Why is Mario Fat? Creator Shigeru Miyamoto Explains
By:
Andre Segers
|
May 12, 2011, 4:58 pm

Many classic game heroes seem to have a less than healthy relationship with food. Pac-Man wanders weird alleys at night for his pellet fix, Peter Pepper from BurgerTime just can’t stop making burgers (even when under attack!), and Kirby just can’t keep a meal down to save his life.

Images courtesy of NoobSquad.


And then there’s Mario--the quintessential overweight videogame hero. But what’s the reason for his pleasant-plumpness? After all, we never see him actually eat anything in his games...even though he does dream of pasta in Super Mario 64. 
 
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So with Mario as active as he is, what with saving the princess every other week, why exactly is he overweight? Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, explains in the most recent Iwata Asks column:
 
“The reason Mario is a plump shape is because gaming devices at that time could only read collisions between square boxes, not because I wanted to make him cute. His design turned out like that because I adjusted for the capabilities of the gaming device of the day. For example, resolution was low, so I made his face big. But today's game consoles can handle collisions with round or irregular shapes.”
-Shigeru Miyamoto, Iwata Asks
 
There you have it: Mario is fat through no fault of his own. At least he has been able to shed a few pounds from his pasta-belly in the years since.
 
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