Analysing Yoshi's Origin Games

[Skitrel]

As part of improving my Yoshi play I've spent some time trying to get into the mind of the developers. It's quite obvious that the design of Smash 4 has sought to give many characters a style representative of the source material. This is most obvious in the third party characters - Megaman and Sonic. Take Megaman for example, he plays very much like his actual games, jumping up and down firing lemons and sliding around. Sonic too, his entire playstyle revolves around spindashing and homing attack, the fundamentals of his games.

I believe this same design philosophy went into Yoshi. Below is a 20minute clip of all of Yoshi's boss fights in his original game and I think you'll agree with me.

Yoshi's Island

Gameplay Analysis:

Slow on ground.
Fast in air.
Eggs are his primary attack.
Yoshi Bomb is used primarily to finish off opponents.
Egglay is a defensive part of the game necessary for replenishing eggthrow ammunition.
Jumping on enemy heads, as with all Mario games, results in damage or is a core component of defeating the enemy.

In essence Yoshi's gameplay in his first game is: Keep away from enemies, close contact with them results in taking damage. Jump and airspeed is primarily used to play the keepaway game. Use eggs to injure enemies and bomb to finish them off. If any enemies get really close use egglay as a defensive close range move.

I won't go into detail on how these observations could be applied to gameplay. I'll let people do that for themselves. What I would prefer to do is keep this thread to discussion about the gameplay mechanics of Yoshi's other titles.

If anyone wants to add observations about Yoshi's first game feel free. In time I'll get around to looking at his other games too and adding them to this first post. I'm unfamiliar with Wooly World and his other titles but I assume there is more inspiration and gameplay that has been taken from those in some way or another.

EDIT:1

Next up we have

Yoshi's Story

Yoshi's Story follows the alternate art direction style of Yoshi's Island. Taking place in a stylised world within a popup story book we start to see the reasoning behind the more recent title "Wooly World" having its stylised look, Yoshi's Story even has identical sections within it using fabric as a texture.

Functionally the game is practically identical to the original title, although there are some physics differences. This title went for a more puzzle based direction where you have the aim of collecting fruit. This is starkly different to the action-based style of the prior games in which you just survive to the end of levels and beat bosses.

The game received just 65/100 on metacritic. It wasn't very well received and this is why I'm not really taking it's changes to the Yoshi franchise as a serious influence on Yoshi's gameplay. It didn't bring anything new to the table and was a much smaller game than its predecessor.

EDIT2:

Yoshi's Universal Gravitation

While technically a sequel this is the most questionable game that will be listed here. The game released on the Gameboy Advance and the only mechanics it had were jumping and egglaying. Instead this game relied on a gimmicky tilting mechanism to provide interesting environments.

It bombed in reception, receiving 60/100 on metacritic and being universally disliked. As it brought absolutely nothing new in terms of gameplay there really isn't anything to analyse here.

Yoshi Touch n Go

Another gimmick title using the uniqueness of Nintendo's handheld features. This one is an onrails shooter. Throw eggs at enemies or circle them on the touch screen in order to defeat them. You can also draw clouds to guide Yoshi's movement.

Doesn't bring anything else to the table.

Yoshi's Island DS

The first of our titles truly worth looking at since the original! Yoshi's Island DS is very similar to the original in gameplay and style, although rather than using a pastel colour pallete the game uses a more vibrant and bright set of colours more in keeping with typical Mario titles.

Yoshi's Island DS plays functionally identical to the original barring one major gameplay change - the ability to swap babies. When Yoshi carries a different baby on his back he gains different abilities.

Baby Differences:

Mario: Enables dashing. Super Baby Mario powerups and magic M blocks.
Peach: Enables longer time in the air when jumping and ability to do super jumps using wind currents.
DK: Enables climbing/swinging from vines and gives Yoshi a dash attack. Eggs explode on impact using DK. Slower movement. Worse flutter jump.
Wario: Magnet attracts metal. Eggs gain bouncing ability. Slower movement. Worse flutter jump.
Bowser: Spit fireballs but lose egglay. Eggs being carried already gain bouncing ability. Slower movement. Worse flutter jump.

