Yoshi (character)

Yoshi is a video game character introduced in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game Super Mario World. There are multiple different members of the Yoshi species that are known as Yoshi (they'll all be listed here). He initially appeared as a steed upon which Mario or Luigi would ride, though ultimately would arise in more prominent roles with the release of such games as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Island DS, and others, though would at the same time retain his inceptive role in games like Super Mario Sunshine, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Yoshi is the name of both a species and a distinguished character of the species. In the games, it is common for the developers to omit the information needed to determine whether or not it is the "main" Yoshi or just a random member of the species.

NES to SNES generation
Yoshis were first introduced in the SNES classic Super Mario World. Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto had wanted to implement a steed for Mario to ride since the original Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System, though the technical limitations of the hardware prevented them from doing this. With the arrival of the NES's successor, they still faced various problems when attempting to include the character. Satoru Iwata explained that they chose Yoshi to be a dinosaur purely from a functional point of view because of the limited amount of sprites that were able to be displayed at once, and that Yoshi as a dinosaur took advantage of this because of his shape. He explained that viewing the blueprints for the game, you come to see why Miyamoto decided to make Yoshi a dinosaur, because simply it lowered the amount of sprites that were needed when overlapping Yoshi and Mario or Luigi. In Super Mario World, Shigefumi Hino (known today as the director of the Pikmin games) designed Yoshi, and was even credited as creating him in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

In Super Mario World, Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach went to Dinosaur Island for a picnic after finishing a long and tiresome quest. Upon arrival they meet the dinosaurs known as Yoshis though after going on a stroll, Mario and Luigi arrive to find that the princess had been kidnapped. After going to a fairly unimpressive house built by a Yoshi, they learn that all but one of the Yoshis had been encased in eggs by Bowser, and that the sole Yoshi that wasn't captive went out to save them. Mario and Luigi immediately departed to save the beloved princess and the rest of the Yoshis, and would quickly learn of the species' unique abilities, which included eating nearly every creature and possessing various special abilities depending on the color of the Yoshi. Blue Yoshis were granted with the gift of flight, red Yoshis could spew fire from their mouths, and yellow Yoshis could generate earthquakes on the ground, though only if they had a Koopa Shell in their mouths, or if they found a special item that allowed them to execute on their special ability.

In the introductory stages of the game, Mario and Luigi were only given access to green Yoshis. As they visited other worlds, however, they would find the blue, red and yellow Yoshis and infants. Mario and Luigi could then pick them up and give them food to eat by going near an enemy or a Star. Eventually they would reach maturity and after completing the level they would then be available in ? Blocks. When riding on a Yoshi, Mario or Luigi is given an extra bit of health since, if hit by an enemy, Yoshi and either one of the brothers will depart and the brother will go untouched. Yoshi will frantically start to run around, and the player can then choose to either go back on the Yoshi or let it go. It should also be noted that if riding on a Yoshi, the player may find themselves failing to make a jump. If this is the case, they can jump off of Yoshi, giving them an extra boost, though this will ultimately result in the death of the Yoshi as it plummets down the gap. Yoshis cannot enter castles or Ghost Houses in Super Mario World. In the beta game, it was revealed that there would be more areas where Yoshis were prohibited (marked by a sign), though these were eventually removed from the game.

