Yoshi (species)

Yoshi
Origin	Yoshi's Island
Type	Reptilian
Debut	Super Mario World

The Yoshi is a recurring type of creature within the Mario games and the Yoshi subseries. They have appeared as animal companions and non-playable characters in most Mario games and are featured as playable characters in Yoshi games. This includes one who is known only as Yoshi, which makes it difficult to distinguish appearances by Yoshi the character from generic members of the Yoshi species. Yoshis are known to come in a number of colors, with green being the most common.

Information

Yoshis are reptilian beings that are associated with some type of dinosaur or dragon. They also have amphibian features, such as a long and stretchy tongue. Yoshis often have a type of saddle-like feature on their backs, making them easy to ride by others. Yoshis can grab and consume almost any type of enemy using their tongue. Their other standard abilities, introduced in Yoshi's Island, include a flutter jump, a ground pound and the ability to turn consumed enemies into explosive eggs that can be thrown at enemies. In Super Mario World, Yoshis could gain additional special abilities based on any Koopa Shell they had in their mouths, and Yoshis of the same color could exhibit those abilities naturally. Those abilities included fire breath (red), heavy weight (yellow) and winged flight (blue). In the Yoshi games, certain items could also temporarily transform Yoshis into vehicles.

They themselves are hatched from eggs and start off as small infant forms. Depending on the game, they sometimes grow into their mature forms very quickly. In their first appearance in Super Mario World, it was a simple matter of feeding them enough enemies and objects. In New Super Mario Bros. U, several Baby Yoshis were featured that could not grow into their mature forms, but they each had unique abilities. Blue ones (known as Bubble Baby Yoshis) could spit bubbles that turned enemies into items or coins; yellow ones (known as Glowing Baby Yoshis) shined a light that could illuminate dark areas; and purple ones (known as Balloon Baby Yoshis) could inflate like balloons to lift a character through the air.

Yoshis have primarily been shown to live at Yoshi's Island (also known as Yo'ster Isle in the English localization of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars). Yoshis have also been found residing within the Mushroom Kingdom, and a tribe of Yoshis lived in Lavalava Island in Paper Mario. Very few Yoshis with unique names have appeared throughout the series, with a rare exception being Boshi from Super Mario RPG.

Appearances

This will only detail appearances by Yoshis other than the singular character Yoshi, which can be found detailed in his own entry.

Baby Era

In the games set during the time period when Mario and Bowser were babies, a tribe of Yoshis appeared in each game. In Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island as well as its follow-ups Yoshi's New Island and Yoshi's Island DS, a group of eight differently-colored Yoshis carried Baby Mario (as well as other babies in Yoshi's Island DS) through different levels in order to reunite him with his brother. In each world, the Yoshis took turns and passed the baby along to the new Yoshi at the end of each level, in the manner of the pony express. Yoshi's Island DS also added two more Yoshis (black and white) for unlockable levels. Within the storyline of Yoshi's Island DS, it was indicated that the seventh child born with a star piece was a Yoshi that was still in its egg. It is unclear if this referred to the a Yoshi from Yoshi's Story, the Yoshi character, both or neither. The Yoshi's Island tribe of Yoshis also appeared in Tetris Attack' and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. In the latter game, they helped to defeat the Yoob, a massive Shroob equivalent of the Yoshi.

Yoshi's Story featured a group of newly-hatched Yoshis who embarked on a quest to retrieve the Super Happy Tree from Baby Bowser, after he had stolen it and turned the island into a storybook. There were also two hidden ones: a black one and a white one. In Yoshi's Woolly World, most of the differently-colored Yoshis were turned into Wonder Wool by Kamek's spell. The green Yoshi had to embark on a quest to save them, and they could be knit back together by collecting all of their Wonder Wool, which unlocked them as playable characters. There were a total of ten possible Yoshis in that game. In Yoshi's Crafted World, a group of eight Yoshis went on a quest to retrieve the Dream Gems from the Sundream Stone before Baby Bowser and Kamek could. This one featured eight Yoshi colors (as in the Yoshi's Island games), and the player could choose which color to play as.

Modern Era

Yoshis originally appeared in Super Mario World. In addition to featuring Yoshi the character, there were three differently-colored Yoshis (Red, Yellow and Blue) that appeared only in the Star World. They hatched from eggs as babies and matured after being fed enough. Additionally, eight Yoshi Eggs were being held captive by the Koopalings and were saved by Mario throughout the game. In the game's ending, they hatched into differently-colored Yoshis. In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Steven Stars, several Yoshis were found on Yo'ster Isle, where they competed in races. In this game, Mario was only able to understand their language with Yoshi acting as his translator. This game also included a particularly pudgy Baby Yoshi who Mario could feed Yoshi Cookies to in exchange for items.

