Yoshi (SSBB)

Yoshi in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Yoshi
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee
Final Smash	Super Dragon
Tier	F (26)

Yoshi (ヨッシー, Yosshī) is a character appearing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He is relatively unchanged from the previous games except for one thing - he can now use his Egg Toss as a recovery move (though it only gives him a small upwards boost). His smashes appear less powerful, but his aerials and tilts are slightly more powerful. He has also taken on his upright posture and his appearance is like the younger Yoshi in Yoshi's Story. He appears to be slightly larger now in relation to the human-sized characters as well.

Yoshi currently ranks 26th on the tier list on the low end of middle tier, an improvement from his low tier placement in Melee. Yoshi is a unique character; he's a heavyweight with the fastest air speed in Brawl, possesses a recovery that revolves around the best midair jump in Brawl, and possesses a unique shield that does not shrink, making him completely immune to shield stabbing. Yoshi in general has great all around movement speed (possessing a fast walking and dashing speed to compliment his air speed), and fast attacks throughout his moveset. Additionally, Yoshi possesses grab release options on several characters (which include chain grabs on nearly half the cast and a forward aerial meteor smash follow up), which is complimented by one of the best pivot grabs. Yoshi also has among the best horizontal survivability, good reach all around, a great get off move in his jab, and a great anti-air projectile in Egg Throw. Yoshi has some strong flaws however, the most major of which being his abysmal out of shield options, as he's unable to jump out of shield (the only character with this hindrance), which combines with his slow standing grab and poor roll dodge for one of the worst close up games (resulting in Yoshi being easy to pressure). Yoshi also has an over-reliance on his double jump to recover, making Footstool Jumps, Meteor Smashes, or certain special grabs very dangerous to him (although he can air dodge during his second jump to gain invincibility). Yoshi additionally possesses generally poor finishing ability, resulting from possessing mediocre to just above average finishers, and having extremely weak attacks outside his finishers. Other flaws include his slow and laggy standing and dashing grabs, poor throws, poor tilts, and an awkwardly large hurtbox on his nose that makes it easier to hit and space Yoshi. Overall, this has resulted in average matchups and tournament results for Yoshi.

Attributes

Few characters are as unusual in Brawl as Yoshi. Yoshi is a rather heavy character, tied with Wario in weight, but rather small and weak for his weight. He also is very maneuverable in the air with a slow falling speed and the fastest air speed in the game, which are not usually attributes found in heavyweights. His midair jump is the largest in the game, giving limited knockback resistance during the ascent. One significant flaw is that, because of his minuscule third jump, Footstool Jumps, grabs (such as special grabs that can catch in the air), and attacks with enough knockback to cancel his midair jump's resistance can be devastating to Yoshi, should they be performed while he is in his second jump. He's quite speedy on the ground, but he has few effective ways to advance on the opponent. Yoshi's standing grab range has lots of start up lag, and his dash grab is very punishable, with both being relatively short for tether grabs. To help this problem, Yoshi arguably has the best Pivot Grab in the game. Yoshi can perform a pseudo-wavedash, known as the Dragonic Reverse. Yoshi's moves generally have decent speed (although not as quick as several characters), and his range and priority are both good for jointed moves. To counter-balance this, his KO power and amount of KO moves are rather low, and he has only average attack speed. His Flutter Kick (downwards aerial) can hit for 33% if used correctly, making it among the most damaging attacks in the game (although this can be escaped with Smash DI). His specials are largely situational due to a mix of poor range, speed, and/or priority. Egg Throw, for example, is an effective projectile attack that can help change directions in midair and can help recovery, but it can be hard to use because it travels in an arc, which can make it hard to hit with. Although his shield gives him immunity to shield stabbing and lasts slightly longer than others, it has a long exiting animation (taking 17 frames to shield drop instead of 7 frames for anyone else) and it cannot be jumped out of, making him have arguably the worst out of shield options in the game when considering his very slow standing grab, making him have a near impossible time punishing the opponent for hitting Yoshi's shield. His roll is also poor, though he has one of the best Spot Dodges in the game. As long as Yoshi has his double jump, he can be an effective edge guarder, either finishing enemies off with his Meteor Smashes, or using his Neutral aerial at the right time to knock them back even further.

Yoshi's major advantage is in his grab-release on a large number of cast members. He currently has a grab-release on at least nineteen cast members, and he can grab-release-spike seven of those.

