Yoshi's Island (Video Game)

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Yoshi!

Yoshi's Island is a Spin-Off series of the Super Mario Bros. franchise.

The games all star Mario's faithful dinosaur steed Yoshi, who originally debuted in Super Mario World. Most of the games in the Yoshi's Island series are Prequels to the rest of the Mario series and the main games act as its Origins Episode; in addition to the eponymous dinosaurs, the games feature baby versions of the staple Mario cast. Much of the games feature a baby Mario himself riding the Yoshis, and one of the main goals of the series is to protect Baby Mario from being captured by the Koopas, led by a baby Bowser and his caretaker Kamek.

The gameplay of the series is very similar to that of its parent franchise: run and jump through an obstacle course with tricky jumps, enemies to stomp, and castles with bosses. However, there are also a lot of differences as well. Yoshi has a great deal of his own abilities such as a Flutter Jump, the ability to eat and turn enemies into eggs, and throw said eggs as weapons. Unlike the Mario series, levels have no time limits; as such the levels tend to be longer than usual Mario levels, often averting When All Else Fails, Go Right. In games involving protecting Baby Mario, Yoshi's "health" is a bubble of "Star Power" that decreases whenever Mario gets knocked off Yoshi's back; it decreasing to 0 counts as a death, though other hazards such as lava and spikes can kill Yoshi without him losing Mario.

Aside from platformers, Yoshi has also starred in various other games ranging from puzzle games like Yoshi's Egg and Tetris Attack to the Light Gun Game Yoshi's Safari. Elements from the Yoshi series have also been incorporated into the extended Mario series, with Baby Mario and Luigi (and eventually Baby Peach) often appearing in the spinoffs. Yoshi himself is a perennial playable character in the Super Smash Bros. series, where he is considered to represent this franchise as opposed to the Mario franchise where he originates.

Games in the Yoshi series:

Main Series

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES, 1995)
Yoshi's Story (Nintendo 64, 1997)
Yoshi's Island DS (Nintendo DS, 2006)
Yoshi's New Island (Nintendo 3DS, 2014)
Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U, 2015)
Yoshi's Crafted World (Nintendo Switch, 2019)

Other Yoshi games

Yoshi: Known as Yoshi's Egg in Japanese and Mario & Yoshi in European languages — Puzzle Game, featuring the grown up Mario and Luigi; one of the early works of Game Freak.
Yoshi's Cookie: A completely different puzzle game, featuring the grown-up Mario, Peach, and Bowser. Developed by Bulletproof Software.
Yoshi's Safari: A light gun game. One of the few games for SNES's Super Scope. This game features the grown-up versions of Mario and Peach.^note
Tetris Attack: Yet another puzzle game, featuring the grown-up Bowser. Of course, it's really just a sprite swapped-version of the Japanese game, Panel De Pon. Also has nothing to do with Tetris.^note
Yoshi Topsy-Turvy: Known by the name Yoshi's Universal Gravitation in Japanese and European languages — A short platformer with a tilt gimmick (using a specialised GBA cartridge) and Yoshi's Story style graphics, as well as featuring the grown-up Bowser.
Yoshi Touch & Go: First DS game to bear the title. In a way, this game harkens back to the early days of the original Family Computer/NES, where the main objective is to get the highest score possible.

Other works:

Yoshi's Adventure: An omnimover dark ride located at the Japan and Epic Universe versions of Super Nintendo World. This attraction sees guests ride a Yoshi as they search for Captain Toad.

The series provides examples of:

Antepiece: Lots. An example: Naval Piranha's castle features several rooms teaching the player how to ricochet eggs off walls to collect items. This is the only way to damage the boss at the end of the stage.
Arch-Enemy: Kamek serves as this to the entire Yoshi clan, as his plans constantly endanger them or the children they protect.
Artistic License – Biology: When you are inside Prince Froggy, you are supposed to Attack Its Weak Point, which turns out to be its uvula. The problem is that only humans have uvulas (granted, he's not exactly your everyday frog).
