I'm about to blow your mind.

The writer of Console Wars, Blake Harris, posted on twitter today that Yoshi, friend of Mario the mushroom-addicted plumber and enemy of one Jeff Gerstmann, has a much longer real name.

It's T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas.

It was apparently found in a 1993 Nintendo Character Guide.

"Yoshi, properly known as T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas, had been held captive in an egg until Mario (homo nintendonus) bopped along and rescued him. Instantly, the young dinosaur and the plumber became fast friends. Together, they set out to rescue Yoshi's dinosaur pals from the wickedness of Bowser."

Also, it seems Mario isn't of the human species.

Wait, what guide is this? Nintendo of America was a completely different entity from mainland Nintendo, mind you.

Well, yeah. His real name is Jeff Gerstmann. Everyone knows that.

I... I think it intended to be his species- not the name. Just based on how the paragraph is structured.

It's poorly written, though, so I don't actually know the original intent.

What does the T stand for?

Until further information is provided our Yoshi character page will not have "T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas," as the real name for Yoshi.

T for Tiberius maybe?

Mario bopped along and freed him.

Get bopped, Mario!

It's obviously "Tyrannofungus" or some bullshit like that.

@csl316: ugh

Being semi-serious for a second, I'm pretty sure T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas is his species, not his formal name. His name is Yoshi the green Yoshisaur.

Characters refer to him as Yoshi and he is marked as Yoshi because that's his name. On Yoshi's Island, there are Yoshisaur Munchakoopas like Yoshi.

@bigjeffrey: These pages are great and also terrible, in equal measure.

What will Jeff say?

Yes, and I'll say it again, yes, but anyone remember all those great references to Brooklyn since? Me neither. Turns out, Mario lore is super flaky! Except when it's not and that's arguably what's the most fascinating about all this.

It's frankly one of the big problems Nintendo has had with some of its characters. The distinction between "the" Yoshi or Toad and just Yoshi or Toad as a collective group. I never understood why they never cared to specify along the way and avoid the problem considering they could have had different named Yoshi helping out Mario over the years. Then again the answer is in the question, they just winged it and were uninterested or to afraid to retroactively change or comment on anything. The fact that it took Nintendo how many years to release their official canon view of the Zelda universe is indicative of that.

Also let me counter T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas with Boshi, the Wario/Waluigi equivalent to Yoshi everyone remembers. He's got the Japanese word play and everything ("Washi").

He's a Yoshi with 'tude y'all.

Nintendo is so fucking dumb you guys.

The picture of the Yoshi that bigjeffrey posted has one less finger on each of its hands than the picture of the Yoshi used for the character page.

That's all I can contribute to this conversation.

It's clearly a replicant. o_o

The lizard men are... replacing our lizard men.

I'd be down with that

So wait? T. would be short for "the" then?

i.e. Yoshi The Yoshiaur Munchakoopas ?

Exactly. Yoshi the Yoshisaur Munchakoopas.

Huh

I love that Mario was "born in Brooklyn"

Isn't that a little like someone naming their child Human the Human Being?

I think it's actually Mario Mario the Homo Nintendonus

or Luigi Mario the Homo Nintendonus if you prefer his brother.

From that picture of the guide it's clear that T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas is just a dinosaur that goes by the nickname "Yoshi." Shortening your name is hardly an uncommon phenomenon.

Well, he's just another Yoshisaur, but friends, like Mario, probably just called him "Yoshi". He says, "Yoshi!" kind of like how a Pokemon says its own name.

For example, Pikachu is a Pikachu. Yoshi is a Yoshisaur.

Fuck you nintendo. Get your shit together.

The T stands for EXPENDABLE. #FUCKYOSHI

@damodar: #FUCKYOSHISAUR

His real name is "The Camel."

Going by that profile, Mario is basically Vinny. I'd like to see what the "too many things" Mario's seen in his travels are that keep him from being narrow-minded. Is it just referring to the trippy Mushroom Kingdom stuff or has Mario seen some shit?

I also really like the idea of Bowser looking out of his castle window at all the happy fungi and saying "it's fucking weird. I'm sorry, it's just fucking wierd."

nope

[screaminginside]

You don't want to know what he has seen...

Welp.

No way is Mario tolerant. He is a lot of things but tolerant is not one of them.

Of course. What ever could give you the impression he didn't care about coexisting with creatures different from himself?

@truthtellah: He's the gaming industry's longest surviving and most celebrated genocidal psycho fucker.

Someone has already made the "T is for Tiberius" joke, right?

The only appropriate response is:

Oh Japan...

Well he is a plumber, so probably.

I can't say I hate it.

I never knew Mario was born in Brooklyn.

Even though there's a good chance this was America?

If you had seen the "classic" Super Mario Bros. movie with John Leguizamo and Bob Hoskins you would know Mario and Luigi are from New York!

yup!

Yeah, okay, Jeff was right. Fuck Yoshi.

They've made it pretty obvious that Yoshi is the name of the species (and Mario is just racist)

The guide also has the outdated "Mario is from Brooklyn" plot point. As far as I'm concerned this is some non-canon bullshit.

If Mario was born in Brooklyn, where'd he get that accent?

@bigjeffrey: So...does this mean Princess Peach is a wizard?