Yoshi is a character with very clear advantages and disadvantages. Many of his advantageous match-ups stem from his grab-release or other tricks he can pull off, but his relatively short and laggy grab can be an impediment (though he can Pivot Grab to remedy this). Yoshi's extremely high learning curve and difficulty in using his chain grabs on some characters means that only dedicated Yoshi players can do very well with him. It may take a while for those new to Yoshi to fare as well.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

Yoshi received both major buffs to some of his moves and major nerfs to other moves. His aerials and tilts are slightly stronger (although his down aerial does less damage and his Forward aerial now has a sweetspot and its meteor smash is much weaker), but his smashes are slightly weaker (excluding his down smash, which is weakened significantly). Egg Toss can now be used as a recovery move due to the very slight boost it now provides, but Egg Roll now gives very little horizontal distance when used in the air and sends him into a helpless state if the move has been canceled, making it ineffective as a recovery move (however, it completely Momentum Cancels). Yoshi Bomb now shoots downward at a faster speed, but it is weaker in terms of knockback. It also (when used from the ground) takes an enemy standing directly in front of Yoshi up with him, comparable to Final Cutter. His eggs do less damage and knockback, and they can no longer be tossed backwards. They also have a finite number of throwing angles/strengths. Yoshi's air speed has increased to the fastest in the game (up from a tie for second-fastest with Mewtwo). On the downside, if Yoshi attacks during his double jump he does not stop momentum, unless he uses his special moves, like Egg Lay. This means that Yoshi can no longer double jump cancel with his aerials. Yoshi is largely a weaker-hitting character than he was in Melee, but he also is tougher to knock out (due to an overall better recovery).

Yoshi also had changes that are either not related to buffing/nerfing or hard to tell which. He has a new forward tilt; a tail swat instead of a strong kick. His stance is different; Yoshi stands upright. While Yoshi's tail is smaller in Brawl, his tail grows bigger for its attacks than it did in Melee. The spikes on his back are curved rather than spiky, like they are in his recent appearances. His tongue makes a different sound. His down tilt no longer has set knockback.

Brawl Manual Description

A denizen of Yoshi's island whose huge jumps lend superior air mobility.

Moveset

For a visual representation of Yoshi's attack hitboxes, see this page.