Art Shift: The platforming games are known to vary their artstyle between entries, usually based on some form of child crafting. The original Yoshi's Island itself used crayon aesthetics that's replicated by its direct sequels, Story uses a pop-up book style, Woolly World went with yarn constructs and Crafted World employs various arts and crafts.
Ascended Extra: The Stork was kidnapped along with Baby Luigi in the original game, but in Yoshi's Island DS, it now helps Yoshi out via the Stork Stops.
As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The Japanese version is romanized as Yossy Island on the box art.
Attack Its Weak Point:
- Lampshaded in the battle with Sluggy the Unshaven: "Just remember, this slug has no weak points!" Unless you count the big red heart in the center of its body, that is. And guess where you have to aim at to hurt him?
- Lampshaded with Naval Piranha as well. The name is a dead giveaway.
Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: All of the bosses are enhanced by Kamek's magic in order to make his monsters grow. Inverted with Prince Froggy, though; instead of him being 50 feet tall, you're 2 inches tall.
Autobots, Rock Out!:
- Final battle theme with Mega Baby Bowser. Blistering electric guitars, anyone?
- Getting a Heart Fruit in Story turns the level's soundtrack into a hard rock version.
Autosave: The game saves after every level. As does its DS sequel.
Auto-Scrolling Level:
- Many, and they rank among the most obnoxious levels for both games. "The Very Loooooong Cave" and "The Cave That Never Ends" are utterly ridiculous with this, having the scrolling screen go in many different directions, crossing the same part of the level more than once in more than one different direction. "Hurry and Throw!" contains a section that scrolls in an endless loop until you figure out how to reach the exit.
- The section of Bowser's Castle just before the final fight in the original game and New, where Kamek desperately tries to zap you with his Magic Wand.
Background Boss: The original Yoshi's Island ends with this. DS and New do something similar too.
Badly Battered Babysitter:
- Except it's not the babies delivering the battering
- There's also Kamek. When the first thing your charge does is stomp you flat, there's a reason why he panics when Baby Bowser wakes up.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: Upon reaching the boss room in the level "King Bowser's Castle", you'll at first only find Kamek ordering you to "HAND OVER THE BABY!!!", then Baby Bowser wakes up and stomps Kamek flat. Happens again in Yoshi's New Island.
Batter Up!: Sluggers are capable of using their bats to knock back anything that is thrown their way, from eggs, to watermelon seeds, to Chomp Rocks.
Big Bad: Kamek, who is usually directly responsible for the series' conflicts and actively hinders the Yoshis at every turn since Baby Bowser is too young to pose much of a threat (at least, not without some magic).
Big Boo's Haunt: Bigger Boo's Fort in the original, Ghost Castle in Story and Hector the Reflector's Haunted House in DS. Woolly' and Crafted'' also have a few examples here and there.
Bullet Seed: After eating a watermelon, Yoshi can spit watermelon seeds at enemies to kill them.
Canine Confusion: Poochy is said to be a dog, but he looks nothing like one; he has no visible ears or nose, and he has big yellow lips that resemble a bird's beak.
Canis Latinicus: In Yoshi's Island there are six main enemy classifications, each of which is given "scientific nomenclature": Edibilis Boringus^note, Harrassimentia Phlyoverus^note, Projectilia Ritebakatchia^note, Ucantia Defeatus^note, Dudim Phreykunoutonthis^note, and Mostosti Vomitonus^note.
Cat Smile:
- One of the fire enemies. raocow calls them "Catoboos" because of this.
- Ukikis in general.
Chest Monster: Fooly Flowers/Dizzy Dandies resemble the collectible Flowers, but with fangs and an evil smile. When you get near them, they fall down, and roll along the ground trying to kill you.
Children in Tow: The Huffin' Puffins are generally followed by a line of smaller ones. You can bump off the parent and use the children as egg substitutes. According to Yoshi's Story, the children don't mind.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- Poochy, who got his own level in Yoshi's Island, appeared as a selectable character in Tetris Attack, had a minor role sniffing out fruit in a couple levels of Yoshi's Story, and since then has only gotten two cameo appearances in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Party Advance. However, Poochy eventually returned for Yoshi's New Island.
