During its first three months on sale in the US, it sold more than two million copies and is still regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time. It was also the bestselling video game of 1996. It was named the Game of the Year by members of the gaming media including Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Informer and the Golden Joystick Awards. It would go on to be praised by critics as well as players. While he made his video game voice debut in 1995’s Mario’s FUNdamentals, most fans of the franchise may have heard Martinet’s voice for the first time in a milestone Mario game that was created for the Nintendo 64 and released in 1996: Super Mario 64. “We had so much fun with the character that we did it again and again and again, for five years until I got a phone call: ‘Mr Miyamoto would like you to play Mario in a video game?’ To which I said, ‘Marvelous’.” And I thought, well, that's great,” he says. He was able to see them via a hidden camera and facial motion capture helped sync his voice to Mario's movement on screen, a revolutionary idea at the time. In the following years, Martinet voiced Mario at video game trade shows, in which people would walk up to a television that displayed a 3D Mario head that moved around the screen and he would talk to them. Photo: NintendoĪfter his 1990 audition, he wasn’t sure if it would amount to much. 'Super Mario 3D World + Browser's Fury' was released in 2021. As it so happens, Martinet shared a few words about this during Galaxycon Austin 2023. He was given a “thank you, we’ll be in touch” and thought that was the end of it. Charles Martinet, known for previously being the voice of Mario, has now commented directly on his new ambassador role with Nintendo and also confirmed he hasn’t retired.

He then proceeded to audition with that, discussing different Italian food combinations until the tape ran out.

Instead, in that moment and with about 20 seconds to get ready, he drew inspiration from a past character he played in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew but made his voice sound younger. But I wanted to do something that would be nice in case there were children,” he says. “The idea of a character talking was incredible at the time. Originally, when Martinet heard “Italian plumber from Brooklyn”, he had a different voice in mind but soon realised that it would be too rough to be suitable. Given the clues about the character, he just decided to go for it, speaking about Italian food in a high-pitched accented voice that would soon become synonymous with the overall-wearing, red capped plumber. Although the character of Mario first appeared in the Donkey Kong video game in 1981, it would still be a couple more years before Mario would be the star of his own game. Back in 1990, Martinet hadn’t heard of either.

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