Super Mario RPG remake: What really caused Yoshi’s disappearance from the box art? 

Nintendo announced the Super Mario RPG remake scheduled for release on November 17 for the Nintendo Switch. People have started noticing a peculiar detail on the game’s box art – Yoshi is gone. Though Yoshi is still part of the game, as can be seen from the trailer, for some reason he’s been left out from the box art. 

The freshly released box art features the 3D models of the characters Mario, Bowser, Peach, Mallow, and Geno standing side by side, and the design more or less follows the original version. But there is one major change compared to the original version. Yoshi, everyone’s beloved green creature, is missing. Users’ reactions to this situation have been varied, with many joking that he’s been “sacrificed” (in exchange for the release of the remake). 

On the other hand, some users took to more serious speculation about Yoshi’s disappearance. One of the most likely reasons is that, in the original game, Yoshi is not a party member, while the other five members featured on the box art are all party members who travel together. Yoshi isn’t present throughout the entire adventure and only appears on Yo’ster Isle. Besides, Yoshi’s appearance in the game is only as a support character when certain items are used in battle. 

Furthermore, there is actually no need to visit Yo’ster Island in terms of story progression either – some players have even cleared the game without visiting it at all. Although Yoshi’s presence in itself seems to fit in with the box art, if you think about it, he is actually quite out of place compared to the other members of the team. The original box art made Yoshi’s role in the game seem to be more prominent than it really was. 

Then, why was Yoshi included in the original box art in the first place? This is known only to Nintendo and Square at the time, but in August 1995, the year before the original version was released, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island was released. This was the first game to feature Yoshi as the main character, so it’s possible that Yoshi gracing the box art along the main cast had to do with efforts at the time to push Yoshi as a mascot character that goes hand in hand with Mario. 

Some users have also speculated that the bright green Yoshi was included in order to contribute to the color palette of the box art, and surely, the original art does accomplish a good balance of reds, greens and blues. In this sense, the remake’s box art may seem a bit lacking in terms of color. 

In any case, the reality is that Yoshi has been removed from the box art of the remake. But thankfully, the trailer clearly shows Mario riding on Yoshi’s back on Yo’ster Island, which means we can still expect to see him and his friends vividly recreated in 3D in the remake. 

It seems there have been other instances of Yoshi disappearing from games’ box art in the past. In Germany, Yoshi was nowhere to be seen on the Super Smash Bros package. 

While all other versions of the box art had Yoshi in between of Link and Pikachu, the German version had to remove him due to the size of the German age rating mark, which is notably larger than in Japan or the USA. Had Yoshi remained on the illustration, Pikachu would have been covered by the rating mark, so Yoshi was sacrificed to push Pikachu upwards. It seems that Yoshi has an unfortunate fate of disappearing from the box art of games. 

Unsurprisingly, many users have linked Yoshi’s disappearance from the box art of Super Mario RPG remake to the “Yoshi Committed Tax Fraud” meme. This meme originated from a Tumblr user’s image of the cute and innocent Yoshi confessing to his crimes, saying “I committed tax fraud.” This has naturally led to people jokingly concluding that Yoshi’s removal from the illustration had something to do with his financial crimes. Of course, such statements are groundless, as Yoshi has committed no such thing. Probably. 

Super Mario RPG is scheduled for release on November 17 for Nintendo Switch.   

Written by. Amber V based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-06-22 19:45 JST)