Super Dragon



Super Dragon is Yoshi's Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The move reflects Yoshi's sporadic yet powerful fighting skills on the battlefield and greatly improves his ability to recover from a fall. Rather than a single, powerful attack, Super Dragon temporarily transforms Yoshi into Winged Yoshi and gives him the ability to breath fire. However, Yoshi must first break open a Smash Ball in order to charge himself up for the attack. Once this happens, Yoshi can activate the attack at any time. Yoshi can even save himself from an otherwise deadly fall.

The Transformation
When the stage turns dark and Yoshi gains an unearthly glow, his transformation has begun. His transformation allows him two attack advantages. First, Yoshi sprouts angle wings, which allow him to fly. Secondly, the dinosaur constantly spews a jet of flame from his mouth.

When Yoshi assumes his new form, his move set and fighting strategy change with him. While Yoshi is not invincible, his opponents constantly evade him due to his constant stream of fire. If Yoshi chooses to, he can stop spewing fire and let out a large Fireball at his opponents that travels in a horizontal direction. This is performed as if he were attacking normally. When he does this, his aura becomes red temporarily, possibly giving his foes forewarning. Because of his ability to fly Yoshi can focus solely on his attacks rather than stalking or evading his foes. The smaller the stage, the greater the advantage. Yoshi is also at a greater advantage if he can move underneath the central platforms of a given stage.

Reverting to Normal
When the attack does end, Yoshi loses his new abilities, including his wings. Innocently looking at where his wings once were, Yoshi begins to fall downward. If he was to the sides of the stage when he lost his wings, he will fall out of the arena. Because of this, Yoshi is at an advantage if, towards the end of his attack, he avoids the edges of the stage.

Yoshi's enemies will likely swarm him as he returns unless their damage meters are high. In doing so before he regains his footing, they can attempt to balance out the damage caused to them by the dinosaur.

History
While the attack has not specifically appeared in any other game, by eating Red and Blue Koopa Shells in Super Mario World, Yoshi has been able breathe fire and fly respectively. However, only one of these moves could be used at a time (except if Yoshi has a flashing shell in his mouth), and neither were as powerful as Super Dragon. Yoshi has greater aerial mobility using the attack and could only breathe out one set of three Fireballs in Super Mario World. However, in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi could spew multiple short streams of fire after eating a Red Watermelon. This ability is closer to that seen in the Super Dragon ability. Unveiled on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 as one of the Smash Bros. DOJO!! weekly updates leading up to Brawl's release, the move made it's first playable appearance at 2007 Nintendo Press Summit on October, 11th of the same year.

External Links and Sources

 * Yoshi: Final Smash from Smash Bros. DOJO!!
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl Preview from IGN Wii