For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to Peardian's Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (Super NES) maps.
Eggs. They are part of a good breakfast. They are scrambled or hard-boiled, or prepared in a multitude of other ways. They are also a natural wonder. They contain new life within. Observed in a particular holiday, the represent a rebirth, breaking out of a tomb. They are painted. They are hidden. They come in chocolate or candy forms. They are also projectiles. They can stop a baby tyrant lizard and his wizard's minions from kidnapping babies who are destined to be heroic plumbers. How can you not love eggs?
Or, for that matter, Peardian's Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island maps? A real labour of love, there is almost three years between his first and last maps for Mario and Yoshi's first chronological adventure together. As are most Mario games, this game is a real treat visually. With a unique pencil-crayon style, it is more detailed while also more cartoony than even the original Super Mario World. Though not advertised as such, the game contains a version of the Super FX Chip (you know, the processor involved in polygonal Super NES games like Star Fox), that occasionally shows its 3D processing power with rotating platforms, particularly in some castles. And speaking of rotating, how about that Raphael the Raven boss battle? Wow!
But rather than just singing the praises of the game itself, how about Peardian's work on mapping this game? This has been a longtime project for him. And the time and effort shows! Labelling doors and pipes, showing all the in-game tips, adding a few more including boss battle tips, showing the contents of crates and "?" clouds, and making clear the location of every Red Coin - this is effort beyond mere screenshot-stitching. (And Peardian has sent me revisions and corrections of maps constantly, a testament to his dedication and perfectionism.) And how's this for going above the call of duty - animated images showing Yoshi's Island and World 6 as they appear on the title screen, original images showing what they look like from above, and mapping the debug room, too! Considering the technical challenges that Peardian likes to take on, and his obvious preference for which game series to map, it really comes as no surprise that Peardian gets the honour for work on this game, but that doesn't make these maps any less spectacular, or any less worth the Maps Of The Month.
So to recognize the effort put into mapping even more Mario, Peardian's Super Mario World 2 (Super NES) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for April 2012.
