1. Yoshi Music Meme

A recent question a reader asked was about the name “Yoshi” and why it’s sometimes written “Yossy” on some Japanese things. Apparently, some believe this “Yossy” spelling is the intended spelling of the name and that “Yoshi” is actually incorrect. So what’s the real deal? Here’s a look!

Yoshi is a character from the Super Mario Bros. Franchise and the Yoshi's Island franchise. Video Game Appearances Super Mario World (1990, 1991), Yoshi (1992), Yoshi's Cookie (1993), Yoshi's Safari (1993), Yoshi's Island (1995), Yoshi's Story (1998), Mario Party (1999), Super Smash Bros. This is the music code for Yoshi’s Island by Lil Boomand the song id is as mentioned above.Please give it a thumbs up if it worked for you and a thumbs down if its not working so that we can see if they have taken it down due to copyright issues. Winged Clouds appear in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, its Game Boy Advance remake, Yoshi's Island DS, and Yoshi's New Island, and are found in almost every level. When a Yoshi hits a Winged Cloud with a Yoshi Egg, it disappears and reveals its contents or triggers an effect.Winged Clouds can contain objects such as flowers, five Stars, Extra lives!

First, here are some examples of “Yoshi” being spelled “Yossy” in some Japanese materials. Here’s the box art for Yoshi’s Island:

Here’s “Yossy” on the official Japanese site for Yoshi’s Cookie:

Even the official URL for a later Yoshi’s Cookie game spells it as “Yossy”:

And here’s Yossy in an official manga:

So we see that sometimes Nintendo officially spelled his name as “Yossy” on Japanese materials… but not all the time! The majority of the time his name is spelled “Yoshi” on Japanese things:

And here’s good ol’ Yoshi’s Story:

So what’s going on? Why is Nintendo spelling his name multiple ways? Which name is right?

It all boils down to the fact that there are two main, different ways of writing Japanese words using English letters. Here’s a quick history lesson:

• Back in the late 1800s/early 1900s, after serious contact with the West was reestablished, many Japanese scholars advocated replacing the existing writing system with one that used English letters. A system for doing this was devised, but the way it works was weird. They made it easy to learn and understand, but words written in this style aren’t pronounced the way they look. It’s hard to explain quickly, but basically this system was designed for Japanese people to write their own language.
• Foreigners, on the other hand, devised a system of their own that lets you write Japanese words with English letters that DOES make the pronunciation of words clear. This system was designed for outsiders to learn and speak the language. For the most part, this style is what most translators and students of the Japanese language will use and encounter.

The problem is that while almost everyone in the world is familiar with the second system, the first system is what is taught in Japanese schools. So this often causes weird situations when name spellings are dictated by the Japanese creators. These creators will use English spellings based on the system they were taught, not really knowing that the rest of the world will pronounce their spellings differently than intended.

To make matters worse, within each spelling style there are all sorts of minor variations and weird exceptions and such. It can be a language landmine if you’re not careful! For more info about these spelling system differences and their histories and all that, there’s a good article on Wikipedia here.

Anyway, that’s enough general talk – let’s look specifically at the case of Yoshi!

First, in Japanese, his name is spelled as ヨッシー. When pronounced, this is like “yo shee”, with the “sh” part held for a little longer than usual. When a consonant sound is held like this, it’s usually doubled in the spelling, but “ssh” looks odd and might cause some people to give the wrong pronunciation. The “ee” part is a little longer than usual too. I don’t know, it’s tough to explain unless you’ve studied the language, but in any case, “Yoshi” is the closest approximation with the second style of spelling that doesn’t look awkward.

Using the Japanese style of spelling, it would be a little more like “yossi” or “yossy”, although the latter style is a little rarer to see.

In essence, some folks on the Japanese side thought, “Hey, we should write ヨッシー’s name in English here to make it look cool. Since I learned how to spell Japanese words with English letters in school, I’ll put that knowledge to use!” And out came “Yossy”… but the intended pronunciation is still “Yoshi”. They didn’t realize that for English speakers, that spelling would be pronounced more like “yaw-see”.

