grass.

World 5-4#

Prerelease	Final

The early version of this level uses a blue waterfall background and the brick castle tileset. The final uses the blue generic castle background and the blueish-gray fortress tileset.

Prerelease	Final

Sluggy the Unshaven's room uses a blue sky and the brick castle tileset. The final version uses a dark-blue sky and the blueish-gray fortress tileset.