Topic: It's a Shell On Yoshi's Back!

[Caterkiller]

Years and years ago during the days of the Gamecube many of us debated endlessly with ferocious conviction about what resided on Yoshi's back. Now while it was all completely trivial I return the debate to you over a decade and a half later with proof!

Of course just a few years ago Miyamoto went on record about Yoshi's origins intending it to be a type of Koopa in the original Super Mario Bros but I forget if he mentioned the saddle/shell at all.

Whether you’re already throwing eggs in #YoshisCraftedWorld on #NintendoSwitch, or thinking of Flutter Jumping into the crafty fun, catch up with a refresher on Yoshi’s nearly 30 years of starring roles!

By the way…did you know that the “saddle” on Yoshi’s back is a shell?

BOOYOW SUCKA!!!

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1119329824659501056

[Mop it up]

For some reason I thought this was confirmed a long time ago, or maybe that was just because it seemed obvious to me.

[Ian Sane]

In the artwork from the Twitter post it looks like a saddle until Yoshi's Story when Yoshi got his cutesy makeover.  From 1998 onwards it clearly looks like a shell but that is not obvious in the earlier shots.  Look at the Yoshi's Safari picture - does that not look like a saddle?  Post-98 there is a roundness to the shell that makes it look like such but before that the "shell" is flat and it looks like the white trim is raised.

My guess?  It was a saddle when Yoshi first debuted but Nintendo later decided that Yoshi wearing a saddle would make him too servient to Mario and make him look like livestock more than a character.  So they switched it to a shell.

This is the company that when asked why Mario and Luigi were called the "Mario Bros." rather than by their last name responded with the ridiculous answer that "Mario" is their last name making them named Mario Mario and Luigi Mario.  They are more than willing to pull things out of their ass when describing their lore.  Nothing is in stone because they frankly don't care about details like that.

It's a shell.  I don't know if it was always meant to be but it's a shell as far as any game made over the last 20 years are concerned.  They might have just changed the design to make it more obvious.  Though I wonder if a dev made Yoshi look like he did in the Super Mario World manual art would Nintendo make them change it?  I like that look better simply because that's the look he had when I was a kid.

[Caterkiller]

I agree with you on just about everything Ian. I figured it was originally a saddle and it just evolved over time. Your reasoning seems pretty valid too.

As a kid I did start to question the look of it in Yoshi's Island because it has something of a bump. Though thats not present in the Yoshi's Island artwork for the most part. Yoshi's story then sealed the deal.

I wish 3D Yoshi would lose the absolute perfect sphere glued to his face. At least much of the 2D artwork today still depicts him in the same way as Yoshi's Island.

[ShyGuy]

Ya know, if you do an image search for Yoshi with a saddle, there is way too much freaky fan art of Yoshi's feet...

[ShyGuy]

[Caterkiller]

Why you gotta show me up?!

[Stratos]

So Yoshi is a good Koopa. Interesting.

[ShyGuy]

Sorry Katerkiller Koopa. It was either that or pictures of Yoshi's toes...

[Mop it up]

I also agree that the older Yoshi design was better. It was also kind of a strange evolution, because the modern design started in Yoshi's Story but I thought the ones in that game were supposed to be baby Yoshis. Why did they keep the baby voice and look for the (supposedly) adult Yoshi too then? Though it's also been inconsistent over the years...

Sorry Katerkiller Koopa. It was either that or pictures of Yoshi's toes...

Perhaps those aren't shoes and are actually shells on his feet too?! I mean, they do seem to be born with them...