Purple Yoshi in Yoshi's Story

Upon the release of Yoshi’s Story in 1997, rumors of an unlockable Purple Yoshi began to circulate among fan communities and upon the nascent internet.

Background
Yoshi’s Story is a 1997 platformer game released for the Nintendo 64. A sort-of spiritual successor to the better known Yoshi’s Island games, the gameplay aspect was nearly identical: Yoshis defeating a cacophony of enemies by eating them, turning them into eggs, and potentially hurling the eggs at other enemies, etc. - with the notable exception of a lack of Baby Mario, and health being represented more in-line with the traditional Mario games. As such, throughout the game, at the start of each level, the player has a choice of six differently colored Yoshis to use as their character: green, red, yellow, blue, cyan, and pink. Players could also unlock two additional Yoshis by finding them hidden in certain levels: one black, and one white.

Rumor
Similar to supposed avenues to unlock Waluigi in Super Mario 64 DS, various cheat/walkthrough websites online began sporting claims of an unlockable Purple Yoshi, which could only be accessed if players collected every single coin in the game. Although not the only rumor pertaining to some fake unlockable Yoshi to make the rounds online, the Purple Yoshi enjoyed widespread attention, being found on a plethora of otherwise reputable gaming websites, and the general lack of variation in the fabricated “instructions” as to how to unlock it made gamers find it particularly believable.

Further complicating matters is the matter of the game’s start menu background and opening cutscene, both of which show the 6 stock playable Yoshis rendered in a Yoshi’s Island-esque storybook art style, with the pink Yoshi appearing to be purple due to the engine-lighting.

Over the years, many have endeavored to unlock both the Purple Yoshi, but of course, to no avail.

Curiosities
Funnily enough, early game footage seems to indicate that at some point in development, a purple Yoshi was intended to be included as a playable character. Early promotional material showcased a character selection screen with all eight characters, the retail six + the two hidden unlockables, with a purple Yoshi replacing the retail pink, and a brown Yoshi replacing the unlockable white. Why the brown and purple Yoshis were changed to white and pink, respectively, remains unknown to this day.

The retail inclusion of the Black Yoshi may have influenced the inception of the rumors regarding the Purple Yoshi’s hidden presence in the retail game, as one would reasonably assume it could represent yet another beta feature which was not completely removed.