Yoshi
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Yoshi is a dinosaur that first appeared in the video game Super Mario World. Following it, comes Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island where Yoshi rescues Baby Mario, and helps reunite him with Baby Luigi. Yoshi also helps Luigi find Mario in Mario is Missing. Yoshi then became popular, as he was in such games as the Mario Kart series, and the Mario Party series. Yoshi's first starring role was in the game Yoshi, a puzzle title. In more recent games, starting with Yoshi's Story, Yoshi has been voiced by Kazumi Totaka who incidentally also composed the score to Yoshi's Story. Yoshi is also the star of Yoshi Touch & Go and Yoshi Topsy-Turvy.
Other Appearances
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 Golf, his shot is very straight and average in height. In Mario Tennis and Mario Power Tennis, he is a very fast tennis player. In Mario Superstar Baseball, Yoshi is the speediest runner and can use his tongue to catch faraway balls. Most recently, Yoshi has appeared in Super Mario Strikers where he is a balanced captain who leads his team with fierce courage. When Yoshi performs his superstrike, green and yellow bubbles surround the character as he powerfully kicks the ball into the back of the net, usually hitting the goalie in the stomach and taking him into the net with it.
Mario Party
Yoshi has been a character since the first Mario Party. Until Mario Party 4, he has sounded like he does in Super Mario World. In Mario Party 3, his partner is Boo.
Other Media
An animated series followed Super Mario World, called by the same name, and was similar in plotline to the previous series, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, except with a different setting. The show featured Yoshi as a regular character, voiced by Andrew Sabiston (who later provided the voice of Diddy Kong in the Donkey Kong Country cartoon). The cartoon portrays Yoshi with the personality of a very young child, and, therefore, he speaks like one. He is often afraid of many things that young children would be afraid of, such as ghosts and water (perhaps predicting how Yoshi, in Super Mario Sunshine, can't stand water, literally). This may be based on his reactions to attacks by enemies in Super Mario World (he runs off when hit and will even run off of a cliff if Mario fails to chase after him) and/or the fact that Yoshi refuses to enter Ghost Houses or Koopaling castles. Interestingly, his design in the show changed over time 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 consists of words that rhyme with "orp", as he does not speak English there like in the cartoon. He also features prominently in the Super Mario Adventures comic serial printed in Nintendo Power. There, his dialogue consists mainly of his own name. (Incidentally, he talks this way in most Mario games since Yoshi's Story in 1998.) According to these comics, Yoshi is the Chairman of the Dinosaur Chamber of Commerce, who is searching for a group of missing Yoshi Villagers whom Bowser has captured. Yoshi also appears in the critically maligned Super Mario Bros.. In the movie, Yoshi took the form of a realistic animatronic dinosaur, very much like a smaller version of Jurassic Park's velociraptors, instead of a live-action animated character. Although extremely different in appearance than its video game counterpart, it still shares some resemblance with a long tongue, friendliness and courage. He is also downsized to the point that he could not support Mario at all.
Cameos
Yoshi also makes 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 appears as a doll item that Link must bring to a baby at the first town in Koholint Island, and the baby's parents give him a ribbon. In the latter game, he appears in a portrait hung in Hyrule Castle, next to a painting of Mario, in a room that is not accessible to the player and located near the room where Link meets Zelda.
Yoshi makes a brief appearance in Konami's Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube, where Yoshi is a figurine on Otacon's desk along with a figurine of Mario. If a player shoots at the Yoshi figurine, it makes a sound similar to the one heard in the later Yoshi games. (Shooting the Mario figurine gives the player health with a 1-Up noise).
A track in Mario Kart 64 for the Nintendo 64 is named "Yoshi Valley", a maze-like track offering several routes, and includes a massive egg that squashes inattentive drivers. A track in Mario Kart Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance is named "Yoshi Desert", complete with a Yoshi-headed Sphinx in the background. A track in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the Nintendo GameCube is named "Yoshi Circuit" and is shaped like a Yoshi. A track in Mario Kart DS for the Nintendo DS is named "Yoshi Falls" with a huge egg floating in the water.
Yoshi also appears at the end of Donkey Kong Country 2 for the SNES. Once the player has beaten King K. Rool, during the ending sequence of the game, Mario, Yoshi and Link make an appearance. Link only appears if players collect fewer than nineteen DK Coins. Also, in the Game Boy Advance version, Yoshi only appears if players have fewer than thirty-five DK Coins.