While being derived from Super Mario World, Yoshi chronologically first appeared in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on the SNES. A vast departure from the normal Mario games, this is typically considered the game that started the Yoshi series despite appearing in a multitude of major roles prior to this title. It takes place during the moment when the Stork was bringing Mario and Luigi to their parents. Soaring in the sky, the stork is struck by Kamek who foresees what the two brothers plan to do to Bowser's untenable plans for destruction. Kamek nabs Luigi, though Mario falls from his grasp and falls from the sky to be claimed by the sea. Instead of dropping in the sea, however, he falls on Yoshi's Island and is saved by a Yoshi. Sensing that the brother is searching for a twin sibling, the Yoshi clan decides to depart and reunite the two and bring them to their parents. On their adventure they encounter a variety of colossal beasts that were enlarged by Kamek's magical powers. In the end the two are united once more and are brought to their awaiting parents.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was, like Super Mario World, directed by Takashi Tezuka, who had said in an interview with Nintendo Power that he most relates to Yoshi because Yoshi's Island was his debut as a game producer. Shigeru Miyamoto also produced the game, and decided upon the game's visual design. Nintendo had pressed Miyamoto to make the game's visuals similar to those of Donkey Kong Country's, which had become the best selling non-pack in game on the system. Miyamoto wasn't particularly fond of the title, though, and instead implemented a unique graphical style that looked as if it was hand drawn by crayons and pastels. Miyamoto was given the go ahead after presenting an example to Nintendo. Yoshi's Island would become the first of many games that took place before the Mario brother's adventures as adults.

The two titles above wouldn't be Yoshi's only appearance during the SNES era. He would even appear in two NES games including one titled Yoshi and another called Yoshi's Cookie, both puzzle spin-off titles. After garnering an insurmountable level of success due to Super Mario World, Yoshi would even star in the Mario spin-off Super Mario Kart, the first in the Mario Kart series, as a playable character along with seven others. Later on in the SNES's life Yoshi would appear in a Super Scope game titled Yoshi's Safari, and the Square developed role-playing game Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, where the Yoshi was introduced to a temporary rival named Boshi who, in the end, became a friendly character after losing to Yoshi in a race.

Nintendo 64 generation
Nintendo would discontinue supporting the SNES and would move on to their next console, the Nintendo 64. With improved graphics and a revolutionary control scheme, it was surprising that the Nintendo 64 became the least successful Nintendo console yet. Nintendo's previous failure, the Virtual Boy (note: the only game Yoshi appeared on the Virtual Boy was Mario's Tennis), had taught Nintendo many lessons, and they didn't plan to make the same mistakes this time around. Shigeru Miyamoto directed the first game on the Nintendo 64, known as Super Mario 64. Yoshi didn't play a prominent role in the game, though after collecting 120 stars, Mario could be launched to the top of Princess Peach's Castle where Yoshi would award the character with an astonishing amount of 1-Ups and a message with an infamous grammatical error. It should be noted that this was the only Miyamoto-directed game in which Yoshi appeared (sans The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in which an image of Yoshi could be seen in Hyrule Castle along with a few other Mario characters). While making Super Mario 64, another team at Nintendo was working on Yoshi's Story, which in its earliest form was known as Yoshi's Island 64. Yoshi's Story was the first game that gave Yoshi a voice, which was done by Kazumi Totaka, a famous Nintendo composer and the director of Wii Music (as well as the inspiration for K.K. Slider of Animal Crossing fame). The game would bare many similarities with Yoshi's Island. For one, the game would star Yoshi instead of Mario, and he would preserve many of the same abilities that he had acquired in that game such as flutter jumping and the ability to toss eggs that were generated by devouring enemies. The game also had a plethora of different Yoshi colors, and introduced the famous black and white Yoshis which would prove challenging to find. The game was criticized by many for being too easy and too short, though nevertheless remained a popular and advantageous game. The game, like Yoshi's Island, took place long ago. Though not featuring Mario or Luigi, it did have Baby Bowser. He stole the Super Happy Tree from Yoshi's Island which made everything gloomy. Six young Yoshis that had just hatched from their eggs decided to reclaim their tree and in the process take down Bowser. They did so, with the help of two other Yoshis, the white and the black Yoshi, and in the end everything went back to the way it was.

Yoshi wouldn't be bounded by just two titles during this era, however. Yoshi would be one of the twelve characters present (and eight default characters) in the Nintendo 64 smash hit Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. In Super Mario Kart's sequel Mario Kart 64, Yoshi would once again appear as a playable character. He was also present in the Camelot developed Mario spin off games Mario Tennis and Mario Golf, both for the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. In the Intelligent Systems video game Paper Mario, Mario would travel to an island the contained a Yoshi village. Yoshi was also a playable character in Mario Party, Mario Party 2, and Mario Party 3. By now Yoshi had become one of Nintendo's best known characters. In Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, a remake of the original NES classic for the Game Boy Color, players could traverse the worlds of the game in search of Yoshi Eggs, and would eventually even be greeted by a Yoshi in the title as well.