Bosses: The game features 5 worlds with 2 bosses per world. Each enemy has one specific weakness that Yoshi must exploit in order to win.

EDIT3:

Yoshi's New Island

Nintendo took an 8 year break between the release of their DS title and the 3DS title. 8 years of absolutely no love and attention being paid to Yoshi. I suppose we're doing better than the DK fans but still!

Yoshi's New Island aimed to be a remake of the original title, it aimed to have all the charm, visual oddness and mechanics of the first title in a new package. Did it succeed? Not entirely. The game was criticised for being too easy, while it got acceptable reviews the testers almost universally wanted a greater challenge. The final world was bitter-sweet for reviewers because it finally gave them the challenge they wanted throughout the game but then immediately ended. It was a game that could have been, but was not.

Gameplay Analysis:
Fundamentally identical to the first game.
No switchable babies.
Vehicle transformation sections where Yoshi transforms into helicopters/submarines and more.
Gameplay features Yoshi running away, throwing eggs at opponents and finishing them with downB to their weak spot.

Yoshi's Wooly World

Yoshi's Wooly World is the last title in our series of main-character games to look at that aren't either Yoshi featuring as a secondary character or spinoff games. It was the most well received title since the first game receiving a 77/100 on metacritic and generally positive reviews.

As you can see for yourself they took a large step forwards into the direction of unique artstyle with the title, drawing on inspiration from a small section of the earlier mentioned title "Yoshi's Story".

Gameplay analysis:

The differences between the artstyle (and 3D) are pretty much where the differences end. Just like with earlier titles in Yoshi's history we're given 3 tools to get the job done, egglay, eggthrow and eggbomb.

These tools may have been covered with yarn/thread, but fundamentally it is the same. Yoshi must eat enemies to gain ammunition that follows behind him. He throws it at enemies and then uses eggbomb to finish them off.

***

Having completed looking at all of Yoshi's main-character titles I'll be moving onto titles where he is either a secondary character or the game's are spinoffs (such as the puzzle titles).

 

[YoHeKing]

As part of improving my Yoshi play I've spent some time trying to get into the mind of the developers. It's quite obvious that the design of Smash 4 has sought to give many characters a style representative of the source material. This is most obvious in the third party characters - Megaman and Sonic. Take Megaman for example, he plays very much like his actual games, jumping up and down firing lemons and sliding around. Sonic too, his entire playstyle revolves around spindashing and homing attack, the fundamentals of his games.

I believe this same design philosophy went into Yoshi. Below is a 20minute clip of all of Yoshi's boss fights in his original game and I think you'll agree with me.

Analysis:

Slow on ground.
Fast in air.
Eggs are his primary attack.
Yoshi Bomb is used primarily to finish off opponents.
Egglay is a defensive part of the game necessary for replenishing eggthrow ammunition.
Jumping on enemy heads, as with all Mario games, results in damage or is a core component of defeating the enemy.

In essence Yoshi's gameplay in his first game is: Keep away from enemies, close contact with them results in taking damage. Jump and airspeed is primarily used to play the keepaway game. Use eggs to injure enemies and bomb to finish them off. If any enemies get really close use egglay as a defensive close range move.

I won't go into detail on how these observations could be applied to gameplay. I'll let people do that for themselves. What I would prefer to do is keep this thread to discussion about the gameplay mechanics of Yoshi's other titles.

If anyone wants to add observations about Yoshi's first game feel free. In time I'll get around to looking at his other games too and adding them to this first post. I'm unfamiliar with Wooly World and his other titles but I assume there is more inspiration and gameplay that has been taken from those in some way or another.

Yoshi Is actually fast on ground.Isn't he like 11th fastest?
Somthing I noticed. In the Yoshi games eggs were always anti airs and for exploiting weaknesses. Egg lay was for ground game. But the only reason why Yoshi was so defensive in Yoshi games is there was that dang baby. I think hes free to do whatever now that he doesn't baby sit.

