Yoshi

For other uses, see the Nintendo character Yoshi.

Yoshi
'Mario/Yoshi' character
File:Yoshi.jpg Yoshi and Baby Mario as seen in Yoshi Island DS.
First game	Super Mario World (1991)
Created by	Shigefumi Hino

Yoshi (ヨッシー, Yosshī, sometimes Romanized Yossy in earlier Japanese language materials) (IPA: /ˈjəʊ.ʃi/) is a fictional reptilian creature who appears in the Mario series of video games by Nintendo. His debut was in Yoshi (video game) on the Nintendo Entertainment System. He later had his own series with several platform and puzzle games, including Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. He has also appeared in many of the spin-off Mario games, including the Mario Kart and Mario Party series as well as the various Mario sports titles.

Concept and creation

Yoshi ROX UR SOX N UR JOX!!! was created by graphics designer Shigefumi Hino, in response to Nintendo's design staff expressing a desire for Mario to ride a dinosaur. His name may be derived from the typical Japanese interjection Yosh!, the English equivalent of which would be "yes!", reflecting his general upbeat nature.

Appearances

In Yoshi, a game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Yoshi would watch over Mario and suggest which items should be switched. In Super Mario World, the main green Yoshi would hatch immediately from his egg and grow to his "adult" height. The red, blue and yellow variations (which debuted in this game) had to be fed five enemies or one power-up before they would grow to a full size on which Mario could ride. Each of the colored Yoshi had a special ability that activated whenever they had a shell in their mouth.

Yoshi has made cameos in multiple games including Super Mario 64 after collecting all 120 stars and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 as one of the cursed kings. He can be ridden upon in Super Mario Sunshine. A planetoid in the shape of Yoshi's head appears in Super Mario Galaxy, as does a Yoshi egg, and Yoshi is used as a saveable icon, but he does not appear properly in the game.

File:Yoshi2.jpg

Yoshi as he appears in Super Mario 64 DS.

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In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, several Yoshi appear at a place called "Yoshi Theater." In order to obtain a piece of the Beanstar (one of the underlying goals in the game), the player is required to feed the Yoshis a fruit called "Bean fruit" which supposedly is his favorite. Feeding him such fruit will make him lay a special "Neon egg", a special egg that's brightly colored. He was also in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, in which several Yoshis appear, along with an oversized Yoshi-shaped Shroob named Yoob. The green Yoshi appears to be the prominent, main individual, and seems to be a leader of sorts against Yoob. However, he doesn't recognize the adult Mario and Luigi and slightly grown baby versions with clothes rather than diapers.

In Paper Mario, Mario visits a place called Yoshi's Village on Lavalava Island. A baby Yoshi is obtainable as a partner in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. This Yoshi was not necessarily entitled "Yoshi" in the game, as the player can name the partner whatever he or she wishes.

Yoshi is a fully playable character in Super Mario 64 DS on the Nintendo DS. He is also the star of Yoshi Topsy-Turvy for the Game Boy Advance and Yoshi Touch & Go for the Nintendo DS.

Other appearances

Yoshi has appeared in nearly all of the Mario sport and spin-off games. Yoshi, along with other Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog characters, appears in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.. Yoshi also appeared in every game of the Mario Party series as a playable character.

Yoshi appears in Mario Kart DS, as well as all other Mario Kart games. In Mario Kart DS his karts were the Egg 1, Cucumber and standard go-kart. In Mario Kart: Double Dash!! his kart is a car figured like a Yoshi. In The rest of the Mario Kart Games he has a bright green standard kart with turquoise balloons. Every one of Yoshi's race tracks in the Mario Kart games has a Giant Egg in it, and in Mario Kart Double Dash!! his own race track is actually shaped like a Yoshi. Yoshi also appears prominently in Mario is Missing! , and the numerous sports and party games starring the cast of the Mario universe.

Yoshi is a playable character in the original Nintendo 64 Super Smash Bros., and the sequels Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube and Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. In the Subspace Emissary mode of Super Smash Bros Brawl, Yoshi and Link team up against a group of the Primid that invade the forest.

Appearances outside of video games

File:SMA-YoshiTranslation.jpg

A "translation" for Yoshi's language is given in Super Mario Adventures.

An animated series followed Super Mario World, bearing the same name, and was similar in plotline to the previous series, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Brothers Super Show, but with a different setting. The show featured Yoshi as a regular character, voiced by Andrew Sabiston (who later provided the voice of Diddy Kong in the Donkey Kong Country cartoons). The cartoon portrays Yoshi with the personality of a very young child, and, therefore, he speaks like one, often in third person. He is often afraid of many things that young children would be afraid of, such as Boos and water. This may be based on his reactions to attacks by enemies in Super Mario World (he runs off when hit and will even run off of a cliff if Mario fails to chase after him) and/or the fact that Yoshi refuses to enter Ghost Houses, fortresses, or castles. Interestingly, his design in the show changed over time to better match his video game design.

