Yoshi (Super Mario)

Yoshi is a character from the Mario franchise.

Yoshi is a dinosaur-like character that acts as an ally of Mario and Luigi, and the protagonist of his own franchise. He is the most recurring member of the Yoshi species and has aided his brethren in saving their homeland on multiple occasions. According to the Super Mario World manual, he got his name from Yoshi's Island because he was first discovered there. In his youth, Yoshi managed to rescue and protect Baby Mario and Baby Luigi from the wrath of Kamek and the Koopa Troop. In the Super Mario series, he often acts as a rideable character for the heroes, while in most of the spin-offs, he is a playable character on his own.

In the AWA fics, Yoshi is a student at the AWA Academy.

Appearance
Yoshi is a bipedaled, little green dinosaur. He has green skin. His stomach, chest, and mouth are white as well as the underside of his tail. He has three red spikes on his nape, two large blue eyes and a big round nose. On his back he has a red saddle that can be used for riding him. He also wears orange shoes.

Personality
Yoshi has a very similar personality to Mario, being brave and kind, albeit underdeveloped. Yoshi is a friendly individual who always lends a helping hand to those in need. He could be considered a hero and has helped his friends, defeated the evil King Bowser Koopa, and saved his island more than once. He is also very courageous, allowing the green dinosaur to stand and fight enemies much larger than himself, including Yoob, an enlarged Bowser, Nep-Enuts, Tap-Tap the Golden, and the gigantic Baby Bowser. As a result of this courage, Yoshi often takes on a leadership position to the Yoshi clan, although Yoshi has no official political status (unlike the Village Leader from Lavalava Island). In fact, when Yoshi was offered a leadership position during the events of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, the humble dinosaur declined the position. Like Mario, Yoshi has a large appetite, to the point of outright gluttony. While Yoshi eats mostly fruits (mainly melons), he eats almost anything, including enemies (except peppers and certain inedible enemies). In Volume 3 of Super Mario-Kun, Yoshi gets hurt and begins to cry while red liquid is seen. It turns out to be juice from Yoshi's fruit, to which he glumly states, "What a waste."

Abilities
Like other Yoshis, Yoshi has a long, sticky tongue that he uses to eat almost anything, even things much larger than himself. Yoshi can transform the enemies and other objects he eats into eggs, which he can then use as projectile weapons. During the events of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Island DS, Yoshi could keep up to six eggs at a time or up to four Huffin' Puffins which would return to him as if they were boomerangs and are renewable.

Yoshi can also transform things that he eats into other objects. For example, in Super Mario World, after Yoshi ate an enemy, one Coin would be added to Mario's coin total. The green dinosaur could also transform berries into eggs. However, instead of using them as projectiles, these eggs would break apart and reveal items, including Super Mushrooms and strange, smiling clouds that would drop coins. In Super Mario RPG, Yoshi could eat enemies to produce eggs that would break apart to reveal a variety of helpful (and often rare) items. In Super Mario Galaxy 2,Yoshi can eat enemies to produce Star Bits.

Despite his egg-laying abilities, Yoshi is considered male in most regions. However, Shigeru Miyamoto has gone on record and stated he is not sure if Yoshi is male or female. It could be that Yoshi does not officially have an assigned gender, as the original Japanese does not use gender pronouns.

Yoshi has a hard time swallowing Koopa shells. In fact, in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the green dinosaur simply had to spit out the Koopa shell before he could eat another enemy. In Super Mario World, Yoshi could eventually swallow a Koopa shell, but could also use them to boost his own abilities. While Yoshi could only spit out a green shell, the green dinosaur would instead shoot three large fireballs after ingesting a red shell. A yellow shell would allow Yoshi to create sand clouds whenever he jumped and hit the ground, destroying nearby enemies. A blue shell provided one of the two ways to turn Yoshi into his Winged Yoshi form, allowing him to fly for a limited amount of time. However, if a shell were left in Yoshi's mouth for too long, he would inevitably swallow the shell and as such lose any abilities he may have possessed.

Yoshi is very proficient with Jump and Ground Pound abilities, rivaling the capabilities of world-renown jumper Mario. However, in Super Mario World, Yoshi's jump attacks were much more powerful than Mario's normal jump attacks. Yoshi could destroy most enemies in one hit (i.e. a Koopa would be completely destroyed, not sent flying out of its shell). As such, Yoshi's jump had the same power as Mario's special Spin Jump technique. The green dinosaur is also a master of the Flutter Jump technique, allowing him to jump with incredible horizontal distance. Yoshi is also capable of creating shockwaves with his Ground Pound, which can be seen when using the Team Jump technique in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.

Yoshi is a speed character in several sports games, such as the Mario Tennis series, which shows that he is a fast runner. However, he isn't particularly fast in every game, such as Super Mario 64 DS where his speed is the same as Mario and Luigi's (according to the instruction booklet).

According to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Yoshi is one of the few members of his species who can speak the language of the other characters; however, it seems that this is not his first language, since, as in other games, his statements are translated through parentheses.

Trivia

 * Yoshi's kart's horn in Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 8 sounds similar to the sound heard when mounting on Yoshi in certain Mario games.
 * In Super Mario Sunshine, Yoshi can perform Triple Jumps, Spin Jumps, and Ground Pounds, but not Side Somersaults. In Super Mario Galaxy 2, this is reversed, as Yoshi can perform Side Somersaults, but not Triple Jumps, Spin Jumps, or Ground Pounds. Additionally, Yoshi cannot swim in Super Mario Sunshine but somewhat can in Super Mario Galaxy 2.