Nintendo Finally Confirms Whether Mario Eats Mushrooms

Okay, picture this. The folks behind Mario Kart World, while working on the game, hit this wall of a question: Does Mario actually eat those mushrooms? I mean, is he supposed to chow down or just brush past them for that power-up magic?

You might think this is crystal clear, but even Shintaro Jikumaru, who’s been riding the Nintendo wave for, like, 20 years, was scratching his head. So, he and producer Kosuke Yabuki decided to go right to the source, reaching out to Nintendo bigwig Takashi Tezuka. This guy was part of the original Super Mario Bros. team, so if anyone’s got the answer, it’s probably him.

So, why did this come up in the first place, you ask? Jikumaru wanted to add hamburgers in the game—yes, you heard that right—burgers in an open-world Mario Kart. Weird? Maybe. But it meant they needed to figure out how the characters would munch down on stuff.

Yabuki even tossed out the wild idea of a drive-thru system where characters change looks while noshing on food. “Seems kinda bonkers,” he said. And yet, they were all in, facing the quirky rules of the Mushroom Kingdom head-on.

In a chat with Nintendo, Yabuki let slip, “So, does Mario eat mushrooms?” with a chuckle. Jikumaru chimed in, “We actually asked Tezuka-san if Mario chomps on those things.”

Tezuka was like, “Yup, he does.”

Old-school Mario fans might’ve guessed this, thinking about those games where Mario and Luigi are literally popping power-ups like candy. Or that one movie—yeah, the Super Mario Bros. Movie—where it’s all laid out: Mario munches mushrooms but just touches things like Fire Flowers.

But you gotta respect the Mario Kart team for being thorough. The Mario games do have these wild inconsistencies, like in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. There, Mario powers up with a mushroom, but it’s like the kart itself guzzles it, almost like… nitrous for a car? Which is, well, something.

Still, the debate on what Mario eats or simply pokes might never end. I mean, if I ever get a one-on-one with Takashi Tezuka (probably not happening after this little tale), I’d have a laundry list of quirky questions for him. Not sure he’d be thrilled, though.