- Baby Donkey Kong and Baby Wario, both of who debuted in Yoshi's Island DS as two of the seven star children, disappeared from the franchise not long after their first appearance. The former hasn't been seen since Mario Super Sluggers (Though oddly enough, he still got a plush toy from Jakks Pacific years later), and the latter was initially unlucky as he only appeared in one game, but was eventually brought back for Dr. Mario World 14 years later.
Color-Coded Characters: Each different-colored Yoshi does the same numbered stage in each world (green starts with the first level, pink does the second, etc). The exception is the final world, which always ends with the green Yoshi.
Cosmetic Award: A Perfect Score in an Extra Level adds a Star on the title screen.
Critical Annoyance: When you get hit, Baby Mario floats around in a bubble crying until you get him back. You will also hear a beeping noise.
Cute, but Cacophonic: Mario is cute as a baby, but you won't like to hear him cry.
Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Defied in the Artoon sequels, where there are two control schemes for people who have played either version of the first game.
Deer in the Headlights: The stork simply freezes and never bothers to escape in the two times he gets spotted by Kamek.
Defeat by Modesty: Burt the Bashful in the original and the Burt Bros. in Yoshi's Island DS. Th same happens with the Burt-based bosses in Woolly and Crafted.
Delivery Stork: The stork helps deliver the babies home. And in DS, he can exchange babies.
Demoted to Extra: Poochy - see Chuck Cunningham Syndrome above.
Developer's Foresight: See Skippable Boss, where the game takes into account if you use a trick to defeat a boss before the fight technically begins.
Distressed Damsel: Averted with Peach, surprisingly, as she's actually a playable character in Yoshi's Island DS (she does get kidnapped by monkeys in World 2-1, however.)
Distressed Dude: Baby Luigi in all three games.
Double Take: A rare example of this trope being used as a gameplay mechanic. Should Yoshi get hit while he is on the ground, Mario will float off his saddle. Yoshi will stop and look around frantically for about two seconds at which point the player can control him into rescuing Mario.
Down the Drain: "Naval Piranha's Castle" and "The Impossible? Maze" in the original game and "Big Bungee Piranha's Lair" in DS.
The Dragon: Kamek, the most frequent antagonist in the series, and tends to be the one to help out Baby Bowser in his final battle. However…
Dragon-in-Chief: Given that Bowser is still Just a Kid, Kamek largely operates on his own and both orchestrates the series' plots and commands the Koopa Troop himself.
Early-Bird Boss:
- If you're going for 100 points, Burt the Bashful from the first game can be this. Burt's weak spot shrinks after each hit so timing your throws becomes much more difficult as he attacks you. One miss and you can kiss your perfect score goodbye. It doesn't help that the first castle boss, Salvo the Slime, is significantly easier.
- By association, the Burt Bros are the same. Or rather, it's even worse due to there being two of them.
Eating the Enemy:
- Yoshi, being the Extreme Omnivore he is, can eat a multitude of enemies and turn them into eggs.
- Also inverted; several enemies such as Pirahna Plants and Lunge Fish, and even one boss, Prince Froggy, can do this to you.
Elite Mook: The Zeus Guys. The near invicible bandit sub-species that throw energy balls at you and will punch and kick you if you get too close. They're usually in duos.
Evil Tower of Ominousness: Nearly every boss level in the series is this.
Evolving Title Screen: The title screen places flags on finished worlds, switches to the final world once reached and adds instruments to the music.
Evolving Music: For each world you unlock, the map theme gets additional instruments.
Excuse Plot:
- Yoshi's Story boils down to "Bowser stole the Yoshis' favorite tree and now they want it back".
- Yoshi's Island DS, the story involving Bowser and the star children is put into action in the opening, but after that it's only brought up in the second-to-last world and is in a Meanwhile Scene that has no direct effect on the actual adventure, and in the ending after preventing it from happening.
- Yoshi's New Island is even more of an excuse, since it outright retcons the original's ending just to have the same adventure again.
- Woolly World is literally just "Kamek has transformed the Yoshis in yarn. Stop him!"
