Not unlike Madonna, Prince, and, well, Mario, Yoshi usually goes by one name. But the friendly green dinosaur does have a full name, and it’s a mouthful (if not the kind Yoshi himself enjoys) — T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas. This key information was finally revealed to the general public in 2014, nearly 25 years after Mario’s trusty sidekick made his debut in Super Mario World. What wasn’t revealed is what the “T” stands for. Yoshi is also the name of the character’s species, which is a bit more confusing than clarifying, and plays into an ongoing debate over whether or not Yoshi is in fact a dinosaur. Nintendo itself has said that “Yoshi is not a dinosaur, but simply a Yoshi,” and yet the “saur” at the end of his name suggests otherwise.
This is hardly Nintendo’s only odd naming convention. If you’ve ever wondered whether the name “Super Mario Bros.” implies that Mario and Luigi’s last name is Mario, the answer is apparently yes — meaning their full names are, in fact, Mario Mario and Luigi Mario. The world’s most famous plumber even has a scientific name: Homo nintendonus.
Yoshi has starred in his own series of games since 1991’s aptly named Yoshi. The second in that series, 1992’s Yoshi’s Cookie, isn’t exactly regarded as one of Nintendo’s most memorable games, but that hasn’t prevented it from becoming a collector’s item in its own right. A rare, alternate version of the puzzle-like game called Yosshī no Kukkī: Kuruppon Ōbun de Kukkī was limited to 500 copies and only released in Japan, with scarcity driving up the prices over the years. In 2010, one of those copies was listed in a Tokyo game store for ¥157,500 — the equivalent of $1,924 U.S. at the time. In addition to its rarity, this version of the game also has features not found in the original that have helped enhance its value.