So the whole “Yossy” vs. “Yoshi” thing is just a misunderstanding resulting from different spelling styles. This issue, the whole l/r problem, and a number of other things is why I often say that even when a Japanese creator explicitly gives an English spelling of a name, you sometimes have to be cautious about it. What they intended and how it really comes across to English speakers doesn’t always match, as seen here.

You know, I’m sure there are lots more weird, alternate spellings of things in other games too – if you can think of any, let me know in the comments! I’d like to compile a list of these sometime 😀

Attacking YoshiAll four areas lead to the final room, where the 'Room Before Boss' music plays. The only possible threats are a few that fly through the stage and two at the end who carry.Final room. Yoshi s island 4-8.

Yoshi Music Meme

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/YoshisIsland

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• Alternate Character Interpretation: Oddly, the strategy guide to Yoshi's Island states that Sluggy the Unshaven is just trying to give Yoshi a friendly hug in his boss battle. Which explains why in order to defeat him you have to break his heart.
• Animation Age Ghetto: The games have a hard time catching up to the main Mario series due to their very childish artstyle, abundance of baby characters, and cutesy protagonist - even after the adult Bowser was introduced as a Big Bad. Yoshi's Story, Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's New Island in particular suffer from this: the former is specifically designed for young children, while the latter two have a more childish soundtrack than previous installments (largely played on toy xylophones [in the case of DS], kazoos [in the case of New] and other toy-like instruments).

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• Ass Pull: After defeating baby Bowser in Yoshi's New Island, adult Bowser appears out of nowhere from time and space to prevent his defeat as an infant. The game itself even lampshades how sudden and forced his appearance is.
  Suddenly.. warping through space and time.. King Bowser appears!
• Awesome Music: Let's see, the final boss, the overworld theme, the underground.. Really, the entire soundtrack.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Upon clearing World 2 in Yoshi's Island DS, you're treated to a Cut Scene where Yoshi attempts to carry all three (at the time) babies at once. Unlike the other cinematics, this does not move the plot one inch. It is also Captain Obvious and Department of Redundancy Department, since it's already been said that Yoshi can only carry one baby at a time.
• Breather Boss: Salvo the Slime in the original cannot directly harm Yoshi, Cloud N. Candy in Yoshi's Story heals Yoshi when eaten and Gilbert the Gooey in Yoshi's Island DS has very avoidable attacks. Funnily, two of the three mentioned examples are the first world's end boss, and usually come after a somewhat more difficult first boss in said world. Marching Milde is also one of these, considering his only 'attack' is walking back and forth.
• Broken Base:

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  • Yoshi's New Island on 3DS is getting a bit of this for the graphics. Instead of reusing the 'coloring book' look of the previous two games, the developers have chosen a style that resembles Yoshi's Island's artstyle mixed with Yoshi's Story pre-rendered 3D visuals, with backgrounds looking more painted and characters looking like claymation. Some love the style and think it fits in well with the usual Yoshi's Island aesthetic while still giving the game its own identity, while others think it looks bland and lacks the charm of the previous games' coloring book style.
  • Not to the same extent, but some feel the name 'Yoshi's New Island' is bland and unoriginal because Nintendo already used the 'New' naming for their New Super Mario Bros. series of 2D platformers, and that Nintendo in general needs to stop adding the word 'New' to games that act as revivals of older gameplay styles. Not helping is that it was confirmed that Nintendo once considered calling The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 'New Legend of Zelda' due to the game being a throwback to Zelda's early years. Others think it's okay becuase there's actually a 'New' Yoshi's Island in the form of Egg Island.

