Yoshi's Story

Announced at E3 2001, Yoshi's Story (, Yoshi Story) is a stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It is one of Yoshi's home stages, and in Melee, he is faced here in All-Star Mode.

Stage overview
Yoshi's Story is a very basic, neutral stage, with a layout similar in structure to. The main platform is primarily flat then slightly slopes downwards at the edges to the left and right. There are three soft platforms: one on the left and right, and a higher one in the middle, though unlike on Battlefield, the left and right platforms are positioned more outwards, slightly above the blastline. Another major difference from Battlefield is the main platform's walls extend downwards past the blastline, thus players cannot go underneath the stage when recovering. Yoshi's Story's blast lines are much closer to the stage than in other tournament legal stages, meaning that KOs occur more easily.

The stage also features a small floating cloud, colloquially dubbed "Randall" (see below). Additionally, there are Shy Guys which fly around in groups of 1-6 in a line. If food is enabled in the items menu, the Shy Guys will be holding food which they release onto the stage when hit. Even when food is not present, Shy Guys can affect gameplay: they will interfere with projectiles, and moves such as Green Missile and Raptor Boost, and they are useful for countering stale-move negation, through hitting them with attacks not commonly used.

Pak E. Derm can be seen pacing back and forth in the background.

Randall the Cloud
Randall the Cloud is a nickname for the cloud featured on this stage. It moves in a rectangle through the bottom of the stage. It is possible to stand/edgeguard on the cloud until it goes back into the stage. It is often used to assist the recovery process. The term derived originally from Canadian smasher on a SmashBoards thread, and it has since taken off as a norm on SmashBoards. It is also mentioned commonly in competitive Melee matches, usually when a player chooses to land on it instead of aiming for the edge while recovering, or when it comes out and saves a recovering player who otherwise would've been edgehogged.

Randall does not appear for the opening ten seconds of a given battle and emerges on the right-hand side of Yoshi's Story immediately thereafter, completing a trip through the stage and out the other side in 20 seconds. This means that the position of the cloud is consistent and predictable, not random. Through paying particular attention to the countdown in a timed match, a prudent smasher can use this knowledge to effectively stall a recovery and land on Randall instead of falling.

CPU opponents tend to try to recover to Randall if possible, leaving them susceptible to gimps.

Randall the Cloud can also be used for taunt canceling.

Ω form and Battlefield form
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Ω form and Battlefield form are similar to the layout of the normal form of this stage; however, the main platform is completely flat, and both the main platform and the three soft platforms have been resized to match and, respectively. The main platform no longer extends below the blast line, but is now suspended in the air. Randall the Cloud, Pak E. Derm, and Shy Guys are also absent. On the Battlefield form the soft platforms to the left and right are moved more inwards to match Battlefield's layout.

Hazards Off
With hazards off in Ultimate, neither Randall nor the Shy Guys will appear.

Origin
This stage is based on , in which turns Yoshi's Island into a storybook and steals the. This causes the environment to be turned into various materials such as cardboard, yarn, and fabric. This stage is an amalgamation of the cardboard theme of the first level, and the fabric and cloth theme of the second and third levels ( and , respectively). The cloud is also from Rail Lift, where Yoshi must navigate on clouds that move on yarn rails.

In Yoshi's Story, occasionally prevents Yoshi from proceeding, but can be stunned with a Ground Pound. He can be seen wandering in the background of this stage. Also in Yoshi's Story are s (also known as Fly Guys) who hold while flying around, which Yoshi can eat before they fly away. In this stage, Propeller Shy Guys carry fruit and will drop it after being attacked.

Update History
 

Super Smash Bros. Melee
The lack of intrusive stage elements aside from the moving cloud and the Shy Guys makes this a neutral stage for tournaments. Its simple yet versatile layout, smaller blast zones, and general smaller size make it perfect for aggressive play. This stage is often cited as one of 's best stages, due to its smaller size and platform height complementing his disjointed hitboxes and long range. This stage is also often regarded as one of 's best stages because of its small blast zones, which can KO an enemy with an up-smash or up throw to up-air at exceedingly low percents. and are also noted for having better matchups on this stage for its emphasis on close quarters combat and its accessible platforms respectively. Some characters that tend to do worse on Yoshi's Story include, , and. Because of Yoshi's Story's small blast zones and more compact layout, defensive characters like Peach and Puff find it harder to make space between them and their opponent and find it easier to die earlier. Yoshi's Story poses a serious issue to Jigglypuff, in particular, against Fox and Marth who often use it as a counterpick to the character, second often to. While the Yoshi's Story counterpick isn't as polarizing to Falcon as Fountain of Dreams or FD, the smaller stage size often poses an issue when Falcon players want to utilize his extreme speed to create dangerous aggressive mixups from across the stage.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
This stage has been downgraded into a counterpick stage, or sometimes even outright banned. This is due to the very low ceiling combined with a top platform causing early kills, the slight slopes that are on the edges of the stage, as well as its similarity to. Turning hazards off removes the Fly Guys and Randall the cloud, making most tournaments prefer this version of the stage.

Trivia

 * In Melee, the background is applied with a transparency effect so that Star KO'd characters can be seen after passing through the background. This is not present in Ultimate, as the background now overlaps the characters once they pass through. This is also true in Super Happy Tree.
 * The Moon and the Squid Sisters cannot be summoned by Assist Trophy on this stage.
 * Prior to version, the Shy Guys in Ultimate would carry food regardless of item settings, which generally resulted in its exclusion from experimental competitive rulesets with hazards enabled.
 * In Ultimate, this stage is referred within game files with the term "yoshi_cartboard" [sic], referring to its arts-and-crafts nature.
 * The stacking height symbols in the background are incorrect, as the bars are under the number.
 * picks up wool blocks instead of dirt blocks on this stage.

Yoshi's Story