It’s the end of an era: Charles Martinet is no longer the voice of Mario

In a surprising announcement from Nintendo, the iconic voice of Mario, Charles Martinet, will be stepping back from voicing the plumber.

Nintendo of America announced earlier today in a statement that alongside Mario, Martinet would no longer be "recording character voices" for its games, and will now instead be fulfilling the role of Mario Ambassador. "Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64," reads the statement. "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."

The statement does not explain why Martinet will no longer be voicing any of the characters in the Mario games. It could easily just be that Martinet can't voice the characters in the same way anymore, as he has been voicing them for almost 30 years now. He first appeared as the voice of the iconic Nintendo character in 1994's Mario Teaches Typing, though the earlier title most will associate him with is Super Mario 64 of course.

It's obviously quite a sad announcement, as he's easily one of the most prominent voice actors in the games industry, literally just because of Mario.

Another thing that isn't clear is what his last role as Mario will be, and whether he voiced him in the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Wonder. The latest 2D entry in the series is out in October, so unless they clarify with the aforementioned video, we likely won't know until then.

So long, K. Bowser!