Yoshi

Yoshi (ヨッシー Yosshī, sometimes Romanized Yossy in earlier Japanese language materials) is a major character in the Mario series, who eventually spun off into its own series.

Character description
Yoshi is a dinosaur and is considered "Mario's Best Friend". Yoshi first appeared in Mario's first Super NES game, Super Mario World.

In the game, the player played as Mario or Luigi, and was able to find Yoshi eggs, which would hatch automatically, revealing a full-grown Yoshi. Later in the game, baby Yoshis could also be found. The player could grab these baby Yoshis and toss them around like they could with a shell. They could also feed the Yoshi five enemies, which would result in the Yoshi maturing, allowing the character to ride the Yoshi's back. Also in the game, four different color Yoshis were introduced, each with its own special abilities, depending on what color shell it had in its mouth. The green standard Yoshi was the most common found color Yoshi. He grew wings and could fly freely when he had a blue shell in his mouth. When he had a red shell in his mouth, he could spit fire. Lastly, when he had a yellow shell, he could stomp the ground when he jumped. The color of the Yoshi indicated what his special abilities were when they had a shell in their mouths, matching the colored shells. No matter what shell they had, the blue Yoshi could fly, the red Yoshi could spit fire, and the yellow Yoshi could always stomp the ground.

Yoshi then took the spotlight in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for the SNES. As the main playable character, Yoshi kept all his previous moves (eating things) and added a few new ones (pounding the ground, egg tossing, flutter jumping). The game was a prequel of sorts to the Mario universe: Baby Luigi was captured by Kamek while being delivered by the stork, while a bunch of Yoshis discovers the missing Baby Mario and work to rejoin him with his brother.

Yoshi went on to become a mainstay in the Mario series, as well as his own spin-off series. In the Mario sports games, he is portrayed as the speedy type - he may not have that much power, but he can get from A to B faster than most others.

As a playable character
Yoshi makes his first appearance in a fighting game in the original Super Smash Bros. as a starting playable character.

As the twelve-character roster goes, Yoshi is arguably the most unique. Not only does his shield not follow the same laws as other shields, but he lacks a triple jump - which he makes up for with a massive and generally safe double jump. These unique points make Yoshi a bit difficult for beginners to learn.