Yoshi (SSBM)

Yoshi in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Yoshi
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Starter
Tier	D (12) (North America) D (11) (Europe)

“	A dinosaur that boasts surprising jumping prowess.	”
—Melee's instruction manual

Yoshi (ヨッシー, Yoshi) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He was announced as a playable character at the E3 2001.

Like most of his appearances, he is voiced by Kazumi Totaka, albeit via recycled voice clips from Yoshi's Story and Smash 64.

He is currently ranked 12th out of 26 on the current tier list, placing him in the D tier. This is a slight drop from his previous placement in Smash 64, where he was ranked 5th out of 12. Yoshi has outstanding combo ability with his double jump cancelling (especially against fast-fallers like Fox), a great aerial game (coupled with the third most powerful meteor smash in the game), and some decent approach options. He can also play mindgames and extend combos with his unpredictable Egg Throw, and has a very reliable finisher in his down smash, which has almost no start-up lag, outstanding reach and knockback, and a very favorable launch angle that is hard to DI against or recover from. Yoshi also has very unique mechanics, such as a knockback reduction armor active during his double jump, which he can use to tank hits or create counter punch opportunities by double jump cancelling out of it. However, his lack of a "true" third jump means he can be vulnerable when hit out of it, or after cancelling it. His high falling speed also makes him a target for combos. Yoshi's shield is also very unique. He cannot jump out of it once in the egg, but cannot be shieldstabbed, and suffers no shieldstun, meaning situations involving his shield play out very differently that they do for the rest of cast. On the other hand, his shield startup animation has invincibility frames, and can be jumped out of -the mechanic known as parry- giving him unique punish opportunities when an opponent hits him during that startup animation.

Yoshi has long been considered to have some of the worst matchups all around, with five matchups considered nearly unwinnable, and only one being considered favorable against Kirby; he also has the dubious distinction of being one of only two characters that have an even matchup against Bowser. However, due to large innovations in Yoshi's metagame by aMSa, as well as strong tournament placements by him, Yoshi's matchups have been debated in the Melee community, and his placement has greatly improved in the most recent tier lists. Yoshi has also seen a significant increase in his playerbase in recent years, thanks to aMSa.

Attributes

Yoshi's unique shield allows him to escape pressuring situations.

Yoshi's edgeguarding game is complimented by his unique double jump, which allows him to turnaround, so he can quickly edgehog by simply running offstage and using his double jump in the opposite direction. Yoshi can also grab the edge facing either direction whilst using Egg Throw.

Yoshi does not fall into an specific character archetype, due to a large amount of strongly varying characteristics. Yoshi has among the highest jumping prowess in the game, as well as a very high air speed, fast falling speed, low traction, and fast dashing speed. As a result of these properties, Yoshi has the fifth longest wavedash. He is also a heavyweight, giving him great survivability all around, and when combined with his super armor on his double jump, it's somewhat common for Yoshi to survive at over 200% damage.

Among Yoshi's greater strengths is his air game. His high air speed and a highly maneuverable midair jump, as well as fast, low-lag, sometimes multi-hitting aerials, aid his comboing game; the addition of a meteor smash via his forward air also gives him a viable combo finisher. Adding to this, Yoshi's small short hop, above average falling speed and low-lag aerials give him a good and useful SHFFL. Additionally, Yoshi's aerial attacks themselves can be of significant power; his neutral and up aerial have KO potential, as does his forward aerial due to its meteor smash potential. Yoshi's down aerial is also one of the most damaging attacks in all the game; if all hits connect, it can deal 53% (38% in PAL) on the outset, aided by a variety of weak meteor smash hitboxes. Adding to this rather strong aerial game, Yoshi can also double jump cancel, leading to a variety of interesting possibilities and mind games in his combos.

