Mario Kart World players have discovered that the helicopter following the race for the Mario Kart TV viewers at home can actually be an obstacle.
Mario Kart World was pretty much the only thing Nintendo game fans had on the Switch 2 to tide them over until Donkey Kong Bananza released over a month later (come on, you weren't playing Welcome Tour all that time, don't kid yourself). So naturally, players who didn't pick up any of the third-party releases have spent a massive amount of time discovering every little detail the game has to offer, mainly in service of finding absolutely wild speedrun tech and other tomfoolery. There's still discoveries to be made.
In Mario Kart World, an MKTV helicopter tracks the racer in first place on routes between tracks. Despite appearing to only be a decorative element to provide the feeling of a real rally, it actually has collision and can block projectiles aimed at first place. pic.twitter.com/fwzXEkCcnVAugust 9, 2025
For example, as Mario game historian Supper Mario Broth pointed out on Twitter, there's actually an interesting detail with the Mario Kart TV helicopter that follows the action. "In Mario Kart World, an MKTV helicopter tracks the racer in first place on routes between tracks. Despite appearing to only be a decorative element to provide the feeling of a real rally, it actually has collision and can block projectiles aimed at first place."
This was illustrated by a clip from Reddit in which a user chucked a banana at the first-place racer, only to see it comedically bounce off of the helicopter and fall off the track (and it looks like it would've been one hell of a banana snipe too). While the chances of this actually happening in a race are likely very low, it's undoubtedly a cool little quirk that shows off the amount of attention to detail Nintendo put into the game.
