So, picture this: the crew working on Mario Kart World hit a weird crossroads. They were like, “Wait… does Mario actually eat those mushrooms? Or is just touching them like… magic?” I mean, we’ve all wondered it, right? Even Shintaro Jikumaru, who’s been with Nintendo for like, forever (okay, 20 years, but still), was scratching his head. And Jikumaru’s not alone—he wrangled in another big wig, Kosuke Yabuki, to dig into this pressing matter. They even roped in Takashi Tezuka, the guy who’s been in Mario’s world since the beginning. If anyone would know, it’s probably him, don’t ya think?
This whole mushroom dilemma sprouted when Jikumaru suddenly thought, “Hey, what if Mario could, I dunno, eat hamburgers while karting around the place?” It’s like, one minute you’re zooming through Rainbow Road, next you’re in a drive-thru snagging a burger. Yeah, bizarre, right? But they needed some munching animations for that, and this mushroom thing was bugging them. Like, super bugging.
Yabuki had this wild idea about characters changing outfits mid-race after chomping down on some grub. Kinda out there, but hey, why not? Anyway—uh, where was I? Right, so they wanted to get the Super Mario laws straight, and asked Tezuka, like, “Is this dude actually scarfing down mushrooms or what?” And surprise—Tezuka just casually drops, “Yeah, he totally is.” Imagine that!
Fans might be facepalming hard, thinking, “DUH, he eats them,” because we’ve all seen Mario & Luigi shoving power-ups down, and the movie basically screams it in your face. But these devs, man, they just wanted to be extra sure. Mario games have a ton of strange power-ups, sometimes it’s hard to keep track. Like, in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the whole Super Mushroom thing is more about the kart itself juicing up. It’s like Mario’s kart gets some secret boost or something.
It’s honestly a mishmash of eating vs. touching power-ups. Lots of head-scratchers there. There’s just so much to ask about, I swear if I ever pin down Takashi Tezuka for a chat—I mean, if that ever happens—he’s gonna need the patience of a saint with all the questions I’d have. But honestly, that’s a whole other rabbit hole.