GameCube and Game Boy Advance generation
After the phenomenal success of the Game Boy/Game Boy Color, Nintendo made the next true advancement in the franchise by developing its successor the Game Boy Advance. A new design, greater graphics and the implementation of shoulder buttons are among the most impressive enhancements made to the system. Among the launch window games were Super Mario Advance and Mario Kart: Super Circuit. In Super Mario Advance, a remake of Super Mario Bros. 2 (Western version), the player could, as in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, find Yoshi Eggs in the game's multiple levels. Yoshi was a playable character in the other game, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, as he had been in the series' previous iterations. In the game there was a level that took place in a desert that had Yoshi sphinxes. Shortly after the Game Boy Advance was released, Nintendo went on to introduce the GameCube to retailers in Japan. The system was released on September 14th, 2001, three days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people, resulting in poor sales. Ultimately the GameCube would go on to become the worst selling major Nintendo console of all time, though nevertheless it contained its fair share of games with Yoshi. The first game with the character was Super Smash Bros. Melee, the successor to Super Smash Bros. which was released on the Nintendo 64 a couple years prior. Yoshi would then go onto appear in a brand new 3D Mario platformer for the GameCube titled Super Mario Sunshine. This would be his first appearance in a 3D Mario platformer as a playable character (he previously appeared in Super Mario 64, though wasn't playable). In Super Mario Sunshine, Mario, Princess Peach, Toadsworth, and a bunch of Toads travel to Isle Delfino for a vacation, though Mario is soon accused of vandalizing the island, so must clean up all the goop. It is eventually revealed that Bowser and his son Bowser Jr. are the true culprits. Bowser Jr., using a magical paintbrush, disguised himself as Mario and was known as Shadow Mario in the game. Eventually Shadow Mario finds a Yoshi Egg and starts running around the island with it clutched in his hands. Mario saves the egg and places a piece of fruit next to it, which immediately causes a Yoshi to pop out. Yoshi can eat enemies, bringing them in with his tongue, flutter jump, ground pound and eject fluids from his mouth. Fluids can be refilled by finding more fruit around the island. In the end of the game, partially with the help of Yoshi, Mario saves Delfino Island and reveals who was truly behind the mess.

Back on the Game Boy Advance front, Yoshi would appear in a variety of Super Mario SNES remakes and in a ton of Mario spin offs. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the system, there was a location in the Beanbean Kingdom called the Yoshi Theater where Yoshis would congregate. Mario and Luigi would unite to feed the hungry Yoshis, who would afterwards help them on their quest. In Mario Pinball Land for the GBA, one of the items the players could use as a pinball as a Yoshi Egg. Yoshi appeared as a playable character in various spin-offs for both the Game Boy Advance and the GameCube. Near the end of the Game Boy Advance's life, a developer named Artoon created a new Yoshi title called Yoshi Topsy Turvy that used similar technology that was implemented in WarioWare: Twisted!, though was extremely poorly received by critics. In the game, Yoshi would be given the power of turning the world which would be done by moving the Game Boy Advance from left to right. While this was certainly not Yoshi's high point, Nintendo would breath life into the series once more with the Nintendo DS.