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  • The fact that Yoshi's New Island's opening cancels out the original's ending by including a twist that the parents who were brought the Mario Bros. are actually not their parents at all also has the fanbase split between the people who don't mind it & find it hilarious and the people who think that this is very disrespectful of the original Yoshi's Island's ending, which was considered a Heartwarming Moment.
  • Yoshi's New Island in general. Some think It's the Same, Now It Sucks!, some think it's So Okay, It's Average, and still others like it because it's a love letter to the original and not DS.
  • The fact that this series gave the Mario Bros. an origin story by having them be born and raised in the Mushroom Kingdom instead of the old 'Mario & Luigi are plumbers from Brooklyn, New York who took a Magic Pipe into the Mushroom Kingdom' from the movie and the cartoons. Certain fans (particularly older ones) were against this idea and thought that the Brooklyn origin made way more sense and that the Mushroom Kingdom origin had way too much Fridge Logic in it. Other fans think it's really no big deal and are perfectly okay with the Mushroom Kingdom origin (and often point out that the Brooklyn origin was made up by Nintendo of America to begin with and now of course we have New Donk City featuring in Mario Odyssey too).
  • The GBA version of the original game. As with the other Super Mario Advance titles, it's either a Polished Port with creative exclusive levels, or a Porting Disaster plagued with screen crunch, washed out colors, missing graphical effects, low quality music, and voice acting.
• Contested Sequel: Every Yoshi game that attempted to follow up on the original was met with this reaction and for different reasons: Story for being too short and easy, DS for the implementation of its babies and difficult level design, and New Island for hewing too closely to the original and its bland level design. Yoshi's Woolly World reversed the trend by being met with a lot of acclaim.
• Critical Research Failure: 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).
• Designated Villain: Baby Bowser in the original can come across as this. He doesn't even seem aware of Kamek's actions at all, instead merely acting on instinct (curiosity, irritability, etc.) just like any other baby.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Raphael the Raven, the fifth world boss of the original Yoshi's Island, proved popular enough to reappear in Paper Mario 64 doing a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Lunge Fish are a mook example. In the first game, they only appear in the final area of level 3-7. Doesn't stop them from being notable enemies within the franchise and undoubtedly contributed to their appearances in later games.
• First Installment Wins: The original Yoshi's Island is much more well-regarded than any of its platforming sequels. In fact, after mixed reception to DS, Yoshi's New Island had been presented like a successor to the original, only to still be not as well-liked.
• Game-Breaker: Collectible items like those Bullet Watermelons. It's very easy to use them to just blast thorns to pieces, since the seeds can destroy thorns on contact and you get an absolute ton of them from just one melon. Even Extra 6, one of the most brutal levels, becomes a cakewalk with just 2 or 3 in stock. Naturally, they were removed in the DS sequel.
• Genius Bonus: Do the stars and moon from the second scene of 6-7 look familiar? They're from Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night.
• Goddamned Bats:
  • Bandits can easily be these, as they run away with Baby Mario quickly and can jump onto small platforms through hordes of enemies with no problem. Solo Toadies are similar examples, except they can fly. God forbid one gets caught behind some death spikes with the baby..
  • The literal bats found in cave levels. Especially in Yoshi's Island DS when the bats just keep re-spawning.
  • The large fish that squirts a barrier of water, forcing you to wait until he ducks down.
  • Green Gloves, for their ability to catch eggs and throw them at you. Getting hit by an egg doesn't hurt you, but it does knock you back. It's mostly a nuisance, but it can be a serious threat if there is a Bottomless Pit or Spikes of Doom nearby. It's especially noticeable in Kamek's Revenge, the Nintendo Hard extra level of World 5 in the original game.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • The one-way gates can be opened from the wrong side by throwing an egg into them while standing as close as possible.
  • Red Coins held by stationary Fly Guys (i.e., the ones that don't fly away) can be duplicated. Cause the coin to drop (without picking it up), have the Fly Guy respawn by walking away so their spawn point is offscreen, and come back to find a new Fly Guy carrying another coin. You can get 2-3 coins per Fly Guy if you're quick. Sadly, this was fixed for the GBA version.
