Big red hats off to a video game legend:
Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario for over 25 years, will no longer be voicing the iconic character, according to a tweet from Nintendo. Martinet has voiced the character since the '90s, appearing in mainline Mario titles like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Mario Galaxy as well as countless spinoffs.
Here's Nintendo's announcement:
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 new transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games. It has been an honor working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him.
Eagle-eared fans had already noticed that Mario's voice sounds different in an upcoming Nintendo release, so it looks like the man's been retired from his job for a while now.
Here's a great, brief account of how Martinet came into the job:
He seems like a great guy. I hope he enjoys semi-retirement and ambassadorship.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go dig out my Nintendo 64 and fire up an old cartridge or two…
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