We’ve seen a few hints in the past that Mario may not be as heroic as he seems, whether he was letting Yoshi fall into an empty abyss in order to get enough of a boost to make it to a ledge, or just simply performing flat-out animal cruelty in Donkey Kong Jr., locking up Donkey Kong and sending animals to subdue his son Junior while he attempts to rescue him.
But now some Nintendo artists indicate that the proof is in the pudding, and have pointed out how Mario may in fact he punching his loyal dino friend Yoshi in the 16-bit classic Super Mario World. And they have some pretty convincing proof
Videos by ComicBook.com
On the One Hand…
In the original sprite for Super Mario World, it looks pretty apparent that Mario is punching Yoshi in the back of the head to make him stick his tongue out to eat fruit, turtle shells or whatever seems to be in front of him.
For instance, on this Nintendo topics page (which you’ll need to use Google Translate on, since it’s in Japanese), a few Nintendo staffers point out that Mario is in fact punching his steed in the head in order for him to eat anything.
And trying to add further proof to that, a Twitter user by the name of FarmBoyInJapan posted this sprite, and as you can see, it appears that Mario is in fact hammering away at his dino buddy on the back of his skull. Oh, Mario, not the animal cruelty thing again…
But On the Other…
We took a close look at the sprite that we captured on the previous page, as well as the artwork above, and it actually looks like it tells a different story – that Mario isn’t punching his steed in the back of the head, but instead pointing and commanding Yoshi to eat whatever’s in front of him. It does kind of look like a finger in the animation, but if you leave it running, it looks like punching, too.
Look, Mario isn’t perfect, and why he would point when Yoshi can’t even see the finger he’s pointing is beyond us. But the fact of the matter is, Yoshi’s still doing his thing to try and help this hero however he can – even if he does occasionally get abandoned and/or goes running off the edge of a level in the process.
Whatever the case, you can rediscover Super Mario World for yourself as part of the SNES Classic Edition, which releases tomorrow at retailers. Be sure to check out our review to get the full lowdown!
