Mario Kart World Reveals the Origin of the Cow Racer

When Mario Kart World releases on June 5th, the game will feature a mix of new and returning characters. Obviously favorites like Mario, Yoshi, and Princess Peach will be available, but players will also have the option of racing as newcomers like Pokey and Cheep Cheep. Nintendo is referring to these new characters as “NPC drivers,” as they prominently appeared in past Mario Kart games, but usually as threats on the courses. Now in Mario Kart World, many of these characters are graduating to fully playable racers. Of course, the one that has already become a huge hit with fans is Cow, who previously appeared as an obstacle on the Moo Moo Farm course.

In a new Ask the Developer interview, Nintendo talked about the decision to add Cow to the game. It turns out, Cow is the character that inspired the rest of the NPC drivers that made it into Mario Kart World. According to art director Masaaki Ishikawa, the team was trying to think of ways they could expand the roster after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had already covered so many favorites. After a designer came up with a sketch of a Cow driving a truck through a ranch, the developers decided to actually explore the concept.

“The character designer quickly put together a prototype of Cow that could race, and surprisingly it didn’t feel out of place at all. So we thought maybe we could include other obstacle characters, and decided to add Cheep Cheep and Pokey as racers. As a result, the idea of taking obstacle characters, usually found in courses in past games, and having them participate in races made sense to me in terms of an interconnected world,” said Ishikawa.

Not only did Cow inspire the developers to add other racers that were previously non-playable, but it also resulted in the creation of a new item in the game. The item allows players to summon Kamek, who transforms all of the racers on the course into NPC drivers, such as Cow, Pokey, or Cheep Cheep. As a result, players might end up in races that are completely full of Cows! Designer Shintaro Jikumaru says that “Cow is a character who’s inspired a lot of different ideas” for the game as a whole. In fact, adding these NPC drivers also inspired the creation of new obstacle characters.

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It remains to be seen whether fans will still feel as strongly about Cow when Mario Kart World releases alongside Nintendo Switch 2, but reception has been universally positive so far. The NPC drivers have helped to give the game a personality that already feels distinctive from past games in the series. That’s impressive when you consider that this is the ninth main entry for Mario Kart. It’s been more than three decades since the series first debuted on the Super Nintendo, but the developers have found some big ways to build on what’s been done before.

Are you excited to race as Cow in Mario Kart World? How do you feel about the addition of these NPC drivers? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!