  • Jumping at the same time as entering a pipe will skip the animation that's supposed to play, saving a bit of time if you're speedrunning.
  • Entering pipes or secret entrances in unintended ways (too high on the y-axis due to standing on an enemy, coming from the wrong end of certain pipes or unintended angles that you're not supposed to reach, etc.) will cause the game to send you back to World 1-1. Beating the level like this will count as beating whatever level you came from when activating the glitch.
  • Killing Hookbill the Koopa while he's still in his 'falling over' animation will cause his shell to fly offscreen and fling Yoshi to into the air during the death animation.
  • A programming oddity causes one of the introductions screens right when starting a level (that shows the level number and name) to stay on the screen longer than it usually does. Fittingly enough, it was The Very Loooooooong Cave. However, the GBA version fixed this, so it is only in the original version.
  • It's possible, with incredibly good timing, not only to keep on flutter jumping forever, but go gain height with each flutter. This makes it possible to skip the auto-scrolling on some stages, making it possible to go much faster than the game otherwise anticipates.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Yoshi's Island is not the first time we've seen baby versions of the cast. Mario, Luigi and King Koopa (Bowser's animated counterpart) turned into babies in an episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 five years before the game was released.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Yoshi's New Island for reusing level ideas and feeling like an expansion for the original Yoshi's Island. Funny since it was in response to Yoshi's Island DS's They Changed It, Now It Sucks!, though fans who criticize both tend to just dislike Artoon/Arzest in general.
• It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Yoshi's New Island also got this. Going for 100% is still quite the challenge though, especially because of the invisible clouds and the secret levels, as well as getting to face adult Bowser.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The 'Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy' level.
  • The music in New Island has become memetic in certain areas of the web. Special mention goes to Vinesauce, where kazoos actually became associated with Yoshi as a whole.
  • Baby Mario's annoying cry.
  • Videos of people/characters crying or screaming being synced up with the high-pitched horn sound 10 seconds into the music track 'Flower Garden'.
• Moment of Awesome: The final boss fight with Baby Bowser in the original. It can really get one's adrenaline going while they throw giant eggs at the advancing boss.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The sound of getting all the red coins. Try getting that last red coin when you're also one away from a 1-Up.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Many gameplay mechanics commonly assumed to have debuted in Super Mario 64 — such as the ground pound and red coins — actually first appeared in the SNES Yoshi's Island.
  • Yoshi's Island is also the first game to feature a certain remix of the Starman theme.
  • The series itself is Older Than They Think. Although the main platformers started with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, the first game starring Yoshi was in fact Yoshi's Egg (aka simply Yoshi), predating the Yoshi's Island by four years. Even then, three other Yoshi games were released between Yoshi's Egg and Yoshi's Island.
• Polished Port: The Game Boy Advance port of the first game, while having a slight screen crunch due to the handhelds low resolution and a minor drop in sound quality, is an all around solid port. It adds new voice clips for the Yoshis, makes Baby Mario's crying much less annoying and makes the timer go down slower than before, and adds all new bonus levels to unlock for each world.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • The baby-switching in Yoshi's Island DS, especially because it's mandatory for most levels, and all babies but Baby Mario are extremely slow, which ruins speedruns. You also can't switch between levels, so you might end up with the worst baby for the next level, and you'll have to backtrack to switch to the preferred baby (and then you have to find a level that you can beat using it to keep it). Needless to say, it was axed for Yoshi's New Island.
  • Poochy, as he's very difficult to control.
  • The invisible clouds in Yoshi's New Island, which most of the secrets are hidden in now. It creates a lot of Fake Difficulty.
  • Another one from Yoshi's New Island is the redesigned vehicle sections which use tilt controls.
