Yoshi (SSBB)

Yoshi (, Yoshi) is a returning veteran in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, confirmed on the Smash Bros. DOJO!! website on July 24, 2007. Kazumi Totaka's voice clips from Yoshi's Story are reused once again, with a mix of those last used in Melee and some not used in Smash before Brawl.

Yoshi currently ranks 27th on the tier list at the last spot of mid tier, a vast drop from his 10th position in Melee, and his worst placement in the series. Yoshi is a unique character; he is 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 largely immune to shield stabbing (outside of a miniscule blindspot at the bottom of Yoshi's shield). 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, an up smash and a forward aerial meteor smash follow up although the latter is only guaranteed at the ledge in certain matchups), which is complimented by one of the best pivot grabs. Yoshi also has among the best horizontal survivability with above-average vertical survivability due to his heavyweight status and average falling speed, 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 extremely poor shield due to a multitude of reasons. Yoshi is unable to jump out of shield (the only character with this hindrance), his drop shield animation is twice as long as the rest of the cast, Yoshi is unable to powershield cancel and Yoshi is unable to glide toss. When combined with the fact that Yoshi's standing grab is the slowest in the game in terms of startup (which is his fastest out of shield punish on both normal shield and even powershield) and he has poor rolls, this gives Yoshi the worst out of shield game in the entire game. Yoshi is incapable of punishing many moves which are easily punishable for the rest of the cast and he is overall vulernable to rather unique shield pressure compared to the rest of the cast due to his highly lacking shield, making Yoshi's shield the worst in the entire cast by a significant margin. In addition to Yoshi's very poor shield, he 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). Other flaws include his slow and laggy standing and dashing grabs and an awkwardly large hurtbox on his nose that makes it easier to hit and space Yoshi. He also has poor KO power, since outside of his forward smash, up aerial and neutral aerial, he lacks other effective finishers, since his up and down smashes are among the weakest and back aerial cannot KO reliably. Overall, this has resulted in average matchups and average tournament results for Yoshi.

Attributes
Yoshi is a rather heavy character, tied with in weight, but rather small and fast for his weight. He 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 moves generally have decent speed (although not as quick as several characters), weak knockback, and his range is good for non-disjointed moves. His Flutter Kick (down aerial) can hit for 35% if used correctly, making it among the most damaging attacks in the game (although this can be escaped with SDI). Arguably the most notable aspect of Yoshi's moveset is his midair jump, which is the farthest-reaching in the game, and gives him limited knockback resistance during the ascent. As long as Yoshi has his double jump, he can also 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. This also allows Yoshi to perform a pseudo-wavedash, known as the Dragonic Reverse, which allows him to move and attack somewhat spontaneously. However, it is very difficult to execute, so its actual usage is limited.

One significant flaw with Yoshi 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 is 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. However, Yoshi arguably has the best pivot grab in the game. His specials are largely situational due to a mix of poor range and speed. 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 poking (outside of a miniscule blindspot at the bottom of Yoshi's shield), it has a long exiting animation (taking 15 frames to shield drop instead of 7 frames for anyone else) and it cannot be jumped out of, giving him 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.

Yoshi's major advantage is in his grab-release on a large number of cast members. He 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.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee
Yoshi has received noticeable buffs, such as a much better grab game due to his new air release option on a large portion of the cast and his new effective pivot grab, his superior mobility especially in the air, a majorly improved recovery due to him now performing a small jump when using Egg Throw and he was initially considered to be overall greatly buffed in the transition from Melee to Brawl due to him being thought as a low tier character, or even among the worst. However, as Yoshi's metagame in Melee developed, he is now considered much better that he was thought to be before, while the changes caused by the transition to  Brawl caused him to be significantly nerfed.

Yoshi has received several big direct nerfs, and the new mechanics introduced in Brawl overall plagued him. His KO potential was drastically reduced, as the severely decreased knockback to many of his attacks, most notably his smash attacks, sweetspotted forward aerial and Yoshi Bomb and damage to his down air removed down smash and Yoshi Bomb's KO potential and up smash is now among the weakest, leaves him capable of KOing reliably only with his now weak forward smash, his neutral aerial and his up aerial, while Egg Roll no longer gives him horizontal distance, making it completely useless for recovering and removes its utility outside of momentum canceling, and the drastic changes applied to his double jump and worsened comboing ability due to the loss of double jump canceling and the addition of the hitstun canceling have harmed Yoshi very significantly. Yoshi's biggest nerf however is his already abysmal shield game. His shield is significantly worse going from being different but still useful in Melee to being almost unusable compared to the rest of the cast. He still cannot jump out of shield and has lost all his advanced techniques out of shield, which is an exacerbated problem in Brawl's defensive play, where a character's out of shield game is much more important. This is made worse by the fact that Yoshi now suffers from the same amount of shieldstun as the rest of the cast. His shield grab while improved from Melee is still among the slowest in the game and is extremely situational at best. The only positives his shield has are the fact it still cannot be shield poked and that he possesses one of the best spot dodges in the game which has had its invincibility increased from Melee. This causes him to have the worst defensive game in Brawl, with terrible out of shield options and the loss of all his advanced techniques.

As such, the intensity of the nerfs heavily overshadow the buffs he received, making him a much less effective character than in Melee.

Aesthetics

 * He also has smother skin and his eyes now have blue irises.