- Crafted World is basically the same plot as Yoshi's Story, just a bit longer and with Kamek this time.
Extreme Omnivore:
- Yoshi, obviously. He can eat most of the enemies in the game along with watermelons that can give him fire or ice breath.
- Prince Froggy also qualifies because he eats you, forcing you to boss fight from inside his stomach. Froggy also eats Shy Guys.
Fake Difficulty: The invisible clouds in Yoshi's New Island, which half of the game's red coins and smiley flowers are hidden in, which only appear (very transparently) for a split second at a time. Woolly World employs something similar and can be just as annoying.
Fat Bastard: The fat Shy Guys that are immune to being stomped due to their bulk. Yoshi can eat them to create huge eggs that act very similar to a POW block.
Finale Production Upgrade: Although Yoshi's Island was not the final game for the Super NES, the console was already on its way out in the U.S., as systems such as the Playstation were already released, and the Nintendo 64 was hotly anticipated the following year. (Even causing the expected game Star Fox 2 to be cancelled to make way for Nintendo's 32-bit era.) The game boasts sprite effects that had never been seen in any previous game, nor expansive worlds, game interactivity, or concepts. Plus, the finale of the game brings about a full-circle completeness. At least, until Yoshi's New Island.
Flipping Helpless: This is how you defeat Hookbill the Koopa in Yoshi's Island, (adult) Bowser's first form in Yoshi's Island DS and Knotwing the Paratroopa in Woolly World; Flip them over, then Ground Pound their underside to cause damage.
Floating Limbs: This might not be the case in official art, but in-game? Legs do not exist. There are only disembodied feet.
Foul Flower: Zigzagged. On one hand, there are some helpful smiley flowers, such as the five flowers in each level that Yoshi can collect for bonus points. On the other hand, there are some enemies based on flowers, such as Fooly Flowers, which pretend to be collectible flowers, then drop to the ground and start rolling at Yoshi when he gets close.
Gangplank Galleon: World 3 in Yoshi's Island DS. Pirate Pier in Crafted World.
Generation Xerox: While they've always looked more similar than different, Yoshi's New Island uses a design for Baby Bowser that is perfectly identical to Bowser Jr. in every physical detail, minus the bandana, retconning what few tiny physical differences there used to be and adding even more to frequent confusion between them. It also doesn't help that the voice they use are stock clips of Bowser Jr.'s voice that are raised in pitch. They've been sticking with it since then, which only adds confusion.
The Goomba: Oddly enough, not the Goomba (which does appear but not until many levels into the game), but rather the Shy Guys from Super Mario Bros. 2.
Goomba Stomp: Well it is a Mario series, although here, it won't be your primary means of attack.
G-Rated Drug: Fuzzies. Touch them, get "dizzy".
Greater-Scope Villain: Bowser, either as an adult or as a child, is usually behind Kamek, even if indirectly.
Green Hill Zone: The first worlds in all of the games tend to be the standard grassy hills and plains that Mario fans expect. However, given the numerous and distinct art styles, they often incorporate Scenery Porn in the backgrounds to spice things up.
Ground Pound: Trope Namer. Every game employs this technique and it has become a signature of the series.
Happy Ending Override: It turns out that the Mario Bros. were delivered to the wrong house at the end of the first game, leading to the events of Yoshi's New Island.
The Heavy: Save for Yoshi Story and the GBA-exclusive games, Kamek is the one who tends to kickstart the plots.
Heel–Face Turn:
- Baby Bowser in Yoshi's Island DS. And he Face Heel Turns RIGHT BACK when you reach the Final Boss.
- Also some of the bosses and enemies in Tetris Attack.
- Most notably among the bosses turning good would be Raphael the Raven, who also appeared in Paper Mario and helped Mario get access to the volcano.
Here We Go Again!: The opening cutscene for Yoshi's New Island reveals the stork dropped Mario and Luigi off at the wrong house at the end of Yoshi's Island, and when he rushes to deliver the babies to their proper parents Kamek intercepts him and makes off with Luigi again.
High-Altitude Battle: Raphael the Raven from the original and Moltz the Very Goonie in Yoshi's Island DS. Former battled on the moon, latter literally battled in free fall.
