Yoshi (Super Smash Flash 2)

Yoshi is a playable veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. Yoshi comes with a completely custom-made sprite set based on his appearance from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He retains many of his trademark moves like his chameleon-like tongue and unique ground pound ability. Yoshi is the only character representation of the Yoshi universe.

Yoshi currently ranks 19th of B- tier on the tier list, a huge leap from 39th of "STOP READING HERE" tier, last place, last tier list. Yoshi has good damage racking ability, decent combo potential and kill moves in all of his smash attacks, and neutral aerial. Yoshi has a good air game with great air speed, solid aerials and with the addition of double jump canceling helps his aerial game greatly. Yoshi has a decent recovery with having the highest midair jump (which grants him super armor), great air speed and he can use egg throw to give him small jumps when used in the air. Yoshi has a unique shield in that he is immune to shield stabbing with the ability to jump and side step out of shield (an ability he was not able to do in Super Smash Bros. Melee or Super Smash Bros. Brawl).

However, Yoshi's recovery is highly polarizing; his double jump covers great horizontal and vertical distance and gives him armor frames, making him hard to gimp with weaker attacks. However, since Yoshi lacks a true third jump, he has almost no chance of recovering if he is hit out of his double jump. Due to Yoshi's size and weight makes him vulnerable to combos and chain grabs. Yoshi also has problems killing due to his finishers being weak and needing to keep his moves fresh in order kill his opponents at high percentages.

Yoshi appears to have a small player base and lackluster representation and low placements in online tournaments.

Attributes
Yoshi is a heavy character with good damage racking capabilities. Yoshi has one of the fastest air speeds and has the highest midair jump (which also gives him a limited amount of Super armor) which gives him a good air game.

Yoshi has the fifth longest grab in the current demo, though it is one of the laggiest grabs and when missed, will leave Yoshi open. His grab is not the only problem, since he possesses extremely lackluster throws. His only useful throw is down throw, which can chain grab fast and high fallers from low to mid percents while its also a great combo starter. Ironically, despite it being able to chain grab, it is the only one of his throws that can KO under 200%.

Yoshi has a unique shield in that it is not an energy bubble, but rather an egg, which darkens over time, instead of shrinking, making Yoshi immune to shield stabbing and like in Super Smash Bros., he can jump out of his shield.

Yoshi main kill moves are in his forward smash, up smash and neutral air.

However, Yoshi size is a problem when combined with his weight, being the second heaviest and being a high faller which makes him vulnerable to chain grabs and combos.

Yoshi's main mean of recovery is his midair jump, which has super armor. However, it can be broken through or grabbed out of, reducing the chances of him making back to the stage even with Egg Throw. This is also dangerous when he tries to Double Jump Cancel off-stage.

Egg Roll is very situational because Yoshi can be knocked out of his egg by attacks, high-priority projectiles, grabbed out of and the move has slow start up & ending lag making it a poor approach option. His grab is also situational because of the slow start up and ending lag.

His egg projectiles are poor because they move slowly through the air, move in an arc making them easily avoidable and do little vertical knockback.

Most of Yoshi's finishers are weak and he must keep them fresh in order KO reliably.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack: Pushing kick. 3%
 * Standard attack 2: Rising kick. 6%
 * Down tilt: Lashes his tail out in front of him while spinning in his crouching position. 10%
 * Down smash: Spinning tail whip. Yoshi hits with his tail on either side. 13% uncharged, 19% fully charged.
 * Side tilt: Hits forward with his tail. 9%
 * Forward smash: Strong headbutt. Yoshi rams his head forward.12% uncharged, 17% fully charged.
 * Up tilt: Whips his tail upwards. 10%
 * Up smash: Yoshi headbutts upwards. 16% uncharged, 23% fully charged.
 * Dash attack: Headbutts the opponent while running. Strong hit deals 9%. Weak hit does 7%

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Sex kick. Yoshi's fastest aerial. 10% sweet spot, 9% sour spot.
 * Forward aerial: Spinning headbutt. It meteor smashes powerfully. 11%
 * Back aerial: Tail flail. Four hits for 4% each. 16% total.
 * Up aerial: Upwards tail whip. 10%
 * Down aerial: Flutter kicks in the air. Yoshi kicks underneath himself several times, smashing downwards anyone in the way. Can do anywhere from 4% to 56% total.

Grabs & Throws

 * Grab: Swallows the enemy.
 * Pummel: Chews. 1% first hit, 1% all subsequent hits.
 * Forward throw: Spits out opponent, can chain grab all characters. 7%
 * Back throw: Turns around and spits out opponent behind him. 7%
 * Up throw Spits opponent out into the air. 5%
 * Down throw: Jumps and spits the opponent on the floor face first. 6%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Climbs up and hits with his tail. 6%
 * Floor attack: Swings his tail in both directions. 5%

Misc.

 * On-screen appearance: Breaks out of a Yoshi egg.
 * Taunts:
 * Standard: Chases his tail in circles.
 * Side: Hops once saying, "Whoa!"
 * Down: Turns toward the camera and jumps twice and says "Yoshi!".
 * Victory theme:
 * Wins: Hops, spins on one foot, hops again and strikes a pose.
 * Loses: Claps to the winner.

Changes from v0.9a
Yoshi received little changes from last demo. Yoshi benefits from the lower histun of the demo due to him being less susceptible to chain grabs while still being able to combo like last demo. Even with the little changes Yoshi received, he is seen as a more effective character.

Notable players

 * Sekanor
 * Nstinct
 * Reimu

Tier placement history
When Yoshi was first introduced, he was seen as a strong character, but when demo v0.8b came out is when Yoshi was seen as the worst character in the game where he was ranked 20th of K tier. In demo v0.9a, Yoshi was seen as better character than he was last demo, but was not seen as a strong character and ranked 21st of what could be considered C tier. However, in demo v0.9b, Yoshi strengths were seen and he is ranked 9th of A tier where he is seen as a high tier character. However, continued changes in the metagame showed that Yoshi was not as good as previously thought and he dropped down to 15th of B tier, where he was seen as a mid tier character, more changes shown that Yoshi was even worse as previously thought, making him drop to 22nd of B- tier. In Beta, he dropped again, to 39th of STOP READING HERE tier, making Yoshi the worst character in the game again.

Trivia

 * In the early stages of SSF2 ' s development, Yoshi was originally planned to use sprites from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
 * From demo v0.8a to v0.8b, Yoshi's portrait was taken from Yoshi's Topsy Turvy.
 * Since his introduction in v0.8a up until the v1.0.3 patch for the Beta version, Yoshi used edited sprite sets from Yoshi's Island DS. These were dropped in favor of a custom-made appearance.
 * Yoshi, along with and, are the only characters so far who wear their default costumes in team battle when they are on the green team.
 * Yoshi and are the only characters with a long-ranged grab to not have a tether recovery.
 * Yoshi along with, , and are the only characters so far that do not go into a helpless state under normal circumstances.
 * Yoshi's current pixel art is based on one of victory poses in the official Super Smash Bros. games.