The question of whether longtime Mario sidekick Toad’s head is a mushroom, or if he’s wearing a mushroom hat, has been pervasive over the years. Debates have raged online, independent scientific studies have been performed in a vacuum, but there has been no definitive answer on the subject.
*Pauses for dramatic effect*
Until today.
Super Mario Odyssey producer Yoshiaki Koizumi sat down to answer some of the tough questions that Nintendo fans have posited over the years, finally closing the book on the Toad Head situation while simultaneously opening a new conundrum.
“So that, as it turns out, is actually Toad’s head. I’m going to have to leave it to all of you to figure out exactly how that works out. Maybe there’s something inside…”
Maybe the thing inside is a brain? Will this eventually turn into a macabre alien autopsy for the denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom? Who is qualified to put a deceased toad (also the name of the gender-less species in the Mario games) under the knife in the name of science?
Koizumi kind of avoids another important query from fans regarding the question of why Mario has nipples but no bellybutton (which has called his humanity into question in some sects of the Mario community). Koizumi seems taken aback. He never thought the nippled but belly button-less Mario would be an issue, but this is the current year and everything must be dissected when it comes to an iconic gaming hero’s anatomy.
“Well to be perfectly honest, I didn’t really expect that to be a topic among fans. Once I heard that people were talking so much about Mario’s belly button, it made me start to think about whether we should revisit the topic on the design side.”
The fact is, Mario has nipples and Link doesn’t. Somewhere in Japan, there are documents and folders that paint a picture of a difficult decision that had to be made. What was the motivation behind those decisions? Why pointless nipples for a male but no belly button? How was Mario born?
How was Mario born?
(Via Polygon)