Due to its early cancellation, Yoshi was not featured in the Super Mario Bros. comic books published by Valiant Comics. However, he did appear in the Nintendo Adventure Books, which were somewhat based on them. There, his dialogue consists of words that rhyme with "orp", as he does not speak English there like in the cartoon. The games however, consists of some Yoshi that can speak English (including the main Yoshi himself), and others that only understand their native tongue. Yoshi also features prominently in the Super Mario Adventures comic serial printed in Nintendo Power. There, his dialogue consists mainly of his own name. (Incidentally, he talks this way in most Mario games since Yoshi's Story in 1998. But in a Japanese Mario Paint ad he does actually speak.) According to these comics, Yoshi is the Chairman of the Dinosaur Chamber of Commerce, who is searching for a group of missing Yoshi Villagers whom Bowser has captured. Yoshi also appears in the critically maligned Super Mario Bros. movie. In the movie, Yoshi took the form of a realistic animatronic dinosaur, very much like a smaller version of Jurassic Park's velociraptors, instead of a live-action animated character . Although extremely different in appearance than his video game counterpart, he still shares some resemblance with a long tongue, friendliness and courage. He is also downsized to the point that he could not support Mario at all.

Description

While green is considered the standard color for Yoshi, his brethren appear in different colors, including blue , red , yellow , brown, orange, pink, purple, azure, turquoise, navy blue , silver, bronze and, more rarely, black and white. Black and white Yoshi in the Nintendo 64 game Yoshi's Story have the distinct ability to digest chili peppers, which other Yoshis cannot. Black and white Yoshis also appear in Yoshi's Island DS in the unlockable levels. Generally, a Yoshi's shoe color is dependent on its color; red Yoshis wear blue shoes, for example. In Super Mario World for the SNES, different colors of Yoshi had different abilities, such as fire-breathing and flying.

Yoshis also can make a variety of sounds. In Super Mario World, hopping onto Yoshi's saddle made one of a few sounds of affirmation; these were Yoshi's trademark noises until Yoshi's Story, when the character (voiced by Nintendo musician Kazumi Totaka) began muttering his name and unintelligible words (such as "gong", "hup" and "wah!"), usually when idle or jumping. Besides "hup", "gong" and "wah!", Yoshi, in various games, has said his own name. In Mario Kart 64, Yoshi also makes a "pshee-pshoo" sound. Nonetheless, Nintendo 64 games like the Mario Party series, Mario Golf, and others, still feature Yoshi with the same sounds as in Super Mario World. Sometimes, in Mario Kart DS, he uses this noise when he is attacked. In the game Mario Strikers Charged, Yoshi can be heard saying "yay!", or "ya hi ya ho!" It is unknown if Yoshi can actually speak the English language, although in Super Mario 64 he is seen talking normally.

Yoshis have a limited social structure, shown in multiple RPGs as living in villages with a few wooden constructions. However, Yoshis inhabit many areas of the world, from the Mushroom Kingdom to Isle Delfino.

During the localization of Panel de Pon for the U.S., when the game was renamed Tetris Attack, Nintendo of America replaced the fairy-like characters with characters from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, with Yoshi stepping in for the Pon main character Lip;

Yoshi's appearances in video games, usually Mario sports games, typically portray him as an agile character. In Mario Kart games, Yoshi has excellent acceleration, but he is more likely to skid off the track than other characters. In Mario Golf, his shot is straight and average in height. In Mario Tennis and Mario Power Tennis, he is the fastest tennis player. In Mario Superstar Baseball, Yoshi is the speediest runner and can use his tongue to catch faraway balls. In Super Mario Strikers, Yoshi is a balanced captain. When he performs his Super Strike, green and yellow bubbles surround the character as he kicks the ball into the back of the net, usually hitting the goalie in the stomach and taking him into the net with it. In the recent sequel, Mario Strikers Charged, he is once again a balanced captain. This time when he performs his Mega Strike, he flies up into the air, sprouting the wings as he could have in Super Mario World if he held a blue shell in his mouth, he draws in a lot of breath and as he breathes out it creates a considerable force on the ball causing it to be fired into the net. In Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Yoshi is an All-Around character, in contrast to his speedy nature in other sports games. His Special Shot is the Flutter Dunk, performed by tapping an "M" pattern on the touch screen twice. At close range, he holds the ball as he hovers toward the hoop in typical Yoshi style, leaving a rainbow trail. When he is outside the three-point line, he throws the ball to another teammate, with another rainbow trail behind the ball. In most of these games, Yoshi is mostly teamed up with Birdo, although their relationship is unclear. In Mario and Sonic and the Olympic Games, Yoshi is a speed type character.

Physical appearance

Although having the same general appearance, Yoshi's appearance has slightly changed over the years. Originally his features more resembled a dinosaur, with a long neck, small arms, and a wider back (conveniently for Mario to ride on.) Also he has small spikes from head to tail. According to Satoru Iwata, Yoshi "ended up looking like a dinosaur... because something like a dinosaur was the shape which was allowed by the [Super Nintendo's] technical limitations."