Yoshi's ground approach is also good, due to a variety of ground-based tactics. In addition to a down tilt with semi-spike and fixed knockback properties, Yoshi has among the most flexible projectiles in all the game; Egg Throw is a powerful spacing tool as the eggs can be aimed in nearly limitless trajectories, allowing them to aid in camping on the ledge, playing mindgames against opponents, disrupting enemy recoveries, and extending combos. Yoshi's grab game is also good; in addition to a ranged grab, Yoshi's up and down throws can lead to a variety of combos, and his forward and back throws can force edgeguarding situations.

Historically, people considered one of Yoshi's biggest flaws to be his lack of a true third jump, which was thought to make his recovery game rather polarizing. His midair jump was known to have its advantages; it is the longest-traveling jump in the game, goes a considerable distance due to his good air speed, and comes with armor frames, which makes edgeguarding Yoshi a surprisingly difficult ordeal unless the edgeguarder has extremely powerful attacks or Yoshi is at a very high percentage. However, if Yoshi does end up interrupted during his recovery, he will often be knocked back far enough to where he cannot recover with a directional air dodge, sending him to his doom. While this remains true to a certain extent -Yoshi does have offstage situations where he will be extremely vulnerable and characters that have quick kill setups at low %- his recovery options are not as limited as they were thought to be. Yoshi is notable for being the only character in the game lacking an up special recovery, as Jigglypuff's Sing can now be used if jumped and directly below ledges.

Yoshi's shield is unique in that it is an egg that completely protects his body, leading to an impossibility of shield stabbing and it also has the unusual property of randomly perfectly shielding attacks, including grabs. Additionally, when Yoshi is light shielding and is hit by an enemy, he will slide an abnormally far distance away, especially if the attack has a great deal of knockback; this property of Yoshi's shield allows him to keep himself safe. While his spot dodge and rolls are decent, he is notably unable to jump out of his shield. This limits his punish or escape options in some situations when put on the defensive, as he is unable to wavedash or do a short hopped aerial out of shield to capitalize on an enemy's mistakes, and slow grab is slow can be outspeced, making it mostly impractical to punish an attack on his shield with a shield grab. However, to make up for this, Yoshi's shield also has the unique property that it suffers no shieldstun, meaning that Yoshi can act out of shield when hit faster than any other character, giving him access to exclusive punish and escape options on block.

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

Yoshi received a mix of buffs and nerfs but was nerfed overall. His out of shield game has been nerfed due to the fact he can no longer jump out of his shield making his already poor out of shield game even worse as well as giving him a significant disadvantage while in shield compared to the rest of the cast. In addition to this, his shield grab is slower and his throws are much weaker. His damage output and KO potential have also been considerably decreased making it harder for him to close out stocks. His combo game is also worse in some aspects as some of his moves (such as up tilt) have been altered to give them less combo potential and the introduction of DI and the reduction of hitstun have also made his combo game less consistent. The introduction of meteor canceling has also significantly harmed him as it hinders the reliability of his forward aerial and it does not make him much less vulnerable to meteor smashes himself due to him only having one double jump and his Egg Throw not granting him any extra height.

Yoshi has also seen some buffs. Yoshi's comboing ability remains strong due to the much faster falling speeds, as well as retaining the ability to double jump cancel. Despite the nerfs Yoshi's out of shield game received, his shield no longer suffers from shieldstun and he can still parry out of shield giving him unique options the rest of the cast does not have. Yoshi also benefits from the introduction of directional air dodges as they give him an extra recovery option and allow him to wavedash. As for buffs to his moveset, some of his moves are slightly faster either in terms of startup lag, ending lag or both and his new side special Egg Roll gives him an addition recovery option.

Despite his nerfs, he is still seen as a viable character although he struggles against most of the top tier characters.

Aesthetics

• Yoshi received a slightly more realistic appearance, with mottled skin and a more dinosaur-like posture. His green skin tone became darker.
• Yoshi's taunt has a different animation. He no longer turns around while performing it.

