As we all know by now, Charles Martinet, the legendary voice of Mario and other Nintendo characters, is stepping back from his role as a voice actor for video games and Is going to transition to a new role as “Mario Ambassador.” Today, Martinet and Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, released a video in which they acknowledged the transition and had a little fun with one another despite not being on screen together. In it, they promised that Martinet would still be around and would still be a part of the brand as he’d spread the joy of Mario as he travels around the world.
This seems to imply that Charles Martinet will use his role as “Mario Ambassador” to do more shows, such as gaming events and Comic-Cons, and use his star power to try and bring more people to play the various games with both Mario and other Nintendo characters. Martinet seems to be fine with the role, even if he recently said that he doesn’t exactly know what everything entails. Either way, this video was a nice way for gamers to hear from the man himself, as well as Mario’s creator, to know that things are changing.
Speaking of changes, we know that the first official game without Martinet as Mario will be Super Mario Bros Wonder. The title has already been documented as having a new voice actor for Mario, but they haven’t revealed who it is just yet. Apparently, they’re going to wait until the game is out so that players can find out who it is. Whether this is just a ploy to bring people in or they’re trying to protect the new voice actor from potential fan hate remains to be seen.
The game itself is honestly a good time to pull a swap on voice actors for the simple reason that the game is trying to be as different as possible from past 2D entries. For example, the “Wonder Flower” will completely warp the level in unpredictable ways, ensuring players are kept on their toes as they try to bring the level back to what it was. Furthermore, badges in the game will grant you special abilities, but you can only equip one at a time. There’s also a 4-person local co-op and a unique variation of that when you go online.
In other words, the voice actor for Mario will have his hands full when the game comes out on October 20th.
