The History of Yoshi Welcome to a page setup to inform you on how Yoshi came to be and grow throughout all the years that he's been existing in the world. This page is at least 90% factual. (The other 10% is what Shigeru Miyamato and the rest of his developers truly had in mind when they brought Yoshi in in the first place). I can pretty much say this is accurate too becuz I gathered the greater portion of this page from countless instruction manuals, magazines, and web-sites. I hope you enjoy learning about how our little friend came to be and of course this site will update as new games featuring the Yo'ster come into existence. Below I have prepared a partial biography for Yoshi. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -=Biography=- Name: Yoshi Born/Created: Between 1990-91, thus making Yoshi between 7 and 8 years old. However, originally considered back after the original Mario Brothers was made. In real terms Yoshi appears to be around 18-25 years old. Race: Dragon/Dinosaur. Yoshi seems to be a combination of the two with a few attributes of that of a frog. Gender: The Yoshi commonly featured in the Mario games is MALE. Though there are probably females out there somwhere. I know this is short, but its hard to make a life history for a fictional character. Though would be nice to have Yoshies in real life. :) Below is the gaming history, as much as I can keep up with, of Yoshi. I hope you find it informative and entertaining. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Yoshi Years Yoshi first appeared back around 1991 in one of Nintendo's first Super NES games Super Mario World. In this game Mario could ride Yoshi and Yoshi graciously munched on all of mario's foes. Not to mention give him a coin for each successful feast. Another neat feature this first Yoshi had was that if he ate a red, yellow, blue, or flashing shell, he could do some really cool stuff. Red let him breathe fire. Blue gave him the ability to fly with a small set of wings. And yellow let him cause earthquakes which caused massive damage when he jumped. If you were lucky enough to eat a flashing shell you could do each one of these special abilities. An odd thing observed when this game came out was that Yoshi was somwhat conceived as a dragon. Some final notes on this are that throughout this game you could also feed Yoshi berries. Red berries cause Yoshi to lay an egg which hatches into a mushroom if he eats ten of them. When Yoshi consumes two pink berries he will lay an egg that hatches into a coin giving cloud. And finally, for every green berry our little hero consumes, you will gain ten seconds on the timer. One year later during what I call Nintendo's PUZZLE CRAZE YEARS, Yoshi returned in his first solo game conveniently titled Yoshi. In this game which was for your regular Nintendo and Game Boy, you helped Mario put Yoshi's egg shell together to make Yoshi hatch and give you points. Within' less then a period of a year or so another puzzler came out. This one was for all the Nintendo systems and it wuz called Yoshi's Cookie. In this game Mario and Yoshi needed your help in organizing cookies for shipping. Some of the special features this game brought to you was the unique two player vs. mode. And also one of the first ever puzzle modes were featured in it. In this mode you had a limited amount of moves to clear a given area. Some final notes about this game are that it had a funny cinema show after you completed each stage clear level. Everytime you cleared a complete round you got to see different and more unique endings. Each depending on the higher round you were on. In the conclusion of 1992. Yoshi appeared in one of today's most enjoyed games Super Mario Kart. This game featured all of your friends from the Mario game. Except rather then battling it out in platform action, you raced in a unique mode 7 enviroment. This game for how simple it was quickly became one of the best games ever made for Super NES. Just about the same time that Yoshi's Cookie and Mario Kart were making puzzle and racing fans go nuts. Nintendo's new Super Scope 6 which was for your Super NES came out. With it came a small handful of games. One of which was a neat game called Yoshi's Safari. In this you got a what appeared to be a third person view as you rode on Yoshi's back and shot things with your gun. If you or Yoshi got pegged, you lost life. Also you could damage Yoshi by shooting him in the head. The main goal was to find Bowser at the end who was in a suit of armor and blow him up. Not a very unique game. However you did it to shoot and kill things. So I guess it was kind of fun. Well, then both Yoshi and Mario went into a vacation of sorts. But then that brilliant designer Shigeru Miyamato came up with what we now call Yoshi's Island. This game brought in a few neat new features. One of which was a new thing called Morphmation. This helped to make all the huge bosses in which you fought really HUGE! Another neat thing Yoshi's Island had was the FX 2 chip. However you probably couldn't tell because they used the FX 2 chip in such a way that it actually looked crisp and brilliant instead of shapey. Other things this great game featured was a very unique coloring texture. This texture made it look like you were playing inside of a story book. This really helped with the effect of Yoshi carrying Baby Mario around. In the long run. This game which was brought out at the tenth anniversary of the Mario Brothers series was a huge smash. And