Yoshi’s Island fans reminisce its toughest stage as it heads to Switch Online 

Nintendo announced on May 19 (JST) that they would be adding three titles from the Super Mario Advance series to the list of Game Boy Advance games that are playable with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. All three games will be available on May 26, but the addition of Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 has gotten fans talking about a particularly difficult stage in that game. 

First released for the GBA in 2002, Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 is an enhanced port of SNES platformer Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. The game is set on Yoshi’s Island, home to all Yoshis. A stork carrying baby Mario is attacked by Kamek, which causes the young Mario to fall out of the sky and land on the back of a Yoshi that was taking a walk. Eight different colored Yoshis band together and work hard towards reuniting baby Mario with his parents.  

In the game, the player controls one of the Yoshis who carries baby Mario on its back. Yoshis possess unique abilities to help on their quest, like the ability to lay eggs that can be thrown and a ground pound attack. When the player’s Yoshi takes damage, baby Mario is encased in a bubble and begins floating in the air, setting off the Countdown Timer. Unless Yoshi retrieves Mario before the timer reaches 0, it will lose a life.  

With the news of the game being added to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, Endless World of Yoshis, the stage that many believe to be the toughest in the game, has become a talking point among fans. Endless World of Yoshis is one of the game’s Secret Stages and can be found in World 6, which is the final world. 

Endless World of Yoshis is considered difficult both for its length and for the great number of stage gimmicks throughout it. Upon starting the stage, you are immediately thrown into a fast-paced  automatic scrolling section. You must navigate the narrow platforms and plentiful enemies all while being forced ahead by the forward movement of the screen. 

At the end of this section, you enter a pipe that brings you to a different area. While the screen no longer scrolls on its own, you must still face a multitude of enemies and dangerous gimmicks. From areas where you must jump down while avoiding spiked balls that result in instant death, to lava areas with canons that fire red homing Bullet Bills, you can’t let up for even for a moment. You also need to know the best way to deal with each of the wide variety of enemy types that are present. The stage even has exclusive enemies, as the aforementioned red Bullet Bills do not appear in any other section of the game. 

And if that wasn’t enough, the difficulty of this stage is further amplified if you attempt a 100-point clear by collecting all the red coins and special flowers. There are red coins that must be collected during the auto-scrolling section, and some areas can’t be accessed unless you make clever use of enemies. Conquering Endless World of Yoshis with 100 points requires both knowledge and skill, and there are many fans who believe that it’s the most difficult challenge in the entire Super Mario series.  

The infamous reputation of the stage and the nostalgia that players have for it are likely what caused it to immediately come to mind when Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 was announced for Nintendo Switch Online. But anyone who couldn’t beat the stage back on the GBA may want to try their hand at it again on the Switch, since they will now be able to make use of handy features, like the ability to save anywhere or rewind the game if you make a mistake.  

Members of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will be able to play Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario Advance 3 as well as Super Mario Advance and Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 on May 26. Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 was already added to the service previously, meaning all four games in the series will be available on the Switch. Fans of the games may want to get their hit of nostalgia by playing them again, while others may enjoy getting the chance to play them for the first time.  

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-05-19 14:57 JST)