 

[Skitrel]

Yoshi Is actually fast on ground.Isn't he like 11th fastest?
Somthing I noticed. In the Yoshi games eggs were always anti airs and for exploiting weaknesses. Egg lay was for ground game. But the only reason why Yoshi was so defensive in Yoshi games is there was that dang baby. I think hes free to do whatever now that he doesn't baby sit.

Interesting thoughts. I'll give you the egg lay being generally a ground-game-only move, eggs seem multi-purpose to me though, used largely for any and all damage.

You may be right about the defensive nature due to the baby, that makes some sense. I'll see when I get round to viewing his other titles in full.

As for his speed, yeah he's not bad in Smash 4, I was just generally observing that he's pretty slow on ground compared to air in his game. He also carries a lot of forward momentum and you can see he slides quite a lot on the ground.

If I were going to make comments about how this game applies to Smash - I'd say that Yoshi was primarily a projectile using character in his first title and that his projectiles in Smash should be consider his primary move. This of course relies on only analysing this game. I suspect that when his other games are analysed we'll see a wider array of playstyles.

 

[YoHeKing]

Interesting thoughts. I'll give you the egg lay being generally a ground-game-only move, eggs seem multi-purpose to me though, used largely for any and all damage.

You may be right about the defensive nature due to the baby, that makes some sense. I'll see when I get round to viewing his other titles in full.

As for his speed, yeah he's not bad in Smash 4, I was just generally observing that he's pretty slow on ground compared to air in his game. He also carries a lot of forward momentum and you can see he slides quite a lot on the ground.

If I were going to make comments about how this game applies to Smash - I'd say that Yoshi was primarily a projectile using character in his first title and that his projectiles in Smash should be consider his primary move. This of course relies on only analysing this game. I suspect that when his other games are analysed we'll see a wider array of playstyles.

Would mario 64 DS be appropriate? Thats like the first game he got his standing model(I think)and hes pretty offensive there. Also I noticed in games like paper mario and mario and luigi it seems like theres always the coward Yoshi and the aggresive head strong Yoshi. So there could be a explanation of why hes well rounded. I don't recall eggs helpful in yoshis story but that was so long ago.

 

[Shadó Chimera / シャドーキメラ]

Yoshi's Story was the first game with his standing model.

 

[YoHeKing]

Yoshi's Story was the first game with his standing model.

Was it really? Are you being sarcastic? xD

 

[Delta-cod]

No, it actually was. Maybe not exactly the same, but Yoshi did stand upright.

 

[Skitrel]

Edited the thread with the next title in Yoshi's history - Yoshi's Story.

As the game doesn't differ too greatly from the original, bringing nothing new to the game and being poorly received for being too easy I don't see it as a large influence on Yoshi. The only valuable takeaway from this title is that it contains the art style that has been used in Wooly World.

 

[Skitrel]

Further edits adding titles up to the next major game, Yoshi's Island DS.

Considering all the features regarding swapping out babies in Yoshi's Island DS I am surprised that Yoshi doesn't have more inventive custom moves in Smash 4. Development priorities I assume.

 

[Delta-cod]

I'd argue that Yoshi's Story really, REALLY emphasized "Egg Lay". Yoshi's tongue is INSANE in that game. Fast, used to beat levels (you must eat fruit), used to beat bosses (either through egg collection or ACTUALLY EATING THE BOSS), omni directional, spammable, etc.

Compare that to the way it is now and I'm just sad. =(

 

[YoHeKing]

Also we could say Yoshi has always been very percise?

 

[Fuerzo]

Are you gonna bother with the many games where Yoshi is just a living powerup?

 

[Skitrel]

Are you gonna bother with the many games where Yoshi is just a living powerup?

I've considered it.

I'll take a look into it, if there's more to it than "Rideable dinosaur that eats things and grants Mario a higher/longer distance jump" then I'll do the digging. Otherwise I'm not sure there's much value to add to learning about it.

 

[YoHeKing]

I've considered it.

I'll take a look into it, if there's more to it than "Rideable dinosaur that eats things and grants Mario a higher/longer distance jump" then I'll do the digging. Otherwise I'm not sure there's much value to add to learning about it.

#goodinteams?

 

[Skitrel]

I've added the final two games in which Yoshi features as a main character. For future updates I'll be going into the side-character titles and weird spinoff games.

