We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look.
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 the 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 an honour 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
I've met Charles Martinet several times at conventions. The dude is an absolute delight. He is deeply connected with Mario as a character, far beyond what is normal for a voice actor. He knows everything about Mario. Mario has been his life for nearly 30 years. He has absolutely earned the right to retire from Mario if he so chooses.
One thing that I thought was interesting, apparently he doesn't have a home. He travels so much for conventions that he just lives out of a suitcase. Everything he owns is in that suitcase. He just goes from hotel to hotel.
Makes sense that he's done with the work part of being so intimately linked to a character. He has done so much voice work over the years. But I must say I really love that he's still going to be Mario but in a much more laid back role as Ambassador, he deserves his retirement and it was kinda expected after the Mario Movie cameo.
Granted, the only Mario games I've actually played was SMB on the NES and Odyssey, so I don't have the same attachment to the character as some, but I still don't get the hate Chris Pratt got for that role. The movie wasn't anything really special, the character was fine. But people were freaking furious.