Attributes

• Yoshi walks slightly slower (0.38 → 1.15).
• Yoshi's initial dash is faster (40 → 1.33) and covers more distance.
• Yoshi's air speed is slightly lower (44 → 1.2), no longer being the highest.
• Yoshi's falling speed is slightly higher (58 → 1.93).
• Yoshi's gravity is higher (2.7 → 0.093).
• Yoshi's double jump grants less height.
• Yoshi is significantly lighter (115 → 108) no longer being a super heavyweight.
• Yoshi no longer suffers from shieldstun, which along with the introduction of light shielding, makes him significantly less vulnerable to shield pressure and allows him to punish out of shield much sooner; even relative to the cast.
• Yoshi can no longer jump out of his shield greatly hindering his out of shield options.
• The addition of air dodges benefits Yoshi as they give him an additional recovery option and they give him access to wavedashing.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The first hit of neutral attack has less ending lag (FAF 24 → 18).
  • The second hit of neutral attack has more startup lag (frame 3 → 4).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has less startup lag (frame 8 → 6) and has altered knockback (8 (base), 100 (scaling) → 40/80) making it easier to combo from on most characters.
  • Forward tilt no longer deals consistent damage (13% → 13% (up), 12% (non angled), 11% (down).
• Up tilt:
  • Yoshi has a new up tilt: a tail swipe above him. Unlike the previous up tilt, it does not have high set knockback (130 (set) → 72 (base), 40 (scaling)).
  • New up tilt has a longer duration (frames 7-10 → 8-12).
  • New up tilt has more startup (frame 7 → 8) and ending lag (FAF 26 → 30) and is less useful for combos. It also deals less damage (12% → 10%).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has reduced set knockback (110 → 100) making it less useful for gimping despite sending opponents at a lower angle (30° → 28°), but it still remains a solid gimping tool overall.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack's clean hit deals less damage (12% → 9%) without enough compensation on its base knockback (10 → 15). It also has more startup (frame 9 → 10) and ending lag (FAF 37 → 42).
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has less startup (frame 18 → 14) and ending lag (FAF 51 → 44).
  • Forward smash is significantly weaker dealing less damage (18% → 16%) and knockback (20 (base), 100 (scaling) → 32/94), going from the fourth strongest forward smash in Smash 64 to the tenth weakest forward smash in Melee.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash has less ending lag (FAF 48 → 40).
  • Up smash has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 6-15 → 11-15). It also deals less damage (18% → 14%) and knockback (20 (base), 118/110 (scaling) → 26/108).
  • Up smash now always launches opponents vertically (361°/80° → 75°).
• Down smash:
  • Down smash has higher base knockback (20 → 50) improving its edgeguarding potential at lower percents and making it Yoshi's best KOing option.
  • The back hit of down smash deals less damage (14% → 12%) and both hits have reduced knockback scaling (105 → 75).

Aerial attacks

• All aerials except back aerial have increased landing lag (14 frames → 15 (neutral), 16 frames → 21 (forward), 14 frames → 19 (up), 14 frames → 26 (down)).
• All aerials except neutral aerial auto-cancel later (frame 31 → 36 (forward), frame 20 → 33 (back), frame 11 → 33 (up), frame 31 → 50 (down)). Down aerial now cannot auto-cancel in a short hop.
• The weakening of L-canceling has hindered Yoshi's combo game with landing aerials as well as their safety with the increasing landing lag and worse auto-cancel windows on his aerials only further exacerbating this.
  • This combined with the changes to shields has severely harmed Yoshi's shield pressuring potential making his aerials much less safe against shield and completely removing his ability to perform shield break combos.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has less startup (frame 5 → 3) and ending lag (FAF 50 → 45). It also auto-cancels earlier (frame 38 → 36).
  • Neutral aerial has a shorter duration (frames 5-38 → 3-33) and the late hit deals less damage (11% → 10%).
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has increased base knockback (0 → 30).
  • Forward aerial has much more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 11-15 → 19-21) (although most of the meteor smashes have this problem). It also has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 45) and deals less damage (18% → 17%).
  • Due to the introduction of Meteor canceling, Forward aerial can now be meteor canceled with its altered angle (-85°/-100° → 270°), significantly weakening its edge-guarding ability.
• Back aerial:
  • Yoshi has a new back aerial: he swipes his tail behind him 4 times. Compared to the previous back aerial, it is a much weaker multi-hit attack that is no longer able to KO but is now a very potent damage racking attack with more combo potential, (although it is not as potent as his down aerial).
  • New back aerial has less ending lag (FAF 42 → 38) and deals more damage if all hits connect (14% → 20%).
  • New back aerial is much less reliable due to being a multi hit move and has lost its KO and edgeguarding potential as the base knockback on the final hit wasn't compensated enough (10 → 40).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has much less startup (frame 9 → 5) and ending lag (FAF 42 → 39).
  • Up aerial deals less damage (15% → 13%) without enough compensation on its base knockback (20 → 25). It also has less combo potential due to the weakening of L-canceling and its much smaller auto-cancel window combined with its decreased hitstun and the introduction of DI.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial has a slightly lower possible damage output due to changes to stale move negation (56% → 53%). It also has much more startup (frame 4 → 18) and slightly higher ending lag (FAF 50 → 53).