What I'm quite surprised at is that there are really only 3 tools of all of his games that are used in Smash (and his games).

This seems like a shame, there are genuinely other powers/abilities introduced in some of his games that would better replace his sideB in particular, yet they haven't gone into them.

A fundamental take away so far is that in Yoshi's games he relies on dodging the enemy. He CAN come into close combat with enemies and won't die in his games, instead he takes damage, drops the baby and must collect the baby before the timer runs out. So he's vulnerable in close combat but can take damage. His general gameplay relies on playing defensively, waiting for an opening and then throwing everything he has at the opportunity presented to him in order to capitalise.

Nintendo should really try to do something new and unique with Yoshi. By the looks of this history he has pretty much had the same game over and over and over again. He deserves a bit of love.

 

[YoHeKing]

Actually spin off games he has fighting ability. Like the Mario 64 DS. Paper mario games. Super mario RPG? Mario and luigi games. So on. Could there be any of those games that have the moves he has in smash other then his signature moves.

 

[Skitrel]

Cheers YHK. I'll start looking at those first for things.

 

[Splooshi Splashy]

How about Yoshi's Cookie? I consider myself an expert player of YC, because I can comfortably play it with the speed setting on high, even as my secondary Bowser, and at seemingly many times, even the game seems too slow for me when my Speed's set to High. Quite frankly, it really only comes off as too fast if I'm consciously trying to setup 2x chains as Bowser when the Speed is set to High. I'm seriously that good at Yoshi's Cookie. If it's okay with you, I'd like to help establish the competitive multiplayer side of Yoshi's Cookie, though I'm personally not sure what going over YC's meta will do for us, but hopefully my currently-in-production findings will net us something, however minor it may be. It'll also be a chance for me to talk about one of my most favorite Yoshi games of all time. X>

 

[YoHeKing]

How about Yoshi's Cookie? I consider myself an expert player of YC, because I can comfortably play it with the speed setting on high, even as my secondary Bowser, and at seemingly many times, even the game seems too slow for me when my Speed's set to High. Quite frankly, it really only comes off as too fast if I'm consciously trying to setup 2x chains as Bowser when the Speed is set to High. I'm seriously that good at Yoshi's Cookie. If it's okay with you, I'd like to help establish the competitive multiplayer side of Yoshi's Cookie, though I'm personally not sure what going over YC's meta will do for us, but hopefully my currently-in-production findings will net us something, however minor it may be. It'll also be a chance for me to talk about one of my most favorite Yoshi games of all time. X>

Lmao. Your joking though right? I was convinced for awhile xD

 

[Splooshi Splashy]

Being able to play YC comfortably with the Speed set to High, even as Bowser (he only gets 10 seconds to line up either 5 Cookies or a 2x+ chain before he risks timing out for the lose when the Speed is set to High), isn't a joke, so long as I stick to single line clears.

Me actually liking YC to point of it being one of my absolute favorite Yoshi games of all times isn't a joke either.

Any possible merit in investigating YC's meta in relation to Sm4sh? That's probably where the joke is.

Long Match Vids? Here's 3:
GYCL Winter 2013 Eastern Conference Open Championship Series, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE0Z_Cy17CQ

AGDQ 2014 Bonus Stream: https://youtu.be/jan9HPsxeII?t=7m46s

Archive YoCo 1: High Level Bakery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hPIN4ZJNGA

I'll admit, I'm not actually in ANY of these matches. I have enough understanding of the game itself to keep up with the action in those vids, at least.

 

[YoHeKing]

Being able to play YC comfortably with the Speed set to High, even as Bowser (he only gets 10 seconds to line up either 5 Cookies or a 2x+ chain before he risks timing out for the lose when the Speed is set to High), isn't a joke, so long as I stick to single line clears.

Me actually liking YC to point of it being one of my absolute favorite Yoshi games of all times isn't a joke either.

Any possible merit in investigating YC's meta in relation to Sm4sh? That's probably where the joke is.

