Every Yoshi Game Nintendo Has Ever Made, Ranked

Debuting in 1990’s Super Mario World as a mountable dinosaur for Mario and Luigi to ride, Yoshi has since gone on to become one of Nintendo’s defining mascot characters. Beyond his place alongside Mario and Luigi, Yoshi has become the central fixture of almost a dozen games. Ranging from pitch-perfect platformers to puzzle games across thirty-five years of Nintendo systems, Yoshi has earned his place in the Nintendo pantheon.

In light of his latest adventure, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book for the Nintendo Switch 2, it’s worth looking back at the history of the green dinosaur. While even his weakest games benefit from visual charm and inventive gameplay, there are some adventures with the character that simply stand out above the rest. Across the history of the character, here is every Yoshi game released by Nintendo and how they stack up to one another.

11. Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (2005)

The weakest of the Yoshi games released to date, Yoshi’s Topsy-Turvy sees players moving Yoshi through an enchanted storybook and appeasing the spirits he finds within. The gimmick for the Game Boy Advance title was that a built-in tilt sensor in the cartridge registered movement, with players tasked with literally moving their GBA right or left to solve puzzles or deal with enemies. In theory, it was a unique approach to gameplay that had bursts of fun.

Although it was a clever idea, the concept quickly proved to be fairly limited in application. The game became quickly repetitive in terms of level design, making the short length of the game all the more frustrating. While it’s not necessarily a bad experiment and speaks to the franchise’s historic place as one of Nintendo’s best places to test out new mechanics, Yoshi Topsy-Turvy is the Yoshi title that feels the most disappointing in terms of execution.

10. Yoshi’s Story (1998)

Building on the success of Yoshi’s Island as well as the expectations set by the heights of Super Mario 64, Yoshi’s Story’s bright color palette made it a charming pick for the N64 that, unfortunately, didn’t have the depth it needed to really stand out from the rest of the series. The N64 game, which sees multiple Yoshis working their way through a pop-up storybook. It’s a cute and charming game that does a great job bringing Yoshi visually into the 3D space, with a focus on a storybook style that means it hasn’t aged as poorly as some other infamously blocky graphics of the era.

However, like with many Yoshi games, the lack of a challenge makes this game something of a dull title to play through. The puzzles were simple, and the combat even more so, with a very short life span that doesn’t provide much depth from a gameplay perspective. While younger players may appreciate those cute elements, players looking for more of a well-rounded challenge have plenty of other options to choose from.

09. Yoshi’s New Island (2014)

A direct attempt to recreate the success of Yoshi’s Island and Yoshi’s Island DS, Yoshi’s New Island doesn’t have enough of its own identity to stand out from the rest of the series. Released for the 3DS, the game benefits from the hand-drawn art aesthetic that has always benefited the Yoshi-led games. The 3DS entry in the series added a handful of new mechanics to break up the action a bit, but never enough to really stand out.

However, the overall level design felt uninspired compared to the previous two entries in the Yoshi’s Island series, while the 3DS visuals don’t quite recreate the storybook aesthetic. This also translated to the difficulty curve — or lack thereof. While none of the Yoshi games have ever necessarily been super hard, the lack of real challenge in Yoshi’s New Island just makes the game pale even more in comparison to the classics that inspired it. It’s a fun game at its core, but one that can’t compare to the games that influenced it.

08. Yoshi Touch & Go (2005)

Another attempt to use the Yoshi sub-franchise as an experimental sandbox for new platforms, Yoshi Touch & Go has a lot of fun with the DS format — but that’s about it. The game uses both DS screens as a single larger space, with players using the stylus to create clouds that push, move, or assist a perpetually moving Yoshi. It’s a solid effort to experiment with the DS stylus control mechanic, all bolstered by the consistent aesthetic of the franchise.

However, this focus on trying new approaches means the game lacks the more compelling central adventure of other entries in the series. Over time, these mechanics steadily grow more repetitive through repeated playthroughs, undercutting the replayability. While it’s an admirable effort, Yoshi Touch & Go doesn’t have enough depth to justify a deeper commitment.

07. Yoshi (1991)

A straightforward puzzle game with a quickly addictive tenor, Yoshi is fairly basic but with enough of a strong core to be effectively addictive. Technically, the first Yoshi-led game, Yoshi is a fairly standard game where players move different types of creatures around to create stacks of the same monster. It’s a puzzle game that has a lot of fun simplifying the Tetris “falling blocks” style of puzzle game, using the Mario imagery to add a dose of charm for players.

The biggest drawback in the long-term is that the gameplay will eventually become repetitive, while the necessity for luck to really advance far in playthroughs can make it frustrating. This game cemented the idea that charming visuals could go a long way for Yoshi games, an element that subsequent games have largely leaned into. Yoshi is a lightweight game that might not be great for a long time, but can be a delight in bursts.

