By What could the alternative option possibly be?
- by Jim Norman
We cannot assert that this is the type of inquiry that frequently arises in our daily lives, but if someone confronted us and asked, “does Mario genuinely consume those power-up mushrooms?”, we would find it challenging to provide a clear answer.
Naturally, The Super Mario Bros. Movie allocated an entire subplot to this specific question (spoiler: yes he does consume them), but prior to his significant animated debut on screen, did we have definitive proof?
The creators of Mario Kart World clearly had no idea. While talking about the game’s new Dash Food feature in a recent Ask the Developer interview, producer Kosuke Yabuki admitted that this feature led the team to ponder, “Does Mario indeed eat mushrooms?”. Let us not overlook that the game was being developed (for the Switch 1, no less) well before the Mario Movie, so they had to bring out the big guns for a reply: Takashi Tezuka.
“During development, we approached Tezuka-san and inquired, ‘Is Mario genuinely eating those mushrooms?’,” explained planning team leader Shintaro Jikumaru. According to Yabuki-san, the iconic Mario producer provided a rather definitive answer, “Yeah, he is”.
We confess, we had never truly pictured Mario snacking on those mushrooms while traversing the kingdom, but what was the alternative? Crushing them to absorb their abilities? Collecting them through osmosis? Assimilating it by some other means (steady)? Regardless, there’s your concrete answer, straight from the mouth of a man who certainly should know.
Now, onto the broader question, are they appropriate for vegetarians..?
How did you believe Mario was obtaining his mushroom abilities? Share your thoughts in the comments.
[source nintendo.com]
Jim joined Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his claim that The Minish Cap is the finest Zelda title and his unwavering affection for the Star Wars prequels (yes, truly), he has consistently contributed news and features on the site since then.