Yoshi

"Hoo-yahoo! I'm flying home!"

- Yoshi

T. Yoshisaur Munchackoopas, simply known as Yoshi, is an ally to Mario, and is the main protagonist of his own series as well as Super Mario 64 DS. Yoshi was playable in every Mario spin-off game and first appeared in Super Mario World for the SNES. He was also playable in every Super Smash Bros game to date. He is Mario's best friend and sidekick.

He is voiced by Kazumi Totaka, who also voices Professor E. Gadd and King Boo.

Physical appearance
Yoshi is a little green dinosaur, first of all he has green skin, his chest, stomach and mouth are white in color, Yoshi has red hair, big blue eyes, on his back he has a red saddle that can be used for ride him. He wears orange shoes with yellow bottoms. In some rare cases, Yoshi is without shoes; when he is barefooted, he reveals he has padded feet.

Origins
Shigeru Miyamoto stated that Nintendo had wanted Mario to have a dinosaur companion ever since Super Mario Bros.; however, it was not possible because of the limitations of the NES. During the development of Super Mario Bros. 3, Miyamoto had a number of sketches around his desk, including an image of Mario riding a dinosaur. Takashi Tezuka, a Mario series developer, speculated that Miyamoto's love of horse riding as well as country and western influenced Yoshi's creation. The concept of Mario riding a dinosaur also came from the NES video game Excitebike, which featured people riding motorcycles. He again wanted to feature Yoshi in Super Mario Bros. 3, but was still unable to.

Tezuka designed two power-ups to make up for this limitation, the raccoon and frog power-ups. Once the more powerful Super NES was released, Miyamoto was finally able to implement Yoshi into the series, putting him into the video game Super Mario World. Yoshi proved to be popular in his debut, which caused the next game in the series, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, to focus on his species.

The version of Yoshi seen in the Super Mario Bros. film was made using a 3-foot-tall (0.91 m) animatronic dinosaur. He was designed in the film by Dave Nelson. It had nearly 200 feet of cable and hundreds of moving parts inside of it, and was controlled by nine puppeteers. The body is cable-controlled, while the head is radio-controlled. Nelson described the overall process as being "difficult." The creation of Yoshi was handled by a company independent from the filmmakers.

Characteristics
Yoshi has a variety of abilities that render him unique amongst other characters in the Mario series. He has a prehensile tongue that can extend a surprising distance, allowing him to eat almost anything; anything that can't be eaten can be spit out at enemies. In some games the tongue can also be used as a grappling hook to pull objects or access otherwise out-of-reach areas. Yoshi is also capable of laying distinctive spotted eggs after swallowing objects, which can then be thrown at enemies or objects; eggs are in fact the primary "logo" of Yoshi in multiplayer games. Yoshi is also capable of forming an egg around himself and rolling around. By rapidly flapping his arms and legs, Yoshi can hover in midair or even gain height (depending on the game), this "flutter jump" makes difficult jumps much easier to accomplish. Yoshi is also a heavy user of the ground pound, dropping from the air onto targets. Yoshi's large nose allows him to detect hidden collectibles by smell, and aside from kicks and tail whips, is Yoshi's main instrument of close-range combat.

Yoshis come in a variety of colours, including green, red, blue, yellow, cyan, pink, purple, black, white, orange, and brown. In some games the colour of a Yoshi provides additional abilities: in Super Mario World, Red Yoshis can breathe fire, Blue Yoshis have wings, and Yellow Yoshis produce damaging dust clouds on landing. In other games, eating fruit changes a Yoshi's colour and provides an ability; Yoshis in Super Mario Sunshine can spit fruit juice to defeat enemies and create platforms, while those in Super Mario Galaxy 2 can use fruit to gain super speed, inflate like a balloon, or produce a platform-enabling glow. Yoshis of various colours appear often in multiplayer games as alternate choices, which may or may not have tweaked stats.

Another one of Yoshi's characteristics is the sounds he makes. In most games up to and including Mario Party 3, his vocals consist of record-scratching noises for positive interactions and whistling noises for negative interactions. In Yoshi's Story, Super Smash Bros., Mario Tennis, and almost every game since Super Smash Bros. Melee, his vocals consist of high-pitched baby-ish squeals backed with numerous unintelligible words and his own name. Because his name is one of his vocalizations, it is a common misconception that he talks by repeating it numerous times.

In Super Mario World, Super Mario Sunshine, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Super Mario Galaxy 2, bongos (or other appropriate percussion instruments) are added to the level's background music whenever a player rides Yoshi. While being ridden, Yoshi acts as an extra hit point; taking damage will cause Yoshi to panic and run around haphazardly until remounted.

Appearances
Yoshi made his debut in Super Mario World as a native dinosaur that Mario or Luigi could ride on in order to eat enemies and otherwise navigate Dinosaur Land more quickly and easily. This game spawned a prequel entitled Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for the Super Nintendo in which the player could control Yoshi in order to keep Baby Mario out of harm's way as they advanced through the game. This led to a spin-off series of games including Yoshi's Safari for the SNES, Yoshi's Story for the Nintendo 64, Yoshi's Universal Gravitation for the Game Boy Advance, and a number of games for the Nintendo DS, including Yoshi Touch & Go, Yoshi's Island DS, and Super Mario 64 DS.