Long Match Vids? Here's 3:
GYCL Winter 2013 Eastern Conference Open Championship Series, part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE0Z_Cy17CQ

AGDQ 2014 Bonus Stream: https://youtu.be/jan9HPsxeII?t=7m46s

Archive YoCo 1: High Level Bakery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hPIN4ZJNGA

I'll admit, I'm not actually in ANY of these matches. I have enough understanding of the game itself to keep up with the action in those vids, at least.

Oh wow thats pretty cool.

 

[Skitrel]

Any possible merit in investigating YC's meta in relation to Sm4sh? That's probably where the joke is.

Yoshi's Cookie is on my list under "weird spinoffs". Assuming your post isn't full of snark I can defer to your experience with the game if you're an expert, I have no problem with that.

I myself passed on Yoshi's Cookie, I enjoyed Tetris and some other block puzzle games of the era but unfortunately I'm colourblind. YC looks like it had the foresight to use shapes but I generally avoid anything with patterns/colour puzzles just-in-case, I'm terrible at them and it's incredibly frustrating.

 

[Splooshi Splashy]

No snark in my posts thus far here, considering that I've shared 3 long match vids in my last post with the intent of providing references. I suspected that YC's meta is where the joke might be, because if after our investigation here, we end up gaining little to nothing from it, then the joke's on us. :< I'm earnestly hoping that I'm wrong about that being the joke, and I also hope that there IS merit in investigating YC's meta for whatever gains we might earn from doing so. Now I would like to begin reporting my years worth of experience on the multiplayer side of YC:


More Match Vid Data:
Attack Pattern Sample (for SNES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGOn4bgOMUs

YoCo Archive 2: Baker's Wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMH6wj4u4Bk

Professional YoCo playlist, starting with GYCL Eastern Conference Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9ZI6I56604&list=PLIaLM6dfGRjPkXWxCxpywHCfI1pZAkzyb


Yoshi's Cookie (GB, NES, SNES, and GC as a part of the Nintendo Puzzle Collection)

Amount of players: 1-2 for GB, NES, & SNES, and 1-4 for GC NPC.

Controls: A to hold your Cursor in place to move Cookies. D-Pad alone is for moving your cursor around. Holding A and then using the D-Pad moves the Cookies either vertically or horizontally. Diagonal Cookie movements are impossible, yet diagonal Cursor movements are certainly possible. If your Cursor is at the edges of the board, you can warp your Cursor to the other side of the board by moving your Cursor into the edge of the board. Ex. Your Cursor's at the absolute furthest right of the board and you want to reach all the way to the absolute furthest left of the board withOUT pressing left 4 times in a row? Just press right once while at the furthest right of the board.


I'll admit, I main Peach, secondary Bowser, and pocket Yoshi. I don't play Mario or even Yoshi too often except for one MU, because as crazy as this may sound, they're too slow for my tastes, especially Yoshi. How can I make such a crazy sounding statement? Let's examine the system and character traits to find out:

Each player's board is a 5 by 5 square containing 25 assorted Cookies total at any given time. Every line you clear earns you a Yoshi Cookie. Make a 2x Chain at any time there's 0 - 4 Yoshi Cookies on the board, you'll make 5 Yoshi Cookies every time. Making Chains any higher than 2x will still net the same amount of YCs, making the 2x chain the most efficient chain for generating YCs.

Clearing a line of YCs will generate a variety of effects, depending on what the name of the effect and the symbol that's around your character is showing. The effects are: +/- 3/7, Blind, Slave, and Panic

The symbols are X, O and nothing. X being bad for yourself or good for your opponent, and O being good for yourself or bad for your opponent. Nothing will only show up if the possibility presented to you is "Slave Yourself". The combination of symbols and effect names are what I'll call "Possibilities".

Thus, if "O Panic Opponent" shows up on your side of the board, you'll want to try to clear a line of YCs ASAP to cash in this effect. If "X -3 Yourself" shows up on your side of the board, do everything in your power to avoid clearing a line of YCs when its active to let the effect pass by.

+/- 3/7: Adds or Subtracts 3 or 7 points to or from whoever the O or X is addressing. Ex. "O +3 Yourself" adds 3 line clears to yourself, while "X +7 Opponent" adds 7 line clears to the Opponent. Both defense and attack values do absolutely nothing about this, whatsoever. Only the X/O Change Rate and Raw Speed Capability can affect the chance frequency of this occurring.

