Design Philosophy: Yoshi

[Feral Cadence]

Hey guys! I'm starting up a new YouTube show in which I discuss game design philosophy, starting with Smash, and primarily focusing on Project M. Ideally, I'd like to have a couple of videos on Smash as a whole (how it fits into the context of fighting games, analysis of its mechanics/ reasoning for its design decisions, etc.), as well as a video for each character that I can come up with a solid design philosophy for.

Since I main Yoshi, I'd definitely like to make one about him, though I'll probably start with someone with simpler design goals, like Marth or Fox. I just wanted to get some feedback from other Yoshi mains about his design, since he can be pretty complicated.

Right now I'm thinking of focusing my approach to his design philosophy on his proclivity towards having a wealth of movement options in neutral, more than any other character in the game, allowing him to confuse his opponents as to what he's doing.

Do you see his design being focused around another aspect of his play? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Note: the episode probably won't be out for a while, as I still need to get a decent computer for editing. But it's looking like that might not take as long as I feared. Wish me luck! This is my first big project like this, and I'm really hoping it's successful.

 

[TomBoComBo]

I personally think they perfectly encompassed Yoshi's whimsical, yet efficient personality in his character design. Yoshi was never a straight forwards character, so giving him a wealth of movement and other options that nobody else has make him that unique and extremely varied playstyle. I personally see different mentalities when I play smash. Foxes all have the basic options and Fox as a character allows those options to work super well, making him sometimes a brainless character to play as. Marth has always encompassed pure Mental game to me; with his range, and his movement and his spacing-specific power, a smart Marth can wipe the floor with any MU. Yoshi I think brings those aspects together, with the addition of armor and a double jump cancel. Yoshi rewards for good spacing and heavy mental, but also has options that simply call out the opponent and kill. That combination with unpredictable movement and hitboxes AND a unique shield make him an amazing character. Why he isn't he played at all? You got me there.