Hello! We are working very hard on translating the Melee website. We decided to ramp up our translation focus on the character introduction pages in order to give everyone a better picture of Melee, and its’ character. Special thanks to soma for providing assistance with this translation.
All comments were originally written by Sakurai himself. You can see Sakurai’s individual picture comments by hovering your mouse over the image. Originally pictures were given their own page, but for the sake of brevity I combined them. [TN] stands for translator notes. The original page can be accessed here.
Yoshi:
Updated October 23rd, 2001
Yoshi was designed in the previous game to be for either beginners, or advanced places.
People who know Smash probably already familiar, but when yo
u are knocked offstage, recovering back to the stage is pretty difficult.
“Push the stick towards the stage > use your double jump > use your Up B before you fall” is a sequence that’s pretty difficult for beginners.
But, not knowing how to do something makes it difficult to fully enjoy.
Because of that, Yoshi has an extremely high jump in place of not having a normal up-special. Therefore, I was able to reduce the difficulty a little bit.
If you think returning to the stage is difficult, then I recommend getting used to Yoshi first.
On the other hand, a character that’s only aimed at the beginners is bound to be lacking, so I gave Yoshi some unique properties in his design in order to leave room for advanced players to play as him.
A Yoshi that can pull off everything that he’s capable of is very scary.
That’s what makes him a character that’s “for beginners, or for advanced players.
![Yoshi’s run. Wow. [TN1]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sourcegaming.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/yoshi_120.jpg?resize=146%2C120)
(Images taken during development)
1. Yoshi’s run. Wow. [TN1]
2.Egg Throw. Please don’t pay attention to that thing behind Yoshi. [TN2]
3.The special feature, Egg Roll. It can roll fast, leaving you refreshed.
4.Yoshi Bomb. For a move with a lot of lag, it’s hard to punish.
5.Egg Lay. Be careful of Yoshi if he’s standing near the edge! Characters with fast fall speeds will lose their stock quicker.
6. Wh-, why is Yoshi biting them!?!?
This is a grab attack.
| Special Moves | |
| Neutral Special: | Egg Lay |
| Side Special: | Egg Roll |
| Up Special: | Egg Throw |
| Down Special: | Yoshi Bomb |
[TN1] Wow. is suppose to be the sound effect from Yoshi.
[TN2] Kirby was not officially posted yet. Kirby’s page can be read here.
- Smash Ultimate Development Timeline - May 16, 2020
- Straight from the Source: Koji Igarashi on Castlevania in Smash, Bloodstained - October 16, 2018
- Sakurai Discusses Isabelle, Echoes, and Newcomers - September 26, 2018
Huh, that’s really interesting! Never thought about how Yoshi’s jump-based recovery was easier to grasp for new players.
Yoshi has always been one of my favorite characters in Smash Bros., and I love his mechanics! I always believed that each character in Smash had something to contribute, so I find it particularly interesting to hear that Yoshi was designed to be a fighter for both beginners and advanced players. I’d have to agree with that!
It’d be interesting if SourceGaming decided to look into what each fighter in Smash is suppose to bring to the table: i.e. Rosalina is the “puppet mechanic” character, Zero Suit Samus is the “female martial artist”, etc. I think it could make for an interesting article. If not, maybe someone else will contribute! (Like me… if I have time :/)
“A Yoshi that can pull off everything that he’s capable of is very scary.”
Why do I feel like he is foreshadowing Amsa?