Blind: Generates 9 Question Mark Blocks over the centermost Cookies, blocking your vision of them for a length of time that's affected by character choice. With enough experience, one can develop "Blindeyes" to help persevere through Blinds, where despite the centermost 9 squares being covered with ?s, you generally have an idea of which type(s) of Cookies have 5 or more of it on the board to make a line with, even after clearing out a line or two while Blind's active, due to a possibly honed visual memory, as well as quick rotations of whichever line(s) you're uncertain about. The "Blindeyes" trait is an important trait to develop for Bowser and especially Peach mains, as well as for fighting Bowsers, due to their high attack and low defense stats empowering (self-)Blinds, respectively.

Panic: Scrambles the target's board while denying said target any ability to line up Cookies. The Fuse timer stops completely while it's active, and the length of time Panic stays active depends on character choice.

Slave: Allows the player who activated "O Slave Opponent" to completely take control of the opponent's board. At least 2 major acts you can do while Slave's active: 1. Continue on as usual while scrambling the opponent's board in the process, and 2. Activate any YCs on the opponent's board when something like "X Panic Yourself" is present on the opponent's board. 2x+ Chaining with YCs involved will trigger the X/O Possibility, making it possible for 4 or less YCs to be seen as opportunities to trigger the X/O Possibility. Again, the length of time Slave is active depends on character choice. However, as soon as a line is cleared on the opponent's board, YCs or otherwise, Slave ends. You can clear many lines on your own board while Slave's active, and it will stay active. If Panic is somehow active on the opponent's side when your Slave is active, while you may be able to control your opponent's cursor, you won't be able to move anything on the opponent's board while Panic's active. A "Panic Guard," if you will. Like Panic, the victim's Fuse timer stops completely. However, DO be wary of your own Fuse timer while Slave's active, since it'll still be running, so keep an eye out for that while you're trying to activate "X +3 Yourself" on the opponent's field.

If "No Symbol Slave Yourself" is activated with YCs, absolutely nothing happens besides earning 1 line clear if only 1 line's worth of YCs were lined up. If you do a 2x+ chain with YCs involved, you will only generate 1 YC, NOT 5. However, if you do a 2x+ chain featuring 2 lines worth of YCs, the effects of the "+/- 3/7 Anyone" doubles.


Goal: Clear 25 lines worth of Cookies before your opponent(s) do. The Handicap setting can give a player up to 20 lines already cleared, leaving that player with only 5 lines left to clear. Naturally, in a serious match, the Handicap setting will NOT be used for anyone.

2x chains count as 2 lines. 3x+ chains count as 3+ lines. DO note that in order to CASH IN the line clears, the whole chain MUST end in its entirely before ANY of the lines will be counted. If you're 3 or less lines away from reaching 25 lines and so is your opponent, do NOT go for 4x+ chains, for it'll probably take long enough for the opponent to individually clear 3 lines seperately before your 3x+ chain ends. Said chain & time discrepensies are more pronounced in GC NPC, due to how long it takes for lines to actually clear out in comparison to the NES & SNES versions.


Character Stat Translations:

X/O Change Rate: The frequency that the X/O sign changes. Ex. It takes 3 seconds for Peach's "O Blind Opponent" to change to something else like "X Panic Herself".
1st is Peach at 3 seconds, 2nd is Mario & Bowser (I'd actually consider him 3rd, due to his short Fuse Length) at 5 seconds, and 3rd/4th is Yoshi at 7 seconds.

Defense: The length of time one is affected by Panics, Blinds, and Slaves, whether by the opponent or self-inflicted.
1st is Yoshi, 2nd is Mario & Bowser, and 3rd is Peach (Bowser's actually tied for 3rd with her if he hits himself with Panic or Blind).

Attack: The length of time that one can inflict Panics, Blinds, and Slaves, both on others and yourself.
1st is Bowser, 2nd is Mario, Yoshi, & Peach (she's actually tied for 1st with Bowser if she hits herself with Panic or Blind).

