Yoshi

Yoshi (ヨッシー) is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. His debut was in Super Mario World (1990) on the SNES as Mario and Luigi's accomplice (a role he has often reprised), and he later established his own series with several platform and puzzle games, including Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Story. He has also appeared in many of the spin-off Mario games, such as the Mario Party, the Mario Kart, and the Super Smash Bros. series, as well as in other various Mario sports titles. Yoshi also appears in New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009) as the characters' accomplice, similar to his original debut role in Super Mario World. Like several other characters in the Mario series, Yoshi is named after some Japanese names (Ex: YOSHIkima, KyYOSHI, etc.) . Yoshis come in many different colors, though his original and most common color is green. Yoshi's latest appearance is in Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010).


Yoshi's trademarks are his long sticky tongue, his green-spotted eggs, his speech, and his jump. Yoshis can come in a variety of colors, though the most prominently featured Yoshis are almost always green. The character's debut appearance in Super Mario World featured blue, red, and yellow variations. Later games included additional colors such as pink, black, and orange. In Super Mario World for the SNES, different colors of Yoshi had different abilities, such as fire-breathing and flying, with red Yoshis breathing fire whenever they ate a Koopa Shell, blue flying, and yellow shooting a deadly dust storm out of their feet. Yoshis are often shown living in villages with a few wooden constructions. Their social structure is developed and organized, as they are shown living together in settlements, having meetings and working together. Yoshi has many different abilities which are useful whenever Mario or another hero is riding him. Yoshi's special jump, called the flutter jump (first introduced in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island), allows him to wave his arms and legs in the air to stay afloat, making his jumps longer and higher. His long tongue allows him to swallow many things (particularly small enemies) and use them to lay eggs which he can throw at targets to complete puzzles. If he eats something that is too big to swallow, such as a Koopa shell, he can spit it out. In Super Mario Galaxy 2, his tongue has further uses, such as pulling handles or swinging in midair. Yoshi can eat one of three special fruits to give him a special ability (represented by a temporary color change): a blue fruit that allows him to blow air to fly upwards; a red fruit that causes him to run fast and scale up walls; and a yellow fruit that causes him to glow, lighting platforms that are only tangible when visible.


Yoshi is one of the more recognizable characters in the Mario series. Yoshi is also featured heavily in Mario merchandise; he is the subject of toys, shirts, and figures. Yoshi also appeared in two of the McDonald's Happy Meal promotions of Mario toys which only starred Mario, Donkey Kong, and Yoshi himself. In a poll conducted in 2008, Yoshi was voted as the third-favorite video game character in Japan, with Cloud Strife and Mario placing second and first, respectively. Gametrailers has created a special tribute video for Yoshi for the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2.