Throws/other attacks

• Yoshi now has a pummel, up throw and a down throw, giving him more versatility after a grab.
• Yoshi's new standing grab has more startup (frame 15 → 18) and ending lag (FAF 70 → 80).
• Yoshi's new dash grab has less startup lag (frame 15 → 11).
• Yoshi's dash grab places the hitboxes of his head and tongue in the background for unknown reasons, which may cause the grab to miss thin opponents in certain circumstances. His dash grab also has slightly higher ending lag (FAF 70 → 71).
• Yoshi's forward and back throws deal much less damage (12% (forward), 16% (back) → 6% (both)) and knockback (80 (forward base), 70 (back base), 70 (scaling) → 40/66 (both)) completely removing their KO potential.

Special moves

• Egg Lay:
  • Egg Lay has less startup lag (frame 18 → 17) and deals more damage (5% → 7%).
  • Egg Lay has a shorter duration (frames 18-23 → 17-21) and has more ending lag (FAF 38 → 40).
• Egg Roll:
  • Yoshi has a new special move: Egg Roll. While the move is not very useful as an attack, it helps Yoshi's very limited recovery options.
• Egg Throw:
  • Egg Throw has less startup lag (frame 23 → 18) and now has greater versatility. They can now extend aerial combos and set up for various aerial KOing options or a smash attack.
• Yoshi Bomb:
  • Yoshi Bomb has less startup lag on the ground (frame 30 → 27) and launches opponents at a higher angle (60° → 80°).
  • Yoshi Bomb deals less damage (18% → 16% (grounded), 14% (aerial), 4% → 1% (stars)) and knockback (50 (base), 100 (scaling) → 50/98 (grounded), 46/96 (aerial)).
  • Grounded Yoshi Bomb covers less distance both horizontally and vertically.

PAL differences

Like other characters, Yoshi received some changes in the PAL version of Melee which buffed him overall.

• Yoshi is heavier (108 → 111).
• Up smash deals 1% more damage (14% → 15) and has higher base knockback (26 → 30).
• Forward smash deals 1% more damage (16% → 17%) and has higher knockback scaling (94 → 98).
• Down aerial deals considerably less damage as each hit deals 1% less damage (53% → 38%).

Moveset

For a gallery of Yoshi's hitboxes, see here.

