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Nintendo has announced that Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario in the majority of the mascot’s games since 1991, will be stepping down from his role and becoming a ‘Mario Ambassador’.
A statement from Nintendo broke the news, with a message to fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. “Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo Games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64. Charles is now moving into his brand new role of Mario Ambassador. With this transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games, but he’ll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all.”
It has been a honor working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him. Please keep an eye out for a special video message from Shigeru Miyamoto and Charles himself, which we will post at a future date.”
Though the statement claims his first Mario game appearance was 1997’s Super Mario 64, Martinet actually voiced the character before this point, in two spin-offs – Mario Teaches Typing on the PC in 1994 and Mario’s Game Gallery, which interestingly wasn’t even a Nintendo production. Of course, the Nintendo 64 release was the start of Martinet’s tenure as Mario’s voice in the main games, where he was a mainstay ever since. In fact, there was quite a shock to fans when it was announced that Chris Pratt would be voicing the character over Martinet for the Illumination produced Super Mario Bros Movie that released earlier this year, although Charles had a minor cameo.
Later this year, we’ll be getting two ‘new’ Mario games in fairly quick succession. A HD remake of Super Mario RPG and the new Super Mario Bros Wonder, both for the Nintendo Switch.
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