You might not realize it, but Mario had quite the year in 2023. Not only did he have multiple games released, both of which were successes in one form or another, but he also had a hit movie that was released in theaters, made over a billion dollars, and has been nominated for several awards. Then, on top of all of that, Mario’s official voice changed over the course of that year. For decades, Charles Martinet was the voice of Mario. But then, starting with Super Mario Bros Wonder, a new voice actor was put into the role after Martinet “retired” from it.
The new voice actor was Kevin Afghani, and while fans were surprised with the new voice actor coming in, given the love they had for Martinet, they seemed to be just fine with Afghani’s performance as the beloved plumber. As you can see in the tweet below, the man was grateful for the year he had and all the things that he got to do in it:
It’s always nice to see posts like that, as it shows that good things are going on with the video game industry behind the scenes, which wasn’t always something that happened in 2023. Plus, given the love and fame that Charles Martinet had, it was possible that Nintendo fans weren’t going to accept him for one reason or another. After all, video gamers don’t always like change, especially when it comes to the various things they’re “comfortable with” over the course of many years.
But, not unlike Super Mario Bros Wonder itself, things can change for the better. With the game itself, Nintendo went into the title knowing they had to “change the formula” quite a bit so that it would feel fresh and not merely a “small improvement” over past titles. One of the ways they did that was through the “Wonder Effect,” where levels would change drastically, and players had to adapt on the fly so that they could not just change the levels back but survive what was thrown at them.
There was also the badge system, which gave Mario and Co. some new powers and abilities to help them get through levels or ensure that players didn’t miss things like coins or secret passages. Even multiplayer options helped take the game to the next level in certain ways.
While we don’t know the next game that Kevin Afghani will be voicing Mario in, you can bet it’ll be one he does well in.