Hijacked by Ganon: Despite Kamek being the Big Bad of the series, nearly every game somehow ends with a Final Boss against Bowser.
100% Completion:
- In Yoshi's Island, each level allows Yoshi to collect 30 stars^note, 20 red coins, and 5 flowers (each of which provides a specific number of points adding up to 100). In a single world, collecting a full 100 points from seven different levels unlocks a replayable Bonus Challenge that allows you to farm items or lives, and collecting 100 points in all eight levels of a world will unlock an Extra Level for the world, which also allows you to collect 100 points.
- In the Super Mario Advance 3 version, defeating Baby Bowser also unlocks a Secret Level for each world with another 100 points to collect (for a total of an even thousand points in each).
I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy.
Immediate Sequel: Yoshi's New Island begins right where the original game ends.
Interchangeable Antimatter Keys: Any key can be used to open any lock, then vanishes. This is most notable in Marching Milde's Fort.
Interquel: Yoshi's New Island directly follows the original games thus is set before Yoshi's Island DS.
Jerk Jock: Sluggers and Green Gloves are baseball-themed enemies that can swing projectiles with their bats and throw eggs at Yoshi respectively.
Jungle Japes: World 3 in the original Yoshi's Island, and World 2 in Yoshi's Island DS.
King Mook: Nearly all of the bosses are bigger versions of enemies you've already faced before.
Leaning Tower of Mooks: Shy Stacks and Pirate Shy Stacks.
Legacy Character: The Baby Green Yoshi born at the end of Yoshi's Island DS is implied to be the modern day Yoshi, which would mean that the playable (Green) Yoshi in these games is a different one.
Lethal Lava Land: Many levels, but Yikes! Boiling Hot! is the most obvious example of this, as the naming suggests.
Level in the Clouds: "In the Clouds" from DS and "Welcome To Cloud World" in the original. Probably a few other secret levels too.
Make My Monster Grow:
- Every boss fight. It's almost a Running Gag for the final Bowser fight in the series now, after a basic fight against Bowser, he gets made 20/200 times bigger by Kamek's magic and ends up trying to crush Yoshi and the final castle level flat.
- Inverted one time when Kamek shrinks Yoshi and he gets eaten by the boss.
Maniac Monkeys: Aw, look at the cute little monkey... wait, did it just steal Baby Mario from me? And why are the other monkeys throwing cactuses and bombs at me?
Marathon Level: The Very Loooooong Cave from the original game and Endless World of Yoshis from Advance 3, along with The Cave That Never Ends, A Light in the Dark and Yoshi's Island Easter Eggs from DS.
Mascot Mook: Despite first appearing in Super Mario Bros. 2 (or Doki Doki Panic), the Shy Guy has become this for the Yoshi series, taking the role of The Goomba as well as having many other variants appear as common enemies.
Mini-Dungeon: The Island games and Woolly World have fortresses at the middle of the worlds, and unlike in the more traditional Mario games, each of them has a different, unique Mini-Boss.
Mordor: The last World of every game.
Nerf:
- In Yoshi's Island DS, red eggs will not bounce off surfaces. Though it nerfs the egg projectile in general, the primary effect is that it makes exploiting the fact that eggs change colour as they bounce to gain red eggs harder than in the original.
- DS nerfed the entire game in general by completely removing the inventory system. Now, not only can you not make the game easier by refilling your egg supply at the touch of a button or whipping out a melon to spit seeds at enemies, but you are now forced to guard your health bar with your very life, since you can no longer max out your star count at the goal ring simply by using a +10 or +20 star card.
Never Trust a Trailer: The TV commercial for the original SNES version. It made this game look like a Grossout Game.
Never Say "Die": Kamek's euphemisms before the boss battles.
Kamek: (before facing Roger the Potted Ghost) So give him here before you accidentally get hurt!
Kamek: (before facing Marching Milde) Yoshi! Oh dear... Well, Marching Milde will pound you to bits!!
Kamek: (before facing Hookbill the Koopa) Little Koopa come through for me now! Go forth and rock Yoshi's world!
