Publishers Nintendo | ||
Genres Platform, Puzzle, Arcade Developers Nintendo, Game Freak, Intelligent Systems, Artoon, Arzest, Good-Feel Platforms NES, Game Boy, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U | ||
The Yoshi video game series is a franchise of platform games and puzzle games that is a spin-off of the Mario series published and produced by Nintendo. The games have been developed by a variety of developers including Nintendo, Game Freak, Intelligent Systems, Artoon, Arzest, and Good-Feel. Yoshi games have been released for Nintendo video game consoles and handhelds dating from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the current generation of video game consoles. Some of the original Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games have been ported to Game Boy Advance or the Virtual Console (both, in the case of Super Mario World).
The series revolves around Yoshi, a green dinosaur-like character. He was first introduced in the 1990 Super Nintendo Entertainment System game, Super Mario World, where Mario and Luigi ride on him. The antagonists of the series are Baby Bowser, the young king of Koopas, and Kamek, a Magikoopa who was Bowser's caretaker as a child. The first Yoshi game was the 1991 Nintendo Entertainment System puzzle game, Yoshi, which was developed by Game Freak. The first game in what is considered the main series, as well as the first to feature Yoshi in a playable main-character role, is the 1995 game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, which introduces the universe staples which are used in many following games. These staples include colorful storybook graphics, and several gameplay elements. One of the earlier games in the series, Yoshi's Safari, differs heavily from the rest, as it is a Light gun shooter game. The latest game in the series is the 2017 Nintendo 3DS game Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World.