PtiYoshi, bébé Yoshi vert aux chaussures rouges, en style papier

Yoshi Kid: the baby Yoshi the player names himself

1130 words | Reading time : 5 minute(s)

CharacterThe Thousand-Year DoorPartners

The only partner in the series whose name — and color — you choose yourself. Hatched from an egg right in the middle of the wrestling arenas, Yoshi Kid is the cheekiest partner in The Thousand-Year Door. This profile covers his birth, the color set by how long you let the egg sit before it hatches, the name the player gives him, and his Gulp attacks that punch straight through defenses.

There is one partner in the Paper Mario series with no fixed name and no fixed color: Yoshi Kid, the baby Yoshi who hatches right in the middle of the wrestling arenas of Glitzville.

It's the player who names him, and pure chance that decides his shade. Here is a portrait of the most personal — and the cheekiest — companion in The Thousand-Year Door.

Contents

A birth in the middle of a wrestling tournament

Yoshi Kid isn't recruited: he is born. Mario gets his hands on an egg during his stay in Glitzville, the floating city where the wrestling bouts of the third chapter take place.

The egg sits in the inventory for a while, then hatches into a little Yoshi who is wide awake, immediately adopts the plumber and settles into the team without asking anyone's opinion.

This way of joining is unique in the entire series: where the other allies are won through a fight or a favor, this one arrives through a simple hatching.

Mario and Yoshi Kid in the locker rooms of the Rogueport Arena
He is born in the middle of a wrestling tournament, which explains his scrappy streak.

A color decided by your patience

The most surprising detail about the character is his color, which isn't set in advance. It depends on the time that passes before the egg hatches.

  • The shade cycles through green, red, blue, orange, pink, black and white.
  • Once the hatching is over, the color is final for the rest of the playthrough.
  • Two players can therefore finish the game with a visually different partner.

This seemingly trivial little mechanic gives every playthrough a personal signature — an idea few games of the era dared to apply to a main character.

The partner you name yourself

A second quirk, more striking still: the game asks the player to choose his name. A text box opens, and the little dinosaur carries that name for the rest of the adventure.

The name suggested by default is simply "Yoshi", but nothing stops you from going completely wild. The dialogue adapts, and the chosen name shows up in the menus and in the lines of the other characters.

He is the only partner in the series on whom the player imposes his own vocabulary — a privilege none of the other allies, from Goombella to Bobbery, has ever been given.

Yoshi Kid alongside paper Mario
He is the only partner in the series that the player names himself.

"The Great Gonzales", his nickname for Mario

The little Yoshi inherits the vocabulary of the arenas where he was born. Like all of Glitzville, he knows Mario only by his stage name as a wrestler, forced on the plumber by promoter Grubba.

So he calls him "The Great Gonzales" for the entire adventure, never budging an inch, long after the tournament is over.

This piece of writing pulls off two things at once: it anchors the character in the chapter that saw him born, and it keeps alive the running gag of a Mario doomed to drag around a ridiculous alias.

Gulp, stomp, stampede

In battle, Yoshi Kid runs through his species' classic toolkit, adapted to turn-based combat. His basic attack is a stomp with a bounce that hits a single target.

His most useful technique is still the Gulp: he swallows an enemy and spits him back out at another one, an attack that ignores the defense of the opponent and settles the fate of foes that are too well protected.

At higher ranks, he outright summons a whole herd of Yoshis that sweeps the entire battlefield. Outside of combat, Mario rides him to run fast and follow up with a mid-air flutter kick, just like the Yoshi of the platform games.

Yoshi Kid at a glance

French name PtiYoshi
English name Yoshi Kid
Species Yoshi, newborn
Game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Arrival Hatches from an egg in Glitzville, in chapter 3
Color Depends on the time that passes before hatching, then final
Name Chosen by the player, "Yoshi" by default
Nickname for Mario The Great Gonzales
Key attack The Gulp, which ignores the opponent's defense

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FAQ

  • Who is Yoshi Kid?
    He is the baby Yoshi partner from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, released in 2004. He hatches from an egg Mario picks up in Glitzville, the wrestling-arena city of the third chapter.
  • Why does Yoshi Kid's color change?
    Because it depends on the time that passes before the egg hatches. The shade cycles through green, red, blue, orange, pink, black and white, then becomes final for the whole playthrough.
  • Can you choose Yoshi Kid's name?
    Yes. The game opens a text box the moment he hatches, and the partner then carries that name in the menus as well as in the dialogue. "Yoshi" is offered by default.
  • Why does he call Mario The Great Gonzales?
    Because he was born in Glitzville, where Mario fights under that stage name imposed by promoter Grubba. The little Yoshi has never known him any other way and keeps calling him that for the whole game.
  • What are Yoshi Kid's attacks?
    A bouncing stomp, a Gulp that swallows the enemy and spits him back out while ignoring his defense, and at high level a herd of Yoshis that stampedes over every opponent.
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