One modder of Super Mario 64 releases a preview of a level that he created in the game that is based on Yoshi's Island. Super Mario 64 has seen plenty of fanmade mods and ROM hacks ever since it was released, where they offer new experiences or make a character like Guilty Gear's May playable in Super Mario 64. One independent modder Kaze Emamnuar however decided to make a mod that adds some new levels to the game, known as "Return to Yoshi's Island," inspired by the SNES title Yoshi's Island.Kaze Emamnuar is best known for his development videos and modding work for the Nintendo 64. Most of his videos posted on his YouTube channel or Twitter account are focused on the console's games, with Super Mario 64 being his primary focus for content. This includes videos about a randomizer for the game, smoothing out Mario's model, and even rewriting the game's source code to have the game run at 60 FPS. His latest video focuses on a new level that will be a part of his "Return to Yoshi's Island" mod, Wingcap Mast.This clip was first posted to Twitter, which wears the inspiration from Yoshi's Island on its sleeve. This includes the nighttime setting with the spinning moon, the Goonie enemies being rendered in 3D, along with the level's platform aesthetics. This clip shocked a lot of fans on how this entire modded level was designed, some in disbelief in the claims that the game could be run on the original hardware when it's been optimized to an incredible degree.
A follow-up video was posted on Emanuar's channel, where he broke down all the tricks of this Super Mario 64 mod, including portions of the video that show the differences between the game being played on an emulator as opposed to the original hardware. It's incredible to see how the level was designed in a way that the original N64 could handle it, despite the downgrade in visuals and framerate when compared to its optimized version on an emulator.
This "Return to Yoshi's Island" mod is currently 70%, done according to Emanuar, with the planned content including fifteen main courses to run through. This includes four levels that utilize Super Mario 64's Wing Cap power-up, three Bowser world levels, two side levels, and three overworlds. If players want to listen to the custom track made for this mod, it's also available to listen in the description of Emanuar's video.
Super Mario 64 was released in 1996 for the Nintendo 64.