Wii and Nintendo DS generation
On the handheld front Nintendo was doing fantastic, and was ready to launch the Nintendo DS, a unique handheld with two screens, the lower of which was a touch screen that could be controlled with the stylus. The major launch title on the system was Super Mario 64 DS, a remake of Super Mario 64 with thirty new stars to collect, a bunch of minigames, enhanced graphics and three new playable characters. One of those playable characters was Yoshi, who was actually the first character the player took control of in the game. In the beginning of the game, Princess Peach invites Mario, Luigi, and Wario to her castle for cake, though they once they enter the castle they don't come back out. A Lakitu informs Yoshi of this and suggests that he goes and see what the problem is, and he soon finds that Bowser has trapped all of the characters in paintings. The first of the characters he rescues is Mario, whom he saves from a giant Goomba. After all three characters are saved, the four unite to take down the antagonist and save Princess Peach. The game is simply a retelling of the original classic. A few months after the release of Super Mario 64 DS, the team responsible for the Super Mario Advance games created Yoshi Touch & Go, which is a retelling of the Yoshi's Island game that is controlled completely with the touch screen and the system's microphone. In the first portion of the game, Baby Mario is dropping from the sky and the player must draw clouds in order to bring him to safety. The second portion of the game involves Yoshi attempting to bring him as far across the world as possible, though it is ultimately impossible to complete the game. The goal is to simply get as high a score as possible. The color of Yoshi you get depends on how many points you mustered up while bringing Baby Mario safely to the ground. After the release of this game, Yoshi would appear in a few spin-offs such as Mario Kart DS, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and others. In 2006 Artoon would attempt to create another Yoshi game, though this time they were greeted with a lot more critical and commercial success, perhaps due to Nintendo sending down Takashi Tezuka to oversea the project. The game, titled Yoshi's Island DS, was a direct sequel to the original Yoshi's Island. In it, Kamek would order his minions to go across the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnap every baby. They did so, and Yoshi would enlist the help of infant versions of Mario, Princess Peach, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser and would rescue all of the babies, take down Kamek and in the end the adult version of Bowser who traveled through time.

With the release of Wii in 2006 it would be a long while until Yoshi would find a major role. He would appear in spin-offs, and would make negligible appearances in Super Mario Galaxy as an avatar (there was also planets in the shape of Yoshi's head and egg), but it wouldn't be until 2009 would Yoshi really make it big on the console. At E3 in 2009, Nintendo announced two new Mario platformers for the Wii including New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Both games were announced to have Yoshi as a partner to the main characters. Yoshi would once again serve as the steed and sidekick as he did long ago in Super Mario World (and more recently Super Mario Sunshine). In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a multiplayer game, all of the characters can find Yoshis in ? Blocks and ride on them throughout the stages. Since the game is both cooperative and competitive, Yoshi can hinder and help the other players (an example of the former is evident when players eat the other characters with Yoshi). In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mario finds Yoshis in eggs. The Yoshis can gain new abilities by eating fruit. The new abilities include being able to go incredibly fast, being able to puff up as a balloon, and being able to light up to uncover new paths. Yoshi can also grapple onto objects with his tongue in this game.

Mario Kart series
Yoshi has appeared in every single Mario Kart game to date as a playable character. The list of Mario Kart games include Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart: Double Dash‼, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Arcade GP, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart Arcade GP 2. He is generally depicted as a light weight or medium weighted character. In the original game, he was the heaviest of the light weight characters though had the same statistics as Princess Peach. The CPU Yoshis would have an exclusive ability to throw Yoshi Eggs. In this game, he had good speed and acceleration, though poor steering.

In Mario Kart 64, he was once again the heaviest of the light weight characters. He was able to jump the highest in the game and had an updated appearance. In Mario Kart: Super Circuit he was among the characters with the highest speed and acceleration, and could drive over dirt better than any of the other characters in the game. Mario Kart: Double Dash‼ was the first game in which Yoshi was a medium weight character. Birdo was his official partner in this game and the Turbo Yoshi was his official kart. His exclusive item was a Yoshi Egg. In Mario Kart Arcade GP Yoshi had items that could make him invincible, a rolling Yoshi Egg, a whacking fan, and he could also use his sticky tongue.

