During the course of developing Mario Kart World, the team making it were confronted with an important, potentially existential question: Does Mario, in fact, eat mushrooms?
Meaning, do Super Mushrooms in the Mario universe need to be eaten, or simply touched to imbue Mario (and Luigi) with super powers?
Tezuka served as assistant director on the original Super Mario Bros., and has produced or supervised dozens of Mario games since, so if anyone would know, it’s him.
The Mario Kart World devs raised the question in the first place because Jikumaru was inspired to add food — hamburgers, specifically — to the new open-world Mario Kart.
But questions about which Super Mario power-ups Mario eats versus what he merely touches may be up for debate.
When creating Mario Kart World, the team faced a crucial, possibly existential question: Does Mario actually eat mushrooms? In other words, do Super Mushrooms in the Mario universe need to be eaten or just touched in order to give Mario (and Luigi) superpowers?
You may already know the answer to that question, but even Shintaro Jikumaru, a 20-year Nintendo veteran, questioned whether he truly understood how a Mushroom Kingdom mushroom was delivered. Kosuke Yabuki, the producer of Mario Kart World, and Jikumaru conducted thorough research on the subject before consulting Nintendo executive Takashi Tezuka for clarification. Tezuka was the original Super Mario Bros.’ assistant director. If anyone would know, it would be him, as he has produced or overseen numerous Mario games since.
The reason the Mario Kart World developers brought up the issue in the first place was because Jikumaru was motivated to include food in the new open-world Mario Kart, specifically hamburgers. Because of this, game developers had to incorporate animations of people eating food.
Yabuki explained, “We thought, why don’t we have a drive-thru system where characters eat while driving, and eating makes them change outfits or becomes a different character?”. However, it is completely absurd. “”.
Yabuki and Jikumaru had to confront the reality of the Super Mario universe’s rules when hamburgers (as well as other regional foods that require wardrobe adjustments) were added to Mario Kart World. In a recent Nintendo Ask the Developer interview, they clarify….
Yabuki: “In fact, does Mario eat mushrooms?” was the next question that was raised. (Laughs).
Jikumaru: So we approached Tezuka-san during development to ask him to verify whether Mario was truly consuming those mushrooms.
Yabuki: You’re right. And in response, Tezuka-san says, “He is. “”.
Mario aficionados will likely cite titles like Super Mario Bros. or Mario and Luigi, where the brothers are seen flinging edible power-ups into their mouths. The movie makes it clear that Mario touches objects like Fire Flowers and Super Stars to acquire their powers, but eats mushrooms to unlock their effects. The dozens of power-ups in Mario games are somewhat inconsistent, but you can still see that the developers of Mario Kart World wanted to be thorough. For instance, in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, when Mario uses a Super Mushroom during a race, it is implied that the kart receives the mushroom, similar to a NOS injection, rather than Mario eating it.
However, it may be debatable which Super Mario power-ups Mario actually consumes as opposed to what he only touches. Numerous other unknowns also exist. Think about:.
Given that a Mega Mushroom is many times his size, how does Mario eat it?
Are Drill and Golden Mushrooms genuinely composed of metal?
We know Mario can turn into metal, but does that mean he can digest metal?
Does Mario become Flying Squirrel Mario after consuming the acorns that change him?
Are the propeller hat and royal crown on a propeller mushroom and a golden dash mushroom edible?
Is it a Boo Mushroom or does it just look like a Boo?
Does Mario’s digestive tract contain a number of dead souls if it is a ghost?
Apart from fruits and mushrooms, what other power-ups are consumed?
What if Mario simply licked a P-Block for a brief moment?
How distressing is it to consume a fuzzy bee mushroom?
If I ever get an interview with Takashi Tezuka, which is extremely unlikely given this story, you can probably tell that I will have dozens of questions for him, which will irritate him more and more.
