7 Video Game Fan Theories Confirmed By The Creators
1. Mario Was Punching Yoshi - Super Mario World
So... this is a strange one.
For the longest time there was a debate amongst Mario fans that revolved around the nature of the plumber's relationship with Yoshi. Specifically, one half of the fanbase thought that - in SNES classic Super Mario World - Mario was simply pointing ahead while he rode the dinosaur's back, while the other half theorised that he was actually punching him in the head to get him to move (primitive graphics made it hard to tell).
This went back-and-forth for well over two decades, until finally, in 2017, the latter was confirmed to be true.
In an interview on the official Nintendo website (via Kotaku), developers Takashi Tezuka and Shigefumi Hino touched on the subject of Mario's curious link with Yoshi, talking about how the lovable green punching bag originally came to be:
“When we were making [Super Mario Bros. 3], he [Shigeru Miyamoto] drew a picture of Mario riding a horse and had put it up on wall next to where he sits. When I saw that, I thought, ‘I guess he wants Mario to ride something.’ So, when we were making Super Mario World, we had this ‘dinosaur land’ concept, and I had Hino draw reptile type art.”
Then, Hino rebuked the notion that Mario was simply pointing his finger:
“Lots of people think that while Mario is pointing his finger forward, he’s saying ‘Go,’ and Yoshi’s tongue comes out... However, the set up that I drew was that when Mario punches Yoshi in the head, the character’s tongue shoots out in surprise.”
Looking at the box-art now, Mario does look to have his fist primed in quite an aggressive manner. Turns out the answer was right under our noses all along...