In Mario Kart DS, Yoshi was a light character again and his karts included the Cucumber, the Standard YS, and the Egg 1. The Egg 1 is notable as being one of the first karts that the technique snaking was mastered with. In Mario Kart Wii Yoshi is a medium weighted character as he was in Double Dash!!. Most recently Yoshi appeared in the Japanese exclusive game Mario Kart Arcade GP 2.

Other appearances
Yoshi has appeared in many more Mario spin-offs, most commonly the sports and Party games. In the Mario Tennis series, Yoshi is usually one of the fastest characters of the bunch. As of yet, he has appeared in nearly every Mario Tennis game excluding Mario Tennis: Power Tour for the Game Boy Advance, but even then he makes a minor cameo appearance when linking. He shares a similar role in the Mario Golf series, and has appeared in every game in the series. In Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, there's a monument resembling Mount Rushmore that contains Mario characters, one of them being Yoshi. Other sports games Yoshi has appeared in include Mario Hoops: 3-on-3 by Square Enix (Yoshi also appeared in the Square Enix developed game Itadaki Street DS as a playable character), Super Mario Strikers and its sequel Mario Strikers Charged, Mario Superstar Baseball and its sequel Mario Super Sluggers, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and its sequel Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. So far, Yoshis have appeared in a majority of the Mario role-playing games. In the original, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars by Square Enix, Mario would find a village of Yoshis on Yo'ster Isle, a secret island found by traveling through a pipe maze. The Yoshis on this island are very fond of racing, though Boshi is a bully that antagonizes the other Yoshis on the island. With the help of Mario, the Yoshis finally manage to beat Boshi who in the end acts the way he should. In Paper Mario, there would be yet another village that Yoshis inhabited. In this game, Mario would have to save five younger Yoshis that went missing and return them to their village.

In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Yoshis could be found in a theater made just for them, and during the course of the game Mario and Luigi would have to feed the hungry Yoshis in order to progress. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario would gain a younger Yoshi as a team member. The two would become good friends and as a special attack he could summon a herd of hundreds of Yoshis to stampede and crush the opposing team. An adult green Yoshi could also be found on the Excess Express later on in the game who is annoyed that he has to ride the train when he should be back home with his new bride. In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Mario and Luigi would travel to Yoshi's Island in the past and save the Yoshis from a colossal Yoshi created by the Shroobs named Yoob that had gobbled all of the Yoshis up. During the boss battle inside Yoob's body, the Yoshis assist the brothers in taking down the enemy.

Yoshi has appeared in every Game & Watch Gallery game excluding the European exclusive title Game Boy Gallery (which some don't consider part of the series since no Mario characters were present in it). Yoshi appears exclusively in the remakes of Game & Watch games in which the developer deemed him appropriate. For example, in the game Vermin, the character must protect his possessions from moles. In the remake, you control Yoshi and bash enemies trying to destroy Yoshi's eggs. Yoshi appears in a variety of the games in each iteration of the series, which includes Game & Watch Gallery, Game & Watch Gallery 2, Game & Watch Gallery 3, and Game & Watch Gallery 4.

Other media

 * In the Super Mario Bros. Movie, Yoshi is portrayed as a small dinosaur who is the pet of King Koopa. Daisy becomes friends with it, though in the film he doesn't play a major role.
 * Yoshi was portrayed by Andrew Sabiston in the Super Mario World television series.
 * Yoshi appeared in the Super Mario Adventures and Club Nintendo comics.
 * Yoshi appeared in a sketch done by Robot Chicken in which he travels to Raccoon City, which he proclaims "sounds lovely". Shortly after arriving he is devoured by zombies. Raccoon City is one of the major locations of the Resident Evil series.
 * Yoshi has graced the cover of many publications including Nintendo Power, Electronic Gaming Monthly, Edge, Game Informer, and others. He has also been mentioned various times on television channels such as G4-TV.

