Some of the images and videos shown in text were created during development.

This article has been translated from the original Japanese content.

The designers came up with various ideas, thinking that if the theme was a vast world, they could show things other than racing. There were sketches of characters, scenery, costumes that matched the various landscapes, characters eating… We had a vast, interconnected world in mind, so a good deal of the concept art depicted scenes of people’s lives there. We designed the costumes and vehicles as a set and created these poster-style designs.

The idea of showing characters eating a variety of foods came up early on in development.

If you're travelling through a vast and diverse world, you can’t leave out the local food that's unique to each place. But actually, we did consider removing the food feature at one point. Incorporating it into the game means adding not only the food itself, but also the stores that sell it and the staff that work there, which would mean even more content.

Yes, while development was ongoing, about two years after the idea came up, I thought to myself, "You know what? I need food!". (Laughs) Unable to let it go, I asked the programmers to implement a hamburger model I'd created and make it so that the characters could eat it. It was well received within the team, and the designer started to churn out different kinds of food. Before we knew it, the number of variations had exploded.

The designer in charge was really pumped up about creating them. We've incorporated lots of Mario-inspired twists and titbits to create a wide variety of designs. I also had a lot of fun looking at those designs.

Food is sold at "Yoshi's", fictional drive-thru restaurants located all over the game's world. Yoshi and his friends make food inspired by each area.

Exactly. For example, a Yoshi's drive-thru located in a volcanic region would look like a volcano and sell piping-hot soup inspired by Bowser. (Laughs)

As we were making these various concepts, Yabuki-san comes marching up to me and says, "When Mario eats something, he transforms". He sounded pretty serious about it. (Laughs)

Originally, we were creating the various outfits separately from the foods. So, we wondered if we could combine those two elements.

Yes, they were two completely separate elements. We discussed the idea of using coins to buy clothes from clothing stores, but that would have meant stopping at stores to shop, which would have disrupted the flow, given that this is a world where you can keep driving. That's when the idea of food came up. We thought, why don’t we have a drive-thru system where characters eat while driving, and eating makes them change outfits or transform into a different character? Though, it's utterly ridiculous. (Laughs)

Then, the question came up: "Does Mario, in fact, eat mushrooms?". (Laughs)

So in the midst of development, we went up to Tezuka-san (8) and asked him to confirm, "Is Mario actually eating those mushrooms?".

(8) Takashi Tezuka. Executive Officer and Producer of the Planning & Development Division. Primarily involved in the development of 2D Mario games in the Super Mario Bros. series. Previously appeared in .

That's right. And Tezuka-san answers, "Yeah, he is".

(Laughs)

Plus, the idea of eating food from a particular region and then changing into an outfit associated with that region fits the game perfectly. As you're racing, it's a real delight to see players changing one by one into the local outfit for that area.

Not all characters have outfits that change by eating food, but some have a variety that you can pick up while driving around and eating, so we hope this will be a good incentive for players to try out different characters.

That's right. In previous games in the series, Cow was part of the scenery or an obstacle on one of the courses. But when we were working on an early version of a course in this game set on a ranch that players can drive through, this sketch came up. (Laughs)

Each new Mario Kart game features new characters to race with, but since we added so many to the previous game, we wondered where we could go from there. And then one of the designers came up with that silly sketch of Cow cruising along, and I thought to myself, "This is it!". (Laughs) So that's when we realised the course surroundings actually contained a lot of untapped resources.

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.

We called these types of characters "NPC drivers". In other words, non-player character drivers.

So it was like, "They're NPCs, but they're playable? Which is it?". (Laughs) It's pretty funny to see a four-legged Cow holding onto motorcycle handlebars with her front hooves.

But when she jumps, she strikes a proper quadrupedal pose. So I'm pretty sure Cow is still in touch with her animal nature. (Laughs)

It was thanks to the introduction of various "NPC drivers" that the idea to have Kamek appear as an item was born. When Kamek casts a spell, the racers are transformed into playable NPCs, so one by one they might all turn into Cow mid-race. I think it turned out to be a unique item that has never been seen before. In fact, Cow is a character who's inspired a lot of different ideas, including obstacle characters like Camel and Giraffe.

