Yoshi's secret history: 20 things you didn't know about Mario's dinosaur sidekick .

It's been 20 years since Mario's Koopa-chomping steed Yoshi was given the solo adventure he deserved in Super Nintendo classic Yoshi's Island, an endearing prequel to the much-loved Super Mario World.

From surprise cameos in the Legend of Zelda series to the character's full name, check out these 20 amazing facts about Mario's prehistoric pal.

1. Yoshi's full name is T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas

© Nintendo

That's right, Yoshi has a full name and it's T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. What a mouthful - no wonder he prefers to shorten it.

This factoid was revealed by Nintendo in an official character guide it published in 1993 to help licensors and other companies use their characters correctly.

2. The character eats dolphins in Japan

© Nintendo

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Remember those friendly dolphins in Super Mario World that you could hitch a ride on? In the Japanese version of the game, you could use Yoshi to eat them.

As the practise of killing innocent marine life in generally frowned upon outside of Japan, this feature was dropped in all other markets, where Yoshi's diet consists mainly of Koopa shells.

3. But its gender remains a mystery

Although there are no question marks surrounding what species Yoshi belongs to, his gender is another matter entirely.

The green dino has always been referred to as male, but laying eggs is not a very male characteristic. It seemed logical to assume that Yoshis reproduce asexually, but his bizarre romance with Birdo makes the debate all the more confusing - it's probably best not to think about it too hard.

4. Yoshi was meant to debut in the first Super Mario Bros

© Nintendo

Most Nintendo fans became acquainted with Yoshi when he burst from that speckled egg on the Super Mario World title screen, but series mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to introduce the glutinous dinosaur several years earlier.

Miyamoto pitched the idea of Mario mounting a reptilian steed in Super Mario Bros back in 1985, but the hardware limitations of the NES made that impossible.

5. Panasonic once released a Yoshi game to promote an oven

Yoshi is probably the last video game character you'd want anywhere near the kitchen, but Nintendo once loaned his likeness to Panasonic to promote a cooking appliance in Japan.

In a bizarre piece of marketing, the electronics manufacturer commissioned a special sequel to food-themed SNES puzzler Yoshi's Cookie and bundled it with the Kuruppon Oven. The promotional game is now a sought-after collector's item that goes for around $2,000 on auction sites.

6. Someone's made a custom Yoshi motorbike in Japan

© Twitter / @gsx250r

We can't think of a cooler way of getting to work than on the back of Yoshi, and someone in Japan has made that a reality by modelling a custom-built motorbike on Mario's buddy.

As if the owner of these wheels didn't have enough geek-cred, the bike even features the character's trademark stretchy tongue, used as a holster for a can of oil or lubricant.

7. Yoshi was originally conceived as a type of Koopa

Before Yoshi was ready to hatch, Nintendo's top brass were debating what form he should take and one of the ideas that almost came into fruition was that of a tame Koopa Trooper.

It's a good thing this suggestion ended up on the cutting room floor because cannibalism would surely have compromised Nintendo's family-friendly image. A benevolent dinosaur he became, but some Koopa characteristics have remained.

8. The 'Yoshi vomit' weapon was dropped from Super Mario Sunshine

Graffiti-scrubbing GameCube hit Super Mario Sunshine saw Mario enlist the help of Yoshi to clean up Isle Delfino after Browser Jr had defaced the entire place.

Yoshi was supposed to have a bigger role to play as the original plan was to have players use the dinosaur to vomit jets of water and blast away the offending graffiti. Somebody at Nintendo obviously thought this was too gross, so FLUDD was dreamed up instead.

9. Yoshi was uber complex to create for the Super Mario Bros movie

© Rex Features / Moviestore Collection

Yoshi may have resembled a rejected Jurassic Park prop when he appeared in the reviled Super Mario Bros live-action movie, but he was actually a sophisticated piece of puppetry.

The runty raptor lookalike required 100 hours to make and 9 puppeteers to operate. Is it any wonder the film turned out the way it did when so much time and effort was invested in a puppet that spent all of five minutes on screen?

10. Oddball NES game Devil World inspired the character's design

Many years before he brought Yoshi to life, Miyamoto worked on a bonkers NES game called Devil World, in which players took control of a green dinosaur, collected bibles and battled Satan.