Fuse Length: The longer it is, the more time you'll have to line up 5 cookies of the same type (and 4 cookies of another type lined up in-between the 5 for the 2x chain) before timing out for the lose.
1st is Mario, Yoshi, & Peach, 2nd is Bowser.


Just for quick reference, I'll list each character's traits, plus an extra note or two where I believe it necessary:

Mario:

• X/O Change Rate: 5 seconds
• Defense: Average
• Attack: Average
• Fuse Length: Average
• Raw Speed Capability (The ability to sustain 2x chain clears without having to wait for the X/O Change Rate to hopefully give you a desirable O when stuck with a bad X): 2nd fastest of the 4.
• Self-Panic/Blind Recovery Speed: 2nd Fastest of the 4.

Yoshi's Stats:

• X/O Change Rate: 7 seconds
• Defense: High
• Attack: Average
• Fuse Length: Average
• Raw Speed Capability: Slowest of the 4.
• Self-Panic/Blind Recovery Speed: Fastest of the 4 (If "X Blind Yourself" or even "X Panic Yourself" JUST appeared on your side of the board after finding out that the only line you can form is with YCs, bite the bullet by clearing the line of YCs and brace for impact if you want to keep up with your opponent's potentially faster character.)

Peach's Stats:

• X/O Change Rate: 3 seconds
• Defense: Low
• Attack: Average
• Fuse Length: Average
• Raw Speed Capability: Fastest of the 4. She, more than anyone else, thrives on seeking 2x chains. The visual sequence of the field of unopened boxes from the beginning of Ep 11 of Honey & Clover 2 personally comes to mind, because of how badly you'll want 4-5+ YCs on the board at any given point to capitalize on any O Possibilities that could occur.
• Self-Panic/Blind Recovery Speed: Tied with Bowser for slowest of the 4 (Developing "Blindeyes" against Blind is very important for Peach in order to handle clearing lines even faster when trying to get rid of YCs, especially if she's up against Bowser who can truly test for "Blindeyes")

Bowser's Stats:

• X/O Change Rate: 5 seconds
• Defense: Average
• Attack: High
• Fuse Length: Short (on High speed, you literally have only 10 seconds to make a line of 5 and/or a 2x Chain before you time out for the lose. A key safety strat is heavily focusing on single line clears, so as to simply keep yourself in the match. If you want 2x+ Chains, not only will you have to be fast with your fingers, but also with your boardreading abilities as well)
• Raw Speed Capability: 2nd Slowest of the 4 (this is only because of his short Fuse Length discouraging him from waiting as long as Mario & especially Peach can).
• Self-Panic/Blind Recovery Speed: Tied with Peach for slowest of the 4.

Why do I make a big deal of X/O Change Rates and Raw Speed Capability? The Yoshi Cookies. Some characters function better focusing on single line clears, like Bowser & Yoshi. Mario & Peach thrive when focusing on 2x+ chain clears. Why I play as them with such focuses is because the faster the X/O Change Rate, the less time that any given possibility of what clearing a line of Yoshi Cookies will do for you or your opponent will be active.


There is a triangle of counterpicks that excludes Mario that's reminiscent of 3rd Strike's Top 3 characters. Bowser beats Peach, Yoshi beats Bowser, and Peach either goes even with or beats Yoshi.

Why the uncertainty surrounding Peach VS Yoshi? To me, this is one of the most balanced MUs outside of Mario VS Mario. Both have what it takes to run far with the momentum, and both have a significant advantage over the other. This is one of the most dynamic MUs in all of YC, alongside Mario VS Mario and Peach VS Peach.

Peach VS Yoshi: For once in a Mario game, Peach outruns everyone, including Yoshi, who for once as well, is one of the slowest characters, IF the dino refuses to Blind or even Panic himself in an attempt to clear out the YCs and keep up with Peach, who may also speed herself up even further with self-Blinds (which CAN be handled with enough experience via "Blindeyes"). With enough finger speed and board speedreading abilities, Peach can activate her X/O with YCs within seconds more comfortably than every other character, because of her fast X/O Change Rate, which allows her to wait longer than anyone else if something like "X -3 Herself" is on her side of the board, since she only has to wait 3 seconds for "X -3 Herself" to change into something else like "O Slave Opponent". Yoshi may have the defense to weather Peach's Blinds, Panics, and Slaves, but the frequency at which those attacks can come out can be quite threatening to him, especially if she cashes in +/- 3/7s often, which his defense does nothing against.


