Yoshi

"Yoshi!"

Article by: Paul Watkins (watkinzez)
Pictured from: Mario Kart 64
Created by: Nintendo
First appearance: 1990

Bio

While Yoshi may be a dinosaur, his affectionate nature makes him one that is harmless to his friend Mario, yet a formidable foe to the grunts of Bowser's army. His name loosely translating to 'happy', Yoshi was introduced to the Mario franchise in Super Mario World, where he helped rid his island home of Bowser's Koopa invasion. Once found, Mario could ride Yoshi through levels with increased speed and use the dinosaur's long tongue to eat enemies and spit them back out. Smaller foes could be swallowed with ease; others allowed Yoshi to spit out fireballs to get the edge on the situation.

Though still within the canon of the Mario series, Yoshi has starred in his own games, of varying genre. Revealing that there is more than one of the dinosaurs, the platformer sequel Yoshi's Island allowed the player to take complete control of a Yoshi clan as they attempted to reunite the then-infant Mario Bros. Taking full advantage of Yoshi's abilities, eggs laid after eating enemies could be used as projectiles against the enemy, not to mention useful in many puzzles throughout the game. This game, along with its semisequel Yoshi's Story, expanded the universe that the Yoshies live in, shown in parallel with characters such as Baby Bowser, a small dog named Poochy, and others. Puzzlers such as Yoshi's Cookie and Tetris Attack used the Yoshi character during this period.

Yoshi has become one of the standard characters to include in various Mario spin-offs, the Super Smash Bros. series demonstrating his abilities most effectively. Throwing projectiles and becoming an egg to spin across the stage makes Yoshi a formidable fighter.

Selected game appearances

Super NES

• Super Mario World (1990)
• Mario Paint (1992)
• Super Mario Kart (1992)
• Super Mario All-Stars (1993)
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995)
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995)
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)
• Tetris Attack (1996)

Game Boy

• Yoshi (1991)
• Yoshi's Cookie (1992)

Nintendo 64

• Super Mario 64 (1996)
• Mario Kart 64 (1996)
• Yoshi's Story (1997)
• Mario Party (1998)
• Super Smash Bros. (1999)
• Mario Golf (1999)
• Mario Tennis (2000)

Game Boy Color

• Mario Golf (1999)

GameCube

• Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)
• Super Mario Sunshine (2002)
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)

Nintendo DS

• Super Mario 64 DS (2004)
• Yoshi Touch & Go (2005)
• Mario Kart DS (2005)
• New Super Mario Bros. (2006)

Wii

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

References

• Wikipedia - "Yoshi"
• The History of Yoshi
• Super Mario World instruction manual