Yoshi

From SMWiki

Yoshi is a bipedal green dinosaur with a frog-like tongue who first appeared in Super Mario World. He wears red boots and a saddle on his back on which a rider can sit. He is argueably one of the most popular Mario characters in existence.

In Super Mario World, he is ridden by Mario or Luigi. The player then controls Yoshi, and can make him eat enemies. Yoshi cannot enter castles or ghost houses. Yoshi can gain various powers by eating Koopa shells. He will merely spit out green shells, red ones cause him to breathe fire, blue ones allow him to fly, yellow ones cause earthquakes when he lands, and flashing ones give all 3 shell powers. Yoshi also allows the player to walk on munchers without getting hurt, although the player can still get hurt if they touch a muncher from the side while riding Yoshi. Yoshi can also destroy most monsters by stomping and can bounce off monsters that cannot be defeated by stomping, similar to a spin jump.

In addition to the green Yoshi, three other colored Yoshies appear: Red, Blue, and Yellow. The colored Yoshi will always get the same power in addition to the power of the color of shell they eat. For instance, a yellow Yoshi with a blue shell will have both flight and quake powers. These Yoshis must be fed five enemies in order to grow, although a power-up will make them grow instantly.

The player can jump extra high by jumping and then dismounting Yoshi.

The game is programmed to allow only one Yoshi in any one level at once. If the player gets two or more Yoshis (by uses of glitches), only one will appear. However, if one Yoshi is discarded (by dropping it into lava or down a hole), then the other Yoshi will appear.

In the GBA remake Super Mario Advance 2, Yoshi is able to hold and subsequently spit out most enemies while being ridden by Luigi, as opposed to instantly swallowing them.