Kamek: (before facing Raphael the Raven) I banish you to forever twinkle in the heavens, BE GONE!!
Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: If anything, Kamek's scheme to prevent the conflict between Mario and Bowser by getting to Mario while he was still an infant only accomplished the opposite effect; in effect, he began the conflict by getting the ball rolling.
Nintendo Hard: Getting all of the totally useless stars on the opening screen in the original game and DS, which involved finding twenty red coins, five flowers, and having a completely full health meter on every level. It's even worse in Yoshi's New Island, since the game takes away inventory items (meaning you can't refill your star meter), and the game reduces your number of stars to the default 10 if you lose a life. So if you're at a checkpoint later in the stage, you might as well just try again from the beginning because you're not getting 100% completion.
No Name Given: Luigi, for some reason. He's just referred to as "Baby Mario's brother" in the original, but is referred to as Baby Luigi for the sequels.
Non-Linear Sequel: Yoshi's Island itself to Super Mario World, taking place in the past, yet being named Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
Nostalgia Level: Most of World 4, but especially 4-1, consists largely of classic Mario enemies including Goomba, Koopas, Piranha Plants and Wigglers, featured in higher abundance than other levels.
- In DS, World 1-1 is a recreation of 1-1 from the original game, 1-4 is a recreation of 1-4 (complete with almost the same boss, except in Dual Boss form) while 4-1, "Rock 'n' Fall", is more or less a combination of "Visit Koopa And Para-Koopa" and "Lakitu's Wall" from the original game.
- Yoshi's New Island has the apparent final level, "Baby Bowser's Castle Break-In". Complete with Kamek ambushing, him suffering Bait-and-Switch Boss with Baby Bowser, Kamek then doing to the old Make My Monster Grow to him, them fleeing after his defeat, and the reunion of Yoshi, the babies, and the stork. And then adult Bowser ruins the whole thing.
Obstacle Ski Course: Two of the snow levels are this, one is regular, the other bonus. The latter also happens to be the most difficult of the six bonus levels... while being the fifth.
Oh, Crap!:
- Yoshi's expression while he's shrunken by Kamek before Prince Froggy eats him. Oddly enough, he has the same look on his face after he goes through Froggy's other end after the battle, but that's probably because of how he came out.
- Kamek later gets one in the same world if Yoshi performs a One-Hit Kill on Naval Piranha by firing an egg at her before even starting the battle.
- The stork in the Yoshi's New Island intro upon realizing he brought Baby Mario and Baby Luigi to the wrong house.
One-Hit Kill:
- Lava and Spikes do this to Yoshi.
- The Lunge Fish. Much like his Super Mario Bros. 3 counterpart Boss Bass, Lunge Fish will try to eat you whole.
- Boss Bass shows up in Yoshi's Island DS alongside Lunge Fish.
One-Winged Angel: All of the bosses do this.
Pain to the Ass: In the Yoshi's Island series including Yoshi's Island 1995 SNES, Yoshi's Island 2006 DS, Yoshi's Island. If Yoshi falls in the spikes he will spin around and die, and if he falls in lava at any time, his butt will be on fire while he leaps up and fall through the screen while holding his painfully burnt bare bottom and die.
Papa Wolf:
- Yoshi himself. Except for bottomless pits and a few instant-death traps, nothing can actually kill a Yoshi, and the player can kamikaze through entire hordes of enemies if necessary to get Baby Mario back before the timer runs out.
- Also Kamek, who is effectively raising Baby Bowser on his own in place of his missing parents. Literally all of Kamek's plots revolve around either trying to protect or appease the bratty Koopa prince, and he suffers for it more often than not.
Pickup Hierarchy:
- Primary: The Level Goal.
- Secondary: Flowers, Red Coins, and Stars, all of which dictate your final score. Also, keys to progress in castle levels.
- Tertiary: Coins. Eggs. Enemies themselves count as this, since eating them is the main source for obtaining eggs.
- Extra: Keys for mini-game huts.