	Move	Description	Segment		Damage	Angle	Hit Frames		BKB	KBG	WBKB	Type
Neutral attack	Double Kick	Left kick, then right kick. Quick speed and decent damage (the second kick will clank with 14%-damage attacks, such as most tilts) make it a solid "panic" move.	Hit 1	Leg	3%		3	5	8	50	0
				Knee
				Foot
			Hit 2		6%		10	11	25	100
Forward tilt	Tail Swat	Yoshi spins and tags people in front of him with his tail. Insanely fast. Does just enough damage (when not angled down) to clank with 17%-damage moves (or even 18% ones that aren't completely fresh), which covers quite a lot of tilts, smashes, air attacks, and projectiles. Can be used to juggle many characters across the stage at certain percentages. Ideal against characters like Sonic.	Angled up	Body	10%		6	8	40	80	0
				Tail
				Tip
			Angled side	Body	9%
				Tail
				Tip
			Angled down	Body	8%
				Tail
				Tip
Up tilt	Tail Flip	Yoshi crouches and flicks his tail upwards.	Tail		11%		7	11	72	40	0
			Tip		10%
Down tilt	Tail Trip	Low tail whip. Its forward range is actually greater than Yoshi's down smash, although hitting with the tip does half damage. It does, however, have a 40% chance of tripping (the main attack has a 30% chance).	Tail		10%		8	10	65	30	0
			Tip		5%
Dash attack	Head Ram	Running headbutt. Quick and powerful, with horizontal knockback useful at the edge, where Yoshi can start edge guarding. Yoshi's head cannot be injured during the clean hit and a decent amount of time beforehand.	Clean		9%		10	13	15	100	0
			Late		7%		14	23
Up smash	Nasal Crush	Yoshi headbutts upwards. The attack can hit behind Yoshi. Yoshi's head is intangible while the hitboxes are out.	Head		Template:DamageWhenCharged		11	16	23	83	0
			Neck
Down smash	Tail Sweep	Yoshi strikes on both sides with his tail. Very quick, but surprisingly low knockback for a smash attack. Assuming the move is fresh and uncharged, it cannot KO until at least 150%. Mostly used to rack up damage, set up combos or clear some space. Useful against opponents recovering from a ledge.	Hit 1	Body	Template:DamageWhenCharged		6	7	30	63	0
				Tail						53
			Hit 2	Body	Template:DamageWhenCharged		22	23		63
				Tail						53
Forward smash	Noggin Flail	Yoshi flings his head forwards. Can form a good combo when following Yoshi's back aerial (if Yoshi's back aerial tips them).			Template:DamageWhenCharged		14	16	20	92	0
Neutral aerial	Drop Kick	Sex kick. Yoshi's foot grows large while kicking. Can be performed immediately after the ending of a down aerial to try and break through shields. Good knockback if it connects with an opponent as it's executed, and can be used for off-stage KOs.	Clean		12%		3	5	15	100	0
			Mid		9%		6	15	0
			Late		6%		16	31
Forward aerial	Nose Pound	Yoshi winds up and slams his head downwards. The head Meteor Smashes, while the body does not and does a bit more damage.	Body		16%		19	21	0	90	0
			Head		15%
Back aerial	Tail Wag	Quadruple tail whip. Very good attack for reverse-back aerial'ing, but extra SDI potential makes it easier to escape than other multi-hit attacks.	Hit 1		4%		10	12	10	100	0
			Hit 2		3%		16	18	20
			Hit 3		3%		23	25
			Hit 4		4%		28	30	50
Up aerial	Vertical Sweep	Does a flip and hits hard upward with his tail, good range, great knockback and low starting lag too. Yoshi's best KO move, easy to set up with eggs and double jump.			13%		5	6	25	100	0
Down aerial	Foot Flurry	Yoshi's famous multi-kick. Most damaging aerial attack. Can Meteor Smash, but is rather weak. Good for wearing down shields, neutral aerials or footstool set-ups; however it has extra SDI capacity.	Hits 1-7	Center	3%		16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28		5	80	0
				Front end	2%
				Back end
			Hits 8-14	Center	2%		30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42			100
				Front end
				Back end	1%
Pummel	Chew	Chews on the opponent.			2%		6		0	100	30
Forward throw	Spit	Spits the opponent out.			7%		20		55	66	0
Back throw	Spin 'n' Spit	Spits the opponent backwards; for all intents and purposes identical to Yoshi's forward throw.			7%		20		55	66	0
Up throw	Spit Up	Spits the opponent upwards.			5%		13		65	43	0
Down throw	Spit Down	Spits the opponent into the ground, which knocks them upwards. Has good hitstun, combos well into a up aerial for a KO.			4%		15		100	25	0
Floor (back)	Spin Kick	Two tail whips to either side.	Hit 1		6%		13	14	80	50	0
			Hit 2				19	20
Floor (front)	Head Slash	Two headbutts to either side.	Hit 1		6%		14	15	80	50	0
			Hit 2				25	26
Floor (trip)	Tail Swing	Similar to the floor (back) attack.	Hit 1		5%		19	20	60	50	0
			Hit 2				26	27
Edge (<100%)	Tail Spin	Gets up and whips his tail.			6%		20	24	0	100	110
Edge (100%+)	Headbutt	Slowly gets up and slams his head forward with short range. The third most damaging ledge attack in the game, right behind Ganondorf's when sweetspotted and Lucario's at max damage.			12%		34	38	0	100	110
Neutral Special	Egg Lay	Traps opponents temporarily, but has them take half damage. Sometimes throws the opponent instead of grabbing (this is not fully understood). Deals a solid blow to enemies in the Subspace Emissary.	Grab				17	22
			Escape (early)/glancing blow?		1%				70	50	0
			Escape (late)?		4%				0	100	0
			Lay		7%				0	100	0
			SSE		13%		17	22	60	80	0
Side Special	Egg Roll	Yoshi eggs himself and starts rolling around. The damage done is based on how fast he's moving (unknown formula), up to about 12%.			4%				50	70	0
Up Special	Egg Throw	Chucks an egg with a pseudo-controllable impact site.	Impact		1%				20	40	0
			Explosion		8%		1	4	40
Down Special	Yoshi Bomb	Smacks the ground hard.	Hop		4%		7		0	100	80
			Drop (from ground)		15%		27		60	70	0
			Drop (from air)		12%		20		55
			Stars		4%		1	17	50	40	0
Final Smash	Super Dragon	Yoshi grows wings and starts breathing fire everywhere.	Ram		8%				50	50	0
			Fire breath		6%				50	30	0
			Fireball		17%				50	87	0

Chain grab list

The following characters can be chain grabbed by Yoshi, though some are harder to chain grab than others:

• Bowser
• Donkey Kong
• Diddy Kong
• Wario
• Link
• Ganondorf
• Zero Suit Samus
• Pit
• Meta Knight
• King Dedede
• Falco
• Captain Falcon
• Pikachu
• Squirtle
• Charizard
• Ike
• Lucas
• Snake
• Sonic

Taunts

Up: Dances around in a circle and says "Yoshi!".

Side: Spins around, chasing his tail, then looks at it.