Yoshi's aerial attacks

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Yoshi does a very fast short-ranged kick followed by a more powerful kick.
			5%
Forward tilt	↗		13%	Sticks his foot out in a similar fashion to the second hit of his neutral attack, only with more range and knockback. Can combo into a forward aerial (especially when angled up), and if DI'd come back onto the stage, Yoshi can followup with a down smash. Can be angled up or down.
	→		12%
	↘		11%
Up tilt			10%	Does a very fast but short-ranged tail swipe upwards.
Down tilt			10%	Performs a low sweep with his tail. Has fixed knockback. It can be used as a gimping move, particularly at base to low percentages.
Dash attack			9% (clean), 8% (late)	Does a running headbutt. Yoshi's head is intangible during the early transition of the move.
Forward smash			16% (NTSC), 17% (PAL)	Reels his head back, then slams it forward as a powerful headbutt. This move is somewhat predictable, but it has good KO potential. Can be slightly angled up or down. Yoshi's head is intangible while the hitboxes are active.
Up smash			14% (NTSC), 15% (PAL)	Headbutts upwards. Just like his forward smash, Yoshi's head is intangible while the hitboxes are active.
Down smash			14% (front), 12% (back)	Swipes his tail in front and then back. A very useful edgeguarding move that powerfully sends opponents on a low semi-spike trajectory. Considered Yoshi's best KO move.
Neutral aerial			14% (clean), 10% (late)	A sex kick with decent knockback.
Forward aerial		Noggin Dunk	17%	Brings his head back and forcefully swings it down. It is the third most powerful meteor smash in the game, and isn't particularly slow (though its speed was significantly lowered from Smash 64). It is a good edgeguarding move and can lead into a down smash when used onstage.
Back aerial			7% (hit 1), 6% (hit 2), 5% (hit 3), 4% (hit 4)	Swipes his tail four times behind him. Great for racking up damage, although not as great as his down aerial. All hits deal up to ≈20.65% when used fresh.
Up aerial			13%	Thrusts his tail upwards very fast. Can be used to juggle, working especially well when DJC'd.
Down aerial		Flutter Kick	NTSC: 4% (hits 1-14) PAL: 3% (hits 1-14)	Rapidly peddles his feet downwards as he descends, weakly meteor smashing enemies. Most damaging aerial in Melee, dealing ≈51.32 if all 14 hits connect (NTSC version only).
Grab			—	Yoshi uses his tongue to grab an opponent and pull them into his mouth. His dash grab causes him to trip if he doesn't get anyone. Despite the appearance, Yoshi's tongue isn't a tether, though its range and lag is between tethers and normal grabs.
Pummel			3%	Chews on foe.
Forward throw			6%	Spits foe out.
Back throw			6%	Turns around and spits foe out.
Up throw			5%	Chunks the opponent upwards.
Down throw			4%	Forcefully slams foe into the ground.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Gets up and headbutts both sides of himself.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Gets up and spin kicks both sides of himself.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Picks himself up and whips his tail in front.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			12%	Slowly gets up and slams his head forward with short range.
Neutral special		Egg Lay	7% (egg), 4% (escape)	Yoshi swallows the foe and turns them into an egg.
Side special		Egg Roll	4-13%	Turns into an egg and rolls around. The damage done is based on how fast Yoshi is moving. If the move is started in the air, it won't do any damage until Yoshi hits the ground. Yoshi also becomes helpless if the move is ended in the air, making it a useless recovery move. If the egg hits a ledge or wall, the egg breaks and the attack is over.
Up special		Egg Throw	10% (grounded explosion), 12% (aerial explosion)	Throws an egg at an upward arc. The strength and angle of the egg that is thrown can be controlled by holding the B button and tilting the control stick respectively during Yoshi's windup.
Down special		Yoshi Bomb	14% (body), 1% (stars)	Jumps and plummets downwards, producing stars when he lands. If used in the air, Yoshi will fall straight down. Can sweetspot the ledge only if Yoshi is facing towards one.

Taunt

• Faces the camera and jumps up and down, waving his hands in the air and saying "Yoshi!"

Idle pose

• Looks from side to side.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer	File:Yoshi Cheer NTSC Melee.ogg	File:Yoshi Cheer JP Melee.ogg
Description	Yooo-Shiii...!	Yo - Shi!
Pitch	Deep male	Female

Victory poses

An orchestrated combination of two small musical excerpts from Yoshi's Story.

• Looks up at the sky with his hands together, spins once, and gives a V sign with his hand.
• Punches the air, then makes a "ta-da" pose. (His animation when chosen in Super Smash Bros. 64.)
• Angrily, he punches a few times, and then turns his back on the screen, facing right.

