Mario Kart World Direct Acknowledges Long-Standing Meme by Repeatedly Throwing Penguin Off Cliffs

During today’s Mario Kart World Direct, we got a closer look at a number of new tracks, features, and racers, including Penguin. We’ve known Penguin was in the game since its reveal last week, but today’s Direct decided to feature this blue cutie in a very meme-specific way…by repeatedly throwing him off cliffs.

This happened not once, but twice during the Direct, as fans have pointed out on social media. On one occasion, Penguin simply misjudges a curve and sails neatly off over an icy landscape:

Even Nintendo is deliberately dropping blue penguins off of icy ledges.#MarioKartWorld #MarioKartWorldDirect #Nintendo #Switch2 pic.twitter.com/0eMsUE24Jz

— Jonathan Leung (@VGMaps) April 17, 2025

But in a second, even more on the nose move, a Penguin in Free Roam drives straight off a cliff into the sea below while music from Super Mario 64 toodles away in the background:

29 years later and we still chucking penguins off of cliffs like in Mario 64#MarioKartWorld pic.twitter.com/7klPg5rZkM

— 🔥FireShadow64🔥(DROP THE PRICE) (@FireShadow64) April 17, 2025

If you’re confused as to why this is noteworthy, allow me to draw your attention to a long-standing community meme of Penguin from Super Mario 64. In Super Mario 64, players discovered years ago that it was possible to collect a Power Star from Mother Penguin by returning Baby Penguin to her, then to take Baby Penguin after the star appears and take them away again…or even drop them off a cliff:

This bit has been memed into fame for over a decade by the Mario community, so it’s extremely funny to see Nintendo acknowledge it even if it’s in a somewhat subtle, plausible-deniability kind of way. Is this a horrendous thing to do? Society still hasn’t come down cleanly on one side or another of the Penguin-cliff debate. At least Mario Kart World gives Penguin a nice little water vehicle so they can just keep going once they’ve landed.

Today’s Mario Kart Nintendo Direct wasn’t exactly the font of new information many were hoping it would be, but we still got word on some interesting new stuff: more new characters, courses, items, and features, as well as a close look (courtesy of Penguin and others) of the new open world Free Roam mode, which will let players drive around anywhere in the world without restraint.

You can catch up on everything announced right here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.