Food and video games have a long history together. From the early days of gaming, food has been used for a variety of mechanical purposes, including preventing starvation, providing regeneration, and causing high-speed crashes. Food as a symbol is almost as good as food itself.

With Bite the Bullet being so food-centric, it should come as no surprise that we love food in video games. Done right, it’s just so cool. With that in mind, we wanted to take some time to celebrate some of our favorite video game foods. They aren’t all appetizing, but they are all awesome.

Mario: Super Mushroom

There’s no other place that this list can start. It has to be the Super Mushroom. Even if the Mario franchise isn’t your favorite, you have to tip your cap to it. And the Super Mushroom has become an iconic symbol for video games everywhere. It adorns covers of dozens of Mario games, with iterations in many of them. This fungus has also been parodied and paid homage to many other games.

It’s not particularly interesting or powerful - it’s not even one of the best power-ups in the series - but it’s a classic.

Pac-Man: Cherry

The Cherry here represents the full suite of fruit that appears in Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. The Cherry, of course, stands out as the most iconic because it appears first and the sprite is really good. There is no better feeling in gaming than getting the Cherry - your first step towards maybe actually getting a high score this time and not just getting destroyed by Pinky again.

Pinky is the worst.

Castlevania: Turkey (aka Pork Chop aka Pot Roast aka Wall Meat)

I don’t know why everything medieval immediately jumps to “turkey leg,” but it works. The turkey leg is notorious for being found at Renaissance Faires, as well as in the walls of castles in Castlevania, which is of course a natural place to find food.

Also, despite it’s best efforts to appear as a turkey leg, the game’s manual labels this foodstuff as a “pork chop.” The combination of the preposterousness and turkey makes this Castlevania meat quite memorable.

Mario Kart: Bananas

I need to admit something here: for a very long period of my life, I was terrible at using bananas. They’re difficult to master. Upon the release of Mario Kart 8, I decided to sweat and to finally get good. And now, I’ve irreparably damaged many relationships. I’m very happy with the choices I’ve made.

There is no better feeling than making a Go Kart full of friendship slip on a banana peel, and the absurdity of it makes the regret dissipate quickly. Bananas are silly, but they feel great.

Kingdom Hearts: Sea Salt Ice Cream

This is yet another entry here purely for the absurdity. Upon first inspection, Sea Salt Ice Cream makes little to no sense. The flavor doesn’t even really sound appealing, at least in my opinion. The idea adds a little bit of levity to a game whose story was getting increasingly heavy and confusing and added plenty of meme potential to the cut-scenes. There’s something sweet about it.

Tetsuya Nomura would later explain that the idea came to him after he tried Sea Salt Ice Cream on a trip to Tokyo DisneySea. This is proof that Sea Salt Ice Cream was a thing that existed before Kingdom Hearts, although it’s rising popularity since has been more impacted by the game. Nomura also said he decided to add the ice cream when imagining what kids would be doing, amusingly implying that he thinks children actively choose to eat salty ice cream flavors.

Minecraft: Golden Apples

In contrast to most of the foods in Minecraft, the Golden Apple is a throwback to the Super Mushrooms and the Pac-Man fruit. It’s a powerful tool, seen almost as a status symbol amongst Minecrafters. Especially in PVP scenarios, the Golden Apple is a signal of your strength. You don’t eat a golden apple to survive, you eat it for extra health and a minute of regeneration. You eat it to feel powerful and rich in resources.

And why do we eat - especially in video games - if not to feel powerful and happy?

Eat all you can!

 

Got a favorite video game food and need to tell someone about it? Give us the details on our Discord!

Can't wait to expand the definition of "edible" in games? Wishlist Bite the Bullet and get ready to chow down on some bullets, zombie meat, and more!