Nintendo fans are concerned that Charles Martinet has been replaced in Super Mario Bros Wonder
There's something... off about Mario's voice in the new game
The new Super Mario Bros Wonder trailer has fans questioning if Charles Martinet is still voicing the Nintendo mascot due to how different the character sounds.
On June 21, Mario fans were pleasantly surprised by the reveal of a brand-new 2D Super Mario game which is set to release later this year. Super Mario Bros Wonder looks like it features all of the things we love about Mario's previous platforming adventures but with a few extras, like a playable Princess Daisy and the new elephant power-up. However, some fans have also been quick to notice that something is… off with Mario's voice.
We're sure everyone is pretty familiar with prolific voice actor Charles Martinet, who has been the voice of not only Mario but also Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi for over 20 years now. Fans are so familiar with his voice that they're convinced it isn't him in the Super Mario Bros Wonder trailer. The trailer isn't particularly detailed and only features a couple of instances of Mario saying some new catchphrases, but this was enough for fans to get suspicious.
As pointed out in this Resetera thread, the same could be said for the new WarioWare: Move It trailer - which also featured during yesterday's Nintendo Direct. This trailer also features a couple of lines from Wario (also voiced by Martinet) and although extremely subtle, you can definitely hear a slight difference in Wario's voice.
Bizarre Chris Pratt replacement theories aside, it's not clear why the characters in both of these games sound just a little different from how they did in previous games. The two games haven't yet appeared on Martinet's IMDB page - whereas his previous works in WarioWare: Get it Together, Super Mario 3D World, Mario Golf, etc. do - but that doesn't mean he definitely isn't in Super Mario Wonder.
What's most likely is that Martinet's voice has matured over the years and these are new recordings, so they sound slightly different to the Mario games we played a few years ago. At the time of writing this, Martinet is yet to address the new games over on his Twitter account, but to be fair, he hasn't tweeted anything since March 2023 - so it's possible we won't hear anything from him regardless.
Super Mario Bros Wonder isn't the only thing we're excited about, take a look at our upcoming Switch games list to find out what else is on the way soon.
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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.