The Yoshi video game series is a franchise of platform games and puzzle games published and produced by Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

. The games have been developed by a variety of developers including Nintendo, Game Freak

Game Freak

is a Japanese video game developer that currently creates games exclusively for Nintendo. It has developed the Pokémon series of role-playing games and several other games.-History:...

, Intelligent Systems

Intelligent Systems

is a Japanese first-party video game developer and internal team of Nintendo Co., Ltd. It has its headquarters in the Nintendo Kyoto Research Center in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture....

, and Artoon

Artoon

Artoon is a computer and video game third-party developer established in 1999. The team was primarily affiliated in the United States with recent and current Microsoft Xbox and Xbox 360 projects, although they had also worked with Hudson Soft and Nintendo on other platforms...

. Yoshi games have been released for Nintendo video game consoles and handhelds dating from the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

 to the current generation of video game consoles

History of video game consoles (seventh generation)

In the history of video games, the seventh generation of consoles is the current generation , and includes consoles released since late by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony...

. Some of the original Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games have been ported to GameBoy Advance or the Virtual Console

Virtual console

A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...

 (both, in the case of Super Mario World

Super Mario World

, subtitled Super Mario Bros. 4 for its original Japanese release, is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo as a pack-in launch title for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System , and is the fourth game in the Super Mario series...

).

The series revolves around Yoshi

Yoshi

, is a fictional dragon-like character who appears in video games published by Nintendo. His debut was in Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Mario and Luigi's sidekick , and he later established his own series with several platform and puzzle games, including Super...

, a green dinosaur-like character. He was first introduced in the 1990 Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

 game, Super Mario World, where Mario

Mario

is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...

 and Luigi

Luigi

is a fictional character, featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the slightly younger fraternal twin brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, and appears in many games throughout the Mario series,...

 rides on him. The antagonist

Antagonist

An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...

s of the series are Bowser, the 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 GameFreak. The first game in what is considered the main series, and uses Yoshi as a playable character is the 1995 game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, originally released as in Japan, is a platform video game developed and published by Nintendo for the SNES console. Despite its title, this game serves as a prequel to all other games within the established Mario Bros timeline...

, 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 games early in the series, Yoshi's Safari

Yoshi's Safari

Yoshi's Safari, known in Japan as is a video game made for the Super NES in 1993.Yoshi's Safari takes advantage of the Super Nintendo's mode 7 capability, which allows backgrounds to be transformed by rotating or stretching it.-Gameplay:...

, differs from the rest as it is a Light gun shooter

Light gun shooter

Light gun shooter, also called light gun game or simply gun game, is a shooter video game genre in which the primary design element is aiming and shooting with a gun-shaped controller. Light gun shooters revolve around the protagonist shooting targets, either antagonists or inanimate objects...

 game. The latest game in the series is the 2006 Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

 game Yoshi's Island DS.

Main series

Other games