Cow is actually a pivotal character in the Mario Kart series. (Laughs)

On the other hand, when previously non-playable characters like Cow become playable, it means giving them new ways to express emotion, which must have been difficult for the voice lead. We were conscious of depicting the personalities and characteristics of "NPC drivers" in a way that doesn't look inferior to classic characters like Mario. The voice team members went through a lot of trial and error in the pursuit of the ideal sound. In addition to more characters, this game also has a wider selection of vehicles for characters to drive, so it was a huge task to create engine sounds that matched the characteristics, such as the appearance and structure, of each vehicle. We tried out a lot of different sounds in our search for something ideal – we even used croaking frogs and beating drums. (Laughs)

There are a lot of vehicles in this game, too. Since the game is about racing around the world, we've included not only race karts, but also everyday vehicles. It must have been tough for the designers, as they had to not only design the body of the vehicle, but also consider how the tyres would transform when drifting and how the vehicle would move when jumping.

That's right. For example, the Standard Kart has a higher ride height in this game, and suspension movement has been added so that when you drive it, the tyres move in accordance with the unevenness of the surface and your actions.

Since players are driving in a vast world, we wanted them to enjoy racing not only on asphalt, like on a racetrack, but also on rough, off-road surfaces. This was made possible thanks to the programmers' careful attention to the vehicle movements. We also wanted it to be fun to choose a vehicle based on the world's different locations and situations, so we tried to make the lineup as varied and distinct as possible.

Yes. Since you drive on water, we put a lot of effort into the wave graphics, too. Not just how they look – our up-and-coming programmers also implemented simulations, such as ripples spreading when something drops in the water, or waves appearing after a vehicle passes through. They made it possible to create waves on demand. This game has enemy characters that create waves when they attack, so we were able to incorporate players jumping on those waves into the gameplay.

Racing on water is something this game has in common with Wave Race 64 (9).

(9) Nintendo 64 software released in April 1997 in Europe. Players race across the water on watercraft at full throttle, competing for time and technique.

That's right – when it came to the jumping action, Jikumaru-san, you were very particular about the whitecaps of the waves, right?

Ah, you noticed that. (Laughs) If you want an exhilarating jump on a wave, you need to be able to see the crest of the wave to gauge the timing of your jump. But with regular wave visuals, it's hard to tell where the crest of the wave is. That's why I asked for white foam, or whitecaps, to be added to the crests. I was like, "Hmm, I don't see any whitecaps on the waves...". Then the programmers would say, "How about now, Jikumaru-san?". And I'd be like, "I still can't see it! Just a little more!". We went back and forth like this for a while before the job was done. The programmers really worked hard. Thanks to that, I think jumping on waves has turned into a nice little gameplay element.

Yes. But while we continued to work on this, the designers started to request different ways to express water, not just from a gameplay perspective, but also in terms of the visual portrayal of beaches and shoals.

I wanted to show the shoal floor through the crystal-clear water. At first, we were worried that we wouldn't be able to show the shoal floor because it was demanding on the processor. But our programmers made improvements here and there, and we were able to make it happen. Even with the familiar Koopa Troopa Beach course, we were able to create the visuals we wanted to show... Thank you for that, Sato-san.

Because we were so particular about this, the designers needed to toil away to make the shoal floor visible. (Laughs) But thanks to their efforts, it improved the quality of the graphics.

Ishikawa:
You must’ve also worked hard to create the sound you hear when driving on water, right, Asahi-san?

Asahi:
That’s right. Unlike driving on land, when driving on water, the vehicle bobs up and down along with the movement of the water. The sound is designed to correspond to the vehicle's movement and orientation. It was created with great attention paid to even the most delicate sounds, so please listen out for it when you're driving on water.

Continue to Chapter 4: A new generation of Mario Kart