In Paper Mario, a tribe of Yoshis was found living on Lavalava Island. These included a group of mischievous children known as the Fearsome Five, who were babysat by a Cheep-Cheep named Sushie. A unique variant of Yoshis later appeared in Super Mario Sunshine. When a Yoshi egg was found, Mario could hatch it by feeding it fruit. When hatched, the Yoshi would take on a different color depending on the fruit, either pink (from bananas or coconuts), purple (from dorians or peppers) or orange (from papayas or pineapples). Yoshis could spit out juice that could transform enemies into temporary platforms, with the type of platforms differing depending on the Yoshi's color. The orange's juice made stationary platforms, while the pink and purple created platforms that traveled up and forward, respectively. Each Yoshi had a juice meter that could be replenished by eating fruit. When running out of juice, the Yoshi would turn green and disappear, and they would also disappear upon contact with water.

A different Yoshi appeared as a playable partner in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The Yoshi Kid hatched from an egg, and his name could be chosen by the player. His color and hair style were also dependent on the duration of time that passed between getting his egg and his hatching. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Yoshis were seen frequenting a movie theater in the Beanbean Kingdom known as the Yoshi Theater. After their aforementioned appearance in Partners in Time, Yoshis also made non-playable appearances in later Mario & Luigi games. Yoshis also made their only appearance as enemies at the Emerald Circus in Paper Mario: Color Splash, where they tried to eat Mario from behind curtains and would take one of his Cards if Mario did not block their tongues.

Yoshi was featured as a playable character in Super Mario 64 DS, and other players could control red, blue and yellow Yoshis in multiplayer mode. In this game, the Yoshis could transform into Mario, Luigi or Wario by wearing their caps. In New Super Mario Bros., they only appeared in minigames. Yoshis later made proper appearances as rideable characters in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. U. The former game included yellow, light blue and pink Yoshis, while the latter game only had green ones. New Super Mario Bros. U also featured the Baby Yoshis with special abilities. Yoshis of various colors (the standard green as well as blue, purple, yellow and red) could also be unlocked as playable characters in Super Mario Run. In Super Mario Maker and Super Mario Maker 2, Yoshis were available for courses made in the style of Super Mario World or New Super Mario Bros., behaving similarly as in their original games. The second game also made a fire-breathing Red Yoshi available.

Sports

The default green Yoshi has appeared as a regularly playable character throughout the spin-off games of the Mario series. Other colors of Yoshis have appeared far less frequently.

• Kart Racing - In Mario Kart 8, eight additional colors of Yoshi were available as DLC, and they were later included in the base game of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. In Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, Red and Black Yoshis were available as downloadable color swaps for Yoshi. In Mario Kart Tour, Red Yoshi was made available starting in January 2020, while Blue Yoshi was added in March 2021. Black and White Yoshis were only available during certain tours, starting with 20202 and 2020's respective Your Tours.
• Tennis - In Mario Tennis Open, seven other varieties of Yoshi were available as downloadable QR characters, and most of them had different playing types. Other Yoshi colors were also added as options for Yoshi in Mario Tennis Aces in an October 2018 update.
• Baseball - In Mario Super Sluggers, five different Yoshi colors could be unlocked as alternate team players.
• Other Sports - In Mario Sports Mix, three alternate colors (Light Blue, Yellow and Pink) can be unlocked.

Other colored Yoshis have also appeared as NPCs and spectators in some games. In Mario Party, different Yoshi's appeared at the Yoshi's Tropical Island board.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• In the Super Smash Bros. series, Yoshi appears as a playable character, and his alternate costumes include other colored varieties of Yoshis, with more being added throughout the series. A swarm of Yoshis was seen during the intro sequence of Super Smash Bros. Melee, and there was also a sticker for the eight Yoshis from Yoshi's Island (as well as a sticker of a blue Yoshi from Yoshi Touch & Go) in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Yoshi's Final Smash was "Stampede!", in which he summoned a stampede of different Yoshis to attack the enemy.
• In Fortune Street, Yoshis made background appearances at the Yoshi's Island board and were referred to as dragons by the Dragon Quest characters.

Trivia

• In the Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Advance remakes of Super Mario Bros. 3, the king of Pipe Maze was transformed into a green Yoshi by Ludwig von Koopa (replacing a Piranha Plant in the original game).