10 Super Mario Facts You Probably Never Knew

6. Yoshi Was Originally Designed As A Koopa

Super Mario - Yoshi Legendary Nintendo games designer Shigeru Miyamoto may have created Mario, but he brought in extra reinforcements to create the original concept design for the green dinosaur Yoshi. Shigefumi Hino was brought in to design Super Mario World where Yoshi made his first appearance in Yoshi€™s Island 2, and was said to have been fashioned from Devil World€™s protagonist Tamagon, a small green dragon with considerable spunk to take on the Devil. However, during the creation of our famed dinosaur, it was stated by Miyamoto€™s colleague Takashi Tezuka €“ in a historical Mario booklet from the Wii game Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition €“ that Yoshi was intended to live his video game life as a Koopa. Interestingly enough, you can still see this concept design by noting the red shell on his back, which acts as a saddle enabling Mario to ride him.
Contributor
Contributor

With a love for postmodern literature and black and white movies, Colette is a stickler for those artistic films with a weird and wonderful vibe. But she also loves her mainstream cinema and will devour any superhero movie like a comic-book nerd. She currently works as a news editor for a gaming website, specialising in all things Mario, and a film aficionado for What Culture.