to this day even though I own the new N64. It is still one of my favorite games to play. Some final notes on Yoshi's Island is that it featured unique bonus games, hidden games and levels, and a scoring system. This made the game so that a person just trying to beat would have fun. However if just beating it wasn't enough for you. Then you could shoot for a 100% in each level. This accessed a secret level and opens a bonus game icon on the map. These levels featured tricky puzzles and clever traps for people that were looking for a challenge. If you are trying to get that perfect score. You need to have 30 Stars. < 30 seconds on the brat meter >, also you needed to find all 20 red coins and all five flowers. Our hero also made an appearence in Mario's first Role Playing game, Super Mario RPG, Legend of the Seven Stars. In this game Yoshi had a VERY small plot of land to roam in which on it you had to help Yoshi defeat the bully Yoshi, Boshi, in a race. If you succeded, you earned the ability to call Yoshi in battle with his Yoshi Cookies. < Wonder where they got that one? > One of the neatest things about it was the big fat baby, which if fed enough would give you goods like Red Essence and Yoshi Aid. The latest steps for our green dinosaur hero are he hosted the newest installment in the tetris series Tetris Attack. This game featured all of the fun features of other puzzle games. However it also had neat detailed backgrounds and a much funner style of play. Plus the multiple game modes made it seem like more then just a block matcher. The story mode I would say is the best. Also Yoshi did make a surprise appearence in Mario 64. However don't expect it to be a happy one. You will simply receive 100 lives, star dust triple jumps, and the privledge of watching Yoshi take a dive into the moat. Not so kewl, but I guess that's games eh? Our next step up for Yoshi featured him in the sequel to Super Mario Kart entitled Mario Kart 64. In this game Yoshi showed his own style as having an awesome power-slide and a superb top speed! The Yo'ster in many places that I visited has won the "BEST DRIVER" in SMK64 Award. Also Yoshi has his own course. In this course you'll cruise through a mountain-valley maze as you attempt to make your way through to the giant egg and back to the finish line. And speaking of the giant egg, what Yoshi do you think could've possibly laid that one?? About a month after the release of Mario Kart 64, another game by Nintendo featuring Yoshi came into the market. This game which is purely for the Game Boy is a collection of some of Nintendo's finest first games. In this game entitled Game and Watch Gallery, you can play four games in which in two, from what I've seen, you can either play as or use Yoshi. These games are Manhole and Oil Panic. This game is expected to sell at a very reasonable low price and is enhanced by the super Game Boy. Yoshi's Story is not only Yoshi's first big appearence on the N64, but it is also the first whole game dedicated to just Yoshi. In this game you control any of six differently colored baby Yoshies, (There are two more hidden ones), in a quest to retrieve the Yoshi's beloved SUPER HAPPY TREE. This game features many of the same mechanics as the original Yoshi's Island, but also adds and removes a few as well. For example, you can still flutter to gain that extra height you need in a jump, the egg throw is still there, but now it is controlled anologly for more precise shooting, and as well you can still eat things to have Yoshi lay an egg to use as future ammunition. However, Yoshi's Story adds a few things such as "!" Balls which Yoshi can lick to pull himself up to higher ground, also you can extend your tongue in any direction through use of the analog stick. Another cool feature put into this game is the ability for Yoshi to sniff. Through this ability you can locate hidden treasures and secret locations. But alas gone is the ability to morph into vehicles, as well Yoshi's near immortality is gone as well. Now you have a life gauge called a "Mood Flower". If you get hit or eat something that disagrees with Yoshi, you will lose petals off of the Mood Flower, but if you eat fruits, collect special hearts, eat enemies that agree with your Yoshi, or eat a Power Bee you can regain petals on the Mood Flower. Another thing is that there is no set goal to a level, instead you must eat 30 fruits dropped from the SUPER HAPPY TREE to clear a level. A cool thing about Yoshi's Story though is the way that the levels are actually setup. Rather than just going in a straight line, (1-1, 1-2, 1-3, etc.), Each of the six worlds, or "Pages" as their often known as, consists of four levels, or "Chapters" as they go by, and when you play, you get to plot the story in any way you want by choosing which chapters to go through to finish the book. You may now be thinking, "This game is way too easy to beat, you only play six freggin' levels!" Well, that's another neat thing about Yoshi's Story, in a way you can set your own difficulty by choosing how you want to complete the book and what fruits you want to eat and such in each level. If you choose to eat all 30 Melons in a level, you will probably be playing for a straight two hours to finish the game at the least! Setting your own goals in Yoshi's Story is alot of fun and really ups the already high replay value. All in all, Yoshi's Story is a very good game which shouldn't be missed. And a great addition to any Yoshi fans collection.