During the wild ride of creating Mario Kart World, the team hit this weird snag: Do Mario and Luigi actually chow down on those mushrooms, or is it more of a touchy-feely thing? Like seriously, do they have to eat them to power up, or just brush by? It’s a head-scratcher.
Now, you might think the answer’s duh-level obvious, but even Shintaro Jikumaru, who’s been at Nintendo for, like, two decades, was scratching his head. So, he and Kosuke Yabuki – the Mario Kart World producer – did the only logical thing: pester Takashi Tezuka about it. Tezuka’s been around since the OG Super Mario Bros., so if anyone knows, it’s gotta be him, right?
The whole question popped up ‘cause Jikumaru had this lightbulb moment about adding food, like burgers, to the new open-world Mario Kart thing. Which meant animating Mario nomming on stuff.
Yabuki was kinda into the idea, saying something like, “Why don’t we make a drive-thru where characters eat while cruising, and boom, they get new outfits or become a different character? Utterly ridiculous, I know.”
So adding stuff like burgers and cultural food bits, making people change clothes, made them rethink the Super Mario universe rules. During a Nintendo developer chat, they spelled it out:
Yabuki was all like: “Then it hit us. Does Mario munch on mushrooms, actually?” (Cue awkward laugh.)
Jikumaru chimed in: “Mid-development, we hit up Tezuka-san to clear it up. ‘Is Mario actually eating those mushrooms?’”
Yabuki again: “Yup, and Tezuka-san simply says, ‘Yeah, he is.’”
Now, if you’re a Mario diehard, you’ll point to games like the Mario & Luigi series where the brothers are chomping on power-ups left and right. Or that Super Mario Bros. Movie, where Mario munches mushrooms to get juiced up, but just touches things like Fire Flowers. But hey, you gotta admire Mario Kart World’s makers for being thorough. There’s a ton of room for confusion with all the power-ups. Like in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, when Mario busts out a Super Mushroom, it’s like he’s given the kart itself a speed boost rather than scarfing it down. Go figure, right?
Anyway, debating which power-ups Mario actually eats or just touches? That’s a rabbit hole. Plus, heaps more unknowns. Honestly, if I ever get a chat with Takashi Tezuka (probably never after dragging this out), I’d have a boatload of questions. Bet he’d get annoyed, and fast.