Although he was introduced on the SNES in 1990, Yoshi was also the star of two self-titled games for the original NES released in '92 and '93: Yoshi and Yoshi's Cookie, respectively. Both of these games were released for the Game Boy as well. He also appeared as a supporting cast member in Mario is Missing for NES, SNES, and MS-DOS in 1993. Yoshi appeared in Super Mario 64 as a non-playable character who could be seen upon completion of the game. He also appeared in the DS remake as a playable (and starring) character, and in Super Mario Sunshine where he could be ridden on by Mario in the same fashion as in Super Mario World. However in this game, he is portrayed as a tropical Yoshi who changes to different colors after eating different fruits.

Yoshi appears in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and his role in the game is very similar to his original role in Super Mario World. A number of different colored Yoshis can be obtained by hitting blocks throughout the game. He can then be ridden by characters in the game, though his color no longer represents special abilities. Yoshi also appears in the game Super Mario Galaxy 2, where he can also float across the air for a limited period of time by fluttering his feet at an amazing speed. Power-ups allow him to run up walls; turn into a balloon; and glow, lighting platforms that are only tangible when visible.

In the GameCube title Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario rescues a Yoshi egg that hatches and joins his team. The player can then name the Yoshi character. The color of the Yoshi changes depending on the amount of time that passes between rescuing the egg and the egg hatching.

Yoshi appears in the Nintendo Switch title Super Mario Odyssey. Like in Super Mario 64, he can be found on the roof of Peach's Castle in the Mushroom Kingdom, but this time Mario is able to Capture him by using Cappy. While controlling him, Mario can eat fruit scattered around the level, and will receive a Power Star for the first three times he fills up his hunger meter. Yoshi retains the Flutter Jump and the ability to eat enemies, and also gains the new ability to use his tongue to hang off of walls, which can be used as a Wall Jump.

Other appearances
Yoshi has appeared in nearly all of the Mario sports and spin-off games. He appears in every game of the Mario Kart series as a playable character (usually with a light weight). He also appears in every Mario Party game to date as a playable character. He has also made appearances in multiple Mario sports titles, including Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario Super Sluggers, Super Mario Strikers and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Yoshi's attributes in these games trend toward the lightweight side of the spectrum, often with high footspeed and less-than-impressive accuracy.

Yoshi is a playable character in all four titles in the Super Smash Bros. series. Contrary to his lightweight and speedy portrayal in other games, the Smash Bros. version of Yoshi is a rather heavy character with strong attacks, quick movements, and a difficult-to-interrupt second jump; on the downside, his attacks tend to leave him vulnerable if they miss, and outside his second jump his recovery is almost nonexistent. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U, Yoshi's Final Smash is called the "Super Dragon" and by using it, he grows wings and is able to breathe fire and fly for a short time. In the Subspace Emissary, Yoshi is awakened from his sleep by various Subspace enemies and teams up with Link and other Smash Bros. characters to defeat Tabuu and save the world.

Yoshi has made cameo appearances in other video games. In Super Mario Galaxy, an image of his head appears as a wooden planet that Mario can visit in the Space Junk Galaxy. Yoshi made a cameo appearance in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest as one of the competitors in Cranky's Video Game Heroes show. He also made a few cameo appearances in The Legend of Zelda series, specifically in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. He appears in two Metal Gear games for the Nintendo systems: The Twin Snakes and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D. In The Twin Snakes, he and Mario are dolls that stand on a desk. If you shoot him, he'll yell "Yoshi!". In Snake Eater 3D, Yoshi dolls replaces all the cartoon-like frogs, Kerotans, which appear in all other versions of Metal Gear Solid 3. Shooting all of them will earn you the Yoshi rank at the end of the game.

Powers and Abilities

 * Prehensile Tongue: Yoshi has an incredibly long, sticky tongue. He uses it to eat almost anything, including enemies much larger than him. Upon eating objects and enemies, he can either gain powers, turn them into eggs or other things. He can also perform many tricks with it such as swinging, spinning with it extended, and yanking objects. In Super Mario Odyssey, he can use it to hang off of walls and perform Wall Jumps.
 * Egg Manipulation: Yoshi can use his eggs, some with different properties, for ammunition. The eggs are able to ricochet from walls and ceilings. The eggs will sometimes have homing and explosive capabilities. Yoshi can even encase himself into an egg to shield himself from damage or roll into enemies to knock them.
 * Supernatural Speed: Yoshi is often regarded as a speed character, being one of the fastest characters in the Mario series.
 * Enhanced Jump: Yoshi is proficient in jumping and ground pounds,  almost rivaling Mario's. His jump attack has the same power as Mario's Spin Jump in Super Mario World and can bypass some hazards like buzz saws. He even has a signature jump called the Flutter Jump, which enables him to cross large horizontal distances and can even be used to attack opponents in the Super Smash Bros. series.
 * Enhanced Durability: Throughout the series, Yoshi is shown to take a lot of hits and punishment and still continue his task. This is most prominent in the Yoshi's Island series.
 * Transformation:Yoshi can transform into various forms with a Morph Bubble or eating specific objects.