Super Smash Bros. series
Yoshi is a recurring character in the Super Smash Bros. series. He first appeared in Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, where most of his primary attacks from previous titles were executable. He entered every fight by popping out of an egg. He is a unique character in that he is fast, yet heavy and strong at the same time. Because of his outstanding jumping ability, the developers decided to rid Yoshi of a third jump in the first two titles, though gave him one in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. As previously mentioned, his special moves come mostly from previous Mario and Yoshi titles. His standard special move, Egg Lay, is easily one of his most popular abilities, which is to devour his opponents and turn them into an egg for a short time. His up ability causes him to thrust an egg, something he can perform in multiple titles following Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. They made his down special attack a ground pound, as Yoshi is noted as being the first character who ever performed the attack.

His taunt causes him to look forward and say a little chant, while at the same time waving both of his arms into the air. Interestingly, he did this in Yoshi's Story after finding a special item buried in the ground.

His final smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl will cause him to sprout wings and fly around the stage, spewing fire balls toward your opponents. He was capable of conducting such an attack separately in Super Mario World when a specific colored Yoshi came in possession of a Koopa Troopa shell.

Trophy descriptions
Classic (Melee)
 * "Yoshis are gentle, fleet-of-foot dinosaurs that make their home on idyllic Yoshi's Island. They come in a variety of colors and have evolved an interesting trait to help increase their numbers: they can transform anything they swallow into an egg. With adhesive tongues and bottomless bellies, Yoshis have been known to eat anything."

Adventure (Melee)
 * "To make up for his lack of powerful airborne attacks, Yoshi has a miraculous jumping ability and is resistant to damage while in the air. Yoshi can also swallow a foe and transform him or her into an egg: try doing this close to an edge! The speed and power of the Egg Roll increases if you hold down the B Button, but it'll be tougher to control."

All-Star (Melee)
 * "Yoshi has no third jump, so the timing of his second jump is of vital importance. The angle and distance of his Egg Throw can be altered by how you tilt the Control Stick and how long you press the B Button. When Yoshi lands after doing his Yoshi Bomb, stars appear on either side of him, making it hard for enemies to deliver counterattacks."

Mario and Yoshi (Melee)
 * "Yoshi was first introduced in Super Mario World, and the sight of Mario riding the helpful character soon became an enduring image. Despite his Cape, Mario can't fly while astride Yoshi. The pair can make huge jumps and drift slowly back to earth, though. As a last resort, Mario could leap off Yoshi's back to safety."

Yoshi (Brawl)
 * "A creature that hails from Yoshi's Island. Yoshis come in a variety of colors, and all possess gentle personalities. No matter what problems they face, they always look like they're having fun. Yoshis use their long tongues to grab and swallow fruit and enemies. They can convert what they swallow into eggs, which they then lay. They also give Mario rides."

Super Dragon (Brawl)
 * "Yoshi with wings on his back that give him the power to fly freely across the sky. In this state, he can spew giant fireballs. He is more mobile and powerful, but the inertia makes movement quirky, so it takes some skill to master flight. Yoshi returns to a normal state after a set period of time has passed."

Cameos
After becoming a star in Super Mario World, the team behind The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the Game Boy created a Yoshi Doll item in the game that was used as part of an elaborate trading system. In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a portrait of Yoshi (along with Mario, Bowser, Luigi, and Princess Peach) could be seen when you looked inside the windows of Hyrule Castle in the flower garden where Link first meets Princess Zelda. It should be noted that the Zelda series has made one cameo in the Yoshi series. In Yoshi's Story, the word "Zelda" is seen along with various other words in the background of a few stages.

In Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube (a remake of the original PlayStation classic), a doll of Yoshi and a doll of Mario can be found on Otacon's desk. If the player makes Snake shoot the Yoshi doll, it'll emit a "YOSHI!" sound. In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Yoshi was one of the three heroes according to Cranky Kong. He was placed second, while Link was third and Mario was first. Diddy Kong, if he found enough special coins, could take the places of all of the characters.