Platform Hell:
- It would not be surprising if Endless World of Yoshis/Crazy Maze Days inspired or was inspired by various ROM hacks and Kaizo-type games. And the secret levels in Yoshi's Island DS fit this trope to a T, with the whole point of Yoshi's Island Easter Eggs being ludicrously over the top and somewhat unfair platform challenges.
- Castles - Masterpiece Set is even worse, with a ridiculously hard obstacle course of one hit kill spikes. However this area can be avoided entirely by stocking up on green watermelons and simply blasting your way through.
Plot Tailored to the Party: DS is structured so that you have to use all of the babies at some point or another by setting up obstacles which require a particular baby's unique ability to get past.
Prequel: All of the games take place before the main Mario series.
Proj-egg-tile: One of Yoshi's signature moves, introduced in the original game. New Island allows Yoshi to lay and launch eggs that are 20 times larger than him.
Promoted to Parent: Yoshi.
Regenerating Health: If the baby rescue timer drops below 10 seconds, it will slowly restore back to 10 once Yoshi rescues the baby.
Ring-Out Boss:
- Roger the Potted Ghost can only be defeated by pushing its pot into a pit, and he is aided by a pair of Shy Guys who are busy pushing his pot in the opposite direction. Sluggy the Unshaven tries to push you into the Bottomless Pit.
- There's also Big Guy the Stilted in Yoshi's Island DS.
Rotoscoping: Bowser's sprites in Yoshi's Island DS actually come from Yoshi Topsy-Turvy, redrawn to fit the graphical style of the former.
Sad Battle Music: Parts of the theme for the final battle in Yoshi's New Island invoke this feel.
Scenery Porn: Every game in the series has a unique art style (save Yoshi's Island DS, which largely mimics the original's), and the environments are loaded with details and colorful visuals to keep kids engaged and make casual gamers stare in awe.
Secret Character: White Yoshi and Black Yoshi in Yoshi's Story. And indirectly in Yoshi's Island DS, which employs such Yoshis for its secret levels.
Serial Escalation: The first game has you face Baby Bowser and, after beating him, an enlarged version of himself. In the second game (DS), you first face Baby Bowser, then adult Bowser and finally an enlarged adult Bowser. In the third game (New) you fight Baby Bowser, then enlarged Baby Bowser, then adult Bowser, then enlarged Bowser.
Sequel Reset: Yoshi's New Island actually starts with the original Yoshi's Island ending, revealing that the stork actually made a mistake and delivered the Mario Bros. to the wrong couple. So the stork is off to get the babies to the right parents when Kamek returns to capture them again.
Shout-Out:
- Burt's dressed like Obelix. Probably a coincidence, but the French and German translators noticed it and gave them names which are anagrams of "Obelix".
- Naval Piranha's name in German is Audrey, referencing Little Shop of Horrors.
- The snowman enemies are called Dr. Freezegood, most likely a reference to the Mötley Crüe song "Dr. Feelgood" (Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World already had most of the Koopalings and the Reznor mini-boss bearing music-related names).
- In yet another musical reference, the purple, piranha-like enemy found in the sewers is called "Hootie the Blue Fish" after the band Hootie and the Blowfish.
- One not from the game itself, but its advertising: the original TV commercials for the SNES game were a send up of the Mr. Cresote sketch from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.
Slasher Smile: Fooly Flowers are best distinguished from the collectible Flowers by their unhinged grins.
Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The first three levels of World 5 in Yoshi's Island, the second half of World 4 in Yoshi's Island DS.
Space Zone: Raphael the Raven fought Yoshi on the moon, and Yoshi's Island DS has space rocket piloting sections.
Species Surname: All of the bosses have this kind of name.
Spinoff Babies: Somewhat since Baby Mario and Luigi are featured heavily (plus, Baby Bowser). DS goes all in with the babies by introducing infant versions of Peach, DK and Wario.
Squashed Flat: There are 3D doors that fall down, and if Yoshi gets caught underneath one of them, he will peel off the door in a paper-like state (which was considered very impressive animation for SNES standards). This is also how Kamek ends up when you face Baby Bowser.
Stalactite Spite: In some of the levels, there are icicles which await for Yoshi before falling.
