Yoshi (Super Smash Flash 2)

Yoshi is a 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  universe.

Yoshi currently ranks 24th of 40, placing him in the B- tier on the tier list, a huge leap from 39th of 39 on the last tier list. Yoshi has good damage racking ability, decent combo potential and great KO moves in all of his smash attacks, and neutral aerial. Yoshi has a good air game with great air speed and solid aerials. Combined with the addition of double jump canceling, this helps his aerial game greatly. Yoshi also has a decent with having the highest midair jump (which grants him knockback resistance), 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 does 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 midair jump. Due to Yoshi's size and weight, he is very vulnerable to combos and chain grabs. Yoshi also has problems KOing due to his finishers being weak at worst to somewhat average at best, which forces him to keep using his moves while they are fresh to net the stock.

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 one of the highest midair jumps (which also grants him knockback resistance), giving 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 poking 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 aerial. Although fast, most of Yoshi's finishers are weak and he must keep them fresh in order KO reliably.

Yoshi's 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 knockback resistance. 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 a high amount of lag, making it a poor approach option. His grab is also situational because of the slow start up and ending lag.

His egg projectiles move in an arc slowly, making them easily avoidable. Even if they hit, they still deal little vertical knockback.

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

 * Nstinct
 * Reimu
 * Sekanor

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. In the current Beta tier list, Yoshi is ranked as 24th in the B- tier, making him a mid tier character.

Trivia

 * In the early stages of SSF2 ' s development, Yoshi was originally planned to use sprites from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
 * 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 first early artwork was based on one of his taunts in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Yoshi's second early artwork was based on one of his victory poses in the official Super Smash Bros. games.