Nintendo Finally Confirms Whether Mario Eats Mushrooms

Alright, so picture this. You’re knee-deep in the mind-boggling world of Mario Kart development, right? And suddenly, this huge, earth-shattering question smacks you in the face: Does Mario even munch down mushrooms? I mean, do these magical, power-boosting fungi in the Mario universe need a full-on gnaw session, or is a mere touch the secret sauce? Yeah, wild.

Even the big guns like Shintaro Jikumaru, who’s been with Nintendo for like two decades, found himself in a tangled mess over this mushroom mystery. I guess at some point, you’ve gotta ask, have I been missing something this whole time? So, Shintaro and the Mario Kart World producer, Kosuke Yabuki, dove headfirst into this rabbit hole, pestering Takashi Tezuka for answers. Tezuka’s seen it all, especially since he’s got a hand in about a million Mario games. If anyone knows, it’s this guy.

You might wonder why this ever came up, right? Turns out, Jikumaru had this brainwave to start tossing food like hamburgers into the Mario Kart world. A bit odd, but hey, who wouldn’t want to nosh on a burger mid-race? That’s where the whole eating animation quandary came in.

Then someone — maybe it was Yabuki — was like, “Hey, how about a drive-thru where munching means changing up your look or turning into someone else?” Sounds bonkers, I know, but that’s the fun part.

So there it was, the team had to stare down Mario universe laws as they threw burgers (and god knows what else) into the mix, changing outfits along the way. This was all laid out in one of those “Ask the Developer” Nintendo interviews, almost like they were daring the universe to prove them wrong.

The kicker? Yabuki goes, “Does Mario, in fact, eat mushrooms?” And everyone laughs — typical, right? Jikumaru mentions their “Tezuka mission” for confirmation, and bam, Tezuka’s like, “Yeah, he is.” Pretty anticlimactic, but straight from the horse’s mouth.

Die-hard fans will probably yell about the Mario & Luigi games or even that Super Mario Bros. movie. It’s crystal clear there — Mario’s scarfing down mushrooms and having a blast with Fire Flowers just by touching them. But still, gotta admire the Mario Kart folks for wanting to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ’t.’ There’s always been a bit of a jumble with power-ups in these games. Take Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — man, mushrooms work like a nitro boost for the kart, not a snack for Mario.

Maybe the question of which power-ups Mario eats or just taps on is still a bit muddy. Tons of mysteries left to unravel. Honestly, if I ever get the chance to grill Takashi Tezuka (not happening after this, let’s be real), my head would be bursting with questions, probably driving him nuts by the end.