It never made it outside of Japan - which was probably for the best - but some good did come out of this unholy mess. The game's protagonist is widely believed to be a precursor to Yoshi.

11. Yoshi's Island was NOT his first solo outing

It's a common misconception that Yoshi's first solo outing came in 1995 when he appeared in Yoshi's Island. It was, in fact, in a critically-panned NES puzzler simply called Yoshi (he clearly hadn't found the island yet).

It was a slow and cumbersome Tetris clone developed by Game Freak, a studio that would later shake the gaming industry to its foundations when it unleashed the first Pokémon titles in 1996.

12. Yoshi has the same voice actor as KK Slider from Animal Crossing

The inhuman sounds that come out of Yoshi are actually made by a real person. Kazumi Totaka provides his strange squawks and yelps, the same voice actor behind Animal Crossing's KK Slider.

Totaka is a man of many talents and an important figure for Nintendo. As well as lending his voice to characters, he's also an award-winning composer, scoring classics such as Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Land 2.

13. These crazy power-ups were cut from Yoshi's Island

Transforming into helicopters, submarines and mole tanks were among the highlights of Yoshi's Island, and the game almost included even more shape-shifting fun.

Hackers have since delved into the game's code and discovered unused animations for power-ups that turned Yoshi into a plane, a mushroom, and a tree. Just think how many hours of fun we could have had playing as a tree.

14. Yoshi's made cameos in the Legend of Zelda series

It might sound like a tonal clash, but Yoshi has made cameo appearances in the sword and sorcery-themed Legend of Zelda series, albeit subtle ones.

He appeared in Game Boy masterpiece Link's Awakening as a collectable doll, while eagle-eyed Ocarina of Times fans may have noticed his portrait adorning a wall.

15. Yoshi had a short-lived rivalry with a dino named Boshi

In Square's stellar SNES role-playing game Super Mario RPG, Yoshi had a rivalry with a mean blue dino named Boshi. He was essentially what Wario is to Mario.

In fact, Boshi actually goes by the name of Washi in the Japanese version of the game. Super Mario RPG is his sole appearance to date.

16. Yoshi's Island's visual design was an act of rebellion

© Nintendo

The playful, Crayola-coloured visual style of Yoshi's Island oozes charm, but it was chosen as an act of rebellion by Miyamoto.

The Nintendo hierarchy were after a game that stood up to the pre-rendered splendour of Rare's Donkey Kong County series, but feisty Miyamoto was determined to move in the opposite direction.

17. Super Maro Bros 3's wearable power-ups were Yoshi stopgaps

It sounds like dino-mania really got the better of Miyamoto during the NES era as rumours suggest he was constantly pushing the idea of introducing a rideable dinosaur to the Super Mario series.

With the NES still unable to deliver this in 1990, Super Mario Bros 3 designer Takashi Tezuka is believed to have included the frog and tanooki costumes in the game to appease the insistent Miyamoto, by having Mario take on the characteristics of animals instead of riding one.

18. Yoshi's Island used the same sprite as Yoshi's Cookie

© Nintendo

Super Mario Bros 2 aside, Nintendo isn't usually one for lazy rehashes, but the sprite from Yoshi's Island is exactly that.

The Big N merely cut and pasted pixels from Yoshi's Cookie, rather than recreate the character from scratch. That same sprite also had a cameo in Super Mario All-Stars.

19. Yoshi is the only character in Smash Bros with a unique shield

© Nintendo

Although Mario and Yoshi are the best of friends, they've been pummelling the bejesus out of each other in the Super Smash Bros series since the first instalment hit the N64 in 1999.

The gender-ambiguous dino has featured in every entry in Nintendo's crossover brawler series, and is the only character to date with an entirely unique shield. He encases himself in an egg for protection, while the others use a bubble.

20. The Game Boy Advance was unable to handle one Yoshi's Island level

When Yoshi's Island bounded onto Game Boy Advance in 2002, it almost made the jump intact, but one stage in particular was scaled down due to hardware limitations.

Level 1-7 'Fuzzy Touch Get Dizzy' required some toning down for the handheld console, particularly the mind-bending part that induced said dizziness.