An eagle-eyedMario Kart Worldfan seems to have figured out the very cute reason why the game has such an oddly specific number of P-Switches.
If you’ve been playing Mario Kart World on yourSwitch 2since the pair launched a few weeks ago, you probably don’t need to be told how massive it is. While the Grand Prix selection can be bashed out in a few hours,the game-defining open world is full of secrets and collectibles to uncover.
The most notable part of Mario Kart World’s map is the P-Switches, which act as fun little challenges away from all of the main races. There’s an unbelievable number of P-Switches to be found and completed in Mario Kart World, and the specific number might actually be an easter egg of its own.
Mario Kart World Has 394 P-Switches, And There Might Be A Good Reason For That
You’ll Need To Know Two Languages to Get It, Though
The exact number of P-Switches in Mario Kart World is 394, which is very odd indeed. Although you could, like me, just assume that was all Nintendo had time for or that the open-world only suited that many,one Redditor seems to have figured out why the number is so strangely specific.
As pointed out by Twitter user ProsafiaGaming, Redditor Great_Staff6797 recently posted on the Mario Kart World subreddit to share their theory regarding the number of P-Switches. According to them, the numbers three and nine in Japanese are spoken like “san” and “kyuu”, which read like “thank you” when spoken together.
Three and nine sounding like “san kyuu” has apparently led to Japanese people using those two numbers as shorthand for “thank you” when texting. The more you know.
If you combine those three and nine numbers with the number four (which stands for, of course, “for”), and then assume that the P in P-Switches stands for “playing”, then you get a secret, cute message from the developers - Thank you for playing.
It’s just a theory right now since no Nintendo developers have jumped up to confirm it, but it does sound pretty on the mark consideringthe studio has hidden messages like this before in other games. It would also explain why the number of P-Switches is so strange in Mario Kart World.
