In a new Ask the Developer article, Nintendo’s developers have shared how Cow ended up becoming a new playable character in Mario Kart World.
An immediate fan-favourite addition to the roster, in response to the interviewer stating they were surprised to see Cow added as a playable character, producer Kosuke Yabuki, programming director Kenta Sato, art director Masaaki Ishikawa, and planning team lead Shintaro Kijumaru explained how it happened.
Yabuki: 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]
Ishikawa: 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.
Sato: We called these types of characters “NPC drivers.” In other words, non-player character drivers.
Yabuki: 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.
Ishikawa: 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]
Jikumaru: 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.
Ishikawa: Cow is actually a pivotal character in the Mario Kart series. [Laughs]
Mario Kart World will be released at retail and digitally on the Nintendo eShop exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 worldwide on 5 June 2025.
