Mini-Yoshi

Mini-Yoshi (known originally as Yoshi, sometimes called Yoshi Kid) is Mario's fourth party member in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. He's a spunky little Yoshi kid and the youngest of Mario's party members (being newborn). His purpose in the overworld is to allow Mario to ride him and move him around much faster (like Lakilester) and use a Flutter Jump-like ability to cross gaps (like Parakarry). In battle, he starts out with Ground Pound and Gulp. If he is powered up, he learns Mini-Egg for Level 2 and learns Stampede for Level 3.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
While Mario, Goombella, Koops and Flurrie are fighting in Glitzville's Glitz Pit, they find that one of the fighting teams, the Armored Harriers, seem to be impervious to any attack they use. At an earlier time, Mario had found a Yoshi Egg bouncing around, being chased by the owner of the Hot Dog Stand, Mr. Hoggle (who had hopes of making a Southern Fried Egg Dog of Tastiness with it). Mario eventually caught it, and Mr. Hoggle allowed him to keep it as most people "don't like to eat things that move". After Mario returns from his problematic battle with the Armored Harriers, the egg hatches into a Yoshi kid who thanks Mario. He then joins Mario (who he knows as Gonzales), who proceeds to name him. The Yoshi can defeat the Armored Harriers by eating them and spitting them at each other. He travels with Mario for the rest of the game.

At the end of the adventure, he goes solo at the Glitz Pit, going under the name "The Great Gonzales Jr.", and is stated to be getting close to the title match. In Goombella's letter, the Yoshi challenges the "Great Gonzales" by saying "I could totally take you in the ring now, so bring it!". He is notable for calling Mario "Gonzales" throughout the entire course of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (in a manner similar to other non-player characters such as Goldbob and his family); his odd familiarity with this name is due Mario's pseudonym, "Great Gonzales" (upon Grubba's and Jolene's insistence) while fighting in the Glitz Pit. By the end of the game, though, the Yoshi would appear to have slowly realized that "Gonzales's" real name was Mario, but he states that Mario will always be Gonzales to him.

Tattle
"Gosh, what a colorful egg! Must be a good one, huh? I mean, look at it jump! But jeepers creepers, I sure wouldn't want to try to eat it... I mean, EWWWWWW! I don't eat moving things. Let's hurry up, grab it, and give it back to Mr. Hoggle."

Super Paper Mario
In Super Paper Mario, Yoshi appears as a Catch Card won by winning the Duel of 100 in the Sammer's Kingdom. Francis has a collection of seven Yoshi dolls, each one a different color. Lastly, Yoshi, along with all the other partners from the previous Paper Mario titles appear in a photograph at the Mario Bros.' House during the introduction.

Color
The color of Yoshi is determined (and will stay the same for the rest of the game), by the amount of time that passes between the point where its egg joins Mario's party atop the Hot Dog Stand to when Mario eventually meets the newborn dinosaur after running from the Armored Harriers. The egg starts off with a green Yoshi inside wearing orange pants and changes color every few minutes, as shown on the chart below. If more than twenty minutes elapse before the Yoshi hatches, the cycle restarts. These color options serve for aesthetic purposes only.

Catch Card

 * Card Type: Rare
 * Card Description: It's Yoshi from the last Paper Mario adventure. This scrappy Yoshi was the only way to travel!
 * How to Obtain the Card: The Duel of 100 in Sammer's Kingdom needs to be completed in order to obtain all Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door partner cards from King Sammer.

Names in other languages
Note that the player can, as in the English version, name this character anything. These names are given to the character if none is entered.

Trivia

 * As stated above, Mini-Yoshi's Glitz Pit origins resulted in him calling Mario by the name "Gonzales" throughout the whole course of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, except for six times. Although the use of "Mario" in the ending was deliberate and even played somewhat of a role in Mini-Yoshi's character development, the other listings were likely a mistake on the developers' part. These are the following times Mini-Yoshi calls Mario by his actual name:
 * At the ending of the game
 * In Grubba's office when reading his secret paper about the machine under the ring
 * At Twilight Town when the steeple bell rings, changing Mayor Dour into a pig
 * At Keelhaul Key after Frankie says "I love you" 100 times
 * At the very end of Chapter 5 when the Piantas say they're staying on Keelhaul Key
 * If Mario brings him along to the top of Riddle Tower for the first time.
 * Mini-Yoshi is one of two Yoshis that can be seen outside battle in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door; the other one is seen on the Excess Express, as an adult.
 * During the 2nd fight with Doopliss, after defeating Goombella, Koops, and Flurrie, Mini-Yoshi will appear, but, no matter what his nickname is, his enemy name is always "Yoshi".
 * The Italian version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door refers to him specifically as a Miniyoshi, further explaining that Miniyoshis are Yoshis just hatched from the eggs