Yoshi is a dinosaur that first appeared in the video game Super Mario World. Following it, comes 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 finally starred in his own game, Yoshi's Story, where he and his other fellow Yoshi's went to save the Super Happy Tree.
Another Yoshi appears as one of Mario's partners. Depending on how long the player takes to hatch his egg after acquiring it, he'll vary in colors: green, blue, red, orange, pink, white and black. You also can make your file name into the color you want. The player is also granted the option of giving the newborn Yoshi a name, no more than 8 characters long, when the Yoshi joins the party. The default name is Yoshi, not to be confused with the main green one. Mario can ride him, making you move faster, and like Parakarry from the original Paper Mario, his Flutter Jump, while too weak to fly high, can get you across large gaps. He can also get you to places quickly, since he is fast on his feet. Throughout the game, he refers to Mario as the Great Gonzales, because that's what everyone called him in the Glitz Pit. Yoshi's attacks make him a formidable and easy-to-use partner, as he possesses many unique abilities to confound foes. He is known for having multiple-weak attacks, like his ground pound move. After the adventure, the Yoshi apparently returns to the Glitz Pit, where he fights under the name 'Great Gonzales Jr.' He is known as "Chibiyoshi" (a cross between "Chibi" and "Yoshi")in the Japanese version. He is voiced by Issac Marshall.
Yoshi is a species of dinosaurs ( or frogs to some people ) and the name of a specific member of that species. Yoshis have very long, sticky tongues, and can swallow almost anything, even things that are much larger than Yoshis themselves are. Almost everything they swallow is transformed into (or encased in) an egg, which they can throw as a weapon. They prefer fruit, although they can and usually will eat other things, including living creatures. Their noses, taking up half of their heads, can detect fruit buried underground and other strange secrets in Yoshi Story. Even though they have teeth, these are rarely seen or used. While Yoshi himself is depicted as green, other Yoshis in general come in a variety of colors, much like how Birdo is usually portrayed pink, but is also shown in many other colors. Yoshi is the protagonist of his own series as well as a minor character in the Mario series.
Television, film, and comics
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 the Yoshis featured 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. The game version however, consists of some Yoshis that can speak English (including "Super Dragon" Yoshi himself), and others that only understand their native tongue. 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. movie. 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.
In the Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Advance 4 adaptations of Super Mario Bros. 3, the king in the castle of World seven is transformed into a Yoshi by Ludwig von Koopa (whereas in the original version of the game, predating Yoshi's invention, the king is transformed into a Piranha Plant).
Other notes
Yoshi has attained popularity almost as great as that of Mario himself. While green is the standard color for Yoshi, his brethren appear with many different skin colors, including blue, red, yellow, brown, orange, pink, purple, dark blue, and, more rarely, black and white. (Black and white Yoshis in Yoshi's Story have the distinct ability to digest chili peppers, which others Yoshis cannot). Generally, a Yoshi's shoe color is dependant on its color: red Yoshis wear blue shoes, for example. In earlier games, different colors of Yoshis had different abilities, like fire-breathing or flying. Yoshis also can make a variety of sounds. In Super Mario World, hopping onto Yoshi's saddle made a "zip-zoo" or "phwe-phwew" sound — the character's trademark noise until Yoshi's Story, when the character (voiced by Nintendo musician Kazumi Totaka) began muttering his name and unintelligible words (such as "gong" and "hup"). In Mario Kart 64, he could also make a squeaking sound.
Yoshis have a limited social structure, shown in multiple RPGs as living in villages with a few wooden constructions. Yoshis inhabit many areas of the world from the Mushroom Kingdom to Isle Delfino. Most, for some reason, seem to be named Yoshi. 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.
The only Yoshi that's considered "bad" is Boshi, a blue Yoshi with a spiked collar, and the only one not wearing traditional shoes.
Yoshi is the originator of the "ground pound" — a move in which a character jumps into the air, flips and then slams into the ground. Yoshi first performed the move in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. The move has been performed by many characters in later games, such as Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and various entries in the Mario Party franchise.
It is highly likely that the Japanese name for Yoshi was intended to rhyme with the Japanese pronunciation for another dinosaur-like creature, Nessie. Though Yoshi can be used as a Japanese name it's probably Italien because of the Mario Bros.
The plural for Yoshi has often come up in debates. Some argue that "Yoshis" is the proper term, while others argue that "Yoshies" is correct. Japanese plurals have no indicative marks, meaning that "Yoshi" is another (unlikely) possibility. Nintendo of America has used both "Yoshies" and "Yoshis" in the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance versions of Yoshi's Island, respectively. It could be that both versions are legal.
A big issue surrounding Yoshi is the question of the creature's gender. All of them seem to be able to create eggs, but their eggs appear to be used as projectiles as often as — if not more often than — a means of reproduction. This has left a lot of people wondering what this means about the gender of the stretchy-tongued dinosaur.
It's most likly that there are are male and female Yoshi's, both can make eggs but only the females eggs hatch into Yoshi's.
There is also a dispute over if there was ever a Rainbow Yoshi. The leader of the Yoshi race. He/she is consider a rumor and this mysterious character is rarley talked of in his lengend. Not many games speak of it, the last game that spoken of this character was Super Smash Bros. in the profile of Yoshi after you defeat Very Hard level for Yoshi.