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

According to the most recent character matchup chart, Yoshi has terrible matchups all around. He was thought to only have an advantageous matchup against one character, Kirby, while he was hard countered by five characters (three of which are in the top tier), countered by ten characters, and soft countered by three characters. He was thought to have even matchups with only six characters, most of whom were in the low tier.

Current metagame

With new innovations in Yoshi's metagame, however, the vast majority of these matchups are now considered completely inaccurate, based on community consensus, tournament results, and aMSa's own opinions on Yoshi's matchups:

Yoshi's matchups, by aMSa

Avg.

According to aMSa's incomplete matchup spread, Yoshi has good matchups. From Fox to Young Link, he gets soft countered by 6 characters, has 4 even matchups and soft counters 5. Yoshi tends to do well against characters who have limited ways to combat Egg Throw spacing and do not have the attributes to properly challenge his parry, such as Luigi, Mario, and other lower-tiered characters. Ganondorf has the strength in his aerials to break Yoshi's double jump armor, which was one of the reasons that he was originally viewed to beat Yoshi. However, Yoshi's platform movement, good ground and air movement, strong combo game and strong edge guarding game on Ganon allows for him to stay out of Ganon's range while also being able open him up. He also wins the Ice Climbers matchup because he can easily separate and KO them with attacks such as his forward aerial, back aerials and down smash, and even immobilize one of the pair with the otherwise situational Egg Lay. His unique properties also work against the usual strengths of some top-tiered characters as well. The Yoshi matchup is notoriously difficult for Marth in practice; Yoshi has an even matchup against him because Marth has significant trouble edgeguarding and KOing him because of his double jump armor, somewhat low falling speed compared to the rest of the cast and high weight, which removes many of the advantages he usually has in other matchups.

On the other hand, Yoshi does worse against characters who have the tools to harshly punish him or are able to work against his strengths. It is important to note that even in most of his losing matchups, he can still aggravate the opponent with heavily punishing double jump cancel combos. Fox and Captain Falcon, however, can punish Yoshi just as harshly, and are able to use their superior mobility to avoid Yoshi's openings. Fox even has a multi-hit down aerial that breaks through Yoshi's parrying, removing a key component of his defensive game. Peach is arguably Yoshi's worst matchup, as she is not even susceptible to Yoshi's punishes due to her floatiness, breaks through his armor easily with her hard-hitting aerials and down smash, and can crouch cancel down smash many of his approach options at low percentages.

Overall, Yoshi is considered to have decent matchups in the modern metagame, having at least a fighting chance against the strongest characters in the game with several high-tier matchups even considered to be in his favor.

Notable players

See also: Category:Yoshi professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  aMSa (#9) - Widely considered to be the best Yoshi main in the world and the most influential. Ranked 9th in the world on the 2018 MPGR. Placed 4th at GENESIS 6 and 5th at Smash Summit 7 and Super Smash Con 2018 He has defeated many top players such as Hungrybox, Mew2King, Plup, and Mango. One of only 2 Yoshi mains on the 2018 MPGR along with nebbii.
•  nebbii (#98) - Best European Yoshi main and one of the best in the world. placed 7th at Heir 4. Ranked 98th on the 2018 MPGR. One of only 2 Yoshi mains on the 2018 MPGR along with aMsa.
•  Faxx - Best Yoshi main in Florida, 33rd at CEO Dreamland and 9th at Frame Perfect Series 2.
•  Guex - Best Yoshi in New England.
•  Kofinater - 129th at CEO 2016, also boasting a win over Son2.
•  Park - Ranked in CenCal.
•  Peanutphobia - Best MD/VA Yoshi.
•  Plata - 2nd Best Japanese Yoshi, after aMSa. Power ranked in Japan. Has a win over Darkatma.
•  V3ctorman - Known as the best Yoshi before aMSa. Currently the best Yoshi in Arizona.
•  Wamsa - Ranked Canadian Yoshi player.
•  Whiskers - Best Yoshi in Tristate and best player in Queens.
•  Widlar - Best Yoshi in NorCal. Won NorCal Arcadian 4. Notable wins over HomeMadeWaffles, NMW, and Jace.
•  yogui - Best Yoshi in France. Wins over Overtriforce, Djagof, and others.
•  YoshiAndreas - Currently the best Swedish Yoshi main.