06. Yoshi’s Woolly World (2015)

Just as much of a sequel to Kirby’s Epic Yarn as it is inspired by Yoshi’s Island, Yoshi’s Woolly World is an adorable platforming game where the Nintendo characters are reimagined through a yarn filter for the animation. Like Paper Mario before it, this visual aesthetic lends itself to plenty of clever tweaks on the formula. Whether that be purely visual (eggs are replaced with yarn balls) or more in-depth (those yarn balls are able to solve a number of puzzles), the tweaks are fun.

That art style does a lot to make up for, as always, the mild difficulty that has come to define this series. However, with some creative stage design that leans into the aesthetic, Yoshi’s yarn adventure has an edge over many other entries in the franchise — and the 2017 3DS port Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World is just as good, highlighting the strength of the underlying gameplay. One of the cutest entries in the series (and that’s saying something), Yoshi’s Woolly World just can’t quite match the gameplay of the games higher on this list.

05. Yoshi’s Cookie (1993)

An expansion of Yoshi that utilizes a tile-matching mechanic, the game debuted on the NES and Game Boy before making it to the SNES. Alongside Dr. Mario, Yoshi’s Cookie was a fixture of the puzzle genre in the early home console space. While there’s not really a story mode, the single-player Action Mode offers a genuine challenge, while the multiplayer VS mode is an absolute blast.

That multiplayer is the real draw, helping keep the game exciting no matter how many times you play through it. It’s a simple mechanic that may bore solo players but provides plenty of good multiplayer fun. Yoshi’s Cookie was an underrated title for the era that remains an easy-to-pick-up puzzler for modern players — even if it lacks the overall depth of other games that push the medium further.

04. Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019)

Building on the aesthetic of Yoshi’s Woolly World and adding in a dash of the 2.5D that Paper Mario had previously played with, Yoshi’s Crafted World offered a unique take on the franchise that lets players more heavily interact with the world around them. The ability to move around the map and discover different paths invited a lot of great level designs and puzzles, all while building on that cute visual aesthetic by expanding the levels and offering creative new ways to explore the world.

While the challenge may still be somewhat lacking, fun challenges that lean into the aesthetic (like a giant green pop-up serpent that eats away at the boxy platforms) make for some of the more creative challenges among the series. A strong entry in the franchise, this one is only really surpassed by all-time great entries in the series.

03. Yoshi’s Island DS (2006)

A fitting sequel to the classic Yoshi’s Island for the SNES, Yoshi’s Island DS has a lot of fun expanding on the central gameplay mechanics of the original. Introducing a bunch of new babies (with their own unique attributes) to the action proves to be a great little tweak on the formula that invites clever level design. The game finds a better difficulty curve, although it can feel a little too forgiving at times.

The differing mechanics for each baby do invite some wonky touches to the controls, with the game’s DS format having some minor limitations that the platform can’t entirely escape. Despite those drawbacks, this is a great example of building on what came before, even if the heights don’t quite reach the colorful foliage of the original Yoshi’s Island. Yoshi’s Island DS at least remains engaging throughout, elevating it above some of the other entries in the series.

02. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (2026)

The stop motion design aesthetic for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book gives the game a wholly unique flavor that proves to be a treat. Beyond that revolution of the visuals, the game plays with expectations and delivers some genuinely unique boss battles, forcing the player to quickly adapt on the fly. It’s a riff on Yoshi’s Island that truly feels unique from what came before, while still retaining enough of the platformer’s spirit to be consistent with the series.

The little puzzles and surprising challenges offer a lot of natural exploration and experimentation, all while remaining true to the goofy spirit of the older Yoshi games. This might be the most inventive entry in the series to date, finding a happy balance between the gameplay tweaks of modern Nintendo games and the tight controls of the classic games. A strange little blast, Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a great modern successor to the Yoshi line of games.

01. Yoshi’s Island: Super Mario World 2 (1995)

One of the best SNES games and a high point in the Super Mario Bros. franchise as a whole, Yoshi’s Island remains one of the most charming games Nintendo has ever released. Refined with a level of tight gameplay only matched by the other A-list titles by the developer, Yoshi’s Island‘s tweaks to the platforming mechanics and inclusion of Baby Mario with a “health bar” was a deeply inventive reimagining of a gaming staple. It was an inventive game on a mechanical level and a stunning one visually.

By taking on a storybook style aesthetic, Yoshi’s Island landed on a timeless quality that the series has been trying to replicate for years. Coupled with plenty of hidden minigames and secret stages, Yoshi’s Island plays with perspective, controls, and scale in truly inventive ways. Yoshi’s Island is the best entry in the series and remains a quietly landmark game from Nintendo as a whole.