Bowser VS Yoshi: Yoshi has the best defense. Bowser has the best offense. Yoshi's defense nullifies Bowser's offense to the point that it basically becomes Mario VS Mario. Pick your poison: Slowest X/O Change Rate (Yoshi) or Shortest Time Fuse (Bowser)? At first glance, Bowser may seem to win, because with enough finger speed and skill, the short time fuse can be a non-factor. However, there is one factor that puts Yoshi above Bowser: The ability to quickly recover from self-inflicted Blinds and especially Panics. Why self-inflict such conditions? Speed in clearances, and Panic Guards. This is what Yoshi can do better than anyone else, even Peach (on the Panic front, that is. Both are equally capable of handling self-Blinds, provided the Peach player has developed "Blindeyes"). These reasons are why I have a pocket Yoshi for this MU, especially if I lose the Bowser Ditto MU decisively.


Mario VS Yoshi: Mario is a slightly slower Peach with better defense. Mario has the uncanny ability to be able to handle just about anyone without any seriously bad MUs. In exchange, he doesn't excel against anyone in particular. Thus, he's a good choice for 3-4 player rounds in GC NPC if the other 3 characters are present. What he has (as well as Peach & Bowser for that matter) over Yoshi is the faster X/O Change Rate, and thus RSC. What Yoshi has over him is his great defense. I'd consider this MU even for both sides.


Yoshi VS Yoshi: This will be a battle of who's most willing to self-inflict Blinds and Panics in an effort to stay ahead of the other. For once, 2x+ Chains will be a good idea to focus on, since it's the Ditto MU where the both of you will struggle with the slowest X/O Change Rate, so any way to speed up line clears, even when undesirable effects are an active Possibility on your side of the board, are welcome.


Peach VS Bowser: While going here may be straying from the focus on Yoshi, this is practically the only other noteworthy MU that hasn't been covered yet in a puzzler with only 4 characters, so for completionist's sake, I'll go over this one. As a Peach main, this is the one MU I dread the MOST out of them all. Enough for me to want to pick either Bowser if given the chance to switch upon finding out that my opponent's going Bowser, or especially Yoshi if my Bowser gets blown up decisively. The biggest problem with this MU is that Peach's low defense stacks with Bowser's high attack. If Bowser lands a Blind, or especially Panic or Slave on Peach, she'll be Blinded or even sitting pretty for a LONG while. In fact, this part in this match (https://youtu.be/H1UYW_Dq_wo?t=41m39s) shows how brutally painful it is to be Peach in this MU when Bowser lands an attack. What Peach DOES have over him is 1. the fastest X/O Change Rate out of everyone, and 2. the normal Fuse timer length (as do Mario & Yoshi). While Peach's frequency in landing non-points attacks can help contain Bowser, seemingly the entire match can turn around in Bowser's favor, the MOMENT he lands a non-points attack without trading with one of Peach's.


Worst Nightmare Scenarios:

Mario's: ???? He seems versatile enough to handle anything that anyone can throw his way.

Yoshi's: Speed on High, the only lines that can be made are with YCs, Fuse timer is halfway through, and the X/O Change Rate JUST cursed Yoshi with "X -7 Himself" after waiting for "X +3 Opponent" to pass.

Peach's: Being Blinded, Slave'd or Panic'd by Bowser. 'Nuff said.

Bowser's: Recovering from being Panic'd or Slave'd when his Fuse is over 50% of the way through, especially when the Speed is set to High.


So what does any of this have to do with Sm4sh? That's sadly currently under review. I may edit this post with ideas on that later, but for now, I shall leave the YC meta data here.

 

[Skitrel]

This is just. Wow.

You know your Yoshi's Cookie. That's practically a competitive guide to YC.