Inactive

•  Bringer of Death - Best Australian Yoshi and one of the first to become notable with the character.
•  Fumi - Known as the best Japanese Yoshi main before aMSa
•  Leffen - Notably beat Professor Pro, Overtriforce, Dev, Paju, King Funk, and Beat.
•  mindtrick - Best Yoshi in Europe when active
•  Santiago - Formerly known as Lil Fumi, was ranked on the SoCal PR with Yoshi before switching to Falco

Tier placement and history

Yoshi has historically been viewed as borderline nonviable for high-level play. He was often accused of having a terrible shield game, slow attacks, and an inflexible recovery, all of which many top and high-tiered characters could easily exploit. Yoshi's advantageous properties, such as his deadly double jump cancel combos, ability to parry, and flexible projectile, were not fully developed and written off as gimmicks. Initially starting as a mid-tiered character in the first tier list, Yoshi's standing consistently fell, with only Fumi and Bringer of Death making any significant impacts with him. By the ninth tier list, Yoshi had dropped to 22nd place on the tier list, firmly within the bottom tiers and the fifth worst; by this point, Fumi and the other Yoshi professionals retired from Melee, leaving Yoshi's metagame relatively abandoned in the competitive scene.

Several years later, players such as V3ctorman began to use Yoshi in tournaments, revitalizing and innovating Yoshi's previously stagnant metagame. They pushed Yoshi's punish game, becoming much more consistent at double jump cancelling than professionals in the past, and also showed more uses of Egg Throw, developing it as a zoning and edgeguarding tool. Despite these developments, when the tenth tier list was out Yoshi only rose by one spot, and as a result, he failed to rise out of the bottom tier, and eventually, even V3ctorman suffered from declining tournament placings as more people in his region learned the Yoshi matchup. The only top-level representation for Yoshi was arguably Leffen, who never actually mained him and later dropped him in favor of Fox, thus leaving Yoshi's meta game stagnant once again.

In late 2012 to early 2013, however, aMSa made his professional debut in Japan, taking top 8 in a Japanese tournament with only Yoshi. He later finished 25th place in EVO 2013, sweeping his pools and taking a game off of Mew2King, a placement that convinced the Melee Back Room to move Yoshi up 3 places on the tier list following said tournament, making him a low-mid tier. aMSa later reappeared with Yoshi in several future tournaments, including Apex 2014 and Republic of Fighters 3, and, to the surprise of many, placed 5th at Apex 2015, defeating several renowned players of top-tiered characters, namely Lucky, Silent Wolf, Fly Amanita, and SFAT. aMSa's use of Yoshi was considered completely unique from those of Fumi, Leffen, and other previous Yoshi mains; he showed the use of parrying and spacing that was previously never seen before and demonstrated that Yoshi's ability to punish errors made by opponents was far greater than expected. While the Melee community has not yet updated the matchup chart in response to these developments, Yoshi has risen 6 places in the twelfth American tier list and 8 places in the third PAL Tier List, the best improvement on Melee's tier list, making him a solid mid-tier character.

Yoshi's placement in the current tier list has been on a topic of debate since then. Throughout aMSa's earlier years in the scene, many noted his tendency to perform better overseas than in Japan, suggesting that he won mainly through matchup inexperience. However, in recent times, aMSa's performance has gradually gained momentum; not only has he begun to dominate his region, showing that he has erased any reliance on matchup inexperience from his game, he has been able to continue placing well at majors, placing 9th at GENESIS 5, 9th at GameTyrant Expo 2017, 7th at Full Bloom 4, 7th at Smash Summit 6, 5th at Get On My Level, and 4th at EGLX 2018 while defeating the likes of players such as Hungrybox, Plup, Mew2King, Axe, Wizzrobe, SFAT, and many others. To top all of that, aMSa is currently ranked 9th on the 2018 MPGR, becoming the first top 10 player to main a mid-tier character beside Axe since Shroomed's Dr. Mario in 2014. aMSa's astounding achievements led many professionals such as Mew2King and Armada to believe that Yoshi should be ranked higher, even ranking him around or above top 10. Overall, thanks to aMSa, Yoshi has achieved great results, increasing representation and his metagame developed, causing him to be in reality much better than people thought.