  • Should Yoshi's feet touch solid ground within the first one or two seconds of getting hit and dropping Baby Mario, Yoshi will stop moving for a second to shake his head. Even worse, if Yoshi gets hit again while Baby Mario is in the air (or if he gets hit at any time by a Gusty), he'll be sent spinning backwards before doing the same. This can get aggravating when going for 100% Completion as it makes easy mistakes waste precious stars.
• So Okay, It's Average:
  • To the people who don't dislike Yoshi's New Island, this seems to be a somewhat general consensus. A good amount of critics agree it's certainly not a 'bad game', but because it's still seen as not living up to the SNES original it's generally regarded with opinions of 'it's okay, but not great.'
  • Island DS is considered this by some fans of the first game. It has a host of good ideas such as multiple babies and interesting bosses, but is brought down by what some consider to be unfair design in many areas.
• Surprise Difficulty: Particularly Yoshi's Island DS, but the original was no cakewalk either, especially if you were going for 100% in every level.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The opening music box tune that plays during the prologue has main melody that sounds like the Soviet National Anthem of all things, though that's because both songs use the very common 'Pachelbel's Canon' Progression.
• Tear Jerker: The music box that plays in the original game as the story is told.
• That One Level:
  • Getting 100% on any of the levels in World 5 of the first game is quite the feat. Taken Up to Eleven with its Bonus Level where even surviving, much less getting 100%, is very difficult because of the Platform Hell. The deathtrap can be prevented but that's a Guide Dang It! in itself.
  • Simply put, nearly all of the extra stages in the first game are this, with the exception of World 6's (when using items), which is more like a pat on the back for finishing the game.
  • The new Secret levels in the GBA port, especially Endless World of Yoshis/Crazy Maze Days for being extremely long, nearly Platform Hell and a maze to boot.
  • Any secret level in the DS game, for being Platform Hell. Notable among them is 'Welcome to Yoshi Tower!'. Rising lava, only just enough stars to max out your counter, loads of hazards, andno checkpoints.
  • Most of the secret levels in the 3DS game are also very hard, though 4-S in particular stand out as it has the dreaded return of Poochy combined with loads of thorns and barely enough time to jump over them.
  • Slime Drop Drama from the 3Ds game is normally fine to beat, but doing it without taking damage with 30 stars can be really annoying, the first room might have a crate of five stars, but you might just have to get red eggs, enter and exit a locked door over and over again and pin down the Shy Guys or Snifits. And there is barely anything besides the middle ring and three Snifits tucked within walls during a moving platform segment to supply you with stars in the second room. Kamek can easily become That One Boss trying to get through without getting hit.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Yoshi's Island DS for its baby-hopping Scrappy Mechanic, hugeSequel Difficulty Spike (while the old one was only difficult when you were going for 100%) and lack of inventory items. Arzest listened to this and made Yoshi's New Island, which fans complained was too much of the same.
  • Even Yoshi's New Island gets this in a couple of places, particularly the redesigned vehicle sections and the fact that checkpoints no longer record how many stars the player had.
  • Yoshi's New Island also catches flak for changing the theme just before the proper start of the game from this to this (which is now associated with the phrase 'The ass band will play a song of farts to celebrate your failure.')
• Tough Act to Follow: The original, inevitably leading to Contested Sequels. It doesn't help that every Yoshi game afterwards wasn't developed by Nintendo EAD, with the exception of Yoshi's Story, which actually has been Vindicated by History a long time after its release.
• Vindicated by History: Yoshi's Story and Yoshi's Island DS are getting some sympathy after the release of Yoshi's New Island. The SNES Yoshi's Island was at first, overlooked by (at the time) the more hyped Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Come a few years later, it started being considered one of the best platformers that was on the SNES.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Thanks to the powerful Super FX 2 chip,^note many effects were employed here that were thought to be impossible on the SNES ^note .
• Woolseyism: The Make My Monster Grow bosses' Japanese names literally translate to Big <enemy>. The localized versions give them all unique titles. The same happened to Prince Froggy, who shared his name with his species (Gerogēro, localized as Frog Pirate) in the Japanese version.