With a gluttonous appetite, Yoshi can gobble enemies with his long tongue, and lay eggs that doubly function as projectiles.

He also appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting game series Super Smash Bros. Yoshi is a member of the same-named species, which is distinguished for its wide range of colors.

[11][12][13] The inspiration for Yoshi can be traced back further, to the green dragon Tamagon in the 1984 video game Devil World: also designed by Miyamoto, both are green lizards that hatch from eggs and can eat enemies with their large mouth, and also emit the same noise when they hatch.

[16][17] Takashi Tezuka, a Mario series developer, speculated that Miyamoto's love of horse riding as well as country and western themes influenced Yoshi's creation.

[19] As development of Super Mario World progressed, the team opted to set the game in a "dinosaur land", so Tezuka asked designer Shigefumi Hino to draw a reptile-like creature based on Miyamoto's sketches.

[24] To give the gameplay a more "gentle and relaxed pacing", the levels lack time limits and feature more exploration elements than previous games; Yoshi's flutter jump also makes him easier to control in the air than Mario.

Yoshi successfully pulls the twins together just in time to go home after beating a huge Baby Bowser.

[23] The version of Yoshi seen in the live-action Super Mario Bros. film was realized using a 0.91-metre-tall (3.0 ft) animatronic dinosaur.

The animatronic had nearly 60 meters (200 ft) of cable and hundreds of moving parts inside of it and was controlled by nine puppeteers.

This fruit gives him the ability to spit a finite stream of juice, though with the tradeoff that he dies as soon as he touches water.

These fruits give him the ability to float, to run on water and against gravity, and to illuminate intangible walkways.

He can also be discovered in Yoshi Eggs in secret locations accessed via the Dark Side, where he must eat Berries in order for a Power Moon to form.

Yoshi may employ his characteristic Flutter Jump and eating powers if captured, similar to his appearance in Super Mario Galaxy 2.

[40] Bowser conquers Jewelry Land during the events of Yoshi's Safari (It is the only Mario franchise game to feature first-person shooter gameplay and requires the SNES's Super Scope light gun.

[41] The Magikoopa sorcerer Kamek foresees that two newborn brothers will bring ruin to the Koopas and attempts to capture them as the stork carries them to their mother and father in the Mushroom Kingdom one morning years before the events of most Mario games, during the events of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.

[43] Kamek and Bowser travel back in time in Yoshi's Island DS to try to capture the famous star children (Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Donkey Kong), who had special energy in their bodies that, once in Bowser's hands, would let him to take over the world.

Without knowing who the star children were, Kamek and Bowser went out to kidnap all of the Mushroom Kingdom's youngsters, only to have their prey escape their hands and join Yoshi in a journey to save the other kids.

[53] Yoshi appeared as a supporting cast member in Mario is Missing for NES, SNES, and MS-DOS in 1993.

[32] Yoshi is a playable character in Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, and he arrives late in the story.

[56] In Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Yoshi and Mario appears as a dolls that stand on a desk.

In the cartoon, Yoshi is a young, friendly, and fleet-of-foot dinosaur who occasionally talks in 3rd person until speaking coherent English from slightly later in the episode "A Little Learning".

[62] Additionally, Yoshi makes an off-screen vocal cameo in The Super Mario Bros Movie during the post-credits scene, with archival audio of Kazumi Totaka being utilized.

[63] Yoshi is also prominently featured within Universal Destinations & Experiences' immersive Super Nintendo World areas.

Whatever the reason, gamers took an immediate liking to Yoshi and his multicolored kin when Super Mario World hatched him into the pantheon of classic game characters.

[70] In a poll conducted in 2008, Yoshi was voted as the third-favorite video game character in Japan, with Cloud Strife and Mario placing second and first, respectively.

[71] GameTrailers created a special tribute video for Yoshi for the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2.

[78] 4,228 gamers from all over the world were asked to choose their favorite "most loved sidekick characters in video games."

"[80] Yoshi has been named one of the best-supporting characters in video games by Kevin Wong of Complex, stating that "Yoshi has everything Mario and Luigi need in a sidekick – a monstrous appetite, boots that can walk on Munchers, and the ability to breathe fire, fly, and cause earthquakes, depending on the Koopa shell's color.