If you’ve played a Mario game at any point over the past two decades, you’re familiar with the voice of Charles Martinet. Ever since the mid ’90s, Martinet has been voicing Nintendo’s mascot Mario, along with other characters like Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi. The video game icon sounds the same today as he did in 1996 on Super Mario 64, and that’s due to keeping the same voice actor on hand for all these years. The new Switch game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate marks the 100th time Martinet has provided the voice of Mario, which is being honored as a Guinness World Record.
To commemorate Martinet’s 100th credit, Martinet was named as the record-holder for voicing the same character in the most video games. This is a new category being added to the record books specifically for Martinet, who is already firmly in the lead for this spot. Most video game franchises don’t have the staying power of Nintendo’s Mario titles, and even more common is for the voice actors to consistently change. We’re not going to see someone break this record anytime soon, if anyone ever does at all.
With Craig receiving my record certificate @GWR for most video game voiceover performances as the same character – 100, as Mario – on 7 December 2018 upon the release of #SuperSmashBrosUltimate #woohoo! Many thanks to #Nintendo and #GWR pic.twitter.com/ICfKlK9hO1
— Charles Martinet (@CharlesMartinet) December 14, 2018
Although Martinet made the voice world-famous with Super Mario 64, his first time voicing the character was likely for the PC game Mario’s Game Gallery. He has no plans to stop anytime soon, so we can expect his total number to continue to rise past 100. Because of this untouchable record, it’s nice to see Martinet get some recognition from Guinness for his amazing career in video games.
There is currently an animated Super Mario movie in the works, with a tentative 2022 release date. It’s unclear if Martinet will be voicing the character for the film as well, but it seems rather likely. After all this time, hearing anyone else’s voice from the mustachioed plumber is just isn’t going to sound right.
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