In 1-P Mode

Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Yoshi can appear as an ordinary, giant, metal opponent, or teamed up with Ness or Luigi as well as an ally in team and giant fights. In his appearances in one-on-one fights, he either appears in Yoshi's Island or Yoshi's Story.

Adventure Mode

Yoshi is the only character of a starting universe that does not have his own stage in Adventure Mode. However, the Yoshi universe is incorporated in the Mario universe instead.

Yoshi's appearance in the Adventure Mode occurs halfway through the first stage of the Mushroom Kingdom stage. Once the player reaches an elevated platform, a team of 10 Yoshis will appear, who must all be defeated to continue.

All-Star Mode

Yoshi and his allies are fought on Yoshi's Story.

Event Matches

Yoshi is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 4: Dino-wrangling: The player chooses any character and must defeat a extremely large Yoshi on Yoshi's Story. The player has three stock while Yoshi has one.
• Event 10: All-Star Match 1: Yoshi is the third opponent to be fought in this series of staged battles. The player battles him on Yoshi's Story, which will transition to the next stage if Yoshi gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him along with Mario, Donkey Kong, Peach, and Bowser.
• Event 13: Yoshi's Egg: The player controls Yoshi and must protect a unique item, Yoshi's Egg, from Pikachu, Fox, and Donkey Kong for 55 seconds on Rainbow Cruise. If the egg breaks, the match will result in a failure.
• Event 24: The Yoshi Herd: The player chooses any character and must defeat a group of 30 Yoshis on Yoshi's Island, with the last one being giant. The player has two minutes to KO all 30 Yoshis.

Ending Images

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  Classic mode

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  Adventure mode

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  All-Star mode

Trophies

In addition to the normal trophy about Yoshi as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing both Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Yoshi on any difficulty:

Yoshi

Yoshis are gentle, fleet-of-foot dinosaurs that make their home on idyllic Yoshi's Island. They come in a variety of colors and have evolved an interesting trait to help increase their numbers: they can transform anything they swallow into an egg. With adhesive tongues and bottomless bellies, Yoshis have been known to eat anything.

• Super Mario World [08/91]

Yoshi [Smash]

To make up for his lack of powerful airborne attacks, Yoshi has a miraculous jumping ability and is resistant to damage while in the air. Yoshi can also swallow a foe and transform him or her into an egg: try doing this close to an edge! The speed and power of the Egg Roll increases if you hold down the B Button, but it'll be tougher to control.

• B: Egg Lay
• Smash B: Egg Roll

Yoshi [Smash]

Yoshi has no third jump, so the timing of his second jump is of vital importance. The angle and distance of his Egg Throw can be altered by how you tilt the Control Stick and how long you press the B Button. When Yoshi lands after doing his Yoshi Bomb, stars appear on either side of him, making it hard for enemies to deliver counterattacks.

• Up & B: Egg Throw
• Down & B: Yoshi Bomb

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  Classic

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  [Smash]

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  [Smash]

Alternate costumes

Gallery

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  Official artwork of Yoshi

Trivia

• Melee marked the latest game that Yoshi was not the last "Original 8" member to be confirmed. In later games, he would always be the last of the "Original 8" to be confirmed.
• Yoshi is the only character who cannot jump out of his shield. He is also the only character to have more than either 5 or 4 costumes as he gains two new costumes that were previously not playable.
• Melee is the only game in which Yoshi does not have the highest air speed.
• Yoshi, Mario, Peach, Link, Young Link, Kirby, Falco, and Pikachu are the only characters whose portraits on the character select screen match their official artwork.

External links

• The Red Essence - A Yoshi tech skill video by aMSa