Anyone who knows me knows how much of a fan of Super Mario I am. I dressed up as Mario for Halloween in the third grade, can beat the original Super Mario Bros. in under six minutes (a far cry from the record) and to this day, I still randomly have a tune from one of the Super Mario titles stuck in my head for no reason at all. But today is the day I regret to say I will never look at Nintendo’s mascot in the same light ever again.

You see, it has been confirmed that Mario has been abusing the lovable Yoshi in Super Mario World. Our darkest fears have been realized. And we’re not talking about simply hopping off Yoshi in order to get a boost to safety. Mario physically abused the number one resident of Dinosaur Island by seemingly punching him in the head.

In an interview with Nintendo’s Japanese website, game artist Shigefumi Hino, who worked on Super Mario World for the Super NES, confirmed the animation in the game that has Yoshi stick out his tongue does in fact have Mario punching Yoshi in the face, as opposed to pointing to where Yoshi should be pointing his tongue. Translated from the interview;

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. What’s more, there’s an added ‘bop’ sound. However, it seemed like people would say ‘Poor Yoshi,’ so that’s why it became that Mario is saying ‘Go.’

Of course, I suppose the warning signs were always there. Mario did take Donkey Kong captive and locked him away in a cage while Donkey Kong Jr. had to come to the rescue by avoiding the many traps set by Mario. But this is just the kind of bad publicity Nintendo’s mascot would have wanted to keep buried. Nintendo is releasing the Super NES Classic Edition tomorrow and Super Mario Odyssey is coming to the Nintendo Switch later in October. How Mario rebounds from his ugly past now remains to be seen, but I’m guessing he’ll be just fine.

And as far as we know, Mario and Yoshi are still pals, although we can’t help but wonder if Yoshi has ever gotten his revenge on Mario.

[Nintendo Life]

About Kevin McGuire

Contributor to Athlon Sports and The Comeback. Previously contributed to NBCSports.com. Host of the Locked On Nittany Lions Podcast. FWAA member and Philadelphia-area resident.