The first game to have Yoshi's appearance altered was the SNES version of Yoshi's Cookie, with him being much shorter, chubbier, with larger arms and hands. It is possible that this new look was originally intended to be his "younger" form. This theory is supported by the fact that in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Kamek makes a reference to the young age of the Yoshi carrying Baby Mario when he and Kamek encounter each other for the first time, in Burt The Bashful's fort ("So you're still on the baby's side, Yoshi-Baby? Then take THIS!") This design was used again in Yoshi's Story, which had much more noticeable changes to his new look due to the game being 3-D, as well as the addition of infantile hatchings. Yoshi's Story showed Yoshi having much more human-like features (i.e.: standing up straight instead of curved, swinging his arms while running.) Over time, Yoshi's spikes would become smaller and blunter.

This new look for Yoshi has been used for the remaining Mario games ever since. Games such as the Mario Party series, the Mario Sports series, and even the Paper Mario series used this new appearance, likely making this his permanent design. Yoshi's design was changed for the remake of Super Mario 64 for the DS, from his original "dinosaur" look, to his new shorter look (so that he looked similar to the other characters). It also inherited hovering and egg-throwing from the previous games, but he could only keep one egg with him as opposed to being able to carry many more (in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, for example, he was able to carry up to six eggs at once). But in some games, like Yoshi's Story, the color of the Shy Guy that Yoshi swallows is the color of the egg. Also the color of the egg can depend on the color of the Yoshi that swallowed the enemy.

One key anomoly about Yoshi is the red bump on his back. In Super Mario World, it was a saddle for Mario to sit on while he was riding Yoshi. However, Yoshi kept this saddle even in games where Mario didn't ride him, so it became a fundamental feature of Yoshi that later evolved into the "shell" design that's seen today, much like the shell of a Koopa Troopa.

Species

Yoshis are described as either dragons or dinosaurs. They are shown in games as having very long, sticky tongues. The captured enemy can be either spit out or somehow encased in an egg. They are omnivorous and seem to enjoy tropical fruits, especially melons as depicted in the game Yoshi's Story. In Super Mario Sunshine Yoshis can only be awoken by feeding them such fruits.

Their noses can detect fruit and other secrets buried underground as seen in Yoshi's Story. Although they have teeth, these are rarely seen or used, exceptions being Yoshi's Story, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Island DS. Yoshis are generally depicted in games as being quite intelligent from a young age, many being able to defend themselves while still infants. While the main Yoshi himself is depicted as green, they come in a variety of colors, spanning every color of the rainbow, and even black or white. In the games Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Island DS, and Mario Power Tennis, they can be unlocked or are a playable character in some way. In Mario Power Tennis, the black and white Yoshis can be played as after upgrading Yoshi's power shot. The white Yoshi will come up very often, while the black Yoshi takes some time to appear. Some Yoshis have the ability to fly, breathe fire, cause earthquakes by stomping, and even stick out their tongues as far as the game screen. In the game Super Mario Sunshine, Yoshi can spit out a variety of fruit juices which he needs to survive. Different fruits were known to change its color. If yoshi enters a body of water, he will disappear and return back to his egg. They can swallow an enemy and plop them out as a egg. Going in through the sewer-like-areas and jumping up with Yoshi does a super jump.

In the more recent Mario sports games such as Mario Superstar Baseball the Mario Tennis series Yoshi is known for his speed and tongue capability. He is also well known for his feared Tomahalk Headbutt. It is assumed by many that all other Yoshis are just as capable as this Yoshi, supported by the Yoshi's Island games, where different colored Yoshis have the same abilities throughout the game. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Yoshi is able to grow wings and breathe fire for a short time after getting a Smash Ball, a reference to past abilities.

Speech

In most games, Yoshi does not actually talk. Either he has no voice (e.g. in Super Mario World), or he simply makes unintelligible noises and says his name. There have been a few instances, however, where he actually has a speaking part. In the Super Mario World cartoon, he is given a speaking part, as well as in the Paper Mario series. In these games, the Yoshi species in general possesses the ability to speak. More recently, Yoshi has been given speech in the game Super Mario Strikers, and its sequel Mario Strikers Charged.

In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars Yoshi was the only one of his kind to be able to communicate with Mario, and acted as an interpreter so Mario could speak to other Yoshis. In his first few appearances, he used to make a noise similar to the voice of Scooby Doo, and at the end of Super Mario 64, after the player has collected all 120 stars, you can talk to Yoshi who is standing on the castle. After this, he gives you 100 lives and an upgraded triple jump. This is one of the few instances that Yoshi actually speaks normally like other characters.

Cultural impact

Critical reception

According to a poll listed on GameFAQs, Yoshi is the most popular Mario character.

Merchandise

Some of the Yoshi merchandise includes plush dolls, game cases, keychains, and many other items. Some of these items are collectibles, because most stores don't carry them.

External links

• Description of Yoshi