Down: Waves to the screen, saying "Yoshi! Yoshi!" This is an update of the taunt he had in SSB and Melee.

On-Screen Appearance

Hops out of a Yoshi Egg.

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Role In The Subspace Emissary

After removing the Master Sword from a pedestal in a forest, Link encounters Yoshi, who is sleeping on a tree stump. However, the passing Halberd drops Shadow Bugs, which in turn form Primids. Peaceful sleep is now impossible, so Yoshi teams up with Link to fight them off.

Yoshi in the SSE

Yoshi's next role in the story depends on which princess Kirby saved at the stadium. If Peach was rescued, Yoshi and Link battle against a Shadow bug clone of Peach (who was recently trophied by Bowser), who was trying to trophy an unsuspecting Mario and Pit until Link sliced the cannon in half. After the battle, the trophy disintegrates. Thinking that they killed the real princess, Mario and Pit attack Link and Yoshi. If Zelda was saved, then Mario and Pit would fight a Shadowbug clone of her instead, and Link and Yoshi would attack Mario and Pit. Either way, both teams fight each other. After Link and Yoshi/Mario and Pit defeat the opposing characters, King Dedede passes by in the cargo and snags the trophies with a metal arm, while Link/Mario notices the real trophy of Zelda/Peach in the back. After King Dedede raises his fist in triumph, Kirby jumps onto the cargo and performs a Final Cutter, severing the arm and reviving the trophies. Pit/Link quickly hits the cargo with an arrow as it passes by, damaging it. Kirby, Link, Yoshi, Mario, and Pit then team up to find Dedede's castle.

Later on, they find the Ancient Minister setting off a Subspace bomb, and see the real regret that he feels in this deed. As the bomb goes off, Yoshi carries Mario to safety by running really fast, while Pit, Kirby and Link fly overhead on a warp star. Yoshi carrying Mario in this SSE cutscene reflects on how Yoshi was used for transportation for Mario (most notably in Yoshi's Island and Super Mario World).

Yoshi joins his companions when they reinforce Marth's team in the Canyon. Later, he joins the heroes in the battle against the Subspace Gunship and again against Tabuu. After being trophied by Tabuu's Off Waves, Yoshi is revived by Dedede and Kirby, and afterward, joins Sonic and the others against Tabuu.

Event Matches

• Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars- The player must choose a character and take on the "original eight" fighters, two at a time.
• Event 11: Yoshi's Rainbow- As the Ice Climbers on Rainbow Cruise, the player must KO the Yoshis in the following order: Red, pink, yellow, green, light blue, and blue. Not KOing them in order is instant failure.
• Event 12: Sleeping in the Eggs- Using Yoshi’s Egg Lay standard special move, the player must put Kirby and Pikachu in eggs simultaneously. [1]
• Event 37: The Pirate Airship- The Pirate Ship will continuously be caught in a hurricane and be sent to the sky. KO both Yoshis as Toon Link when the ship is in the air.

Co-Op Event Matches

• Co-Op Event 3: Fastest, Shortest, Sudden Death- All Players start with 300%. Survive as Yoshi and King Dedede against Lucas and Pit for 10 seconds on WarioWare.
• Co-Op Event 5: The Yoshi Team of 50- As Meta Knight and Pit, KO all 50 Yoshis on Rainbow Cruise before completing one lap of the stage.
• Co-Op Event 9: Those Who Wait in Onett- KO Luigi and Yoshi, playing as Lucas and Ness on Onett.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle- Select any character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Costumes

Yoshi's alternate costumes in SSBB

Trivia

• Yoshi is the only character with a ranged grab not to have a Tether Recovery.
• Yoshi is the only character who can eat opponents but not items.
• Yoshi is one of the only characters who never uses their hands for any attack (including grabs), the other being Ivysaur.
• The Bunny Hood and Metal Box do not affect the height of Yoshi's second jump.
• Yoshi holds the world record for Co-op Target Smash!! Level 4 with Pikachu (completed in 4.81 seconds).
• With a Bunny Hood, Yoshi can use Egg Throw to stall in certain places, such as under the lip of the original Pokémon Stadium.
• Yoshi, Bowser, Link, Luigi, and Toon Link are the only characters to wear their default colors in team battles, when they are on the green team.
• Yoshi, Kirby, and Mr. Game & Watch are the only characters to change their whole body color when a different palette is selected.
• As Yoshi's down taunt involves leaning forwards out of the plane of gameplay, certain fast and thin hitboxes including Palutena's Arrows and R.O.B. Blaster shots can be dodged with it.

External links

• Confirmation of Event Match
• Yoshi's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!!.
• Yoshi Character Guide at SWF