Take That!: Harry Hedgehog is a blue hedgehog who runs very fast and tries to ram into you. This is a jab at Sonic the Hedgehog.
Team Pet: Poochy, the dog(?).
Theme-and-Variations Soundtrack: Yoshi's New Island features many (though not all) songs which are variations on the first level theme.
Throw the Mook at Them: Various games of the series have bosses that do this, all of which can be eaten to make eggs, which in turn can hurt the boss.
Time Travel: Adult Bowser came from the future in Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's New Island. It's not explained how Bowser did it, however.
Trailers Always Spoil: Nintendo Power's "A Journey Through Yoshi's Island" promo video featured a clip of the Final Boss battle at the very end. It also mentions Baby Luigi during its summarization of the game's story, while the game itself never refers to him by name (in fact, he wasn't actually shown on camera until the very end).
Trial-and-Error Gameplay:
- Many Yoshi's Island DS levels, which seem designed to trick you into dying horribly via Death Traps you have to be psychic to avoid. Especially the skiing in A Light in the Dark and the egg powered platform in Yoshi's Island Easter Eggs.
- Endless World of Yoshis/Crazy Maze Days in Advance 3. There's a blind free fall past instant kill spikes. Which you then have to do perfectly THREE times. With one checkpoint. There's also a place where you need to hold a flipper open with a Chomp Rock, which is never hinted as even possible in the rest of the game, and is required for 100% completion.
Towering Flower: When Yoshi hits certain ? Clouds, the clouds will reveal a sunflower seed. When the seed hits the ground, it will grow into a giant sunflower, and Yoshi must climb to the top of it by jumping on its leaves.
Turns Red:
- Happens literally for Burt the Bashful, if you get his pants down and expose his round naked body, he will turn red in embarrassment, deflate like a balloon and blow up in defeat.
- Happens literally for Raphael the Raven. Each successful hit against him makes him start turning redder and angrier. He becomes faster, and also gains a Shockwave Stomp attack.
- Wiggler/Flutter does this too.
Underground Level: The Very Loooooong Cave and The Cave That Never Ends, along with many more.
The Unfought: In the original and DS, Kamek much prefers mutating enemies into bosses than directly confronting Yoshi. The closest he's come to a boss battle is when he attacks you throughout the final hallway in Bowser's Castle in the first game. Even then, he's more of an obstacle than a real enemy, and can't be defeated (if you attack him, he vanishes and reappears on another part of the screen). When you get into the boss room, it looks as though you're finally going into a real battle against him, but he only turns out to be a Bait-and-Switch Boss. Averted in the case of Yoshi's New Island, in which Kamek becomes the fortress mini-boss for each world.
Unique Enemy: Red Bullet Bills that home in on Yoshi appear in the Endless World of Yoshis level of Advance 3, though they were technically Dummied Out enemies in the SNES game.
The Unreveal: The Mario Brothers' true parents finally appear in the epilogue of Yoshi's New Island. Like the couple in the prologue, though, they are silhouetted and their faces aren't shown, making their identities up to our imagination.
Warm-Up Boss: Again, Burt the Bashful in the first game along with the Burt Brothers in the second.
When All Else Fails, Go Right: Subverted at the beginning of both "Hop! Hop! Donut Lifts" and "Shifting Platforms Ahead". Yoshi even turns around automatically if you don't move the moment you gain control of him.
Villainous Breakdown:
- In the original, Kamek's dialogue becomes more harried with each boss you face. By the time you make it to Baby Bowser's room, he all but demands that Yoshi hand Mario over. He then gets into a total panic when accidentally wakes his master up.
- In DS, Baby Bowser throws a tantrum when he finds out his future self is still a loser trying to take over the world.
You Can't Fight Fate: Kamek interferes with the stork to prevent the Mario Bros. from hassling the Koopa King in the future. This effort is, of course, Doomed by Canon.
You Can't Thwart Stage One: Averted. Taking out Naval Piranha before Kamek has a chance to transform it doesn't seem so sporting.
Zonk: In the Flip Cards and Scratch and Match Bonus Challenges, revealing a Toady doesn't do anything.