SNES Classic: Dev Interview Vol. 5 - Super Mario World/Yoshi's Island (how Yoshi took on a starring role)

The following comes from a Nintendo internal interview with Takashi Tezuka, Shigefumi Hino and Hisashi Nogami...

Interviewer: Why did you want to make Yoshi the main character?

Hino: It's just my personal opinion, but I felt like, with Super Mario World, we had done everything we could with a side-scrolling jumping game.

Interviewer: Oh, I see. After that, Super Mario 64 came out and for a while the focus was on more three-dimensional action and not side-scrolling.

Hino: Right. I wondered what kind of side-scrolling platform game we could make and thought we could create new gameplay if Yoshi were the main character. I think I started with the idea of having Yoshi carry something to the goal.

Interviewer: Making Yoshi the main character would give birth to new actions.

Tezuka: Right. We made new actions, and one I thought was good was the Flutter Jump. Mario can't do an action like that and it would help people who have difficulty with platformers.