Yoshi

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Yoshi's current design reduces the size of his neck, resembling the baby Yoshies in Yoshi's Story. This design was first used in Mario Kart 64.

Yoshi (Japanese: ヨッシー [Yosshii] meaning "better or best") is a species of fictional dinosaur from various Nintendo video games and, more commonly, the name of a character who is a member of that species. Yoshies have very long, sticky tongues, and can swallow almost anything, even things that are much larger than they are. Almost everything they swallow is transformed into (or encased in) an egg, which they can throw as a weapon (or sometimes hatch into a baby yoshi). They prefer fruit, although they can and usually will eat other things, including living creatures. Even though they have teeth, they are rarely seen or used. While Yoshi himself is depicted in green, Yoshies in general have also been seen to exist with skin tones of various colors.

Yoshi was originally known as Super Dragon Yoshi in Japan, though he is not actually a dragon of any kind. He is Mario's dinosaur-like friend, first appearing in Super Mario World for the Super Famicom in his Japanese release. His North American and European debuts came on the SNES in Super Mario World. Yoshi was created by Shigefumi Hino, a graphics designer and the director of Pikmin. The reason he was created was that shortly after Shigeru Miyamoto finished Super Mario Bros., Nintendo's design staff wanted Mario to ride a dino.

Shortly after Super Mario World came out, there came an animated series, which followed up The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and featured Yoshi as a regular character. On this series, he was voiced by Andrew Sabiston, who would later provide Diddy Kong's voice in the Donkey Kong Country cartoon. The cartoon portrayed Yoshi to have the personality of a very young child, and as such, spoke like one, seeing how he was a very new character at the time the show came out. He was often afraid of many things that young children would be afraid of, such as ghosts and water (perhaps predating how the Yoshies featured in Super Mario Sunshine couldn't stand water). Interestingly, his design in the show changed 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 managed to appear in the Nintendo Adventure Books which were somewhat based on them. There, his dialogue consisted of words that rhymed with "orp", as he didn't speak English there like in the game or cartoon. He was also featured prominently in a series of comics based off of Super Mario World printed in Nintendo Power. There, his dialogue was mainly made up saying nothing but his name. (Incidentally, he ended up talking this way in most of every Mario game to come out since 1998.) According to these comics, Yoshi is the Chairman of the Dinosaur Chamber of Commerce.

Yoshi also appears in the much maligned Super Mario Bros. movie. Instead of his traditional representation, Yoshi took the form of a realistic animatronic dinosaur, looking very much like a smaller version of Jurassic Park's Velociraptors.

Mario can ride Yoshi in Super Mario World.

After that he gained popularity, starring in two more adventure games, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story; and three puzzle games: Yoshi's Cookie, the simply-titled Yoshi, and Tetris Attack. He can also be found in Mario Is Missing! and a few other games.

He is one of the characters in the original Nintendo 64 Super Smash Bros., and the GameCube sequel Super Smash Bros. Melee. Yoshi made a cameo in Super Mario 64, and was playable in Super Mario Sunshine. A baby Yoshi was obtainable as a partner in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which could be named anything you wanted, and he was colored differently depending on how you battled. He is a full blown playable character in Super Mario 64 DS on the Nintendo DS.

Yoshi has attained a popularity almost as great as that of Mario himself. He and his fellow Yoshies appear with many different skin colors, including blue, brown, green, light blue, orange, pink, purple, red, yellow, black, and white. The black and white Yoshies are rare, while green is the standard color. In Yoshi's Story, all but the black and white Yoshies dislike the taste of chilli peppers. They also could do a variety of sounds. The king in the castle of World 7 in Super Mario Bros. 3 was transformed into a Yoshi by Ludwig Von Koopa on the Super Mario All-Stars SNES version, but he was transformed into a Piranha Plant on the original NES version. Yoshies inhabit many areas of the world from the Mushroom Kingdom to Isle Delfino, and most are, for some reason, supposedly named Yoshi (similar to the Mr. Saturns of EarthBound). During the localization of Panel de Pon for the U.S., where 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. It is speculated that NOA did this because the Pon characters were considered too effeminate for the primarily male US video game audience. Because of these changes, the game is sometimes referred to as "Tetris A-Hack." Super Smash Bros. Melee has an item called Lip's Stick, which is named after the Pon main character.

Yoshi in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Yoshi's appearances in video games, usually sports, often portray him as an agile character. In Mario Kart games, Yoshi has very good acceleration, but is most likely to skid off the track. In Mario Tennis and Mario Power Tennis, he is a very fast tennis player. Yoshi is the only character without a third jump attack in the Super Smash Bros. series, and his trademark move is the swallow (originally seen in Super Mario World). His upward special move was throwing eggs. Yoshi's "egg-rolling" move was introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Yoshi also made a few cameo appearances in the Legend of Zelda series, specifically in Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (alongside Mario). In the former game, he appeared as a doll item that Link must bring to a baby at the first town in Koholint Island. In the latter game, he was seen in a portrait hung in Hyrule Castle, next to the painting of Mario, in a room that is not accessible to the player and located near the room where Link meets Zelda.

It is highly likely that the Japanese name for Yoshi (ヨッシー, in IPA) was intended to rhyme with the Japanese pronunciation for another dinosaur-like creature, Nessie (ネッシー, ).

Super Mario Advance 3 turned Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island into a Game Boy Advance game with six newly added levels.

One track in each Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (for GameCube) and Mario Kart DS for the Nintendo DS are shaped like Yoshies.