Ground attacks

 * Neutral attack:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:

Throws/other attacks

 * Grabs:
 * Pummel:
 * Forward throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Pummel:
 * Forward throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Up throw:

Special moves

 * Egg Lay:
 * Egg Roll:
 * Egg Throw:
 * Yoshi Bomb:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Egg Throw:
 * Yoshi Bomb:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Yoshi Bomb:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Yoshi Bomb:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Super Dragon:
 * Super Dragon:

Moveset
For a visual representation of Yoshi's attack hitboxes, see this page. For a more detailed information regarding Yoshi's moveset and attack hitboxes, see this page.

Chain grab list
The following characters can be chain grabbed through an air release by Yoshi, though some are harder to chain grab than others:

Notable players

 * See also: Category:Yoshi players (SSBB)


 * - Was widely considered to be the best Yoshi player in the world when he actively played.
 * - Formerly ranked 10th on the Tristate Brawl Power Rankings.
 * - Best Yoshi in Europe. Placed 5th at Super Lion 4 and 17th at Bushido Brawl Impact.
 * - Was widely considered to be the best Yoshi player in the world when he actively played.
 * - Formerly ranked 10th on the Tristate Brawl Power Rankings.
 * - Best Yoshi in Europe. Placed 5th at Super Lion 4 and 17th at Bushido Brawl Impact.

Tier placement and history
Opinions on Yoshi's viability have greatly fluctuated throughout SSBB's metagame. During the initial release of SSBB, Yoshi was very flawed due to his shield being notoriously bad, low knockback on his moves, and almost non-existent out of shield options. As a result, Yoshi was considered to be one of the worst characters in the game due to his poor matchups and poor tournament results, leading him to being ranked 32nd on the first tier list. Due to his low tier placements on tier lists, many smashers predicted that he would fail to rise out of low tier and he wouldn't do well in the future.

However, players such as started to gain good tournament results with Yoshi, notably WHOBO 3, where he placed 17th, as well as 2nd in Brawl low tier singles using only Yoshi. Because of this, Yoshi then rose into mid tier on the sixth tier list (July 2011), where he ranked 28th place. Yoshi also jumped up two places in the seventh tier list (April 2012), his highest placement so far. He is currently ranked 27th in mid tier in the eighth and current tier list, as of April 2013. His current placing is, however, debatable by the community: there are some players that think Yoshi should be slightly higher, while some players think Yoshi should be even lower.

Role in The Subspace Emissary
After removing the Master Sword from a pedestal in a forest, 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's next role in the story depends on which princess saved at the stadium. If was rescued, Yoshi and Link battle against a Shadow bug clone of Peach (who was recently trophied by ), who was trying to trophify an unsuspecting  and  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 was saved, then Mario and Pit would fight a Shadow Bug 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, 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. After going through a set of caves, they arrive at the castle, only to find it in ruins from an ambush by Bowser. They only find a hole in the wall and they venture through a second set of caves until they catch up to Bowser at a cliff. They try to stop him from taking Zelda/Peach, but fail. Bowser then takes the princess' trophy up to the Halberd.

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 Kirby, and afterward, joins Sonic and the others against Tabuu and successfully defeat him to end the Subspace Invasion.

Playable appearances

 * The Forest
 * The Lake Shore
 * The Cave
 * The Wilds (Part II)
 * The Canyon
 * Entrance to Subspace
 * The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part II))

In Classic Mode, Yoshi can appear as an opponent or ally in Stage 2 along with and  on, Rumble Falls, or 75m (with the latter available if it has been unlocked). Yoshi can also appear as an opponent in Stage 11, but only if he hasn't appeared in Stage 2.

All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Yoshi is fought in Stage 12 on.

Solo Events

 * Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars: Yoshi is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are starters from the original Super Smash Bros. game.
 * Event 11: Yoshi's Rainbow: As the 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 that order is an instant failure.
 * Event 12: Sleeping in the Eggs: Using Yoshi’s Egg Lay, the player must put and  in eggs simultaneously.
 * Event 37: The Pirate Airship: As, the player must KO both Yoshis on Pirate Ship while the ship is in the air.

Co-Op Events

 * Co-Op Event 3: Fastest, Shortest, Sudden Death: Yoshi and must survive for 10 seconds against  and  on WarioWare Inc. All players start at 300% for this event.
 * Co-Op Event 5: The Yoshi Team of 50: As 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: Lucas and must defeat  and Yoshi on Onett.
 * Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Two players select a character and take on the entire roster on.

Trophies
Yoshi's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with Yoshi.

Trivia

 * Although Yoshi's in-game model stands with his back hunched over, he stands upright (which is in line with his appearance in most modern Mario and Yoshi games as well as Super Smash Bros. titles following Brawl) in both his character artwork and victory animations.
 * Yoshi is the only character with a tether or extended grab but no tether recovery.
 * Yoshi is one of only two characters who never uses their hands for any attack (including grabs), the other being . He is also the only veteran to not use hand for any attacks, including grabs.
 * With a Bunny Hood, Yoshi can use Egg Throw to stall in certain places, such as under the lip of the Melee's Pokémon Stadium.
 * Yoshi's grab puts the opponent in a unique state and uses a different pulling technique than all other extended grabs. Due to how these interact, the opponent is considered grabbed before Yoshi is considered fully grabbing. As a result, it is possible to begin mashing out of Yoshi's grab before actually entering Yoshi's mouth. Should the opponent be grabbed at near the maximum distance the grab can reach, it is possible to break out of the grab before they even reach Yoshi's mouth, in which case the game will crash. While this may result in a forfeit under tournament rules, it can only happen at extremely low damages, and only with extreme mashing skills in addition to exceptional reaction time, thus there are no known instances of this scenario actually occurring in a tournament match.
 * Yoshi is the only veteran character possessing an unusual meteor cancel window.