Appearance
Yoshi is a dinosaur whose appearance changes depending on the game and game series. In his first appearance Yoshi had a long neck, droopy eyes and a small head and feet. With Yoshi's Island, he was given a more "cuter" look which was appropriate for what they were going for. They gave him a much bigger head, bigger shoes, and a shorter neck as well as wide eyes. With the onslaught of 3D gaming came a need to update Yoshi's appearance again, and they did so for games in which he has that type of appearance. In the Yoshi's Island series, however, or at least in most of the games within the series, he contains his appearance he had from the original Super Mario World 2 game.

Currently Yoshi has two prominent appearances. In the Yoshi series, he embodies a cartoonish, pastel looking design that was done deliberately to look different from the 3D designs of Donkey Kong Country. The look became popular enough and is used commonly for the Yoshi's Island series save for Yoshi's Story. Yoshi had a very round appearance in the Nintendo 64 games - a lot of his features including his nose, eyes, fingers, feet and body were very round, though he was given a much more modern appearance with the release of Super Mario Sunshine.

Abilities
Yoshi has a wide variety of powers and abilities that range from unique forms of projectiles to incredible jumps. Super Mario World introduced a moderate amount of popular Yoshi abilities, though unarguably Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was mainly the game that established a majority of Yoshi's powers.

It's customary for a Nintendo character to have an attack or ability that he or she is inevitability known for. Yoshi has a copious amount of these tremendous abilities that contribute extensively to the gameplay. When you execute his sticky tongue power, he'll launch out his tongue. If it grasps onto anything in particular such as an item or an enemy, then he'll bring it back in and swallow it whole. This will then cause him to eject an egg that can be used as a projectile. One of the strangest though nevertheless most beloved abilities that any Nintendo character can perform. This partly originated from Super Mario World though was expanded upon in Yoshi's Island. Another trademark ability is his flutter jump, which will cause him to essentially glide in the air for a short time. This ability of his allows him to jump even farther than that which Mario is known for, and this can be visible in the multiple games that he's appeared in. Yoshi is generally considered the character that made the ground pound popular.

In various games Yoshi can transform into different objects. This was touched upon in Super Mario World when Yoshi sprouted wings and transformed into an adult very rapidly, though was explored more fully in Yoshi's Island, a game in which he could transform into a helicopter, submarine, mole tank, car, and train. Nintendo had planned to also include a tree, mushroom, and plane transformation, but ultimately it was removed. In Super Mario 64 DS, Yoshi could grow substantially when a Super Mushroom is acquired. In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Yoshi can puff up like a balloon and travel at top speeds when a specially colored fruit is eaten.

Speech
Most of the time, Yoshi simply says his name and various sound effects. On rare occurrences, Yoshi has been seen communicating with other characters. In Super Mario World he gives his thanks to Mario and explains that Bowser trapped him in the egg (unusual, as Yoshis would later be revealed to naturally hatch from those eggs). In the corresponding cartoon, Yoshi would be given a speaking part. A young Yoshi would speak in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, where he is made the partner of Mario and communicates with him constantly, referring to him by his nickname at the Glitz Pit, The Great Gonzales, having not been given Mario's real name. In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, he acts as the interpreter for his species. The Yoshis can communicate with Mario in Paper Mario, and in Super Mario 64 he talks to Mario after he collects 120 stars and goes on top of Peach's castle saying "Mario, it [sic] that really you?" When Nintendo re-released the game on the Virtual Console, they corrected this.

Trivia

 * While Yoshi is referred to as a 'he', his ability to lay eggs would, ordinarily, strongly suggest otherwise. Another reason would be that Yoshi eggs are typically used for weapons and to trap enemies after engulfing them. It could be understood that most eggs are this way and the eggs that Yoshis hatch from are laid by the female.
 * Though Yoshi does not appear in Super Paper Mario, there is a rock shaped like him in one of the areas. It should also be noted that among the hundreds of cards available in the game, the young Yoshi from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is one of them.
 * In Super Mario Galaxy, Yoshi's head appears after feeding a pink Luma a certain number of Star Bits on one occasion
 * Yoshi was originally going to be a Koopa according to the Super Mario All Stars 25th anniversary book.