What Animal Is Yoshi? 13 Video Game Characters And Their Real-Life Inspirations

Of all the video games in the world, those with anthropomorphic main characters and sidekicks add an extra dose of fun and whimsy. Consider the Mario media franchise — most of the characters besides Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach are animals of some sort.

Game designers have done a great job in creating unique talking animal counterparts for video game play. But do you know where the real-life inspirations for these characters came from? Keep reading to find out.

What Animal is Yoshi?

Yoshi, the trusty steed and sometimes sidekick of Mario and Luigi, took inspiration from another game: Devil World (1984). When sketching, designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who had also worked on Devil World, had several drafts of Yoshi on his desk — including one in which Mario rode a horse. He combined his primary thoughts of having a green lizard-like sidekick with Mario riding a horse into a fictional dinosaur species.

13 Other Video Game Characters And Their Real-Life Inspirations

Fox McCloud

Leader of the Star Fox team, Fox McLoud is a red fox. Also designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, McCloud’s concept and design came from Miyamoto visiting the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine in Kyoto that honors foxes.

Sonic

As his full name suggests, Sonic’s character design was inspired by a hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog needed to compete with the Mario franchise, so officials at Sega looked around wildly for an idea. One of which was a spiky-haired, teal hedgehog that members of an impromptu focus group in Central Park seemed to like more than others.

Donkey Kong

When Shigeru Miyamoto received the green light to create original characters, he designed a love triangle between a gorilla, a carpenter, and a girlfriend that mirrored the rivalry between Popeye and Bluto for Olive Oyl, a comic strip that Nintendo had been attempting to license. The 1933 version of King Kong added to the inspiration for the gorilla, and Donkey Kong was born.

Unlike Sonic, Donkey Kong doesn’t have an ounce of “donkey” in his anatomy. Rather, Miyamoto used the name to convey the character’s stubbornness. 

Isabelle

As part of the wildly popular Animal Crossing franchise, Isabelle is an anthropomorphic golden shih tzu. The game’s creators looked to find a gentle, sweet-natured female companion who was loyal. 

Crash Bandicoot

Did you know that Crash’s real-life animal inspiration is in his name? That’s right — he’s a bandicoot! Bandicoots are endemic to Australia (and New Guinea) and are small marsupials that use their elongated snouts to forage for food. Sony’s game designers decided on a bandicoot for the game’s mascot after feeling the pressure to compete with Sonic and Mario. They’d felt inspired after seeing Taz (the Tasmanian devil) and wanted something similar.

Bowser

Created and designed by Ninentdo’s powerhouse Miyamoto, Bowser was first designed to be an ox. However, a fellow designer and colleague (Takashi Tezuka) pointed out that Bowser’s initial design was more turtle-like than ox-like. Knowing he would be the leader of the Koopa Troopas (which we discuss below), Miyamoto rethought his design. 

Petey Piranha

Petey Piranha, as well as the other piranha flowers in the Mario franchise, are a cross between a piranha fish and the Venus flytrap flower.

Conker

First introduced in 1997 for Nintendo 64 players, Conker is the titular character in the game series of the same name. He’s an anthropomorphic red squirrel who started off as a cute mascot but soon turned into a raunchy and more mature playable character to differentiate him and the game from the current market.

Epona

Players of The Legend of Zelda all the way back with Ocarina of Time will know that Epona started out as just an untamed foal who takes a liking to Link. She only lets a few people ride her — including Link and Malon, her caretaker before Link.

Amaterasu

Amaterasu, the main playable character in the game Ōkami, is a female white wolf. Inspired by the goddess Amaterasu, the wolf slightly changes to also have red markings and curlicue fur when alone with the player or around those in the game with strong beliefs.

Koopa Troopa

The army of Koopa Troopas under Bowser are indeed turtles. Though Miyamoto and his team wondered if they might be “misleading children” by the character design, he had originally conceptualized a turtle for the characters based on what he wanted the game’s logistics and movements to be.

Knuckles

The former rival and current best friend of Sonic is Knuckles — a red anthropomorphic echidna. Technically, the character is based on the short-beaked echidna, which looks similar to an anteater and a hedgehog.

Red

Angry Birds’ titular character, Red, is a standard red bird but his inspiration may have come from a cardinal. The early conception of the game remained to create a colorful flock of birds with different powers based on their feathers and shapes to help the player defeat the pigs who want to steal the flock’s eggs.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Bahobank/iStock via Getty Images