Yoshi

Yoshi (ヨッシー, Yoshi) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. All Stars. His return to the series was confirmed during the August 23rd 2018 Super Smash Bros. Direct, making him the last of the "perfect-attendance crew" to be announced. Additionally, he was among the first wave of amiibo figures. Kazumi Totaka reprises his role as Yoshi's voice actor, albeit via voice clips recycled from earlier installments of Super Smash Bros. and every game Yoshi has spoken in since Yoshi's Story.

Yoshi is currently ranked 29th out of 58 on the tier list, placing him in the C tier and directly in the middle of the entire tier list. This is a vast improvement from his placement in Brawl, where he was ranked 27th out of 38. As in previous installments, Yoshi boasts excellent aerial mobility: he has the fastest air speed in the game by default (surpassed only by a fully Limit Charged Cloud, the lightest possible Mii Brawler, Wario-Man, and Giga Mac), while his double jump grants the farthest distance out of any double jump in the game and nearly 70 frames of armor. Yoshi's grounded mobility has also been improved, as his dashing speed is now considerably faster.

Another of Yoshi's strengths is the utility of his moveset: his neutral attack and up tilt are very useful combo starters, his neutral aerial is a very useful approach and edgeguarding option, Egg Lay is a command grab, Egg Roll can force approaches and escape from pressure, Egg Throw is a versatile projectile that has recovery and mindgame potential, and Yoshi Bomb is strong enough to either KO outright or heavily pressure shields. Another valuable trait is his shield, which is completely immune to shield stabbing and provides many out of shield options should the opponent be stuck in lag. Yoshi is also able to jump out of his shield, a trait previously only possible in SSB, which further improves its reliability.

However, Yoshi also has noticeable flaws. His grab game is still infamously poor: all of his grabs are among the slowest in the game, while his throws have little to no utility due to their unimpressive knockback and glaring inability to initiate combos. Despite his useful shield, Yoshi's defensive presence on the ground is surprisingly lacking, as his rolls and sidesteps are short-distanced, among the slowest in the game, and have some of the lowest amounts of intangibility frames in the game. By extension, his very low traction further compounds his issues with shield pressure, and significantly hinders his otherwise useful and versatile out of shield options.

Yoshi's KO potential is also fairly unimpressive for a heavyweight. Although quite powerful, his smash attacks are burdened with short ranges, very short durations and punishable ending lag. His up aerial and Yoshi Bomb are also affected under similar circumstances: the former has a very short duration, while the latter has very short range and punishable ending lag. Lastly, Yoshi has very minimal vertical recovery outside of his double jump, as his primary recovery move, Egg Throw, offers little vertical momentum and deteriorates in distance when used consecutively without landing on the ground.

Overall, Yoshi's strengths are widely considered to outweigh his weaknesses, and when coupled with his fairly low learning curve, he can be a force to be reckoned with when mastered. Even though his rather exploitable weaknesses have resulted in a minimal presence in competitive play, Yoshi has nonetheless achieved varying degrees of success. This has been evident with him winning several local tournaments in singles and doubles play, thanks to the collective efforts of Firefly, Nikes, Raptor, JFK, Papa Wall, Kamikaze, and DIO. Outside of this, DIO has also achieved a few top 10 and top 50 placings at the regional level, while Raptor, Sky, Papa Wall, Kamikaze, and Poltergust have each achieved a few top 50 placings at the national level.